Seating and processing of harmony and gang vocals behind main during chorus parts....

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Dwayne C

New member
How does everyone approach this subject? I have a song that a couple members have been discussing with me before I do a complete re-mix and this is an area I feel I could improve. In the chorus there is the main vocal, a harmony vocal, and a gang vocal on a 3rd track. I'd like to get that gang vocal a little further back in the mix without making it sound small, but feel like more and more reverb isn't the answer. At the same time, I'm wondering if panning wouldn't help in some way with the harmony and gang vocal to avoid cluttering the center of the mix.

I'm trying to get a good balance on the vox as a group before I try to settle them in the mix as a whole.
 
Keep them all centered until you have the relative levels worked out and put into the mix. How to pan them will depend on the overall mix, but probably the gang vocal just slightly to one side, and the harmony vocal to the other side 15-20%. It's much easier to have all background vocals on separate tracks (not ganged together), so you can pan them individually. You can put a compressor on the gang vocal to let them 'sit back' a little.
 
I actually have gang vocals on 3 different tracks, so there is some flexibility there. I will work with the compressor on them and see what I get. I'm thinking slow on the attack and release to keep them from pumping at all......any ideas as to comp ratio and threshold settings for this kind of application?
 
I have a one trick pony approach. I do what I do and it works for what I do, but it might not suit what you're doing.
That said, I track the backing vocals and I'm pretty particular about them all being consistent, volume wise.
The group vocals I do generally are solid group, so that consistency is important.

From there it's classical. Track in pairs, pan each pair apart, and pretty heavily compress the whole thing.

That might sound simplistic or not well thought out, but the kind of bvox I'm usually looking for is consistent and solid sounding.
The main vocal doesn't move (during sections where I'd use group vox) and the group vox is a direct accompaniment, so it shouldn't move either.

Sometimes I'll use a stereo chorus on the bus or a very light distortion if they're just not standing out the way I want. That's to taste, though.

Like I say, this might be totally irrelevant to you, but it's what works for my recordings.
Certainly panning apart should be useful to you. That generally helps things to be better heard whilst not coming across as the main part.
 
Since you have 3 tracks of gang vocals, you can pan two of them left and right. The third one can be centered, or panned a little one way while the harmony is panned a little the other. The idea is to balance the harmony with the third gang vocal. However, since it's only 2 part harmony, it might sound better to have the harmony in the center with the main vocal. If you do that, lose the 3rd gang vocal, or have it centered but turned down.

If you are doing something to the main vocal to add brightness, DON'T do it to the gang vocals. Having them slightly darker sounding will put them behind the main vocals. Gang vocals don't need a lot of low end either, so if they feel too heavy, low shelf at 100hz or so.

For compression, I would start at 4/1 with.medium attack and release and no more than 6db of reduction. But that is a complete guess, since I can't hear the part. The idea is to smooth the gang vocals out.
 
Yes, that's what I'm looking for......a smoother, rounded gang vocal that isn't reverbed into outerspace. Thanks for the starting point. I'll be back at it in a few hours.
 
My go-to is to double each part and hard pan them away from each other. Then put each pair into a folder of its own and pan those folders to vaguely resemble a choir setup: lowest vocal about 60% left to highest 60% right.

And then I pretty much leave all those tracks dry.

It sounds like this: https://youtu.be/psLeFuO_vJA?t=58
 
A little room reverb on the gang vocal bus could help. Either by itself or in addition to a longer/bigger reverb that you have on the other vocal parts.
 
Well, I just pulled the trigger an a TC M2000 and a TC D-2. Both are upgrades for me.

So..............now I have work to do. I basically will have these 2 units plus a Lex MX400 and a TC M300 for my mixes.

I have 2 pre-fade Aux sends, and 2 switchable post Aux sends (3/5) and (4/6). Time to figure out routing......
 
Of course. I'm thinking M2000 Engine 1 on Aux 3/5
2 on Aux 4/6
with Lex MX400 Engines as the alternate choices on the switch buttons.

NOW.....Should I bring the M2000 back to FX channels in the master section, or as 2 tracks on the board? I have the room to do it if there is enough reason to do so. The Topaz has 4 FX channels. I Could bring all 4 of the engines to all 4 fx channels......

Where to use the M300.........? As an insert on individual track(s)? From one of the pre-fade Aux sends and back to 2 channels? As a Group insert?

OH, there is also the TC D-2........hmmm.....2 more Engines......Decisions......
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Early reflections.
Click to expand...

^^^This. Don't drown the gang vox in reverb, but give them just enough room ER to push them back behind the lead vox. Also, try not hard-panning the left&right returns of whatever processor is doing your ER; collapse them a bit towards center so it doesn't sound too artifically wide, and this can help with the sense of front/back distance.
 
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