Harmonies

[Tangled Wires]

Hi all,

Am in the process of writing a new song, and have done some rough demos of it. The chorus of the song is to contain layed harmodied vocals, and I was wondering the best way to record this. Normally I pan the main vocals in the middle, but in order to get a fuller harmonic sound to the chorus would it be best to pan the additional vocals to the left and right to get that "wall of sound" that I am looking for, and is there a particular vocal patch which may help achieve this?

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated

[Greeny]

This is a very subjective... er... subject, lol. There's no right or wrong way, and different songs need a different approach. That said, I do like to have left and right panned vocals to give a nice 'expansive' soundscape. Play with the volume levels though... there's nothing worse that backing vocals that dominate the song and distract the listener (IMO).

In terms of effect patches, I often use 'Delay1', which has a nice warm ambience without losing too much definition. I'll also add some extra reverb to make them even warmer sometimes. And if you want to go really crazy, try putting your vocals through one of the guitar effects for the psychedelic phasered sounds etc, lol

Good luck!

[Bluesberry]

Great thread idea, lets hear some of the experienced vocal guys take on harmonies.  It is a hard thing to do right, but sounds so good when done right. I have no idea how to do it good.  Who else has any tips, ORH, anybody else...

The other question is what to sing in relation to the original vocal.  Do you do one lower on one side, one higher on the other.  Do you sing the same notes.  How much lower/higher do you go?  I have heard that you want to sing a 5th higher or lower? is this right.  What else magic tips do you guys/gals have?

[Glenn Mitchell]

No expert, but I agree with Greeny on balance and experimenting with fx.
Which notes to sing is a huge subject and almost entirely subjective, but as a general rule, you would shoot for one of the notes of the current chord.
EG if the melody is singing the root, you might choose the 3rd or the 5th. Next up would be additions to the chord such as a 6th, 7th, or 9th.
Placing them above or below the melody is simply a preference but should "work" with the song.
Even "bad" notes can work great if they are on the way to a "good" note. Sometimes called "passing" tones.
Tension and release can be created this way.

[Tangled Wires]

Thanks for all your advice. I think I may try Greeny's suggestion on this one and seeing how that goes and hopefully, with a bit of trial and error, you will see the results in the next song we post on here

[64Guitars]

The other question is what to sing in relation to the original vocal.  Do you do one lower on one side, one higher on the other.  Do you sing the same notes.  How much lower/higher do you go?  I have heard that you want to sing a 5th higher or lower? is this right.

I don't think it's as simple as merely singing at some fixed interval above or below the main melody. That would be too boring. If you listen to good vocalists singing in harmony (Peter, Paul & Mary, Ian & Sylvia, The Roches, to name a few), you'll notice that the interval varies throughout the melody. Some notes might be a 3rd or 5th above or below the main melody note. Other notes might be in unison or an octave apart. The point is, the melody of the harmony vocal is quite different from the main melody.

The same idea can be applied to dual guitar leads. For instance, the BR-864 has a Harmonist effect that creates a second note at some fixed interval from the played note. This sounds okay and can be a useful effect. However, it sounds much better if you record the second guitar part yourself instead of using the Harmonizer effect, and choose notes that vary in relation to the main melody to compliment it rather than mimic it.

[Greeny]

The other question is what to sing in relation to the original vocal.  Do you do one lower on one side, one higher on the other.  Do you sing the same notes.  How much lower/higher do you go?  I have heard that you want to sing a 5th higher or lower? is this right.  What else magic tips do you guys/gals have?

This is another tricky one to answer. There's no right or wrong way for my harmonies... I just try different things out until something sounds right! That said, I almost always go 'higher', as it mostly feels right to do so. And it's not just a case of finding and adding a different melody as a counterpoint to the lead... there's also 'oooohs' and 'ahhhhhs' and 'ba-ba-bas' and all sort of variations. Then there are the backing vox that echo the line before. I've never thought about all this in detail before, and now I do, it's very complicated!!!!

I would trust instinct everytime. And experiment. If you get it right, you'll know it!

And listen to Sgt Peppers. The Beatles harmonies on that are stunning. They use them in just the right way and don't over-do it. That's my benchmark anyway, lol.

[Wiley]

Say Greeny how do you set guitar effects on your voice?  I didnt' know you could do that!!

[Geir]

I'm certainly no expert ... but in my experience It sounds "fuller" and you get closer to that "wall" if you balance the channels evenly with the harmonies. I would not put the high Left and low right. Instead I would double both harmonyparts and get appr even amount of both high and low harmonies in both L&R. That's one of my "rules". But I have a more important rule : DON'T FOLLOW THE RULES!!! Try out new ideas and see what works! Mr. Green here don't follow my rule, and his productions are BRILLIANT !! The Beatles don't follow my rule!!!

[Ferryman]

Say Greeny how do you set guitar effects on your voice?  I didnt' know you could do that!!

Easy peasy - when singing with the MIC input, if you press "effects" it automatically shows the MC effects. However, move the cursor to wher"MC" is displayed, press +/- and you cycle through the different effects, eg press - and you get GT, so you can then choose any guitar effect. You can also use mastering effects as well, which I use to change the eq a lot on things like bass.

Cheers,

Nigel