
Humanity’s Last Breath: Buster Odeholm’s Creepy Vocal FX Chains
Nail The Mix Staff
When you think of extreme metal vocals, guttural growls and piercing screams usually come to mind. But what about those eerie, unsettling textures that crawl under your skin and make a track truly memorable? Buster Odeholm, the mastermind behind Humanity’s Last Breath and a formidable producer in his own right, is no stranger to crafting these creepy vocal moments. In a peek into his session for Humanity’s Last Breath’s track “Vånda” (from their Nail The Mix session), we got to see him dive into the weird world of vocal effects.
If you’ve ever wanted to know how to make vocals that are more than just aggressive – vocals that are genuinely unsettling – then let’s break down some of Buster’s techniques. It’s all about smart layering, unconventional plugin choices, and not being afraid to push boundaries.
Building the Foundation: From Main Vocals to Eerie Layers
Before diving headfirst into a sea of bizarre plugins, Buster lays down a familiar groundwork. For his effects vocals, he often starts by copying over the processing chain from his main vocal track.
Why? This approach gives him a consistent starting point. The effects tracks immediately share a similar tonal DNA with the lead vocal, ensuring they feel like part of the same performance, even as they get mangled and manipulated later. It’s a smart way to maintain cohesion before things get too wild. From there, he starts piling on even more effects to carve out those unique textures.
Plugin Power: Crafting Unforgettable Vocal Moments
This is where the fun really begins. Buster isn’t afraid to reach for plugins that you might not typically associate with vocals, or to use them in ways that bend them to his will.
The Morphoder Menace: Waves Morphoder for Alien Textures
One of the standout tools Buster showcased is the Waves Morphoder. If you’re not familiar, a morphoder (or vocoder) takes one sound (like a vocal) and superimposes the tonal characteristics of another sound (often a synth or noise) onto it. The result? Vocals that can sound robotic, demonic, or just plain alien.
Buster demonstrated its use on a vocal snippet, instantly transforming it into something far more sinister. However, a common side effect of heavy vocoding, especially with tools like Morphoder, is a significant buildup of low-frequency information. As Buster noted, it “created a whole bunch of low end that we don’t want.”
The fix? Aggressive EQ. He goes in and carves out that unwanted muddiness, ensuring the effect adds texture without cluttering the mix. This is a crucial step; cool effects are only cool if they sit right. If you’re diving into heavy vocal processing, get ready to be surgical with your EQ. For more on taming frequencies, check out some advanced EQ strategies for mixing modern metal.
Whispers in the Dark: Reverse Effects & Defying Expectations
Another simple yet incredibly effective technique Buster employs is using reverse effects, particularly on whisper tracks. Reversing a whisper can create a deeply unsettling, almost breathless gasp that adds a chilling atmosphere. He described one such sound as a “great noise.”
Interestingly, Buster mentioned that this particular effect on whispers wasn’t universally loved, with some people feeling he overused it on the album. His response? A confident “fuck you” (his words, not ours!). This highlights a key aspect of creative mixing: sometimes you have to trust your gut and stick to your vision, even if it’s unconventional. These reversed whispers, combined with other processing, help keep these subtle elements present and impactful even in a dense, brutal mix.
Essential Control and Enhancement
Beyond the more “out there” effects, Buster relies on some workhorse processors to keep things tight and polished.
Taming Dynamics with Limiters
Vocal effects, especially those built from multiple layers or involving aggressive processing, can become incredibly dynamic and uneven. To combat this, Buster reaches for a limiter. This ensures that no sudden peaks jump out and that the overall level of the effect stays consistent and controlled within the mix. A limiter acts as an ultra-aggressive compressor, and understanding how to use metal compression beyond just making it loud is key to polished productions.
Smoothing with Soothe
To tackle any harshness or unpleasant resonances that can arise from heavy processing, Soothe2 (or similar dynamic resonance suppressors) is a go-to. This plugin intelligently identifies and reduces problematic frequencies, making the vocal effects sit more smoothly without drastically altering their character.
Widening with Doublers
To give his vocal effects width and make them feel larger than life, Buster also incorporates doublers. A doubler creates variations in timing and pitch to simulate the effect of multiple vocal takes, adding thickness and a sense of space.
Sculpting Space: Strategic Reverbs and Delays
Vocal effects rarely live in a dry vacuum. Buster carefully maps out his reverbs and delays, using sends to apply them to his effect tracks. Crucially, he mentions automating reverb, just like he does with drums. This means the sense of space can change dynamically throughout the song, perhaps making a creepy vocal swell up in a specific section or decay into a vast emptiness.
He also keeps a close eye on the overall frequency content of his effects bus, using tools to ensure “no frequencies are getting out of hand.” This holistic approach to EQ ensures that all the layered effects work together harmoniously.
The Creative Edge: Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment
While Buster focused on Morphoder and reverse effects in this particular clip, the intro to the video also mentions tools like Waves MetaFlanger as part of his arsenal for creating “interesting and memorable vocal moments.” The takeaway here is the spirit of experimentation. Don’t just stick to the “correct” plugins for vocals. Try flangers, phasers, creative pitch shifters, granular synths – anything that can twist and contort your audio into something new and exciting.
Bringing Your Own Creepy Vocals to Life
Crafting unique and creepy vocal effects like Buster Odeholm involves a blend of foundational techniques and creative rule-breaking:
- Start with a solid base, even if it’s just your main vocal chain.
- Embrace unconventional plugins like vocoders (Waves Morphoder) and creative effects like reverse.
- Be prepared to aggressively EQ your effects to make them fit.
- Use dynamic control (limiters, Soothe) to tame and polish.
- Employ spatial effects (reverb, delay, doublers) thoughtfully and dynamically.
- Most importantly, experiment and trust your creative instincts!
These are killer techniques you can start applying to your own productions right now. But imagine seeing Buster Odeholm himself build these vocal chains, tweak every plugin, and explain his decision-making process, step-by-step, using the actual multitracks from a Humanity’s Last Breath song.
That’s exactly what you get with Nail The Mix. You can watch Buster’s full session on “Vånda” and gain access to a massive library of mixing masterclasses from the producers behind bands like Gojira, Periphery, and Spiritbox. See exactly how they dial in those signature sounds by grabbing the Humanity’s Last Breath NTM session here. If you’re ready to go beyond presets and truly unlock your sound in modern metal mixing, there’s no better way to learn than from the pros themselves.
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