Recording gang vocals

[Heabow]

Hey

I'm currently working on a Punk/Rock EP and I have to record some gang vocals. I think to set up a pair of C214s and a pair of AT4040s as an option at about 3 meters from the singers (L-R) as well as a Panthera at the center of the room maybe a bit nearer from them. I have a pair of Fathead ribbon mics too at my disposal but I dont think it fits this kind of stuff. The room is decently big but the ceiling is pretty low. Do you have any advices to give me?

 

[jarrysopa1984]

An open, bright sounding space works killer for that. In our studio we often used the hallway outside the studio because it has got a nice natural reverb going on. We usually use just two Neumann 103s. We use it an AB configuration about 4m away from the group

 

[~BURNY~]

I always got better results recording several takes of the same single singer at various distances from the mic. Recording a small group is all fun but is always messy and the result never sounds tight/compact enough.

 

[frazzlepuff]

I've found best results just recording different mono takes through my TLM103 and panning them L, R and C. Obviously never had huge amounts of people, usually just 4 or 5 so get people to move around a bit for different takes and attempt to do different voices. Maybe do 12 takes in total though i've had good results with as little as 6. Then I send each track to a reverb bus later. I've tried with stereo mics and I don't know why but I just didn't like it. Couldn't seem to get it sounding wide enough. If you've actually got a massive group of people then probably just ignore my approach.

 

[Heabow]

An open, bright sounding space works killer for that.

Thanks. I thought that it could be better to have a dark sounding room So it's good to know it works for you like that. But in my case right now, I have no choice.

I always got better results recording several takes of the same single singer at various distances from the mic. Recording a small group is all fun but is always messy and the result never sounds tight/compact enough.

Good tip! Thanks. It can be pretty long to get a big & massive result tho. I've recorded gang vocals a bit like that in the past: 3 guys at the same time and multiple pass. It was more than decent. This time, I have 12 guys and girls! I'll recorded them separately (guys / girls) to have more flexibility later on.

 

[JeffTD]

3-6 people around an omni condenser tracked 5-6 times and panned around evenly always worked really well for me.

-100, -60, -20, +20, +60, +100 with a center track of the normal lead vocal sounds huge.

 

[Mago]

I don't have an omni available, if I had I'd do it as Jeff described.

3-5 people shouting at the sm7 worked pretty well for me so far too though. Usually I do 4 takes, and tell them not to shout exactly the same way each time. So sometimes more grit, sometimes a bit higher, sometimes a bit lower...then panning them whatever feels right for the part.

Utilising a bright place with natural reverb must be pretty cool too!

 

[JeffTD]

^^An SM7 totally works in a pinch with my method, and having people swap up positions is great. What I'll usually do is have them each move one spot to their left after every take, with the farthest left moving to the farthest right to keep it looping. Almost turns it into a game - click stops, move to your left. click starts, yell. rinse+repeat.

 

[Mago]

haha yeah I like to do that too, even if it's a mono source it makes sense to get more variety in the volume and position of the different yellers!

 

[Heabow]

What I'll usually do is have them each move one spot to their left after every take, with the farthest left moving to the farthest right to keep it looping. Almost turns it into a game - click stops, move to your left. click starts, yell. rinse+repeat.

Yes! Good idea! Will try that for sure.. Thank you.

 

[JeffTD]

haha yeah I like to do that too, even if it's a mono source it makes sense to get more variety in the volume and position of the different yellers!

Yup, there's always some fuckface cannonmouth dude (read: bassist) who drowns everyone out, so it's great to cycle him in/out of focus by moving them around.

 

[Mago]

Yup, there's always some fuckface cannonmouth dude (read: bassist) who drowns everyone out, so it's great to cycle him in/out of focus by moving them around.

or placing him behind the bigger & louder dudes

 

[anotherpaul]

Yup, there's always some fuckface cannonmouth dude (read: bassist) who drowns everyone out, so it's great to cycle him in/out of focus by moving them around.

Its always the bassist! Loudest dude who never hits the right notes.

 

[Heabow]

Made me laugh because the bassist will be the loudest guy for sure ahah! But I'm fortunate, he's also one of the tightest guys of the band

 

[Heabow]

Oh also, and I know it's not the same as the real thing, but I was wondering if there was a good plugin that decently shape fake gang vocals (may be usefull to blend with real gang vocals if they sound not big enough). I tried some stuff with Izotope Nectar but it was crap at the end. Antares have some stuff for that if I'm not wrong but I did not try yet.

 

[egan.]

A circle around a blumlein pair can be awesome. Just rotate the circle of dudes each take and you get natural variation.

 

[anotherpaul]

@Heabow you can use morphoder. For blending distort the shit out of real gang track, hipass, lowpass, short verb.

 

[guy in latvia]

How do you guys usually monitor for the guys recording the gang vocals, for example if you're recording 10 people, you can't exactly give them all headphones. I heard of the use two speakers on each side of the room with inverted phase, but have never tried this in practice. Any other ideas?

 

[greyskull]

4 people or so, any more ends up a mess, and do about 6 takes or so of it.

 

[Heabow]

I recorded the guys. It was fun actually. They were 7 people including 3 girls. I recorded at least 6 takes of each part and it sounds decent. The room was shitty tho :/ Finally used a pair of AT4040s, a pair of C214s and a Panthera at the center.