Hey!

I’d appreciate your help and input on this.

Even though I know Nectar good and been using it for a long time, one thing always confused me… the Reverb and Delay on the channel strip. It’s great to have it there, but, they expect you to use it on the same vocal strip? I mean, I’d never use reverb or delay straight on the vocal track, unless it’s like a small unique vocal effect. I’d always create an Aux FX track and have the reverb and delay there, and then send my vocals to that Aux and then control everything from there.

On Nectar, you have the full channel strip and the reverb and delay at the bottom.
Would you guys use it like that? Straight on the vocal track?
I don’t know maybe I’m missing something….

Thanks for the input!

 

Last edited: Sep 5, 2023

Depends. If you want to use a specific reverb/delay for a single track, inserting could in deed be the better option. But if you want to have the same rev/dly on several tracks, aux is the way to go.

 

I have used Nectar on vocal before. The modules are great. You don't have to use things you don't like especially on things build on modular system like that. It's always nice to have the option to turn it on/off any of the module whenever you like. The way you are doing things with using Aux FX channel is likely 99% of what people do on mixing, nothing is wrong with that. Those Reverb and Delays modules can be useful sometimes if you just want to go full blown pitch-shifting FX for adlibs as example where those time-based modules are part of the sound design and then send to Aux Reverb/Delay for the mix main panorama and stuff like that. Nectar is capable of handling all that. It's nice to have it there, doesn't mean one have to always use it, of course nothing bad will happen if they are used too.

 

Sure, thank you for your thoughts! I wanted to see what you guys think about it. Yes, I have used the delay and reverb within Nectar before, but just as "sparkle" thing for an extra touch in a sound design for a small vocal effects, built in on that track, so I didn't mind. However, I always create an Aux for dedicated reverb or delays even for Main Vocal, just to have more control.

 

ive been using nectar for my vox for probably 3-4 yrs on pretty much every song i make (along w/several other plugins in my vox chain). but it's literally always the first thing i throw on my vocal track. it really is an amazing tool. i love the vocal tuning module more than any other "autotune" type plugin ive used and i have them all pretty much. it sounds the most natural to me by far and is soo useful for vocal harmonies/bg vox.

sometimes i do actually use the rev and delay straight in the module and it sounds great. just depends on the song. i wouldn't say the rev and delay end up on the majority of my vocal tracks in the final mix but there definitely are times where i throw nectar on my vocal and quickly dial in a "close enough" sound to get a vibe going while i'm writing or tracking my vocals and just end up happy with how it sounds and just don't really feel the need to change it.. and i've never once had anyone listen to one of my songs and say "hey dude, you're not sending to aux for your vox effects. you're doing it wrong!". lol

if it sounds good it sounds good you know?

hope this helped!

 

off topic, but try out the Leapwing Joe Chiccarelli plugin for vocal. CPU hungry but really really really good sounding and extremely fast. The reverb is useful just to get that little ambience for vocal to give a little sense of space. One can mix the whole song using only this plugin, every EQ point is already carefully picked and I had PD this plugin in the past just to see how Joe picked his EQ point (mostly API EQs) for every instrument and it has been an enlightening experience.

 

Excellent! Thank you "tylerv" and "Stevie Dude".

By the way, this is for you and anyone else using Nectar 3. regarding the "Pitch Correction" module on Nectar 3. I absolutely love this module, but I guess this is not for live tracking/recording right? Since I have tried to use this during live vocal recording and the latency is just sky rocking! LoL! It's really a shame, it's impossible to use it in live tracking, only for post/mixing, at least for me.

Do you experience the same thing?

 

Why would you want this on during recording of the vocals? If you print the effect on the incoming audio you are stuck with it. if you do not, what is the benefit of it being on while you are recording?

 

I can absolutely imagine people complaining if it wasn't there.
That being said, you totally can use delay and reverb as inserts (to simulate recording ambience, for example, that makes the voice more intimate if you're going for it, or the "lazy hall" technique), but you totally don't have to use these modules at all.

 

Some vocalists can only sing properly when they hear some EQ, compression and reverb on their voice in real time. Oh, and also AutoTune effect. This is even more prevalent with the rise of modern heep-hup. Speaking from experience.

 

You're better off using iZotope Nectar v2.04 for "Real-Time Auto-Tune" and "Real-Time Harmonies", because it has better latency / live recording than iZotope Nectar v3.

iZotope Nectar v3 is notorious for having bad latency / live recording, and here's a kvraudio forum thread about iZotope Nectar v3's bad latency / live recording.

Nectar 3, no low latency mode?
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=542961

 

I asked a question about this. What is there to disagree with?

 

Yes, i know what you're saying. I don't use pitch correction during recording, I was just curios about trying this module in live recording, let's say like the Waves real time pitch correction. However, it's really not working the same I guess.

 

Last edited: Sep 6, 2023

I do not see how his post about additional latency caused by a plugin would make this more desirable. If you do not print the effect while recording the vocal, the latency will screw up your vocalist more than any of the effects in this plugin are going to change the timing of their performance.

 

True, I have all versions of Nectar and I think you're right! Its amazing to see the latency of Nectar 3 compared to previous version! Many times I love using the "Harmony" from Nectar 2, instead the one from Nectar 3.

 

You should hear what zplane reTune and iZotope Nectar v2.04 Harmonizer sounds like when they are chained together, it's the best "Real-Time Harmony Vocal Effect" that i have heard in the audio plugin world.

I chained together zplane reTune and iZotope Nectar v2.04 Harmonizer VST's to create the "Real-Time Harmony Vocal Effect" in the below audio clip, i figured it out back in 2016, because i wanted a good "Real-Time Harmony Vocal Effect" in VST so badly, because there was none.

You won't find a standalone audio plugin to do this harmony effect or any decent harmony effect in Real-Time, i have searched for years, and the reason it works so well with those 2 plugins chained together, is because zplane reTune uses Real-Time Polyphonic AutoTune.

I use both VST's chained together, because i use zplane reTune's "Real-Time Polyphonic AutoTune" for pitch correcting the "Real-Time Harmony Vocal Effect" from iZotope Nectar v2.04 Harmonizer, and zplane reTune makes the "Real-Time Harmony Vocal Effect" sound a lot better.

if you just use zplane reTune's "Real-Time Polyphonic AutoTune" by itself on a single voice, you won't get a "Real-Time Harmony Vocal Effect", because zplane reTune isn't a Harmonizer, it's just Polyphonic AutoTune.

In simple terms:

iZotope Nectar v2.04 Harmonizer = Creates the harmonies / 4 different voices in Real-Time from your single voice.

zplane reTune = Pitch Corrects the harmonies / 4 different voices in Real-Time with Polyphonic AutoTune.

Listen to the below audio clip.

zplane reTune + iZotope Nectar v2.04 Harmonizer (Both VST's Chained Together) (Set to use 2 Harmony Voices)
https://vocaroo.com/gGAoyH6EPLl

 

Last edited: Sep 19, 2023

Thank you for the input! Yes, looks like these two would paired really good together!

 

Here's screenshots of the zplane reTune & iZotope Nectar 2 Harmonizer settings that i used for creating the "Real-Time Harmony Vocal Effect" in the audio clip that i posted.

The chain order is important, you need to have iZotope Nectar 2 Harmonizer at the top and zplane reTune at the bottom, because otherwise it will sound messed up.

I am using iZotope Nectar v2.04, it's the last version of iZotope Nectar 2 that got released, if you're wondering.

zplane reTune & iZotope Nectar 2 Harmonizer Chain Order
https://ibb.co/PrNr8hY

zplane reTune settings
https://imgbb.com/3fDpQyg

iZotope Nectar 2 Harmony Pan & Gain settings
https://imgbb.com/Jq9jL21

iZotope Nectar 2 Harmony Pitch & Delay settings
https://imgbb.com/8xdSqty

iZotope Nectar 2 Harmony Range settings
https://imgbb.com/dpZCsLG

 

Cool, thank you for the screenshot!

 

I absolutely adore Nectar for vocals. (Nectar 2). I mostly work with EDM style music, with quite a lot of delay and reverb on vocals, that I only use on the vocals, so there is no need to aux it. Other tracks use other fx.
Modules I use in Nectar: compression (a little), saturation, some EQ, delay, reverb.
I use Melodyne for pitch correction, I do it manually, twiddle each syllable that needs fixing.
Compression is handled with outboard soft knee while recording. I then do some more manual compression with volume envelope on the vocal track(s) in my DAW.
If more work is necessary on EQ, I'll add FabFilter EQ.
Monitor to vocalist is clean apart from the gentle HW soft knee compression, and some added reverb (for monitor only).
I never enjoyed working w Nectar 3. Went back to Nectar 2.