A vocal throw is one of many aspects of ear candy we can throw into a mix (no pun intended) to keep the listener engaged. Let’s talk what a vocal throw is, and more importantly how to make and use a vocal throw in your mix.
Vocal Throws
First, let’s identify what a vocal throw is, as it’s one of those terms which gets tossed around often in different contexts.
A vocal throw is a one-off emphasis of a certain word in a vocal, oftentimes used to fill in a space for a bit of ear candy.
This can be an existing word which was part of the existing vocal brought back or a unique word or phrase which is added in.
Typically it’s done with some kind of spacial effect like delay or reverb, or even features some other kind of processing like changing the formant to help it stand out.
How to Make a Vocal Throw
There are a couple basic ways to create a vocal throw.
You can first make use of an Aux/Return track and put any processing on that you want as your dedicated throw channel, automating the level up on any tracks for vocal parts you want to emphasize and act as a throw.
You can also just create a dedicated track to feature any and all throws which works whether you’re copying and pasting existing words or phrases or if you’re recording dedicated throw parts.
Let’s address the former method first, the Aux/Return track with sends method.
Step 1 – Create an Aux/Return Track With Any Processing You Like
Different DAWs refer to this type of track as different things. In Ableton Live, it’s a return track. In many other DAWs it’s an Aux track. This is basically a track which can pass and play existing audio from tracks by turning up their respective send dials. This track exists to house effects which process that audio they receive by way of the send dials.
The most common effect to use on a vocal throw is reverb to make it sound like it’s coming from deeper in the mix and helping it contrast with the normal vocal.
Dropping a reverb on this aux track and setting it up with a long decay of over 1.5 seconds will make your throws sound like they’re coming from deep in the mix, effectively contrasting against the normal vocal.
A lot of reverbs come with character adjusting parameters to affect the color of the sound, and this can help it sound cleaner and more immediate or thicker and deeper sounding to taste.
Just remember to set the wet/dry blend when using an effect, any effect as a send because as always the send dial on the track we want to make the vocal throw for is creating that blend, essentially acting as the wet/dry difference.
Step 2 – Automate the Vocal Throw as You Like
The best way to set up your reverb or any other processing on your vocal throw is to actually audition it.
To do this we just need to automate the vocal throw up. Activate your DAW’s automation mode, highlight the word you want to act as a throw, and turn up the volume on the send dial via the timeline for a bar or so when that word hits:
Above pictured is the send gain volume for the reverb track I’m controlling on my lead vocal. There’s a brief break after the final word in a phrase where repeating that word with the reverb will fill out that break nicely. It’s one of those things that you hear in the mix even when it’s not playing in that spot, so it’s one of those points which really lends itself to a throw.
To get the timing we want, we can set the reverb’s predelay setting to a quarter note, half note, full note, etc. – whatever feels right with the timing of the song.
The predelay is the amount of time after the audio begins before the reverb colored instance of the audio places. On my FabFilter Pro-R 2 reverb plugin, you have a number of options for syncing up with your song’s tempo.
Setting this to the 1/32 note would be a practically immediate vocal throw coming right on the heels of the dry vocal with little to no separation. This would be less of a throw, more of some added sustain on the back of the vocal. Going farther up to 1/4 note is a greater delay and could create more separation from the dry vocal.
Alternatively you can use a calculator to set it manually, or just find a time which feels right for the spacing as the dial goes all the way up to 500ms (half a second).
I talk more about the settings you might want to dial into your vocal delay in my overview on reverb throws, so refer to that for more information.
Dedicated Throw Track
The other option is setting up a dedicated throw track rather than having an Aux/Return track for it.
The benefit of this is that you don’t have to worry about setting up predelay or anything like that; in this case you’re literally aligning the part you want to use as a vocal throw where you want it, dragging the clip into place.
As mentioned earlier, this works nicely when you have dedicated vocal throw parts which were recorded specifically for this task rather than simply using reverb on a delay (or an actual delay – see my overview on delay throws).
Above I’ve simply copied and pasted the part I want to use as a throw and dropped it down on its dedicated track with the reverb directly on the track itself. Now I can just slide the clip over by 1/4 note or any other timing to get it lined up properly, making it a bit easier to nail the timing.
You can get a bit more into the nitty gritty settings in this case when it’s all done on a dedicated track. I mentioned adjusting the formant in opening – with this method you can adjust the formant of the clip(s) itself.
Admittedly you can drop a formant affecting plugin like an autotune in the form of Antares Auto Tune or the free Graillon on your return track in the prior method, but I often prefer the sound of adjusting a clip itself’s formant versus doing it with a plugin:
The vocal formant is best described as the mouth sound of the vocal. Adjusted to one extreme it makes the vocal sound sharp and nasally, adjusted to the other it makes the vocal sound wider and darker. Neither sound especially natural, but adjusting the format is typically more for ear candy anyway which is why it works well on a vocal throw.
While I prefer the results of doing it on a clip level, you can automate it using either of the aforementioned dedicated plugins to give it an evolving sound either quickly or more drawn out in the context of a throw or multiple throws in a row.
Regardless of which method for vocal throws you use in your mix, blend them in during opportune situations. The best times are typically either when you’re trying to fill a gap in the vocal where the mix feels empty or like it’s missing something, or as a call-and-response type situation with your vocal.
If you’re automating that throw, turn up the send gain accordingly to fill that gap. If you’re copy and pasting, simply do that in the spot where you’re wanting to fill.
There’s no general rule for what sounds best and it typically comes down to using your imagination and trusting your gut for what you could hear playing there to work best. Try changing the formant whether statically or automating over the throw’s duration and try sending the vocal farther back with more reverb/changing the character of the reverb.
These two qualities of the throw will help your throw(s) further contrast with the vocal which helps to draw more attention to it and create more of that ear candy quality that we’re after.
