Tracking vocals (Stereo or mono??)
- Thread starter melovine
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FrankTheSmith
Member
- Apr 20, 2013
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For metal stuff I usually double a big chunk of it all in the middle. If it's like a cool crazy part I'll do left, right and middle.
For rappers I've done I double everything and have the double a little bit quieter than the main and Vocalign the quiet double to the louder main.
But yeah. I mostly keep vocals in the middle.
For rappers I've done I double everything and have the double a little bit quieter than the main and Vocalign the quiet double to the louder main.
But yeah. I mostly keep vocals in the middle.
Nimvi
Member
I always record doubles, to have the option later on. It has saved me from having to do an extra session quite a few times. The double (and sometimes triple) is usually lower or higher than the main take. I think it feels like underlining a word or sentence.
About the edit: I leave the main vocal as natural as I can, and will only edit purposeless breath/noise and timings that are notably off. The double and triple then get edited to overlap very well with the main. I find it absolutely crucial to make sibilant sounds at the tail of words match, or else you will get stuff like "s-s-s" at the end of a sentence.
About the edit: I leave the main vocal as natural as I can, and will only edit purposeless breath/noise and timings that are notably off. The double and triple then get edited to overlap very well with the main. I find it absolutely crucial to make sibilant sounds at the tail of words match, or else you will get stuff like "s-s-s" at the end of a sentence.
Line666
Fendurr
- Sep 2, 2006
- 3,342
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Depends on the singer, if I think their voice has enough character I will run a solo main track down the middle on its own, if I want to blur the lines of a vocalist who isn't as good I'll use a double because it impersonalises the voice - which can be a good thing for shaky singers.
This is aside from harmonies which I'll normally have panned hard left and right, tuned and comped to the main take with vocalign - doubles I can be slightly less strict with as a lot of the odd timing mismatches makes the double sound less synthetic (apart from the aforementioned syblants), at any rate I will pretty much badger everyone into giving me as many harmonies/counter melodies as possible so I can cut back later instead of wish I had more - it's not uncommon for me to have around 20 tracks of vocals going on (not all at once).
This is aside from harmonies which I'll normally have panned hard left and right, tuned and comped to the main take with vocalign - doubles I can be slightly less strict with as a lot of the odd timing mismatches makes the double sound less synthetic (apart from the aforementioned syblants), at any rate I will pretty much badger everyone into giving me as many harmonies/counter melodies as possible so I can cut back later instead of wish I had more - it's not uncommon for me to have around 20 tracks of vocals going on (not all at once).
Usually down the middle for doubling on vocals, but if they aren't blending well (they want to layer two lows for example, and it's just a big war for that frequency range) I'll do some more EQ on it and maybe pan the second layer EVER SO SLIGHTLY to one side so that it sticks out more in the mix, but it's not obvious that it's not right down the middle. Can always do the same on the opposite side if you feel the balance is off. I do the same with lead guitar too sometimes, especially if there's a lot going on down the middle at the time (vocals singing over top of the solo, or maybe a lot of snare activity at the time).
One main mono take (comp'ed from plenty of takes) down the middle, then either use other takes as accents (exploded into it's own track) or have the vocalist do three full run-throughs of the song, then edit the fuck out of them so they sound like one huge voice coming from all directions on certain parts. With clean vocals I end up with two different harmonies and if that's all I have, I'll take one of them and use a doubler so it spreads it around the other harmony a bit (but not hard panned).
I double everything as far as screaming goes. Hell, some parts will have 6-8 layers. (Highs, lows, mids, etc.) Rappers generally one or two for the verses, chorus can be endless.
