Doubling Vocals

[reverieman]

Hello all,
A newbie to the sight, but not to recording... Today we were recording vocals... and tried to double them. After a few takes it started sounding more cohesive, but it either sounds too phasey, or not choesive enough. We kept going... and eventually by changing my tone a bit for the second track it sounded better... any tips when doubling vocals. Is it more about the way they are mixed in the end? Are you supposed to Eq one different? Anyone..

 

[Zeppelin456]

A trick that tends to work for me is to roll of some of the high end, since most of the time, the most noticable difference in multi tracked vocals is the sibilant sounds like an S or a T sound. By EQing out a bit of high end, you can retain the feel of two (or more) vocals without having the harsh sounds feel seperate. If nothing works, I sometimes also just take the same vocal take, and make two more copies of it, panning the two copies hard left and right, then nudging them both slightly off from one another. If you do it carefully, you can widen the sound without having to deal with tracking the vocals exactly the same twice (some singers just suck at it). Good luck!

 

[Dani Pace]

Sometimes using a different mic for each track will help. Adding a (very) slight delay to the second vocal helps too. Panning the tracks almost always helps to give each voice a little more space. Learning to harmonize with yourself is tricky, you might try singing one part a third or fourth higher than the primary track, this takes practice but works better than anything else I've tried. It's hard to sing with yourself without sounding like yourself again.

 

[brendandwyer]

We manually double track vocals ALOT, and let me tell you that it is not easy, nor quick. That hardest part is your sibilance. Any passages that contain a breath, or an s or p sound has to be spot on. You are looking for the sound of the two tracks coming together and the two disappearing into one. THe phase you talk about is the slight inconsistencies between the two tracks. Rolling off highs might work to fix small problems, but nothing can take the place of going through each line over and over until it is perfectly lined up, then moving on through.

Another technique i've learned. If the line in the chorus is "I'm not used to these dreams" On the double track, don't pronounce the "s" in dreams. Say dream instead. this will tighten the sound and you'll hardly notice the difference. the main track will carry the "S" through the decay and you won't have to bust your head trying to get that s perfect.

Oh and ight the urge to spread the two tracks out wide from each other. it sort of negates the intention of double tracking in the first place.

 

[RAMI]

You can try THIS TECHNIQUE.. The whole article is interesting, but the fourth paragraph "The Motown 1960's Exciting Compressor" is what you'd probably want to try.
Though learning to sing your tracks twice is still an important thing to learn.

 

[reverieman]

thanx

Ill try out all of these tricks a little more. It seems like I am on the right track. Thank you for all of your help. I am going to try out the mowtown thing tonight. I have noticed vowel sound is important. consistent vowel sounds. cheers

 

[Todzilla]

It also helps to NOT sing the closing hard consonants of a doubled track.

First track sing: "I want to cut you up with a sharp razor"

Second track sing: "I wan to cu you up with a shar razor"

Then the original track provides all the sibillant closure.

 

[brendandwyer]

Good tip tod. I was also going to say that knowing every single melodic change is important. All your flips, all your fall offs. It definately helps. Ken Townshend installed a variable oscillator in the abbey road machines because Lennon was sick of having to double track every part. So even the greats got sick of that labor intensive process.

 

[Robert D]

Excellent tips above. Another thing to keep in mind is to mix the Dub Vox track way down in relation to the Lead Vox. The sweet spot is usually where you almost think it's not doing anything, till you mute it and the vocal suddenly thins out, then unmute it and it fattens up again.

 

[_mat_]

rami, that motown technique kicks ass man. I can't wait to try that out on the vocalist i'm going to be recording this week. Definitely some good tips guys, it's something I've wanted to learn more about but keep forgetting to ask.

mat

 

[petermiller]

have you tried just putting a delay on the original track (up to 30ms) and regenerating that on another channel. ADT

 

[RAMI]

rami, that motown technique kicks ass man. I can't wait to try that out on the vocalist i'm going to be recording this week. Definitely some good tips guys, it's something I've wanted to learn more about but keep forgetting to ask.

mat

Thanx...I just realised, though, that I should point out it's not a doubling technique, which is what the original question was about. But it's great for getting the vox to cut through.