Vocal Harmonies

[koalamo]

Hey so I was just curious if you guys do harmonies for every line of singing in a song or only for certain parts and how many harmonies you generally do?

 

[Sethis]

Depends on the song... Harmonies are not something you have to do. It's part of the creative process. In more energetic songs, however, there are almost always some harmonies in the chorus.

 

[Terminus]

I like doing them all the time (when I'm doing clean vocals) but that's just me. I got the idea from Solefald years ago and it stuck.

 

[Gujukal]

Just do them if it fits, and usually u don't have harmonies on all of the vocals. Instead use them on certain parts, like long notes and were it fits.

 

[Mashreef]

i think it weights up the original vocal...
which is a good thing

 

[Clark Kent]

It's all about if the song requires it. Sometimes a very good vocal take will simply sound better without anything extra on top of it. I usually don't mess with something that already works.

That being said I usually add higher harmonies to choruses to help the vocals cut through all of the massive sounds that are competing for space. That means that you'd better have a vocalist who can sing way higher than the main vocal melody in the chorus. That's hard to find. Sometimes the higher harmonies have parts in them that I end up using as main melodies like in this bit: "dealt with cards of life":



Anyways, I always double harmonies so I can pan them to sides so they don't go on top of the vocals panned center.

So when recording I record as many possibilities that I can imagine and later on I start analyzing them with a "less is more" attitude and I hope I end up with thought out well produced vocals.