That 80's vocal backup sound

[Myriad_Rocker]

How would I go about getting that sound? You know...they go into the chorus and it sounds like there's 10 people singing backup. It's just real thick.

[Farview]

If you are talking about that 'youth gone wild' kind of thing, get everybody you can into the live room, have them sing into the vocal mic. Then repeat that 3 or 4 times and pan the tracks. If you have 4 of these tracks, pan 2 of them hard and pan the other 2 at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock.

[Cloneboy Studio]

There really isn't a trick. What you HEAR is what they generally DID.

Ex: Mutt Lange's work with Def Leppard could have as many as 96 voices doing background vocals.

Yikes!

[Myriad_Rocker]

Cool, thanks. Don't know that I have time or the space to get 96 vocal tracks on a recording though.

[guttadaj]

Originally Posted by Cloneboy Studio

Ex: Mutt Lange's work with Def Leppard could have as many as 96 voices doing background vocals.

Yikes!

You serious?!? Wow - I'd hate to have to search through all those tracks for 1 sour note.

[chessrock]

Originally Posted by guttadaj

You serious?!? Wow - I'd hate to have to search through all those tracks for 1 sour note.

I'm pretty sure he used Autotune.

Although I could be mistaken. It's my understanding that Mutt was more of a Radar guy than Pro Tools. After tracking "For those about to Rock" with Nuendo, I think he became sort of anti-digi.

[AGCurry]

Originally Posted by guttadaj

You serious?!? Wow - I'd hate to have to search through all those tracks for 1 sour note.

If you have 96 voices, I don't think one sour note would make much of difference. Especially in a rock tune.

[Chris Shaeffer]

Its really not all that hard. Record your backups one section at a time and do that section as many times as you want, or until you have only 2 tracks left availalbe. Then do the rest of your backup sections one at a time the same way. Pan to taste (I generally leave compression and effects till later unless I want some to have effects and some to not) then bounce to a stereo track.

Try it some time with 20 or so tracks. You really can't get that sound any other way except hire a choir.

Voila- thick 80's backing vocals. Don't forget to delete all those extra vocal tracks! They eat a lot of disk space...

Chris

[David Katauskas]

I was just thinking about this the other day. Kansas was on the radio and I thought..."wow, they really do have some great vocals".
And they were very creamy.

[thajeremy]

Im just wondering...who really wants 80's sounding vocals anyway????

[Cloneboy Studio]

Originally Posted by chessrock

I'm pretty sure he used Autotune.

Not in 1983!

That's part of the reason Def Leppard took so long to record Pyromania/Hysteria (esp. Hysteria). Mutt Lange is the type of guy that a month can go by and the singer has only "got" about a verse and half a chorus on tape... even though they've been recording 8 hours a day.

Total perfectionist.

I think they had an entire 24 track RTR slaved just to handle all of the vocal overdubs/bounces for the backing vocals.

Originally Posted by chessrock

It's my understanding that Mutt was more of a Radar guy than Pro Tools. After tracking "For those about to Rock" with Nuendo, I think he became sort of anti-digi.

Hrm. Detecting humor here.

But for clarification purposes Mutt Lange has an IMMENSE ProTools HD rig.

http://www.digidesign.com/news/details.cfm?story_id=186

4 HD units with 8 Accel cards each and 14 I/O's with expansions! HUGE.

[Quantagee]

Originally Posted by chessrock

I'm pretty sure he used Autotune.

Although I could be mistaken. It's my understanding that Mutt was more of a Radar guy than Pro Tools. After tracking "For those about to Rock" with Nuendo, I think he became sort of anti-digi.

I don't think they had autotune in 1983. I could be wrong, but I think it was not around then. Should I look at the album credits? I know you told me something before, but I looked for a couple of hours at the record cover and found nothing.

Anyway, it is an exciting find if autotune was around in 1983!

[Cloneboy Studio]

Originally Posted by Quantagee

Anyway, it is an exciting find if autotune was around in 1983!

It wasn't around until 1995ish.

The closest they had were the Eventide units, and those are more for effect rather than transparent pitch correction.

[robin watson]

[QUOTE That's part of the reason Def Leppard took so long to record Pyromania/Hysteria (esp. Hysteria). Mutt Lange is the type of guy that a month can go by and the singer has only "got" about a verse and half a chorus on tape... even though they've been recording 8 hours a day.

Total perfectionist.

[/QUOTE]

Another part of the reason being that he can't be all that good if it takes that long. Just ranting - saw them in Tokyo a couple of years ago @ $70 a ticket. Played for less than 80 minutes, fucking faries.

[DogFood]

Mutt Lange=Shania Twain


Steve Albini could kick Mutt Lange's whiteboyshaniatwangscountrymayonaisseandwhitebreadass!

Oh and Steve if you read this...please do. His crimes are heinous.

[DogFood]

CloneBoy, got any idea what Albini's settup is like?

[turnitdown]

And a generous dose of Gated reverb on the backing vocals.... I know... I played in a band that sounded an awful lot like "Skid Row/Cinderalla/Misc 80's Hair Band...."...

(For better or worse...)
////////////////////////////////////////
On another topic... I saw George Lynch last night, and was talking to him after the show...
He used a '59 Fender Esquire for a third of his set, through an old Marshall Plexi... He loved that axe.. it was a gift...

He asked me what I thought of the tone, and I told him I liked his tone w/ the Les Paul's a helluva lot better... I don't think he was happy about that, but I was being honest. (I saw NOT A SINGLE endorsed piece of gear w/ hime... except the Keeley pedals...)

In his favor, he is a mother-fucker live.... that man can PLAY (w/ a capital "P") !!!

[Cloneboy Studio]

Originally Posted by DogFood

CloneBoy, got any idea what Albini's settup is like?

Go to his Electrical Audio website--he lists every piece of gear he has, pictures and occasionally some quotes.

Using Albini's gear won't guarantee an Albini sound at all. It's more his approach, and lack of approach, that gives his signature sound.

For me his sound is hit-or-miss; PJ Harvey's "Dry" album sound terrible to me, yet all the Rapeman stuff sounds great.

Doing a rough mix and calling it a final mix is--IMHO--an important part of the Albini sound.

[ahuimanu]

Originally Posted by Myriad_Rocker

How would I go about getting that sound? You know...they go into the chorus and it sounds like there's 10 people singing backup. It's just real thick.

It's all in the mane man, in the mane!!!

Go to a mirror just before your tracking session and assess your hair length/volume. The more volume the more VOLUME!!! ;-)

[Myriad_Rocker]

Originally Posted by ahuimanu

It's all in the mane man, in the mane!!!

Go to a mirror just before your tracking session and assess your hair length/volume. The more volume the more VOLUME!!! ;-)

Are you saying James Taylor couldn't get that sound if he wanted?

[ahuimanu]

Absolutely NOT! I couldn't these days either (damn getting old!).

I wish I could have owned stock in hair-care products back then.