Effect Series: How to use Vibrato

For this post, we’ve created a project that you can work on while going through the instructions. Click here to open it up in the studio. This post will be updated with more instructions next week, so stay tuned!

Vibrato is commonplace in voice technique and music theory - while a note is sounding, the performer playing the note can slide up and down in pitch, creating a sort of wave-y, wobbly experience. A singer’s style of vibrato can define their style and artistic ID. In this episode, we’re going to apply Vibrato to some instruments to make them more interesting.

Open up the project here, and for this step, play tracks 1-3 as you’re going through the following steps. We’ll get to the other tracks in the following weeks.

Here, we have a pretty sparse soul arrangement, steaming with desperation. Even though there are so few instruments playing, we want them to be characteristic. Apply the Vibrato effect on ‘Track 2 - Bass’, and turn up the depth slightly to 11.30 o’clock. Now, the bass is wonderfully wobbly, giving more motion and character to the track. The effect here is subtle but important - in the coming weeks we’ll be looking to more dramatic applications of the Vibrato effect. 

Do you have any questions on this? Reply with a comment and our Audio Producer will explain further!

The Vibrato effect turns a sound’s pitch up and down, and we can control how much and how fast the pitch wobbles. This gives us a lot of possibilities to use this effect in different ways - we can create a very subtle effect with a slow-moving pitch, and a more blunt effect with a faster setting and big pitch variation. Use Vibrato all over your project with different settings, and listen as your sounds come alive! 

Open up the project here, and for this step, play tracks 1-4 as you’re going through the following steps. We’ll get to the last track next week.

This week we’re introducing a Lo-Fi-esque synth, sloppily chilling behind the beat. However, it sounds a bit static - when an instrument is playing constantly without too much variation in the sound, the instrument can get unnerving and annoying. Vibrato is the perfect tool to give the synth variation! Apply the Vibrato effect on ‘Track 4 - Synth’, turn the Rate to 10 o’clock, and the Depth to 10.30 o’clock. Now, our synth sounds even more vintage, and gives the whole song an interesting and dynamic sound! 

Do you have any questions on this? Reply with a comment and our Audio Producer will explain further!

Now, when we have applied plenty of Vibrato across the project, we can start to feel the song bouncing. The effect creates an irregular, organic feel to the sounds - making them feel alive, instead of being static. However, if we use the effect too bluntly on too many tracks, we can start to feel seasick! Let’s use it subtle in this last stage, while fitting the instrument it is applied on. 

Open up the project here, and for this step, play tracks 1-5 as you’re going through the following steps. 

In "Spaghetti Western" movies you’ll hear guitars with a very high Rate on their Vibrato. This setting is commonplace for guitar, so let’s be inspired by it here! Apply Vibrato on ‘Track 5 - Guitar’, and turn the Rate up to 4 o’clock, and the Depth to 10 o’clock. Normally, the Depth is higher on the Western guitar - however, since we already have a lot of Vibrato going on in this project, we want a subtle setting, not to overdo the effect.

Now, we have an almost vibrating guitar, giving the track some drama.

Do you have any questions on this? Reply with a comment and our Audio Producer will explain further!