3 quick ways to use the
chorus effect
The chorus effect, like
delay, can be an elusive subject that's not
understood by many beginners. I never thought about using chorus on piano or vocals before. I was a guitarist and my belief was
that it was only to be used on guitar, for that 80's guitar sound.
Luckily, I was wrong because there is so much more you can do
with a chorus effect in your audio production. You can give a wide
stereo shimmer to your acoustic guitar, create a stereo sound out of a
mono piano track as well as giving your vocals a doubled feel.
Chorus basics
The typical chorus has two parameters. Rate and depth.
The chorus effect
works like Delay Lite
since it delays the signal for a few
milliseconds, around 15-30ms but also detunes the copied signal a tiny
bit. Used subtly we get a doubled effect that sounds like many players
playing the same part. But when pushed to the max, can
sound like an intense detuned mess.
We get more modulation by adding more depth, or intensity to
the signal. By tweaking the rate
we configure the frequency
by which we
modulate our original signal. They work together in the way that if you
have a high rate and a lot of depth, we get a unintelligible mess since
we have too much modulation going on too fast.
But by tweaking the parameters, having the depth low and the
rate
higher, or the rate slow and more depth we get interesting effects that
are extremely usable in our productions.
Chorus effect on guitar
Using chorus is a great way to spice up your guitar lines. Not
so far
as to push it all the way into 80's territory, but great nonetheless.
If you have a dull guitar line that needs something extra, consider
inserting a chorus plug-in on it.
Have the rate at a medium setting and the depth at a very low
setting,
or around 3%. Now we have a chorus that has very low depth but a rate
that modulates the chorus fairly fast. Because our depth, or intensity
is so low, we don't risk it sounding like a detuned part, but almost
like a subtle tremolo. I'm also inserting it on the channel and not as
a send. So the Mix parameter is only at 50%
Hear how a simple chorus can transform a guitar line. I turn
it on
after the second measure.
