Mixing vocals, the Andy way?

[Ola Englund]

I've got no particulary experience in mixing vocals and I would be glad to get some advice!
Say for a Testament Gathering song, what is used, is the voice doubled or is it some sort of chorusing going on? Apart from using a little delay, reverb and such how do you EQ(if you do)

Andy, might share some tips on how you did with Chucks vocals on The Gathering?

 

[Andy Sneap]

chuck doubles absolutely everything, and he's one of the best at it, thats what you're hearing.

 

[Ola Englund]

chuck doubles absolutely everything, and he's one of the best at it, thats what you're hearing.

I kind of figured that, man what precision, *respect-bar lifted a notch*

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

And how do you pan each take ? Both center or more symetrically towards the sides ?

 

[FrostGiant]

Doubling (tripling, quad, harmonies, etc) vox can do a lot things for vocals. If you've got a great singer and want to produce a more live sound the single vocal works great. But if you've got a singer that has a hard time holding a note, double it (or trip, etc.). It really helps to hide the missed notes (i do that for myself, I sound horrible with a solo track). You can easily mix it to the point where the average listener will only hear one vocal line. But just play around with different levels, pannings, eq, verb, etc. Move different harmonies to the front and back. I think mixing vox are one the most free things you can do when mixing a song. No one really is expecting to hear this here or that there like they do with everything else. You can really be creative with vocal mixing.

 

[FrostGiant]

Oh yeah. I kind of made it sound like doubling is only used for hiding mistakes. I didn't mean to do that. You can great some awesome sounds with an execellent vocalist who knows what there doing.