recording backing vocals

G

glamslam

New member
Hi all
Am in the middle of recording a track which has one main vocal line and about 4 harmony parts that I need to sound very tight as in mainstream R&B or even Prince. Does anyone have any tips on how to record and mix backing vocals. Should I have each track of the harmony going thru a bus that's set up with all the effects I want to use? Any ideas at all would be helpfull...
Thanks in advance
 
You have a board?Compressor?Nice mics and pres?
Try to get the harmony vocalists into a groove with the song,either functioning as a unit themselves or you directing them.Just like a horn section,harmony vocals function as chords,so tightness of delivery is the most important thing.
Mic ettiquite is "working" the distance from the mouth to the mic depending on how much air the diaphragm is pushing.The backup vocalists should work the mic(s) in unison.
An alternative is recording one vox multiple times as backup,ala Beatles.Just like when family sings together,it blends.So a singer will always blend with their own voice.
The question of levels comes up,the proper ratio between the lead voice and the backups.Going back to rock history,harmony vocals were louder than today in proportion to the lead.Eagles circa Hotel California is a good example.But if you are producing a dynamic front personality than put the backups more in the distance so as not to compete with the moneymaker.
Put a different reverb and delay on the lead and backups,to put each one in its own space,especially if the mix is dense.Keep these short to keep them from getting muddy.
Picture the vocalists standing in a group and pan them around the lead.
Use a sub-group on your multitracking software to set levels for the backup vocals.That way,with a single fader you can set levels with the main mix easier.
 
To get great stereo tight sounding backing vocals I use this technique.

Put the backing vocals next to each other in front of 1 mic. Balance the vocals by the ditance from the vocalists and the mic. So mayby one has to take a step back, the other a step foward etc. record this onto 1 track. repeat the same oneomre and put it on a second track. Pan the first one left, the second right, and put it through a stereo linked compressor which is really working. I don't mean a gain reductions of 2 dB and a ratio of 2:1, but the real deal...gain reduction of +10dB and ratio of 10:1. Turn the treshold down, so the comp is working all the time, and kicking in on only some parts. That way it will be noticable, if it's working all the time it will be much less noticable. ofcourse you'll need a rather good comp to do this trick. remeber these vocals are going to be in the background, and processing can be less subtile than on lead vocals
 
When doing layering (one voice at a time), I like to use a dynamic microphone. Since I'm going for a compressed sound, and want it as tight as possible, I don't really want all the detail that a LD condenser would give. An SM-57/58 does a great job on layering.
If they're all singing together, I place all the singers in a half circle around a LD condenser.

You can hear examples of my work on my Nowhere Page:
www.nowhereradio.com/Eejit/Singles

Broken Glass is a good example of the first techinque (Dynamic) and HaSha'ar uses the half-circle (on the second chorus).

Oren
 
I recorded backing vocals a few days ago, and the first problem was the singer was to keen on singing some sort of second lead, instead of singing BACKING vocals. After we gave him the advice to sing more 'flat', the difference was easy to here.
 
i agree with downside, except that i don't go to 10:1, i go to 6:1 at the most.

don't forget to roll off the low end using a high pass eq. start at 80hz and go up until you find the right spot.

if you want more air under the backvocals then eq above 8k, but don't use that 8k boost going into the reverb.
 
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