a couple of stupid question...

[warlock110]

i'm a newb to recording, and i would like to know how some singer was able to make sort of like a background singing effect on their song. Maybe it's hard to discribe through words, but take the example of avril lavigne "my happy ending" in the very begining, it sounded like she was singing from a very far distance with a little distortion.
And also in the same song, there was parts where she sings, and there was a repeat of that, sort of like background vocal, i'm wondering whether that was a very late delay or another track of vocal . It seems that these effects are very commonly use on the new pop and alternative rock artist now a day, i'm sure that they've used the same effect.
Sorry if i wasn't very clear, but it's hard to describe through words, i would post a clip of what i'm talking about, maybe about 2 sec of it, i don't know whether it's legal or not to post copyrighted stuff on the board

 

[Dexter411]

When pro-studios track pop artists, they usually devote between 10 and 30 tracks to vocals alone. Avril is a pop artist .

The beginning sound was probably just flange and a delay/EQ. Something else you heard was not a late delay -- it was probably a track where she sang the part and then it was editted to sound like a delay.