-INTRO-
The split harmonizer is one of the biggest kept secrets in mixing. It’s a great way to polish and spread sounds. To my ears, it just gives this nice, larger-than-life sound. Every big time mix engineer uses them and yet they’re rarely talked about. Basically, a split harmonizer takes the original signal, splits it into stereo, pitches one side up a few cents, one side down a few cents, and delays each side just a touch. Then, throw it on an aux, bus a send to that aux and blend to taste. In essence, you’re creating a sort of fake double of the original signal. I’m sure this is probably how the effect was conceived, but in reality it doesn’t really sound like a double – it has a magical, modern, polished sound all its own.
Split Harmonizer (Click to enlarge)
-SETTINGS-
The plug-in I use to achieve this effect is the Waves Doubler. As usual, there are many plug-ins on the market that can achieve this effect. As you’ll notice, both sides are panned hard left and right. I have one side detuned -9 cents and delayed by 14 milliseconds. The other side is detuned +9 cents and delayed 19 milliseconds. You can switch all these numbers around a bit and still create a similar effect. You might want to mess around with some settings and see what you like best. For example, you could detune -5 on one side and +6 on the other. You could delay it 12 milliseconds and 18 milliseconds – it’s all a matter of your preference and what you think sounds best. Some mixers will have maybe three of these types of effects running throughout a mix at once with all of them set a bit differently. I find that the difference in sound is negligible, so I stick with one harmonizer effect for everything. Once again, it’s up to you to decide with your own ears.
-USES-
Personally, I use the split harmonizer on vocals almost all of the time. Other uses really depend on the song. Sometimes, I’ll use some on an acoustic guitar to give it some nice stereo spread and make those strings shimmer a bit more. Sometimes, I use a little on a synth or a clean guitar part, but it’s primarily for vocals. The song and style will determine how much I use. My rule of thumb is: the more modern the sound of the song, the more I use. For example, modern pop and R&B tracks will usually get a lot of it, whereas an indie rock band with a classic sound will just get a touch here and there. This effect is really a great way to get your mixes to sound more “pro” and polished. I’ll go over the more specific uses of this effect in my other articles.
Check out these saturation plugins. You should definitely own at least one when mixing in the box.
Waves Doubler
Soundtoys Soundblender
