Chorus is a useful effect for creating more width or simply for imbuing some lushness into your guitar tone when used more conventionally. If you’re looking to enhance your guitar’s tone or size in the mix, consider this guide on how to use chorus with guitar.
How to Use Chorus With Guitar
Chorus as an effect makes use of a low frequency oscillator or LFO to shift the pitch typically by way of a “Rate” control. It’s the actively shifting pitch underneath the dry, original tone which gives the impression of depth and width.
The chorus rate affects how quickly the pitch actively shifts.
While “Rate” controls the speed, chorus depth controls the range of the pitch adjustment, or how far in either direction the extremes of pitch adjustment from its inherent pitch it will go.
You can create a lot of different effects simply by adjusting these two main drivers of the chorus effect against one another including a number of interesting aesthetic effects which are for very specific situations, but that’s not what we’re talking about in how to use chorus with guitar here.
When it comes to how to use chorus with guitar for creating that classic, lush, wide sound, generally the most effective technique is to contrast a slow rate with a higher depth:
Guitar Chorus Rate
As mentioned, the chorus rate determines the speed of the pitch adjusted applied. Measured in hertz, the lower the frequency of the LFO, the slower the adjustment to the pitch.
We’ll talk about the range of that adjustment in a moment as that’s obviously huge, as well, considering a lower/short depth will result in a less noticeable change regardless of how quickly that shift is occurring.
A rate of .4Hz, meaning less than 1Hz, works well in creating a slower, more evolving tone in the chorus effect.
Guitar Chorus Depth
While the parameter’s name tends to vary in some chorus plugins, the parameter which controls the range which of the pitch shifting is referred to as depth in the above pictured Arturia Jun-6 chorus plugin.
I recommend a middling depth, again measured in milliseconds so around 4-5ms in how to use chorus with guitar. When paired with the aforementioned rate, the result is a slow crawl in a decently substantial carved out frequency pocket.
This manifests as that lush sound that you hear on the intro guitar in notable tracks like Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” or Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over”.
Aside from giving the guitar a dreamlike quality, it gives the guitar more size in the mix particularly in terms of width.
When you’ve got a single guitar part that needs to carry extra weight from a mix perspective at a particular time, chorus with a slow rate and moderate to longer range makes for a very effective pairing.
This rings equally true if you’ve got a riff or otherwise arpeggiated part or if you’ve got the guitar playing chords (both of which were referenced in the two examples).
Try imparting a bit of the chorus effect the next time you need your guitar to stand out or take on more size in the mix by way of your chorus plugin of choice.
