Owl City voice effect

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Owl City voice effect

Postby Perpetual » 02 Feb 2013 14:12

Let me just start this off by stating that this isn't a thread for your opinion on Owl City; I don't care wether you don't like him or if you do, I just want some help on getting vocals to sound almost exactly like his, specifically like the one in this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbtCW-HqvLQ
I am not certain of what he may be doing to get his vocals so beautifully compressed, and kind of metallic, yet natural sounding. Any tips would be great.
Edit: I also would like there not to be a flood of post commenting on how Owl City sounds like The Postal Service or Death Cab For Cuties, I can hear similarities, and again this thread is not for opinions, thank you.
Last edited by Perpetual on 02 Feb 2013 15:05, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Owl City voice effect

Postby itroitnyah » 02 Feb 2013 14:33

Well, besides some compression and slight reverb (if my hearing is correct), It's just some basic EQing, probably rolling off the bass frequencies, possibly boosting certain areas on the EQ chart. Play around with the EQing, I'll guess that you'll get results like the ones you want.

Also, OC is great, but their vocals make half sense, lol
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Re: Owl City voice effect

Postby Freewave » 02 Feb 2013 14:49

Probably combining an original take with a slightly modified one that's been treated with melodyne or additional effects. If you find an interview from him he might give his secrets away or he might hold them close.

There's an interview with all levels at once that goes into how HE processes his vocals if you're intrested. Jackleapp and H8Seed i think are well known autotuners and there may be some past discussion on here (not by them per se) on how they accomplished that if those aren't TOO treated for what you are looking for. Certainly most of those guys go even further with vocal processing.

Here's also a quick demonstration of Melodyne if you aren't familiar with it.


That's all i got for you. Are OC fans even aware of Postal Service as they did similar stuff years before OC (maybe minus all the vocal trickery and pop sheen). OC is certainly popular so i guess you have nothing to worry about there if you wanna go the photocopy over an original.
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Re: Owl City voice effect

Postby itroitnyah » 02 Feb 2013 14:56

Freewave wrote:That's all i got for you. Are OC fans even aware of Postal Service as they did similar stuff years before OC (maybe minus all the vocal trickery and pop sheen). OC is certainly popular so i guess you have nothing to worry about there if you wanna go the photocopy over an original.
Haha, I have a friend on skype who brings up Postal Service when I talk about owl city.
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Re: Owl City voice effect

Postby Perpetual » 02 Feb 2013 14:59

Freewave wrote:Probably combining an original take with a slightly modified one that's been treated with melodyne or additional effects. If you find an interview from him he might give his secrets away or he might hold them close.

There's an interview with all levels at once that goes into how HE processes his vocals if you're intrested. Jackleapp and H8Seed i think are well known autotuners and there may be some past discussion on here (not by them per se) on how they accomplished that if those aren't TOO treated for what you are looking for. Certainly most of those guys go even further with vocal processing.

Here's also a quick demonstration of Melodyne if you aren't familiar with it.


That's all i got for you. Are OC fans even aware of Postal Service as they did similar stuff years before OC (maybe minus all the vocal trickery and pop sheen). OC is certainly popular so i guess you have nothing to worry about there if you wanna go the photocopy over an original.

Thanks, that's very helpful, I'll try double tracking my vocals. Yes I am aware that The Postal Service is basically what Owl City sounds like, but supposedly they didn't use vocal processing that Adam does, I happen to like the effect on his voice, but then again I'm trying not to make this an opinionated thread.
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Re: Owl City voice effect

Postby Freewave » 02 Feb 2013 15:32

itroitnyah wrote:
Freewave wrote:That's all i got for you. Are OC fans even aware of Postal Service as they did similar stuff years before OC (maybe minus all the vocal trickery and pop sheen). OC is certainly popular so i guess you have nothing to worry about there if you wanna go the photocopy over an original.
Haha, I have a friend on skype who brings up Postal Service when I talk about owl city.


And probably likewise someone could bring up how awesome Bjork is anytime someone says they like Postal Service, so it's just a matter of what you like or don't like about each artist (OC definitely went after vocal effects in their music) and how far you want to go back.

Hope we helped a little Perpetual and you might want to check older threads on here.
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Re: Owl City voice effect

Postby Lavender_Harmony » 02 Feb 2013 16:24

From what I know, and from what my ears tell me, the vocals are processed in Melodyne, not to autotune them like T-Pain, but to remove any natural vibrato or articulations, and then those are added back in artificially, treating the voice like a carrier, and Melodyne like a synth, turning the vocals into an instrument of it's own.

There are probably some tricks in Melodyne to add depth to the vocals, duplicating them and adjusting offset for some light chorusing, and all it is is very close mic'd recording with what sounds like a condenser, compressed. You'll probably need to try various compressors to get that sort of sound, I'm not sure what kind of compressor is good at bringing vocals closer to the foreground like that. Try a small amount of reverb before the compressor too, not much, but that might help increase presence, I've done it before, just be careful with it to make sure the vocals are still legible :P
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Re: Owl City voice effect

Postby Forza SoundFire » 02 Feb 2013 19:43

aaahh. accidentally made a response and closed the window. Here I go again!~

Lavender has some good points. Almost certainly a condenser at close range.

I expect tuning will be Antares (by make) and/or a plugin, due to the way it's used as an effect. (there's plenty of natural modulation and bends).


Eq'd out a fair amount of bass.
The waves AXX renaissance might do the compression trick for you. remember to gate properly before.

I also hear:
hard panned harmonising vocals
possibly a delayed preverb effect in the louder sections. the effect is a reverberation that builds up to a maximum a beat or two after the impulse. (section at 1:40)
some sort of distortion, accentuating the highs. maybe.

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Re: Owl City voice effect

Postby Perpetual » 19 Feb 2013 12:27

Lavender_Harmony wrote:From what I know, and from what my ears tell me, the vocals are processed in Melodyne, not to autotune them like T-Pain, but to remove any natural vibrato or articulations, and then those are added back in artificially, treating the voice like a carrier, and Melodyne like a synth, turning the vocals into an instrument of it's own.

There are probably some tricks in Melodyne to add depth to the vocals, duplicating them and adjusting offset for some light chorusing, and all it is is very close mic'd recording with what sounds like a condenser, compressed. You'll probably need to try various compressors to get that sort of sound, I'm not sure what kind of compressor is good at bringing vocals closer to the foreground like that. Try a small amount of reverb before the compressor too, not much, but that might help increase presence, I've done it before, just be careful with it to make sure the vocals are still legible :P

Sorry for bumping this thread. Now i'm a bit new to Melodyne, do you know of any tutorials on how to do what you've just stated, i don't think i've ever heard of that.
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