Vocals sound metallic

[Keydaking01]

I was mixing vocals the other day. I placed a plug-in on a return track, and began to turn up the input level. The vocal started to sound real metallic-ish. I usually leave my plug-ins/effects on the same track as the vocal, but was trying to save cpu load. Has anyone ever experienced this issue? Or could someone properly explain the process when using return tracks and vocals. Good Lookin in advance.

[andydes]

Yeah I've had that. When the pluggin was a pitch shifter. *Pause for laugher. Or not*

But I think you should say what the pluggin was for better replies than mine.

[Keydaking01]

I was using the JJP Vocal effect from Waves Mercury Bundle.

[doghouse]

Possibly some comb filtering happening there, a very slight delay through the effect will cause that when mixed together with the dry signal.

[Keydaking01]

Im not sure thats the issue, because i have another vocal track using the same vocal and that one sounds fine. Does anyone else know of any potential issues that may cause this problem?

[Dragonbreath]

Dont know for sure but probably the plugin uses oversampling witch introduces a very small delay (like 1 sample or something)the track that doesnt have the plugin doesnt have the delay, so whats happening is that because of this delay theres some phasing occuring. Thats why you dont have the problem when your running the plugin as in insert. try playing with the track delay compensation and going -1 sample on it

[LeifonMars]

Possibly some comb filtering happening there, a very slight delay through the effect will cause that when mixed together with the dry signal.

This. In case you want to use return tracks for fx make sure they are 100% wet and they alter the signal enough in order to avoid harsh phasing you're experiencing here.

[Keydaking01]

Im not sure that's the issue either. The return track has one setting. So if i introduce another vocal track using the same settings, it shouldnt give me a completely different result, right? Ive experienced this problem before, which is why i usually just add plug-ins to the actual vocal track instead of the return track.

[Dragonbreath]

You should find out if the plugin uses oversampling in that case my explanation is correct and the sound is caused ny phasing, you would need to realign the 2 tracks

[darkenedsoul]

Can't help it, it sounds james hetfield-ish?! i.e. metallica-ish

[Keydaking01]

Im not sure you guys understand. I placed a JJS vocal plug-in on return track A. I then took seperate recorded vocal tracks and turned up the A channel on both. One of the vocals sounds awesome the other sounds metallic. Both vocal tracks are using the same settings since its coming from the same plug-in. If one of the tracks sound metallic the other should as well, right? Im not trying to be difficult, just trying to get an answer.

[doom_Oo7]

Why not trying to add some wood to the sound ?

Seriously, why not just redoing your recording ? It was maybe just the singer that was one inch leftier or something like that...

[Keydaking01]

I understand that everyone is trying to be helpful,but alot of you guys dont know what the hell your talking about.

[Dragonbreath]

Do you have any eq or any other plugin on the diferrent tracks?

Or is the only processing you have on the return?

[be tonal]

Are the plugins/fx on the two channels you are sending from the same? I get timing problems if there´s a time dependent plugin in the chain (like a synced lfo). I think it´s a problem with the plugin delay compensation (pdc) not working right under certain conditions, there´s some info on here about that. Did you try turning off the "reduced latency when monitoring"? Also try deactivating record/monitoring on the channels sending to the jjp.
Good luck, possible you can´t solve this as it´s a "feature" of live...