WRITTEN BY KATIE MAYNARD
SOUND EFFECTS EDITOR, BOOM BOX POST
Whether I’m working on a Halloween special or just a spooky scene, I often find myself needing to make scary vocal sound effects. There are so many ways to achieve a haunting voice, but I’m going to talk about a few tools that I like to use. To get started, you need four plugins and a vocal recording. This can be laughing, a spooky saying, or even an elongated breath.
The four main plugins I like to use to make a creepy vocal effect are:
A Reverb
A Delay
A Reverse
Izotope’s VocalSynth 2
Any variation of reverb, delay, and reversing of a clip are going to give it a spooky feeling, but I like to use VocalSynth 2 as well to give my spooky vocals a fuller sound using their Polyvox and Biovox modules. These tools give breath, nasality, clarity, and character to your clip, and I think really help give your spooky vocal more body and texture. If you need a crash course on VocalSynth 2, I’ve attached it at the end of this blog since the plugin can be a little daunting to get started.
I learned the ‘Poltergeist Effect’ a few years back, and have used it in so many ways since. Basically, the scary vocal effect used in the movie Poltergeist is just taking a clip, reversing it, adding some delay and reverb, and then reversing it again to get a haunting, breathy sound. You can experiment with how much delay and reverb you add based on preference and get very different sounds using the same simple trick. I really like how this effect sounds on someone laughing. Let’s use a group of kids laughing for this example:
You can add a little more reverb at the very end if you want it to sound more distant or ethereal. I’ve used this technique with things that aren’t even supposed to be scary. For example, if you wanted to make a magical steady, you could take some sleigh bells and use the same process. Notice how the sleigh bells turn into more of a glow and sound sparkly.
Let’s start with a different example to show how I use VocalSynth in this process. We’re going to use a simple non-english whisper.
Next we’re going to take this whisper into VocalSynth 2. There are plenty of great presets if you need a little help getting started. I like to use a mixture of the Biovox and PolyVox modules as well as several of the optional effects at the bottom of the plugin. For this example, I used delay and chorus. My settings looked like this:
The whisper now has a fuller body with more choral qualities. It also enhanced the nasality and breath under the Biovox module making it sound uncomfortably close which works great for a whisper.
Now I’m going to reverse it, add some delay, add some reverb, and reverse it again.
Just for fun, I’m going to take our ‘Whisper Reversed Again’ and our ‘Delayed Whisper’ and combine them for a stereo effect. Here’s the final result:
You can use this process with any sound and get really unique results. Try it out and see what kind of spooky effects you can make this Halloween!
Here’s a little more info on VocalSynth as promised above:
VocalSynth 2 is a powerful plugin for musicians and sound designers alike created by iZotope. It’s such an expansive plugin, I couldn’t possibly sum up all of its uses in one post. Feel free to play around with it and do your own research.
VocalSynth works in three modes: Auto, MIDI, and Sidechain.
There are five Modules and it is important to know which is the best for the effect you are trying to achieve. I’ve outlined them below:
Biovox: Vocal characteristics like nasality, vowel shapes, and formants.
Vocoder: The classic “talking Synth.”
Compuvox: Glitchy and computerized for spacey digitized vocals.
Talkbox: Vintage-style chunky vocals.
Polyvox: Create harmonies or add body to your vocal with realistic doubles.
3. It’s important to note that there are basic controls on the default window, however you can click the little faders in the bottom right corner of the module to expand and give you advanced tools. It comes packed with many exciting presets that give you a great place to start. Each module is also represented graphically on an interactive image in the center.
4. There are also seven effects you can use in addition to the modules including: distortion, filter, transform, shred, chorus, delay, and ring mod. All modules and effects can be used together or separately, and you can click on the little circle in the upper left hand corner to toggle them on and off.
If you liked this post, you should also check out this blog for creating monster vocals:
TOP 5 TIPS FOR CREATING HORRIFYING MONSTER VOCALIZATIONS