Quick Tips

Preparation

• Remove Large Silence Gaps: The less silence, the better the conversion.

• Keep it Dry: Remove all reverb, delay, and distortion before importing.

• Single singer only. No harmonies, no doubles, no overlapping singers, no backing tracks or instruments.

• No Hard-Tuning: The models sound best with natural pitch variations.

• Pre-EQ/Comp: Clearer vocals process better. A light boost somewhere between 1k–4k and light compression can help.

• Length: Consolidate regions to under 45 seconds.

• Level: Use “healthy” input gain, and avoid really quiet files. Aim for peaks around 12 to -6 dBFS. If the file is quiet, add clean gain before processing. Avoid clipping or anything smashed with a compressor or limiter.

Model Selection

• Gospel: Best for powerful, melodic choruses, or standalone parts. Start with the U67.

• Kid’s: Best for high range and adding “air” or brightness. Iconic Kid’s choir sound for a feature moment. Start with the U67.

• Shout: Strictly for gang vocals; melodic singing will sound inconsistent. The C24 is very clean and U67 is very dirty.

• Mic Pairing: U67 for balance, C24 for brightness, Schoeps/Telefunken for dark/roomy textures.

Sound Design

• Stack: Always try stacking an Octave Up and Octave Down. Audition and mute to taste!

• Safe Harmonies: Use Fifths for a layer that is always in key.

• Hybrid Blending: Process the same vocal through both Gospel and Kid’s and combine them.

Technical Safeguards

• Avoid Popping: Input audio too low or high may cause popping or less optimal results.

• Range Limit: The Kid’s Choir cannot sing as low as the Gospel Choir.

• Stereo Imports: When importing a stereo file, make sure the L/R channels are unique takes panned hard L/R.

• Phasing: Avoid processing the same part through the same choir twice with different microphones.

Choir Generation

On Screen 2, you can craft your choir sound.

Choosing a Choir

Gospel Choir

• Best for melodic inputs, thickening/widening chorus sections, or standalone intro/outro parts.

• Male + Female vocalists combined.

• Widest range of all the models.

• Biases towards a powerful delivery.

Kid’s Choir

• Best for melodic inputs, high range melodies, adding top-end brightness, and widening the stereo field.

• Higher range than the Gospel choir.

• Less powerful delivery than the Gospel choir.

• Does best with melodic inputs.

• Iconic Kid’s choir sound!

Shout Choir

• Best for shouted parts, gang vocals.

• All male vocalists.

• C24 is the cleanest sound for this model.

• U67 is louder and crunchier.

• Melodic inputs will have less consistent results.

Choosing a Microphone

Octaves & Harmonies

I AM CHOIR outputs sound best stacked!

• We recommend always generating the Octave Up and Octave Down at minimum.

• Harmonies are very subjective, but generating a Fifth is a very safe layer to experiment with that will always be in key.

Post-FX

Refine the choir outputs on Screen 3 before exporting.

• Lo-Cut — High-pass filter starting at 50 Hz. More Lo-Cut raises the cutoff frequency.

• Brightness — High shelf centered around 3 kHz, Q of roughly 1.

• Reverb — Fixed 1.5-second decay. The knob controls wetness, from fully dry to reverb only.

Stereo / Mono Toggle

If you import a stereo file with unique takes in each channel:

• Stereo — Each channel is processed in mono and returned in its original position, giving you a stereo file back.

• Mono — Only the left channel is processed.

If you import a mono file:

• Stereo — I AM CHOIR creates a stereo choir.

• Mono — The file is processed as-is.

Mixing & Production

Here are a few approaches our team keeps coming back to.

Clean Choirs

For clean choirs, we lean on EQ and reverb rather than heavy compression or distortion. A high-pass filter into CLA Vocals with some top end and reverb goes a long way on its own.

Dirty Choirs

Two treatments we love:

• Light saturation to add grit and glue.

• Aggressive filtering—a tight band-pass in particular—to push the choir back and make it feel like a texture rather than a lead.