Panning Backing Vocals
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Posted on Dec 04, 2004 06:02 pm
Satellite Jack
Member Since: Nov 29, 2004
How do you reccomend I pan my backing vocals for when I A) have one backing vocal, B) have two, or C) have three? Thanks!
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Dec 04, 2004 06:23 pm When I have 1 leave it center and make sure it doesn't interfere with the lead vocal
For the rest I make sure I have an even number of backings, And Pan them so I have a Nice stereo field
when I have 4 Harmonies
I usually, to make it stand out in a rock song double everyone 4 times
so In total I would have 16 tracks of Backing vocals, And then I start panning them
I pick four pan positions
for example,
Left 80
Left 40
Right 40
Right 80
Then I put one of Each in every pan position
make sure None overpower eachother so every voice is hearable(is that a word?)
I leave them Completely dry cuz they give eachother that "reverberation"
But usually I also make a Mono mix of it which I lay under it with alot of effects on it pan it center and lower the volume A LOT,
what you get than is a very nice full backing(choir)vocals with a very nice small reverb from the little mono mix underneath
When the Lead sings with the Backings
I also tend to EQ the high end down a bit from the backing vocals, so the Lead gets a Nice sparkle and the Backings don't interfere with the Lead vocal
Hope this helped:D
Ow and you need A GOOD computer to have 16 tracks of vocals like I do :D
Greets ,
Presley
Dec 04, 2004 06:25 pm How I pan stuff is pretty much dependent on the other parts. If the song is pretty right-speaker heavy, I'll pan extra backing vox to the left...
bottom line is I just try to spread the sound out evenly across the stereo field.
Dec 04, 2004 06:26 pm Ow and I do compress al the backing vocals though
AND i make sure all the backings are spot on as tight as they can be cuz it's really frustrating
when You find out when you have the sentence
It's much too late or something
that you hear 16 different T's and S's at different timings
It-t-t-t's much t-t-t-too late
You get that nasty stutter effect
Dec 04, 2004 06:34 pm thank you very much. BIG help!
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Dec 06, 2004 11:45 am I remember a tip that Jues gave me re: backing vocals:
compress the heck out of them, and when you've finished compressing them, compress them some more!
also, to keep them from interfering with the lead vocals, you may want to roll just a bit of high end off of them.
along those lines, Jues also mentioned that over-compressing has the side affect of diminishing high frequencies, which I like because I use backing vocals for their pitch, not for enunciation or clarity.
as for panning, I ALWAYS pan backing vocals off-center.
flame...bringing sexy backMember
Since: Jul 01, 2002
Dec 06, 2004 12:26 pm whatever happened to jues anyway?
