Duet Vocal recording

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Diverdown

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I was listening on my ipod to some different duets today and heard an interesting spatial arrangement . It was Brad Paisely and Dolly Parton singing "when I get where Im going" and it struck me as different because on my headphones the vocals were seperated slightly with panning , Not hard panned but just slighly and I got the distict impresion of them standing behind me to left and right , I checked out several other duets I possess and didnt find them engineered this way and when listening for it I concluded it could have added to the "spatial paint job"
I really enjoy Celine Dion and Adreas Boccelli performing "The prayer" and was suprised they share the same spot vocally .
This post is drivel and has no real purpose but I enjoy noticing things and this was kinda unique , perhps Im learning to listen better.
 
Diverdown said:
I was listening on my ipod to some different duets today and heard an interesting spatial arrangement . It was Brad Paisely and Dolly Parton singing "when I get where Im going" and it struck me as different because on my headphones the vocals were seperated slightly with panning , Not hard panned but just slighly and I got the distict impresion of them standing behind me to left and right , I checked out several other duets I possess and didnt find them engineered this way and when listening for it I concluded it could have added to the "spatial paint job"
I really enjoy Celine Dion and Adreas Boccelli performing "The prayer" and was suprised they share the same spot vocally .
This post is drivel and has no real purpose but I enjoy noticing things and this was kinda unique , perhps Im learning to listen better.
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Good observation. I'm not familiar with the paisley/parton song, but I pulled up a song I knew was a duet with Eros Ramazzotti and Cher (of all people). They both share the center spot as well, but I think it works well because their voices blend perfectly when they sang together. So might be true for Dion and Boccelli. Maybe Paisley and Parton don't blend together well, so the mix engineer separated them out. Or maybe they wanted to get more of a stage setting and place the listener in the group.

Nice thread.
Cheers,
 
I'm not familiar with the song, but as im sure like most country duet, they're suppose to be singing to each other, like interacting with each other. I've done that with two guitars, pan them a little and they seem like they're talking to each other. its a pretty cool effect. Good observation.

-Barrett
 
In this vein do you all "see the sound"? I mean do you consciously attempt to place the sound in a three dimensional way to shape your recordings?

Other than mic placement what techniques do you you use to accomplish this?
 
I don't think it's mic placement that will achieve that. I'm sure they're both singing into their own MONO mic. This is a mixing decision.
 
Only duets I've seen recorded together were the ABBA chicks singing into different sides of a figure 8 mic..I forget the mic now...damn!

I think these days, as Rami mentioned it'll be 2 seperate mics, mono signals, panned to mix requirements.

ABBA were a bit special in that department, I read or seen a docu one time about them singing lead parts on their own then doubling the stereo backing vox up to 8 times for that huge vocal sound they owned.

It's like the queen/freddy mercury thing, he has every single space on the 24 track tape of bohemian rhapsody full of vocals that were all overlayered.....good automation on that one
 
I've been working on the instrumental tracks for California Dreamin' by the Mamas and the Papas. As soon as I get a good space to record vocals again (new house being built), I'm going to try the 4 part harmonies. Might ask a few people here on HR to help out. It'll be interesting to try to double track all those parts. If I can pull it off, it'll sound really nice.
 
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