Introduction to Chorus

This week's introduction to a production technique involves a nice thick effect that can help make your synths and samples deeper and more filled out with virtually no effort on your part!

Sound far too good to be true?   Well, welcome to the world of chorus!   Let's get started...


What is chorus?

In music production terms, chorus is when multiple instances of a very similar sound with minor differences in pitch are played simultaneously, resulting in what seems like a single sound with a thicker tone.

This authentic chorusing technique is often done in sound design when multiple oscillators are slightly detuned against each other to thicken up a tone.

However, a digital chorus effect emulates this - it makes multiple instances of the same sound and slightly detunes them from each other - this gives that much thicker, bigger sound without actually needing more than one initial source sound.

In order to avoid a static kind of hollow effect, an LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) is usually added to make the chorus effect pulse very fast and give a more interesting tone.

Some chorus devices also pan the sound slightly with each slightly detuned version of it, widening it in the stereo field as well as tonally.


What does a digital chorus contain?

Some of the controls you might find on a run-of-the-mill digital chorus effect are...

Delay - This determines the time before the sound is re-sampled and added to itself to create the chorus effect.

Feedback - This governs the amount of effect signal fed back to the input - this changes the tone and character of the effect, and can make some crazy sounds if you're into experimental noise making!

Rate - This is the rate at which the LFO that modulates the delay time operates.

Mod Amount - This is how much of an effect the LFO has on the delay time.

Wet/Dry - This controls what percentage of the output from the chorus unit has the chorus effect applied and what percentage is the original source sound.


Some useful techniques

1. Dalek-style sounds

Turn the rate and mod amount up high on some vocal samples and I dare you not to record yourself shouting "Exterminate!" in a variety of violent inflections just to run it through the chorus effect and see how it sounds!

2. Weird FX

The feedback knob on any device is always a way to get some crazy noises!   Just turn it up to full and see what comes out!   Sample it, cut it up and have some fun!

3. Chocks away!

Keep the LFO rate and mod amount low and the delay similarly low... et voila!   Suddenly your sound seems to be soaring off into the sky on some sort of jet engine!   Or at least it sounds like it.