Rnb/Pop vocals

[EdJames]

In terms of panning and recording, how should I set myself up?

I always used to do the lead vocal with one dub vocal panned 100% left and one 100% right but with the volume down a bit. On my new equipmet this just sounds cluttered. How do you guys lay a lead vocal? On it's own?

Also, on hooks etc, how would you mix in a harmony vocal to the main vocal roughly?

[mentalattica]

the most common answer your probably gonna get is, do what sounds good, there are no rules. for the r&b sessions i have done (mind you i am a home recorder, not a pro studio engineer) i usually stack and pan the chorus and harmony parts to taste. lead vocals depends on the voice and the sound we want to achieve. i very rarely pan anything 100% L and R, it's too wide for my taste but I have heard it on some songs that sound good to me, and others that sound terrible to me. so its all about the sound you want.

[SouthSIDE Glen]

This is someting again that I think should be figured out by the engineer/producer (I mean producer in the traitional sense) before you even start the mix. Bring everything up to unity on the faders and mute all tracks. Play back the song both with everything full on and with individual tracks or groups soloed. Just get a feel for the song in full and for it's key parts. Let the song tell you how it wants to be mixed.

Listening to the raw song and its parts like that, develop a a mental picture in your head of what you want the end result to sound like, how you want the track arranged musically and how you want the soundstage laid out. Then start adjusting knowbs to fit your image.

If you are also doing all the engineering from the get-go - including the traking, this is something you should work out at leats in part before you even hit the record button. It's called by some "sonic design". Listen to what the performers are bringing and use their run-through performances to start building the image in your head.

It's like painter standing in front of a blank canvas. He doesn't go and get the advice of other painters whether he should put the tree on the right or the left or in front or back. He first gets the picture in his head of what to paint, then he takes to painting it.

Don't worry about how others do it; listen to what the tracks temselves are saying about how they want to be done.

G.

[KonradG]

Don't worry about how others do it; listen to what the tracks temselves are saying about how they want to be done.

Yeah... kind of like a horse whisperer, but for songs... Be a song whisperer... i know i am