mixing oooo's and aaahhh's

andrushkiwt

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
Hey, working on a song that has kind of an Incubus feel to it, and it includes some oooh's and aahhh's in the transition sections. I'm sorry I don't have a clip to put up at this moment, but I am wondering if anyone that has mixed "spooky sounding" ooo's and aahh's has a GO-TO arrangement for them (including spacing, verb settings, chorus, delay)? Maybe Avenged Sevenfold has similar parts in some of their City Of Evil tracks.

I currently have one take at about 52% L (eq, shared cathedral verb, comp), another at 52%R (eq, shared cathedral verb, comp, and stereo chorus), then another set at 65% L&R (eq, medium club verb, comp, long delay).

Anything that stands out as "not a good idea" or "try this instead"? I can get a clip up, if necessary.

thanks anyone
 
I tend to pan these things all the way, which gives them and bigger, yet somewhat transparent, sound. I also high pass them around 200hz and yank out some 2-3k to get them out of the way of the main vocal. Compression also helps to keep the dynamics under control.
 
Farview said:
I tend to pan these things all the way, which gives them and bigger, yet somewhat transparent, sound. I also high pass them around 200hz and yank out some 2-3k to get them out of the way of the main vocal. Compression also helps to keep the dynamics under control.
Click to expand...

Thanks man. There is no main vocal in the way during these sections, and how would you pan multiple takes? I can go hard each side (but it'll compete with the guitars that are also hard panned) but then i have another take that is a harmony to the oooh's... would you move it around to 75%? I had put these takes around the 60% area because it's the only space that's really "open" during that section of the song.

i'll probably throw some more compression on it. in fact, maybe i'll just try to get a clip up today or tomorrow. thanks Farview
 
You have to play with the placement of the harmonies. Sometimes when you place them too far apart, they don't blend right. Usually I will do four passes of each harmony part, so I have at least two on each side. When you start getting into 3, 4, and 5 part harmonies, you end up having to shut some of the tracks off to get the weighting of each part right.

If they are supposed to be in your face, pan them more toward the center and leave the midrange in them. If they are supposed to be transparent and big, pan them wide and take out the midrange and some of the low end. If you wish to have it somewhere in the middle, play with those two parameters until it sits the way you want it.
 
Funny, I just did that this morning. Put down the Oooh track and the Aaah track and then mixed and blended till I got Ooowaahs. It was fun. Now I need to mix them in. Thanks Jay!
 
Well, mine are synth, so it was much easier to lay down...much more difficult to make them say something.
I'll post mine up in the clinic as soon as I get the guitars and vocals on.
 
I use oohs and ahs a lot. I don't know if you'd count them as spooky or not
e.g. Demon Man - Regdar and the Fighters especially starting at 1:50
(Honestly, about half the songs on that album use similar-sounding oohs, but almost none are trying to be spooky)

My go-to on oohs is: do each part twice. Pan both takes hard left and right. Combine each part into a single bus panned 30-60% with a little bit of reverb. Then mix pretty quiet.
 
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