70's backing vocal techniques ??

J

jpb123

New member
Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone could help me. I am trying to achieve that 70's style backing vocal technique as heard on all the pop rock hits of the time . It's the " Pad " style backing vocal technique I'm trying to achieve with the up front breathy style ooohhh's and aahhh's ( If anyone can understand that !! )

I'm just curious how it was achieved and more so now I'm having difficulty reproducing it myself !!

I've been recording 1st 3rd and 5th harmonies and doubling them then panning hard left and right but it still just sounds like vocals as opposed to a wash.

Can anybody shed any light on the techniques used in this style of recording ??

Many thanks

John
 
Probably the best thing to do is post an example. "70's" is pretty broad. The Archie's was the 70's, but so were The Eagles, The Carpenters, Mott the Hoople, and Humble Pie. :eek:
 
My Casio WK keyboard has 'ooh' and 'aah' pad sounds, that's probably what you want - not real vocals processed.
 
Thanks for your replies

I've just tried to attach some of my bv's but I don't know how to do it !!!

It's more the 10cc style / eagles pad vocals.

I keep ending up with a choir !! Albeit a great choir but not the pad swell !!

MJB I have many keyboards some a little better than the casio even but , I was just wondering how they did it so I could have a go and see how I compare. I know I should be experimenting myself but it's always nice to listen to other peoples opinions and views on these things !!

John
 
jpb123 said:
Thanks for your replies

I've just tried to attach some of my bv's but I don't know how to do it !!!

It's more the 10cc style / eagles pad vocals.

I keep ending up with a choir !! Albeit a great choir but not the pad swell !!

MJB I have many keyboards some a little better than the casio even but , I was just wondering how they did it so I could have a go and see how I compare. I know I should be experimenting myself but it's always nice to listen to other peoples opinions and views on these things !!

John
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If you're referring specifically to "I'm Not In Love" by 10cc, they did those back-ups with 365 vocal tracks, believe it or not. Of course, that's overkill and just not practical for most people, but I think the "wash-y" sound you're looking for (without hearing a specific example) would be accomplished by quadruple tracking, or even more than quadruple. Lots and lots of tracks.

As far as your technique is concerned, you're doing it right; Double-track and pan each part.
 
Thanks. I've done a little more digging on the internet Rami to see what I could find and it seems were lots of techniques used so I will persevere.

I'm going to have a go at triple tracking and layering a keyboard choir pad sound to see what I come up with.

Thanks everyone

John
 
jpb123 said:
I think the 70's seemed to have the most creativity with recording !!
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Yea, real musicians with new toys, old school meets new school, but you probably missed many wonderful players and singers from the 50's and early 60's, they just didn't have the same great recording sound, but techniques were rock solid.
 
I don't know, some of the 50's artists ( Johnny Burnett , Jo Stafford etc ) Had recordings that still hold up even by today's standards !!!

In my humble opinion
 
Here's an idea, ripped off the Cakewalk forum (link below) I use with some success for airy, smooth backing vocals: -

Here's a trick a learn recently for airy back vocals.

Send all your Back vox to a Bus called Airy ( per say )
On that Bus put ( let say ) The VC-64 in the Fx bin.
Hi-Pass everything under 4 or 5 khz ( to taste )
Add a hi shelf at 10-12K ( to taste ) and boost tremendusly ( 10db)

Then compress the heck out of it ( 10db of gr )

Blend with the original back vox... you'll get a beautiful shine and a smooth top end
Click to expand...

Don't know if that's the effect you're after.

How to get "airy" ethereal background vocals? | Cakewalk Forums
 
TimOBrien said:
Another reason you should browse through the 'Classic Tracks' over at Sound-on-Sound magazine; they have details on old recording techniques:

CLASSIC TRACKS: 10cc 'I'm Not In Love'
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Yes. The "Classic Tracks" series is awesome and very educational.

I stand corrected about the 365 vocal tracks...it was actually 624 :eek: :

"We eventually had 48 voices for each note of the chromatic scale, and since there are 13 notes in the chromatic scale, this made a total of 624 voices. My next problem was how to get all that into the track."
 
I always loved that song, now I know why. I have all of this technology and I am still creatively stunted.
 
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