Epic power metal backing vocals

[Nebulous]

I will be working with a friends band who I believe will want some Epic Blind Guardian-esque backing vocals in at least some parts of their songs.
Has anyone had experience in replicating anything similar?

I'm assuming it will take a good 5-10 vocal takes per side including some higher (5th, octave if not too high) and again lower, some synth support, wide panning, a shit tonn of compression and lush, open verb.

Are there any harmonies or details I'm forgetting that would make a difference?

 

[Lasse Lammert]

lots and lots and lots of takes....unison, thirds, 5ths, octaves

 

[Forceps]

several vocalists with different types of voices can add a lot.
Also mix male and female voices to get a big sound.

 

[Nebulous]

Thanks guys. I got my Blind Guardian groove on this morning and I'm getting the feel for the vocals again.

Do you have any tips for helping a vocalist who hasn't done this before, is pretty new to music theory and can't sing to the pitch of another instrument?
Yes, this will be fun.....

 

[Fredrik-Ablaze]

I worked together with one of the techs doing editing for Nightfall in Middle Earth a couple of months after they did that album; 48 channels of vocals was what they used on that one (and 48 channels of guitars).

Start from there and see how youll end up

 

[kev]

I worked together with one of the techs doing editing for Nightfall in Middle Earth a couple of months after they did that album; 48 channels of vocals was what they used on that one (and 48 channels of guitars).

Start from there and see how youll end up

Holy shit, I entered this thread listening to "mirror mirror"!!! And jesus, thats a lot of tracks Fredrik!

 

[CAlexanderParra]

I remember seeing a video of Matt Smith track a small choir part of one of his songs.

[ame]http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=10472570[/ame]

It's pretty interesting, hope that helps.

 

[narcossintese]

I can only imagine what "And Then There Was Silence" project looks like.

There´s a multitrack of Hearts On Fire from Hammerfall around, it probably has the backing vocals merged, but may help anyway.

 

[kev]

i've got videos from a few years ago of Matt Smith tracking his harmonies, im sure he wouldnt mind me re sharing. Thats a good one above!!! Only just noticed... lol

 

[Nebulous]

I worked together with one of the techs doing editing for Nightfall in Middle Earth a couple of months after they did that album; 48 channels of vocals was what they used on that one (and 48 channels of guitars).

Start from there and see how youll end up

Dude, the grin on my face after reading your post is massive haha.

Is there any chance you could devulge some more details, how many of those would be unision vs harmonies, what harmonies are most prominent, any unexpected harmonies? Is it all Hansi or do Andre and Markus play a big part in it?

Seriously, love you long time

 

[Nebulous]

I remember seeing a video of Matt Smith track a small choir part of one of his songs.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=10472570

It's pretty interesting, hope that helps.

Thanks. Will check that at home!

 

[Jevil]

As we always say about the guitar tone is maninly in the guitar player, this is the same, the clue is in the singers. The tip is having great vocalists. Blind Guardian's guest musicians are people like Thomas Rettke (Heaven's gate), Piet Sielck (Iron Savior), Rolf Kohler (Modern Talking)... and many more backing vocalists.

I did some songs with 24 tracks, in each track we were singing 3 persons at a time, we did as many notes as we could, thirds, fifths... always do low-mid-high.

Very important, vocals should be extremely perfect in tempo.

We got got some nice choirs, but still far from Blind Guardian.

 

[Nebulous]

Thanks Jevil. Luckily I've worked with the vocalist before and his timing is very consistent. It's more the pitch I'm concerned about when it comes to all those harmony layers.

Further to what I asked Fredrik I would really like to know if in the pre Middle Earth albums it was Hansi doing all/ main backings or if (as my friend thinks) it was mainly Andre and Markus.

 

[Jevil]

Further to what I asked Fredrik I would really like to know if in the pre Middle Earth albums it was Hansi doing all/ main backings or if (as my friend thinks) it was mainly Andre and Markus.

Billy King, Rolf Köhler, Olaf Senkbeil, Thomas Hackmann

 

[Nebulous]

Hm, that's also what it seems to list on their website for the "choir". Thanks Jevil.

 

[Masticore]

Well singing in harmonies is alot tougher than one would think. Everything has to be perfect in pitch or you get nasty dissonance. Could be fixed by plugins, but the main of the work will be in the singers voice confidence. Also, if youve never sung harmonies you better get started, you have to KNOW the pitches in your head and heart in order to get them right, which can be a pain because it can be hard to discern single intervals when they are fully mixed.

 

[Skinny Viking]

don't pan the vocals too wide, no more than 20-25% L & R

for one vocalist attempting the metal choir, about 3-4 takes of each part should work well enough.

Main melody
3rd above
5th above
octave above (if they can)
5th below
octave below

you may need to tailor parts of the harmonies a little different depending on what the main melody is doing and how prominent you wish it to be in relation to the harmonies. Get good balances for your groups (mids, highs & lows) and then send group to a bus and generous compression to glue them, then send those to a final bus for verb.