Chorus Effect on Vocals – The Best Settings for Lead or Backing Vocals

Chorus is a modulation based effect, meaning it introduces an LFO (low frequency oscillator) to shift the timing and pitch of the audio in real time. This gives the effect of more authentic duplicates of that source audio, giving the source more natural sounding width in the stereo field. You can the chorus effect on vocals in a couple of different ways to achieve two useful effects, so let’s talk how to use chorus on vocals.

Chorus Effect on Vocals

As I just mentioned, there are two especially effective ways to use the chorus effect on vocals: width on a lead vocal and lushness and added size on backing vocals.

Lead Vocals

Your lead vocals are just that, the main vocal for a section of a song which gets mixed accordingly.

It’s put in front of the mix, on top of the instrumental through a number of types of processing (see my COMPLETE vocal chain).

Sometimes you might find that your vocal isn’t taking up enough space in the mix. When you don’t have authentic double tracked vocals which is the best solution for thickening up a vocal, you can fake it via the chorus effect.

The problem with simply duplicating a vocal or any track is that the timing and pitch is obviously perfectly in sync with the original. The effect in the stereo field is null, so you don’t get any benefits by simply duplicating a vocal to get more width.

As I mentioned in opening, the chorus effect uses modulation of timing AND pitch, applying an LFO so these two parameters of the audio are constantly changing. This makes the chorus made “duplicates” of your audio sound unique when contrasted with the original dry audio.

Aside from achieving that kind of signature “lush” sound, the chorus effect on vocals provides a somewhat natural sounding width, at least when blended in conservatively.

You can create that signature chorus sound for width by combining a slow “Rate” of .4Hz which is the speed of the pitch modulation with an average range of how far off tune the rate transitions (in the below example I’m using Arturia’s Jun-6 Chorus which refers to this as “Depth”):

The above are my favorite and best chorus settings which work well in any context.

The real key to creating some width in your vocal without tipping your hand that you’re using chorus is to keep the Dry/Wet “Mix” dial very low.

You want to “feel” the width the chorus is creating rather than hearing it, which typically means keeping the “Mix” percentage at or below 15%.

If you want to apply this chorus effect to multiple tracks for some width, like if you have separate lead vocal tracks for a verse, a prechorus, a chorus, a bridge, etc., then you can put the chorus plugin on an Aux/Return track.

Then you can simply blend in the amount you want via the send knob for each corresponding track or even automate more or less as the mix progresses for different sections.

As always when using an effect as a send, make sure to set the Wet/Dry to 100% wet so that the send knob is only blending in 100% of that effect. The send knob effectively becomes the Wet/Dry parameter for that effect for each track.

Regardless of HOW you engage the chorus effect on vocals in your mix, when it comes to using it on lead vocals for some width again just keep it conservative to where you can BARELY hear that width.

Obviously if you want to create a little ear candy for a vocal throw or one off part to contrast with the surrounding parts, feel free to blend in a lot more or essentially exclusively use the wet chorus instance of the audio for that purpose to make that audio completely lush and evolving.

Backing Vocals

I love those same settings when I’m applying these to my backing vocals, albeit with a more generous amount blended in.

I find that chorus works well on backing vocals to soften and smooth them out and make them contrast better with the lead vocal(s).

Sometimes I’ll drop an entire instance of a chorus plugin with the above settings on the backing vocal bus itself. This works very well when you have a number of vocals delivering the same part, like gang vocals.

No pun intended, but this effect makes a small group of vocals sound more like a chorus of singers.

When applying those settings to the entire bus, a few vocals are all duplicated simultaneously, creating the effect of more vocalists or vocals than you actually have playing, making that part sound a lot bigger.

The key as I mentioned a second ago is to be more generous with the Wet/Dry amount.

You can experiment with finding the perfect blend for your purposes for making a few vocals sound a lot bigger, but just keep in mind getting too close to 0% or 100% will negate the effect as it will be an all or nothing between the two extremes.

You really want a nice blend between the two to get the size you’re looking for.

When the effect is right on the backing vocal bus itself as an insert, I like to turn that Wet/Dry to around 40%:

50% would be a perfect even split between the “dry” sound of the original collection of backing vocals from that bus and the duplicates created via the chorus effect.

The only issue there is that you might not like the very palpable washy effect it has on the vocals to achieve those duplicates and that size.

40% might even feel like too much, so again just be sure to experiment to find that sweet spot where you get a larger collection of backing vocals without it sounding too processed.

One more thing to mention is that regardless of how you’re using the chorus effect on vocals, keeping it on an Aux/Return track and using it as a send allows you to follow that chorus effect with subsequent plugins to tailor the sound.

For instance, I sometimes like to apply high and low pass filters via an EQ after my chorus effect to further contrast those “duplicates” with the “Dry” vocal(s), not to mention it helps to keep the effect and entire mix a little cleaner.

The exact cutoff frequency points via those filters are to taste, so experiment to keep that chorus size a little cleaner and tighter, not to mention give the dry vocal(s) a little more room to themselves in the mix.

Note that chorus isn’t the only way to give a vocal more size, so consider my overviews on vocal delay and vocal reverb to get your vocal sitting just right in your mix.