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Tracking/Mixing Vocals
How do you, or do you, double track your vocals? A friend of mine said even triple tracking? Is this typically done by recording the vocals again, or just using the initial vocal track, and putting a light ms delay in the vocals?
Need some advice on this, the best way to do it, all the options out there on ways to do it. Maybe some examples of tracks that haven't been doubled or tripled, compared to ones that have been.
Thanks!
Comments
Doubling would be recording it again. A delay can give you the effect but it's not the same. The Beatles did artificial double tracking (ADT), where they'd play it on a second tape machine that varied slightly in speed to give a similar effect to doubling.
Then there's queen (with Roy Thomas baker- similar work done later with the cars) and mutt Lange with stacks and stacks of vocals, there's Michael Jackson doing many passes if each vocal part and varying the distance from the mic on each to give more space to some, 10cc with "I'm not in love" with 256 voices singing each note in the chromatic scale and using the mixer to play chords. And, one of my favorite backing vocal sounds- the carpenters. Especially on "close to you" and "for all we know."
Experiment with your voice and try different things, see what you like. I almost sound like a singer when there's 20 of me stacked in a background part! One of my favorite background techniques is to set up a stereo pair of mics, then get a few people to sing together in one spot, maybe all the way left, then with each pass move them further towards the other side, so when you put up all of the tracks, each panned hard left and right, you get a natural panning and it sounds like a choir.
Have fun, post some of your takes!
Fun stuff and good advice. Looking forward to the High5 Choir!
Great! Thank you for the info/advice @mrufino1 . That natural panning technique sounds very interesting.
I'm looking forward to a High5 Choir too. Should be intersting.
Aces post @mrufino. All good stuff and props from a BG vocal nerd for Abbey Road ADT, Mr Lange and his 9000 track vocal cray cray, and the 10cc 'play-the-mixer to make a hit just don't call it music concrete' reference: all proof of true background vocal nerdery!
@high5denied, what are you trying to achieve with doubled vocals?
Pro hip-hop sidebar: first time I ever had unbridled admiration and respect for a shitty rapper was as an engineer for hire: the words and the person rapping them were flying pieces of flaming shit but when he double tracked the vocals I realized just how much he had practiced and intended every single nuance; we had to dick with the second take (not the ninth) in Pro Tools to make it sound doubled, so perfect was the second take. It was so close that there was actually phase cancellation and it wasn't the only time I had it happen with an emcee working at that studio.
I, typically, said nothing of use. Possibly useful thoughts...
First, consider why you want doubling. Make the main vocal jump out? Check the arrangement. Effect? Just try a stereo delay and/or putting a pre-delay or your reverb. Not it? Check the arrangement/EQ. Else...
If doubling seems like the ticket, practice the actual vocal a shit ton and record the doubles. If after practicing you get much closer to the mark, consider being ok with dumping the original; your rehearsed version, once stacked, may sound better but (!) don't lose site of the prize: often the first take has the emotion the song needs. Trite but so often true.
Sonic Inconsistencies with double or triple tracked practiced vocals come from articulation — a delayed "uh" is far less apparent then a delayed "ta". When you record doubles of a take you're sure you want to keep, use a darker mic and step away from it a bit (like backup singers were positioned in single mic situations). If you feel like it's as close as you can get it, consider rolling the living shit off of the high end of the doubled tracks (seriously, consider the sonics of the word 'shit' and get rid of all of that
.
If practiced doubles aren't practical, copy your vocal track twice. Pitch shift one down a few cents and the other up a few cents and pan them wide keeping your original in the center. Turn them down a bit, roll the highs off and delay them a bit (different settings for each). If you can, modulate the delay (offset) on each copy so that it doesn't sound the same both before and after each sylable (but err on after). If you can't, just set them a few MS after the main vocal. Look up the Beatles/Geoff Emerick/abbey Road automatic track doubling (ADT) to get an idea of what you might be shooting for.
/end 2 background vocal loving cents
I'll add a few thoughts:
I think the best way to double is to record multiple times, it's much more alive and thick sounding than using tricks with delay IMO. The upshot is that the vocal really needs to be practiced, especially the timing (I think it's OK to have some slight variation in pitch, in fact that really adds to the effect, but the timing has to be tight).
The other thing that really helps is to route all the vocals into a bus/subgroup and compress the living daylights out of it, that's what the Beatles did to get that lovely thick vocal sound they had.
Also, to add to Syrupcore's advice about rolling off the highs, I've actually found that my doubled takes end up with a nasty rumbly build-up in the 200-500Hz region that I have to notch out, it might be specific to my mic or my room though, so I would say listen very closely to the vocal takes and see if there are any troubling frequencies in there.
Some great advice here. I personally prefer "real" double takes, but that depends on the type of music I guess.
Another thing worth trying is rolling off the low end and boosting the high end of a double, then compressing it like crazy, to make the consonants stronger. Makes the vocals "pop".
This. So hard to do in the immediate world, but so the point of it (and I know this because it speaks to the heart of my own wretched weakness).
Well, I'm not entirely sure. A musician I am collaborating with, mentioned that the vocals in a rough draft/scratch track I sent him needed to be double or even triple tracked.
I think, mostly a more full sound, thicker. Which I can understand, because the very very rough demo I sent him was just so he could here what my vocals sounded like. I recorded the guitars and Bass through JamUp, and Drums with RockDrum, did a tiny little bit of mixing with Auria stuff.
But, the vocals, I actually recorded in my car on my way to hang at a friends house......Through the ipod earphone mic. lol...... Which I explained to him several times. So, ya, they did come out rather thin and uninspiring. What more could one expect from the earphone mic.
So, maybe if I properly record them into my Condenser Mic, in my home, they will turn out to be much fuller. I'm sure they will be. It's just difficult for me to set up the mics and stands and innerface (studio stuff), with my small kids at home. So, I just did a quick vocal record.
Anyway, that is probably too much info. I really do appreciate the advice and ideas from everyone above. They sound very useful, and particularly easy to try. And, from what you all attest to, provide some great results.
What is the collaboration? You do the work and he criticizes it? I'd think you were talking about an A&R guy but you said he's a musician... ;-) just kidding around.
But if someone is harping on the sound of my demo instead of listening to the song, that could be a sign of how things will proceed in the future. Or not, I could be expressing myself from the wrong end of my body.
Yeah, I wouldn't bother with any of this stuff until you have the vocal take you want. Then you and your collaborator can decide what it needs. One thing about manually doubled vocals, to me anyway, is it can feel a little less personal.