Tracking and Mixing Vocals/Harmonies

[SLY_Z_28]

Often times you hear a big chorus sound. This has to do with how the chorus is wrote of a song and also the harmonies/vocals in the mix. I am going for the latter. I want a big sounding chorus with my vocals.

Does everybody track a 3 part harmony to beef up the main vocals in the studio? Or is autotune or something else I am unaware of make this easier now a days?

[Phil O'Keefe]

There are programs you can use to "generate" or create harmonies from the lead vocal (via intelligent transposition / pitch shifting - Melodyne, TC-Helicon, Antares, Eventide, etc.), but I tend to use the real thing more often than not. If we want three part harmonies, someone sings them. I do find that such programs can sometimes be helpful in terms of "suggesting" parts, but in general, I like the sound of the actual humans singing them whenever possible.

Also you might want to consider stacking the lead vocal on the choruses - double or even triple-tracking it to make it sound thicker and fuller. You can do that throughout the song, or only in sections of it for added impact on those sections - such as the choruses.

[SLY_Z_28]

Thanks Phil.

I figured everybody had their own take on the subject matter..however, what comes into play is the time it takes in a studio when you are paying and you have a deadline to meet on a budget. sticky situation I know haha

For home project studio users, what program do you recommend be first purchased? Go for the gold right away or is there a cheaper solution to get by for just demo's?

[Phil O'Keefe]

You could try Antares Harmony Efx, which is only about $100. I'm not positive, but I suspect they have an upgrade path to their full version, which is called Antares Harmony Engine EVO, and normally retails for about $200. One nice bonus: Antares has good demos that you can download, so you can try the programs out for yourself and see what you think before shelling out any money.

The ones I use (TC Helicon and Eventide) are TDM only, and won't run on a native system.

[Happy Steve]

Hi.

Somehow the vocals in my mixes never really blend in with the rest.

I don't know how to describe it, they are not IN the mix.

That's the main voice I talk about, choruses fit better.

is there a thread about this around here ?

[SLY_Z_28]

Originally Posted by Happy Steve

Hi.

Somehow the vocals in my mixes never really blend in with the rest.

I don't know how to describe it, they are not IN the mix.

That's the main voice I talk about, choruses fit better.

is there a thread about this around here ?

Steve, more than likely you need a little EQ'ing and less effects/reverb/delay on your vocals. It also depends on the quality of your recording tracks. If you skimp on your vocal mic or recording chain for vocals and you used an awesome mic for the rest of the instruments this could have an affect as well. Cheers

[SLY_Z_28]

Originally Posted by Phil O'Keefe

There are programs you can use to "generate" or create harmonies from the lead vocal (via intelligent transposition / pitch shifting - Melodyne, TC-Helicon, Antares, Eventide, etc.), but I tend to use the real thing more often than not. If we want three part harmonies, someone sings them. I do find that such programs can sometimes be helpful in terms of "suggesting" parts, but in general, I like the sound of the actual humans singing them whenever possible.

Also you might want to consider stacking the lead vocal on the choruses - double or even triple-tracking it to make it sound thicker and fuller. You can do that throughout the song, or only in sections of it for added impact on those sections - such as the choruses.

@Phil

Thanks again for the info. I have another question. How do I track a live amp/cabinet and a DI so that I can save the take in case I want to re-amp later? Can you recommend how I could do this or what products I would need to get this done?

[Phil O'Keefe]

Originally Posted by SLY_Z_28

@Phil

Thanks again for the info. I have another question. How do I track a live amp/cabinet and a DI so that I can save the take in case I want to re-amp later? Can you recommend how I could do this or what products I would need to get this done?

Sure. It's pretty straightforward. Let's take it in two steps - first the tracking. You'll need a bass, an amp, a couple of cables, a mic, a mic preamp, and a second input for the direct box.

Nearly all of the direct boxes you're likely to encounter will have a "through" jack on them. Here's a picture of a very high quality DI box - the Radial J48.



This allows you to pass the input signal on to the original location where you'd normally want to run it were you not using the direct box. Connect that jack to your amp. The XLR out of the direct box needs to be connected to a mic input on your mixing console or audio interface. We would then typically assign that input to its own discrete recording track in our DAW software.

Since the amp is now getting its signal from the "Thru" jack, it should be functioning normally at this point. Just put a nice mic in front of it and track it as you normally would any bass amp, while you're simultaneously recording the DI on a second track. I like large diaphragm condensers and dynamic mics on bass cabinets... regardless of what mic you use, the recording chain is simple: mic -> preamp -> SECOND track in your DAW.

You COULD assign the two (DI and amp) to the same track, but that's very limiting. By assigning the bass DI and bass amp signals to two separate tracks, you retain your options later insofar as the ratio of the two you want to use at mixdown. You can also process them separately - compression, EQ, etc. You also retain the ability to use just the DI track later for reamping.

For the reamping, you'd need a suitable reamp box. I really love my Radial X-Amp for that. The passive, and much less expensive Radial ProRMP will also work, although I think the extra features of the active X-Amp are worth the added cost. Here's a couple of shots of the X-Amp - the color looks like it has recently been changed to yellow - mine is blue, but otherwise appears to be identical.





The basic process is fairly straightforward. You take a line out from your DAW (carrying JUST the DI bass signal) and plug that into the XLR input of your Radial X-Amp. Since most audio interfaces have 1/4" line out jacks, you'll either need an XLR - 1/4" TRS cable, or an adapter. Planet Waves makes some nice adapters. The output of the Reamping device gets connected to the input of your pedals (if any) and amp. Hit play on the DAW and adjust the amp until you like the way it sounds. Then you track the amp to a new / separate track as you normally would. Amp speaker -> mic -> mic preamp / audio interface -> new track in the DAW.

If you only have a 2X2 audio interface, it can be a bit tricky to get a line output for the reamping. What I would recommend in that case is to pan the DI bass track hard left, and the rest of the tracks hard right - that way, the left output of your interface will only carry the bass DI signal, and the other output can be used as a mono reference so you can hear how the sound "fits" with the rest of the recording. You'd obviously need to disconnect the left output from your powered monitor speakers and route it to the Reamp box.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Originally Posted by Happy Steve

Hi.

Somehow the vocals in my mixes never really blend in with the rest.

I don't know how to describe it, they are not IN the mix.

That's the main voice I talk about, choruses fit better.

is there a thread about this around here ?

Hi Steve. Do you have a example mix we could listen to? That might help us better determine what the issue is.

It could be as simple as having the lead vocal turned up too loud. Maybe it "gets lost" a bit on some sections, and you've turned it up to compensate - but now it's too loud in other sections. If so, a bit of compression on the vocal and some volume automation can be a big help.

Reverb can definitely be an issue, as Sly mentioned. Too much of it can make the vocal sound like it's coming from further away from the listener, which may "fight" with the volume level if you have the vocal part turned up too loud. In nature, things that are up close tend to sound very dry and things that are further away have more ambience and reverb.

Another thing that can help with the blending is to use the same reverb for the vocals as you are using for the instruments. This helps to put them all in the same "acoustic space", which really helps pull the tracks together sometimes.