Recording gang vocals?

C

complexprocess

New member
This is mostly for the hardcore crowd, but anyone with a helpful hint is more than welcome to chime in.

I'd like to hear your ideas on recording gang vocals for a hardcore song (you know, the part where the whole band + most of the audience would be singing along at a show.) The problem is, when I'm recording there isn't a whole audience to sing along, so it just sounds like a few voices saying the same thing, even with a few tracks.

So what do you do for gang vocals on a record? What kind of mic do you use? Do you do a whole bunch of tracks with individuals, or a few tracks with a few people at once? any special way to apply reverb/panning to make it sound bigger? Use chorus or anything?

Thanks a heap. Like i said before, any tips are welcomed.
 
complexprocess said:
Thanks a heap. Like i said before, any tips are welcomed.
Click to expand...

Well I don't know about a whole crowd simulator, but for 'football' style backing vocals, get the band around a cheap mic, a couple feet away, and have 'em yell, and double if necessary.

Whichever bandmate you like the least, kick him in the 'nads first to add that pained high-pitched tone. You need at least one guy like that. That gives you that Outback Steakhouse commercial backing vocal sound.

I don't think effects help, it needs to sound lo-fi. I've used a harmonizer to achieve the high-pitched voice trick since most people are resistant to being kicked in the crotch. I sometimes use a harmonizer to add a tritone above and below a single voice (better if it's two different voices, and don't include the dry voices in the mix), a bit off-tempo with the crowd, pretty far back in the mix.
 
I haven't tried this but maybe this would work.

Set up a good vocal mik on one side of the room.
Get some people on the other side of the room (to get a feeling of distance).
Get them to scream.

Put this all to a click track and just make every scream at the 4th click.

And repeat this untill you have the desired thickness of screams. :)

I think I'll try this myself. And if you try it tell me how it sounds. :D
 
OI OI OI!!!

OK, this is pretty easy. get as many people as you can together and get them around an omni mic and let them go nuts and recored it to one track. Move every body around so people that were close on the first take are further away and visa versa. Let every bondy go nuts. Feel free to pour on the compression. Use a bunch of tracks and mix them together sort of panned out a bit and run them all into the same reverb. If its hardcore I say use a pretty short verb and not a lot of it.
 
i'm with hilarious. what i did once was get lots of friends, neighbors, and pulled people in from the street for a laugh all around one microphone.
then i duplicated the track and offset the duplicate from the original
just a few milliseconds.
 
Thanks for the tips so far. I may not have access to many people, but I'll try to get a couple more to thicken up the group. Other tips are still welcome.
 
:D My Korg 01/WFD (Vintage early 90s!) synth has a patch called "Stadium" which sounds like applause in a big stadium, it's pretty realistic too!
 
Gang vox

complexprocess said:
This is mostly for the hardcore crowd, but anyone with a helpful hint is more than welcome to chime in.

I'd like to hear your ideas on recording gang vocals for a hardcore song (you know, the part where the whole band + most of the audience would be singing along at a show.) The problem is, when I'm recording there isn't a whole audience to sing along, so it just sounds like a few voices saying the same thing, even with a few tracks.

So what do you do for gang vocals on a record? What kind of mic do you use? Do you do a whole bunch of tracks with individuals, or a few tracks with a few people at once? any special way to apply reverb/panning to make it sound bigger? Use chorus or anything?

Thanks a heap. Like i said before, any tips are welcomed.
Click to expand...

Rigggghhhhhty then,
Get as many people as is realistic into your room,
Aim to get about 30/40 voices down, whether that's through layering or just having 40 people in your bedroom (!)
Depending on the style of hardcore, and how manufactured you want it to sound stick a fair amount of reverb (low amounts for hxc/metal, high(er) amounts for hxc punk)
Usually, i'd record one track of high pitched shouts, and one of mid-range shouts, and possibly one of low-range..
Compress if necessary,
Pan hard left and hard right to make it sound bigger and wider, but isn't always needed,
And that is about it.
Message me for any extra info etc.
Cheers,
xxxx
 
if you only have a few people around, get the band to scream them all together into 1 mic on a stereo track. do 2-3 takes, and stick a little bit of chorus onto each one, with the each track having a wider setting than the one before it.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Doh. Got sucked in. :(

You think he got enough people together by now? ;)

G.
Click to expand...
"You must spread some reputation around before giving it to SouthSIDE Glen again."

:(


I've seen a lot of this lately. Someone resurrects and old thread and it gets 20 or 30 more posts. :eek:

Like this one.... :o
 
ive found the best way of doing this is get 6-8 people round a cheapish mic that is upright and have them all close to eachother and about 3 feet from the mic in an arc and get them angry. voila ;) haha
 
I know this thread is dead, but there is a much simpler way. Get 3 or 4 people. Have them all stand around a mic and record. Do this twice and pan them out 25%. Then have them back up 5-6 feet, and do it twice again. Pan them 50%. Now, have them get as far back as they can and do it twice more. Hard pan those takes. Add a bit of a large hall, and Bam! You've got a killer crowd sound.
 
heres what I do...

Step 1. SM58 or BETA58 on a Boom stand up high in one corner of the room...

Step 2. Playback through the monitors (put them behind the mic for this..)

Step 3. Then have atleast 5-6 people stand in a semi circle about 5 feet a way from the mic (try NOT to be equidistant).

Step 3b. Girls in the crowd help, so I like to do one take with 4-6 guys and one take with like 3 guys and 2 girls with distinctly different voice tones.

Step 4. Yell (or Sing/Yell if thats what you are doing)..

Step 5. Mix the two to taste.. or stereo image the two.. or add chorus if you like.

I've done a few bands like this. Perilous momentum is the only thing that still has shit up.. The mixes are kinda shite though..

http://www.myspace.com/aperilousmomentum

-Paul
 
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