Members Primal Yell Posted December 2, 2008 Members Share Posted December 2, 2008 Warning: Many questions here. Where are you rolling off or splitting frequencies? How are you finding the right level and blending? Are you compressing the living crap out of the doubled distorted part? How about panning options? I know its innapropriate for a lot of applications, but, How are you guys pulling this off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The*Ataris Posted December 2, 2008 Members Share Posted December 2, 2008 Warning: Many questions here. Where are you rolling off or splitting frequencies? How are you finding the right level and blending? Are you compressing the living crap out of the doubled distorted part? How about panning options? I know its innapropriate for a lot of applications, but, How are you guys pulling this off? I like throwing an FFT filter on a lot of my background vocals. The 'Lo-Fi' result allows for the lead vocal to assert itself better in a mix without a gigantic volume discrepancy. Set your hi-pass around 300hz and your low-pass somewhere around 3kz and listen for what it's doing. I, personally, don't want any low-end that demands space in a mix and I don't want any hi-end that will completely detract your attention from the lead vocal. Adjust accordingly. Keep the distortion after the EQ so it's not accentuating anything funky and set it to something interesting. Again, don't set anything that will detract from your lead vocal. The name of the game is subtlety. Now, throw on the compressor for some added control. The distortion will even out a lot of the dynamics already, but start with a 4:1 ratio with a really fast attack and make sure your track isn't jumping out over the lead. I also, generally, prefer stereo delays on background vox as opposed to any serious panning. It usually keeps everything grounded in the center and away from all the other junk I'm trying to find a place for. No real rules, though. Get at it and find something fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Primal Yell Posted December 2, 2008 Author Members Share Posted December 2, 2008 I like throwing an FFT filter on a lot of my background vocals. The 'Lo-Fi' result allows for the lead vocal to assert itself better in a mix without a gigantic volume discrepancy.! Really like your EQ advise, as well other points. May I inquire which filter/plugs work best for you? Any guidelines on how many db's you gotta drop the primary vocal so as to not make it too hot and risk the digital clipping? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted December 2, 2008 Moderators Share Posted December 2, 2008 Good stuff in the Ataris post. I've had issues with trying to double a vocal with both being distorted. Think about the kind of voices that take to double tracking well. Let's say... the difference between Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan. Paul, as you know, sounds great doubled. But Bob? No way. Why? Bob Dylan's voice has too complex of a harmonic signature to take doubling. Paul's on the other hand has a simpler harmonic series. He's more like a French Horn. Bob's more like a Kazoo. (Sorry Bod, I still love your voice). So if it's not working for you, try only distorting one of the vocals. Leave one clean. That can sound great. Still distorted, but clear and without strange beating tones. Same with bass for that matter. One clean, one dirty. In The Atari's post, it sounds like he's use one distorting unit on a group of backups. That works for me as well. If you try individually distorting them, you can run into some serious beating between the vocals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mikeSF Posted December 18, 2008 Members Share Posted December 18, 2008 i have read about this technique before and it sounds intriguing.can anyone post a clip of refer to a well known recording that uses this?thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members samtrips Posted December 20, 2008 Members Share Posted December 20, 2008 Let's say... the difference between Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan. Paul, as you know, sounds great doubled. But Bob? No way. Why? Bob Dylan's voice has too complex of a harmonic signature to take doubling. Paul's on the other hand has a simpler harmonic series. He's more like a French Horn. Bob's more like a Kazoo. (Sorry Bod, I still love your voice). Fantastic observation, I understand exactly what you mean! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted December 21, 2008 Members Share Posted December 21, 2008 BTW, there's an article in the latest EQ Magazine about recording Dylan, which includes an approach to how he records his vocals. His engineer uses an SM7 on his voice, and Dylan seems to like distorting his own voice, sending it through guitar amps and that sort of thing to murk it up a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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