Mixing and Layering Vocals

[lukecot]

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone could teach me some techniques. It just, when layering vocals I don't know where to start.

I record my vocal track and maybe put in 1 supporting harmony in places. But for pop music vocals really do need to be played with and layered. I was wondering if anyone could help me get started with it.

I guess the real questions are where to start? What harmonies should I put in. Are there any plugins to help out?
When I double the vocal tracks, to avoid phasing do I shift them and what does it mean when time aligning the vocals? How far should I move them on the grid?
On the doubled tracks, is there anything I should do to each one such as compression and EQ?
And anything anyone wants to let me know with on the subject?

Thanks!

 

[RAMI]

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone could teach me some techniques. It just, when layering vocals I don't know where to start.

I record my vocal track and maybe put in 1 supporting harmony in places. But for pop music vocals really do need to be played with and layered. I was wondering if anyone could help me get started with it.

I guess the real questions are where to start? What harmonies should I put in. Are there any plugins to help out?
When I double the vocal tracks, to avoid phasing do I shift them and what does it mean when time aligning the vocals? How far should I move them on the grid?
On the doubled tracks, is there anything I should do to each one such as compression and EQ?
And anything anyone wants to let me know with on the subject?

Thanks!

OK, there are a lot of things you're asking that would require either long answers, or the answer is "it depends on the song and what you're trying to accomplish".

One thing I will address is the "doubling vocals" question. First of all, are you talking about copying and pasting, or are you talking about singing the part twice? Either way, you won't have phase problems. But copying and pasting is the worst way to do it. When you copy a track, all you're doing is making a mono track louder, nothing else. Shifting it only gives you the exact same thing that you can accomplish with a delay unit.

The best way to double is to sing it twice, in which case phasing is not issue.

 

[Dogbreath]

Agreed....and the doubling of vocals takes some practice and patience. I know cuz I still don't have it down yet.

And it DOES depend on the material. The last one I did, I just did one extra vocal (sang it twice...not copy/paste) then compressed the snot outta the second, added reverb and brought it up under the main vocal track. Woulda sounded good if I could sing.

 

[TWProductions]

yeah if you copy and paste the track and shift it a couple ticks over, your very likely to get a phase problem...I cant stand dealing with copy and pasted tracks..there is really no point at all...if you have one solid track than just work on that track for the sound your looking for. I have had success copy and pasting it twice and panning each vocal track to one side with high compression...this sounded good in an acoustic song i did...I believe it was just the chorus I did it on tho..anyways..its all personal technique and whatever sounds good...

 

[mattdee1]

I’d stop short of saying that the copy/paste/shift technique is completely useless, but certainly, you would only want to use it when you’re going for a very specific result—i.e., a vocal that sounds like it’s been copied, pasted, and shifted. I’ve farted around with this just out of curiosity and I’ve found that when I pan one copy left and the other right, you tend to get a bit of a sterile sounding chorus effect (for lack of a better description). It might sound good in certain settings, you never know—it’s all about developing a vision of what you’re after and finding ways to achieve it. As mentioned already, the same thing can be done with a delay plug-in.

Definitely, a real double-tracking approach (recording two takes) is the more useful technique. But there’s more to this technique than simply recording two takes, panning them left and right, and moving on. When using this technique, I used to always hard pan the two takes out of habit, without even thinking about it. It wasn’t until later that I found sometimes stacking them up on top of one another (and perhaps lowering one by a few dB) actually sounds way better and makes the effect less “obvious”. Other songs, I might pan them only about 50% in either direction.

This is an extremely useful technique to learn in all forms of rock and pop music, and IMO, it always works best when it’s not extremely obvious that it’s being done. I mean, a keen/experienced ear will usually be able to pick it out no matter what, but that doesn’t mean that it’s conspicuous or distracting. What this means is that consistency of timing/pitch/phrasing of the two takes, is very important. Don’t skimp on the number of takes—I’ve actually surprised myself at how much better/consistent the results can get when you take the time to do a few more takes than you might feel like doing.

Once you get the hang of things you can start experimenting with variations of the technique. I once tried a technique where I did 4 different takes of the same vocal, each one at varying distance from the microphone (the farthest being probably 10 feet), and found that it provided a “singalong” chorus effect which was exactly what I was after for that tune.

 

[treofspades]

i often record on the left and right channel and pan them hard for the chourse also but would it be also useful to pan for the verse i often find that my verses sound alot like the choures but i am trying to make them differnt with a little bit of dept in the verse and a lot of depth in the choures with out them soundin similer. what could i do to make them sound a tap bit more desticted where the verses dont sound like the choures?

 

[Dogbreath]

i often record on the left and right channel and pan them hard for the chourse also but would it be also useful to pan for the verse i often find that my verses sound alot like the choures but i am trying to make them differnt with a little bit of dept in the verse and a lot of depth in the choures with out them soundin similer. what could i do to make them sound a tap bit more desticted where the verses dont sound like the choures?

Go nuts.
There's been a couple songs where I'd add distortion to a certain part of the vocals to make em cut thru more, one I added a chorus effect during the chorus, or sometimes I'll whisper along with the regular vox...

Just play around with different things til ya find something you like.

 

[grimtraveller]

a tap bit more desticted

If there was ever a title for a freaky off the wall instrumental, this has got to be it. The only one that's going to beat that is "It is in the brewing luminous"