Chorus is a type of effect which modulates (actively changes) both the pitch and timing of your audio. When blended in alongside the “dry” instance of your audio, you get the effect of unique doubles with an evolving, lush kind of sound (depending on the settings). Chorus can be used effectively on a number of instruments in your mix, including piano, so let’s talk how to use piano chorus in your mix.
How to Use Piano Chorus
Depending on how you recorded your piano, you may want a little more size from your piano. While you can use other forms of processing to achieve that, chorus gives your piano a unique flavor while driving in that width.
Rather than applying your chorus plugin of choice to the piano track itself, I prefer to drop it on an Aux/Return track.
This is a separate track which houses that chorus effect which we can then “Send” to our piano via the send dials/knobs in our digital audio workstation.
This allows us to maintain that 100% clean/dry sound of the piano while blending in the chorus to taste.
Set the Wet/Dry “Mix” percentage to 100 on your chorus plugin on that Aux/Return track so that the track is 100% that chorus effect. At that point, the send dial effectively operates as the Wet/Dry percentage. This allows us to apply that chorus effect to multiple piano or otherwise tracks in our mix to give them all the same effect without needing multiple instances of it.
One of my favorite chorus plugins is Arturia’s Chorus Jun-6. While you can dial in your own settings with its “manual” mode, its Mode I and Mode II have that classic lush chorus sound which sounds excellent when blended in alongside your piano.
If you just want a little chorus created width, turn up the send knob until you can hear a difference, then back it off by 1-2dB.
Now, when you toggle back and forth between turning off that Aux/Return track altogether while the piano is playing, you should be able to FEEL rather than hear the difference.
This is a great way to get width without hearing the artifacts of the chorus itself.
If you’re setting the controls on your chorus plugin whether it be a stock plugin which came with your DAW or another 3rd party one you like, the main parameters to pay attention to are rate and depth.
As I covered in this overview of what is chorus, rate refers to how quickly the tuning is modulated.
When using piano chorus, you likely want to keep this lower/slower for a thicker, lusher modulation. As you can see, if you crank up the rate, you’ll get more of a phaser, choppy sound which you can experiment with, but likely isn’t what you want on piano.
Depth affects the range of the tuning modulation.
Setting this higher gives the chorus doubles of the piano more ground to cover. Setting this lower creates a more subtle sound, but the double doesn’t feel as authentic as it stays much closer to the tuning of the piano itself, so the effect isn’t as pronounced.
My favorite chorus setting to get that sweet, lush enveloping sound on the piano contrasts a slow rate (.4Hz) with a high depth (4-5ms).
Essentially this means that the chorus has a decent range of pitch to cover, but it takes its time making a loop. This helps to contrast it with that dry piano that we’re blending it in with via the send knob, not to mention it gives it that lush, thick sound that we think of when we think of chorus when it gets blended.
You can automate more or less of this effect in via the send knob for different sections of the performance, keeping it subtle for those verses for a touch of width like discussed earlier, adding in more when the chorus arrives for even more width and a palpable taste of the effect, or even maxing that send knob for the bridge for a fully soaked chorus sound to contrast with the rest of the performance.
The important thing is to keep it evolving via that automation so that you keep the listener on their toes and piano sounding fresh from one section to the next.
Be sure to check out my other tutorials on mixing piano, including guides on piano EQ and piano compression to ensure your piano is sounding as good as it can and sitting just right in the mix.
