Three tricks for better vocal overdubs
Saturday, December 20th, 2008
“In a lot of ways, everything is sort of judged by the voice.” -Kevin Barnes from Of MontrealWant to capture better-sounding vocal performances in the studio? (OK, that’s a dumb question. Who doesn’t?)
In this article, I’ll share three tricks I’ve discovered for singing solid lead and background vocal overdubs. These tricks use simple psychoacoustics to coax the best performance out of a vocalist.
Note that I’m not going to talk about vocal technique, microphone placement, or anything like that. I assume you already have a basic understanding of these things. In fact, I’m going to assume all of the following:
You don’t have to be Stevie Wonder to use these tricks. In fact, these techniques work best with “average” singers.
I’ll be the first to admit I’m no Stevie Wonder. I’ve used these tricks on just about every Simple Carnival song with (I think) pretty good results. Try them on your voice to see if it doesn’t put your vocal tracks in a better light than usual.
TRICK #1
This trick is for lead vocals.
I won’t go into the specific implementation of this trick, as it will depend on the gear you own. But this is where you want to go.
First, get a mono mix happening for all of the instruments in the song. That way, when you listen to it through headphones, it’s happening in “the middle of your head” and sounds incredibly bland. Even the reverbs and chorusing effects in the song need to be in mono.
Sing into the mic, but find a way to split the signal. Take one feed and send that into your tape recorder/DAW. Take the other feed and find a way to put big, spacious stereo reverb on it — way more reverb than you’d ever use in the final mix, but not so much that you can’t comprehend what’s going on.
Don’t have any noticeable predelay on the reverb. This rules out using most native DAW software-based reverbs, which typically add some latency to a live signal. So in most setups, the reverb should come from an external hardware unit.
No matter where you get your reverb from, be careful that it’s not adding a subtle chorus-like effect, as that will give the singer slightly incorrect pitch information.
This trick does a couple of things. One, because your instrument mix is in mono, you’re not distracted by mix elements that are panned in the stereo field. This allows you to hear the reverb clearly, because it is very much in stereo.
Two, because you have a long reverb, you can listen to the end of your phrases when you sing and determine how “on” you were. This is important.
I’ve found that if a vocalist’s pitch is a bit off at the beginning or in the middle of a phrase, the listener will usually overlook that. But if the vocalist is flat at the end of a phrase…. ugh. The listener then perceives that phrase as being out of tune. (Disclaimers: This is dependent on the style of music you’re recording, it doesn’t apply if you’re Bob Dylan, etc.)
TRICK #2
This trick is for background vocals. Again, I won’t go into the specific implementation, just where you need to end up.
First, get the mono mix happening for all of the instruments on your song, just like Trick #1.
Now record your first background vocal exactly like how you would record a lead vocal using Trick #1.
After you get a performance you’re happy with, take that first background vocal and pan it all the way to the left. (Or right, it doesn’t matter.) Don’t put any reverb on it. Have it up loud enough so you can anticipate your breaths and syllables.
Record your next vocal, using Trick #1 (heavy stereo reverb on the vocal you’re singing).
You can continue stacking duplicate background voices this way. I typically use three voices for each part of a harmony, because three voices are the minimum for masking slight intonation problems.
Why three?
It’s the same reason orchestral arrangers tend to use three or more violins to play a single melodic line. Two well-performed violins playing the same note will often create a flanging sound; three or more and your ear becomes “confused” in a good way. Your ear only perceives a pleasant, natural “chorusing” sound. (Not that two violins/voices aren’t useful — they are! But it’s a different sound. I’ll often record lead vocals with just two voices.)
Don’t take my word for it — try it for yourself and see which your ear prefers for background vocals.
But when it comes time to sing another part of the harmony…
…it helps to keep all the “old” harmony takes in one ear and the “new” harmony takes in the other ear. And lower the volume of the combined earlier harmony part.
This technique, like Trick #1, allows you to clearly hear your pitch because of the reverb. But because you have a previous good vocal tickling one of your ears, it’s easy to be in sync with your previous performance, and it’s easy to tell when your pitch is “on” and blending well.
TRICK #3
Some days, everything in the studio happens efforlessly. You’re in a state of flow. You’re in the zone.
On other days, nothing goes right. That’s when it’s time to pull out Trick #3. This trick almost never yields results as good as a day spent in the zone, but it’s better than accomplishing nothing at all.
Audio from an actual vocal session
I did a vocal session recently where I used Trick #1 and Trick #2 extensively. I also did some variations to these tricks, like recording a keyboard part to help learn a harmony line. Here is a mp3 illustrating Trick #1 and Trick #2 in action.
This mp3 contains the following excerpts from the session, recorded directly from my headphone feed:
1. The first vocal overdub of the first harmony part, using Trick #1. Note the large amount of reverb to help discern pitch information.
2. The second vocal overdub of the first harmony part, Trick #2. Note how the first take is panned far left and is completely dry.
3. Three vocal overdubs for the first harmony part panned far left and completely dry. A Casio keyboard guide part is being recorded through the vocal mic to help learn the second vocal overdub part.
4. The first vocal overdub of the second harmony part. All three overdubs of the first harmony part are panned far left, are completely dry, and are lowered in volume. (Actually, they’re a little too low — I was recording quickly and didn’t feel like correcting it.) The Casio keyboard guide part is panned far right.
5. The second vocal overdub of the second harmony part. The first harmony overdubs are still panned far left. The first overdub of the second harmony part is panned far right, along with the Casio keyboard guide part.
6. Three harmony parts with three vocal overdubs each panned dead center with no effects, no EQ, and no compression.
And what is the “preamp test for Songs and Sonics?” Stay tuned…! 