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Backing Vocals

Backing vocals need to sound like a tightly controlled block of perfect harmonies. Normally what's on tape isn't anything of the sort.

So how do you fix them?

Firstly, assuming that you have individual backing harmonies recorded on separate tracks, the first thing is to get them to blend together so the harmonies create a pleasing effect. You need a bit of a "musical" ear to do this, so experiment a bit until you get a result where a nice "chordal" sound is produced. Listening to them as a group by themselves, without anything else in the mix, is (unlike other parts) usually the best way to get started. Make a little stereo mix of them, with reverb on each part individually. This is because certain harmonies within the group may need more reverb than others. You can add some "small" reverb as well as long in order to give them each a bit of individual space, but - often that's not a good idea - because you are trying to get them to gel together into one harmonious lump, not sound like a set of individuals. The spatial "spread" you try to give them in stereo is much more about creating a nice "blocky" sound than separating the harmony parts.

Normally, the levels of the backing vocals don't fit together. So compress them to death! Yes - it's OK to do this on a pop track. Feel free to go quite mad. The backing vocals will usually be at quite a low level in the mix and so the compression will either not be noticeable, or will even enhance the sound! You want them to be a rock-steady block with little or no dynamics. If they need dynamics it is (unlike other instruments) best to compress them like mad individually so that they fit together properly, and add any dynamics by hand using automated fader movements on the stereo backing vocals as a whole.

If the backing vocals don't sound "thick" enough, or simply sound out-of-tune (a common problem), then adding some chorus to them is often a good idea. If you have a "true stereo" chorus try setting the chorus return (or the send) so that it is in reverse - i.e. Parts on the left hand side, have a chorused sound to the right, and vice versa. This creates a nice stereo sound for the backing vocals without getting too much separation on the individual performers themselves. Check them in mono to make sure you haven't added to much chorus (you normally don't want them to sound "effected" as such) and the other reason is to check that you still get a nice "chordal" sound on the backing vocals when the mix is played in mono.

To help thicken them up some more, either try using an "Exciter" effect such as the Aphex Aural Exciter or try Dolby encoding, or simply add some very top end (12 kHz), using a de-esser if necessary to remove any sibilance introduced.

Finally, consider compressing the stereo mix of backing vocals as a whole as well. Yet more compression!! - Have I gone completely mad?? Not at all. Compressing the group has a different effect than individual compression, and often both are needed to get that "brick wall sound" that makes good pop backing vocals sound spectacular.



If you are using a PC based system, you might now have to "render" the backing vocal mix in order to get some life back out of your CPU!

If the backing vocals are already "premixed" to stereo, you either have to hope that they were combined using the techniques above, or instead, try adding EQ, reverse-stereo chorus, EQ, Exciter, compression etc. to the stereo track as a whole and see if that helps. When working with a "premixed" stereo set of backing vocals, you will often have to use midrange EQ with a narrow bandwidth in the middle of the note ranges of the harmonies, to "bring out" or "suppress" harmony parts that have not been correctly mixed together.

What? Did you expect a little thing like backing vocals to be easy? :-)


Date: 2015-02-28; view: 1027


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