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In today’s age, it is more than obvious that music production has gone digital. Fading are the days of reel to reel recorders and manipulating tracks manually to achieve certain sounds. Used on instruments like clean, undistorted guitars and keyboards, the chorus effect yields a very dreamy and ambient tone. In its first days, the chorus effect was achieved in recordings by an artist playing a track. Then, very slightly detuning the instrument and playing the new track directly on top of the original. This gave the instrument a shimmering and slightly modulated tone. The chorus effect can be heard naturally when listening to a choir and sometimes string ensembles where the instruments have not been exactly intonated together. This natural effect is pleasing to the ears because when all of the sub-tones get together, the end result is a rich, full tone.

Producing the chorus effect manually can be difficult and almost impossible to control in any setting. Some instruments can produce a chorus effect as part of their natural design, such as the sitar, piano, 12 string guitar, mandolin, and accordions. Now, chorus effects are simulated using signal processing equipment. The chorus is sometimes produced by computer software running in a digital effect processor, or an analog effects processor. Some amplifiers, often acoustic amps or electric guitar amps, have the effect built-in. Some keyboard instruments have an electronic chorus effect built in and some Hammond organs have the effect built in as well. If a hard-wire based effect is needed, chorus effects can be most often found packaged as a pedal, a rack-mount module, or a table top processor. Regardless of technology or form factor, the processor achieves the effect by taking an audio signal and manipulating it with one or more, delayed and slightly pitch-modulated copies of itself. The pitch of the added voices is then modulated by an LFO (Low Frequency Oscillation), which makes the overall effects sound. Most effects have an interface that allows for user adjustment of the LFO, pitch modulation, and the overall speed of the delay.

The basic production of the effect is above mentioned, but recent improvements and technological advancements have bread the love of more full and realistic production of the chorus effect. This desire produced the stereo chorus effect. Stereo chorus effects utilize the same processes, but the end result is varied between the left and right channels and the delay of the LFO is adjusted. The stereo chorus effect produces a more enhanced sound, as a result, because the sounds are produced from multiple locations within the stereo sound field.

The chorus effect is a staple in music. Whether it is produced naturally or with processing equipment, the effect is used by musicians and sound engineers across all genres of music. The effect can even be heard in some spoken vocals and is used in the audio tracking for most movies and television production. So, when you find your tone thin and you are desiring a more rich result, do not forget to look to the chorus effect to help solve the issue.