Getting Started with SpatChorus5 — Tips for Cleaner Chorus FXSpatChorus5 is a versatile chorus effect designed to add width, movement, and harmonic richness to audio — especially vocals, guitars, synths, and pads. This guide walks you through setting up SpatChorus5, explains its key controls, and offers actionable tips and presets for achieving cleaner, more professional-sounding chorus effects without the muddiness or phase problems that can plague multi-voice modulation.
What chorus does and when to use it
A chorus effect duplicates a sound, slightly detunes and delays the duplicates, and blends them with the original to produce a thicker, more expansive result. Use chorus to:
- Add perceived width to mono sources (vocals, guitars).
- Add gentle movement to sustained sounds (pads, strings).
- Create lush stereo textures for background layers and ambient effects.
Avoid heavy chorus on dense mixes or low-frequency-rich sources without careful EQ, as it can create phasey, muddy results.
Quick setup checklist
- Load SpatChorus5 on the track you want to process (or on a bus for group processing).
- Start with a preset close to your target (Vocal Warm, Wide Pad, Subtle Stereo).
- Solo the track while adjusting initial settings, then un-solo and check in context.
- Use a high-pass filter before the chorus or enable SpatChorus5’s HPF to protect low end.
- Adjust dry/wet to taste; for vocals, lean toward 20–35% wet; for pads, 40–60%.
Key controls explained
- Rate (LFO speed): Controls how fast the detuning/delay modulation occurs. Lower rates (0.1–1.0 Hz) create slow, lush movement; higher rates (2–10 Hz) produce faster wobble or vibrato-like effects.
- Depth (modulation amount): Sets how much pitch/delay modulation is applied. Use modest depth for transparent thickening; high depth for obvious chorus character.
- Voices/Detune: Number of delayed copies and their detune spread. More voices = thicker sound but greater risk of smearing. Two to four voices often balances thickness and clarity.
- Delay / Pre-delay: Base delay time for each voice. Shorter delays (5–30 ms) keep the effect tight; longer delays add distinct echoes and can conflict with tempo.
- Stereo Width / Pan: Controls spatial placement of voices. Widen to taste but avoid 100% extreme width on lead elements.
- Phase / Feedback: Adjusts phase relationships and regeneration of the effect. Keep feedback low or zero on vocals to prevent resonant build-up.
- High-pass / Low-pass filters (inside the chorus): Essential for removing unnecessary low and high frequencies from the effected signal to prevent muddiness and sibilance.
Tips for cleaner chorus on different sources
Vocals
- Use a dedicated send/return or an insert with a predominantly dry mix. Aim for 20–35% wet on lead vocals.
- Engage the internal high-pass filter around 80–150 Hz to avoid low-frequency thickening.
- Reduce feedback and keep delay times short (5–20 ms).
- Automate wet level for louder sections to keep clarity.
Electric guitar
- For rhythm guitars, slightly higher wet (30–50%) gives pleasing shimmer.
- For single-note lines, use fewer voices and shorter delay to keep attack definition.
- Use the low-cut to avoid bass smear when guitars occupy midrange.
Synths and pads
- Push width and depth for atmospheric pads — 40–70% wet works well.
- Add subtle chorus to arpeggiated synths; match LFO rate to the tempo (use dotted or triplet divisions if available).
- Use low-pass filters on the effect to tame high-frequency fizz.
Bass and low-end
- Generally avoid heavy chorus on bass. If necessary, split the signal: keep the sub (below ~120 Hz) dry and send only mids/highs to SpatChorus5 using a band-split or multiband approach.
Drums and percussion
- Use sparingly — try on overheads or room buses rather than individual kicks/snares. For cymbals, lower depth and high-pass filtering prevent washiness.
Avoiding phase and stereo problems
- Use mid/side monitoring to check how chorus affects the center image and side information.
- If mono compatibility is important, occasionally collapse to mono while tweaking to ensure elements don’t vanish.
- Prefer subtle stereo widening on focal elements (lead vocal, bass-heavy instruments). Extreme stereo spread is best for background layers.
Practical presets and starting points
- Vocal Clean (Lead): Rate 0.3 Hz, Depth 20%, Voices 2, Delay 8 ms, Wet 25%, HPF 100 Hz, Feedback 0%
- Vocal Lush (Background): Rate 0.6 Hz, Depth 35%, Voices 3, Delay 14 ms, Wet 40%, HPF 120 Hz, Feedback 5%
- Guitar Rhythm: Rate 0.5 Hz, Depth 30%, Voices 3, Delay 10–18 ms, Wet 35%, HPF 90 Hz
- Pad Wide: Rate 0.25–0.5 Hz, Depth 50–70%, Voices 4–6, Delay 12–25 ms, Wet 55%, LPF 8–10 kHz
- Subtle Texture (Bus): Rate 0.4 Hz, Depth 15–25%, Voices 2, Delay 6–12 ms, Wet 20–30%, HPF 150 Hz
Workflow tips
- Use an aux/send for chorus when you want the same processed signal on several tracks (e.g., doubling background vocals).
- A/B test with chorus bypassed to ensure the effect improves the arrangement rather than masking it.
- Commit to parallel processing (blend dry and wet) rather than extreme wet-only inserts for focal elements.
- Automate depth or rate for arrangement changes — increase motion in choruses, reduce it in verses.
Quick troubleshooting
- Muddiness: raise the HPF cutoff, reduce voices/depth, or lower wet.
- Harshness/sizzle: add a gentle LPF on the effect or reduce depth on high-frequency content.
- Vanishing in mono: reduce stereo width or adjust phase/voice pans.
- Resonant ringing: lower feedback and shorten delay times.
Final checklist before final mix
- Confirm mono compatibility briefly.
- Listen at low levels to ensure the chorus translates.
- Check the effect in the full mix during the loudest parts.
- Bounce a quick stem if you plan to process outside the session.
Using SpatChorus5 with intention — filtering the lows, limiting feedback, keeping wet mixes moderate, and tailoring voice count and delay times to the source — will give you wide, immersive chorus textures without the common pitfalls of muddiness and phase collapse.