Clean Vocal doubling?

qwe1234

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Feb 12, 2011
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Hey guys,

I'm recording a local band at the moment and they have some clean vocal parts..

and I'm curious about how and where to double

I'm thinking about making one main centered track and two hard panned doubles. along with that I'd make a harmony track for the main vocal track and maybe another backing track in which I'll double lines, that need to be accentuated.

what do you guys think? how do you do it?
 
I think the common practice when doubling vocals is to put the best one up front, and then take the doubled track and make it like 8-10 db quieter. Personally I also add some chorus, delay, and reverb to the quieter track.
 
Well.. There's different approaches depending on what part of the song it is..
I've heard it's common practice (within pop) to put a double take that is much lower (like iamspartacus said) in at least the chorus.. but also make it sound like a telephone voice with EQ, almost.. so it sounds.. ehh.. english word for it.. more "important/forward"
 
I think the common practice when doubling vocals is to put the best one up front, and then take the doubled track and make it like 8-10 db quieter. Personally I also add some chorus, delay, and reverb to the quieter track.

I do more or less the same, both in the middle if I don't want some pan effect.
:devil:
 
3 main takes, center 100L 100R.

Another take of the vocalist doing the whole lot an octave lower (really fattens it up) blend this one in to taste, you want only just audible.

Another track of any harmonies.
 
It's good to at least double track every vocal part, the doubling simulates the delay of hearing one source with two ears, just like doubling guitar parts. Once you have the tracks you can decide what to use and how to use it when you mix.
 
Most often I keep the main vocal line as a single track in the middle, but double and hard pan the harmonies. However, there are no hard and fast rules to hold to on any of this, and it is not uncommon for me to do little unique things in specific isolated spots—it's all up to your own sense of space and creativity to do what's appropriate for the aesthetic of the song! Changing up the stacking and stereo spread based on lyrical content can sometimes be very emotionally effective as well...
 
1) Main take dead Centre, doubled L & R (panned anywhere from 50-100 either side, depending on what I feel like)

Or sometimes:

2) Main take dead Centre, doubled just once and also dead centre, but say 7 or 8dB lower in volume.


For super harmonised bits, I'll do option 1) but with a bunch of counter melodies or harmonies panned to different areas 20-80 L or R. And almost always do a lower harmony about a 4th below, and maybe even a quieter octave below... both these sit quite centrally behind the main vocal line and are a relatively quiet, but beef things up nicely.
 
We have a clean part in one of our songs, and I'm basically in charge of recording our vocalist. For the part, it seemed like just 2 takes doubled, dead center worked well.
 
Doubling is a cool effect and I suggest trying doubling if a singer has a breathy tone and you want to accentuate a sentence or something... that being said I think it doesn't work on all vocals. It's also very RARE on professional recordings nowadays. I mean some choruses have some doubling going on but it's most likely a doubler effect rather than actual three takes. Then again there are many grunge recordings where everything is being doubled.

I guess what I'm saying is that you should try it and see if it works in a mix. Does it add anything positive to the mix? Although I always record doubles I hardly ever leave them on. Maybe on some acapella parts and choruses which don't have harmonies.
 
Doubling is a cool effect and I suggest trying doubling if a singer has a breathy tone and you want to accentuate a sentence or something... that being said I think it doesn't work on all vocals. It's also very RARE on professional recordings nowadays. I mean some choruses have some doubling going on but it's most likely a doubler effect rather than actual three takes. Then again there are many grunge recordings where everything is being doubled.

I'm pretty sure that none of the bands you hear on the radio went to a studio that said "You know what, instead of taking the time to double that one line, lets just slap a plug-in on it!"

I can think of plenty of rap recordings where you can hear the doubling pretty clearly during the verses and choruses.
 
Doubling and vocal harmonies are not the same thing. Also a low growl and a high scream on top of each other is not doubling. Sure doubling rhymes is normal in the rap genre but I thought this was a metal forum? Or are we talking about nu-metal? :)

There are no rules but I honestly think you should use YOUR EARS to decide if you need doubling or not. Creed is one band that comes to mind where they clearly double choruses like f.ex.



And it works well with Stapp's sound/tone since he's got such a low voice.

Again... vocal harmonies are not the same thing as doubling.
 
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I'm gonna have to disagree and say that I hear doubles and triples a lot in modern rock. And no it is not always a doubler.
 
Well I guess we're listening to different records. :) And I never said it's "always" a doubler effect.;)

I've just heard from some producers that they use a doubler in their vocal bus; not just for the original doubling agenda, but it also helps spread the vocals in a suddle way and also gives some stereo punch to vocals.

This is also a cool sound you might want to experiment with.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that there's one right way to do things but the opposite. F.ex. you heard that guitar tracks sound much fatter when they are quad-tracked and even better if there's a center track. Then you hear that it's good to have three bass tracks: one that's DI, one from an amp and one that's super distorted. Then you are doubling and tripleing vocal tracks?

I can tell you this mix will sound like a big mush of s**t. Doubling/quad tracking WILL take space from other instruments so you should only use it when it's necessary. Personally I always record 3-5 good takes for every vocal line in a mix just in case. It's good to have a lot to work with and narrow it don't to fit other instruments.

So simply use your ears.
 
Hey guys,

I'm recording a local band at the moment and they have some clean vocal parts..

and I'm curious about how and where to double

I'm thinking about making one main centered track and two hard panned doubles. along with that I'd make a harmony track for the main vocal track and maybe another backing track in which I'll double lines, that need to be accentuated.

what do you guys think? how do you do it?

If it's just a clean verse you don't want to do a whole lot. Harmonies are always welcome on certain parts... which parts? Well that is to you and the artist. Make your own sound.

On choruses I usually have three takes of the same melody and every harmony is doubled and panned evenly like f.ex.:
Main melody: C
double: 60%L
triple: 60%R
harmony1: 20%L
harmony1 double: 20%R
harmony2: 40%L
harmony2 double: 40%R

If you are panning them too wide your master compressor will start a battle between your guitars and vocals and it will pump in a bad way. However if you still want extremely wide vocals I suggest you side-chain compress you guitar bus with a send from your vocal bus. This way the side-chain compressor will give the vocal bus the victory in the battle that your master compressor started. Although this might frighten all guitarists on the planet... they don't have to know. If it's done right they can't hear what's going on.
 
If you are panning them too wide your master compressor will start a battle between your guitars and vocals and it will pump in a bad way. However if you still want extremely wide vocals I suggest you side-chain compress you guitar bus with a send from your vocal bus. This way the side-chain compressor will give the vocal bus the victory in the battle that your master compressor started. Although this might frighten all guitarists on the planet... they don't have to know. If it's done right they can't hear what's going on.

I do sort of the same thing, except instead of compressing the guitars with a broadband compressor, I use a multiband compressor on the frequencies where the vocals usually lie (1khz-5khz). If you don't compress the frequencies too much, then it should really help your vocals cut through, while still making the high end of your guitars sounding pretty good.