How to reverse vocal fade in live ?

[brk303]

I'd like to achieve this:
https://youtu.be/erV-ZMRTNh4?t=125

Sounds like reverse fade in, now the tricky thing is I want to do it live.
We're using Reaper live with click track, so I can automate whatever is needed, but not quite sure how to do it, any suggestions ?
Obviously, singer can start singing the note right when the fade in starts and hopefully hold it as long as needed.
Also, I don't want to have it prerecorded.

[jrk]

If you figure out how to do pre-reverb (or reverse reverb) live, hook it up to a sports station, you'll make a fortune betting.

Otherwise, you'll have to fake it by doing what you said. Have a track with a reverby vocal on it and fade it up for the intro (then down when the song kicks off). If you've got a reverb that can "hold", your vocalist can have time to breathe before the song starts properly.

The easiest way of doing it would be a pre-recorded sample, but you say you don't want to. Why not?

[chriscomfort]

Originally Posted by jrk

If you figure out how to do pre-reverb (or reverse reverb) live, hook it up to a sports station, you'll make a fortune betting.

Otherwise, you'll have to fake it by doing what you said. Have a track with a reverby vocal on it and fade it up for the intro (then down when the song kicks off). If you've got a reverb that can "hold", your vocalist can have time to breathe before the song starts properly.

The easiest way of doing it would be a pre-recorded sample, but you say you don't want to. Why not?

Agreed. A time machine is one option. But the hold reverb could also work.

Disclaimer: I've never tried this so I don't know exactly how to do it, but:
Perhaps you could automate a pre-fader send to an aux track that has some kind of sample-and-hold or delay/reverb plugin combo. You would also automate a temporary mute on the main vocal track so that the initial note isn't heard directly by the audience. And automate a volume fade in on that new aux track so that it gradually introduces the reverse gate vocal sound. This is gonna work much better if the band is playing loudly so the audience isn't clued in on the trick. All of the automation would be on some fraction of the beat so that the singer knows when to perform each part. I would do a quicker fade out and then mute that aux track so that it isn't ringing forever and taking up CPU cycles.

All of this assumes that the drummer/band are playing to some kind of click track so that the timing of the automation works. Otherwise, all of the above automation could probably be triggered from a MIDI command that is triggered with a simple foot pedal. Perhaps even the automation could be automated so that it ony requires a single hit of the pedal.

Alternatively, if you have another band member with a similar sounding voice, have them perform the reverse gate portion of the effect. That track could even be eq'd to help match timbres of the respective voices. This wouldn't necessarily require any or as much automation.

[ashcat_lt]

Take a reverb impulse. Reverse it. Use it as an impulse.

[jrk]

Originally Posted by ashcat_lt

Take a reverb impulse. Reverse it. Use it as an impulse.

That's a way of doing pre-reverb, but live? You'd need your vocalist to start [length of impulse] before you need the sound to start. I dunno how well that would work for you.