Devin Townsend and his multi vocal recordings... how?

[Black neon bob]

Really.. im listening to the SYL intro now, ocean machine, terria, etc.. and how the hell does he gets this smooth multivocal choir? vocorders perhaps?

I always found this his strongest point, his multivocal harmonies are just amazing!

Does anyone have any info about this?

 

[Skinny Viking]

no info really but sounds to me like he just does a shitload of vocal tracks ... several times for each part and then compress to all hell He smashes his vocals

As far as the rest of the "sound" of it, I think a lot of it also has to do with the character of his voice.

Vocalign and some tasty verb helps too

Murphy can probably give you some more insight, he's worked with him

 

[seditz740novaprospect]

waves doubler and compressing the hell out of it possibly i have achieved pretty close to that style with it


he prob uses a eventide piece i would guess from listening, but i am not sure,

 

[006]

I'm pretty sure he actually performs all of the tracks you are hearing. Just like Queen's vocalist did back in the day, Bohemian Rhapsody was all done by that one guy (maybe some help from other guys in the band, but almost positive it was all him), just a shitload of takes layered.

~006

 

[Black neon bob]

I'm pretty sure he actually performs all of the tracks you are hearing. Just like Queen's vocalist did back in the day, Bohemian Rhapsody was all done by that one guy (maybe some help from other guys in the band, but almost positive it was all him), just a shitload of takes layered.

~006

That's what i was thinking as well Mike.. seeing as how i just remembered that i read that Devin did SYL (the syl album) without a shitload of choirs and samples because he got sick of layering voices and synths/samples all the time, because it is always so much work.. so he didn't.

That reminds me.. i got to go listen to bohemian rhapsody again, love it!

 

[-Noodles-]

Devin would probably sit and track them one by one..

He seems like that,.. a hard working dude,..

 

[Pman]

Watch the end of video 2 of Matt Smith's Theocracy studio recordings.

 

[dan weapon]

Yeah, I've always thought it's loads of layering. Obviously nice appropriate delay etc as well...

his incredible voice helps as well.

I'm sure I heard somewhere that on Ocean Machine he was layering parts (nearly) hundreds of times a la Bohemian Rhapsody.

Absolutely incredible. Would kill for a dev style vocal production ability.

 

[Kadmium]

Arjen Lucassen discussing Devy...

He recorded many vocal tracks per song (sometimes over 20!) and really put a lot of work into it.
...
I didn't expect him to be so precise, I guess he's as big a perfectionist as I am. When I told him this on the phone he answered "Well, it has to be perfect, hasn't it?".

So, basically, heaps of tracks and getting them perfect.

 

[Metal Overload]

Arjen Lucassen discussing Devy...


So, basically, heaps of tracks and getting them perfect.

Dude, you won me to quote that, i remember arjen saying that. For those who hasn´t heard devin´s work on Ayreon´s The Human Equation, go and check Day Three: Pain. his vocal work is just fucking amazing, weird harmonies sounding in perfect equilibrium.

Funny the part when arjen says he talk with devin and ask him to work in his record and devin said NO!, because he only record his own lyrics, and then arjen said him "Well, then do your own lyrics and sing them" and that´s when devin agreed.

 

[Skinny Viking]

I'm pretty sure he actually performs all of the tracks you are hearing. Just like Queen's vocalist did back in the day, Bohemian Rhapsody was all done by that one guy (maybe some help from other guys in the band, but almost positive it was all him), just a shitload of takes layered.

~006

Actually, the way Queen did their harmonies ... it was usually May, Taylor and Mercury doing everything together and then layering the multiple parts of the harmonies

Example:

4 part harmony ... main melody, 3rd up, 5th or higher up, and one below melody. All 3 of them (I don't think Deacon did much vocals) would then all sing the SAME part together in the room. Because of the different qualities of their voices, even singing the same exact parts together made the final part sound much bigger than just Mercury triple tracking the melody. Then they would all sing the same different harmony parts together. After they would blend and bounce down various parts of it but thats basically how they got such a huge choir sound

Cheers!