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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 126
Serious Contributor
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OP
Serious Contributor
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 126 |
Ok, Who does their own back up vocals, and how do you pull it off? Do you run it through a chorus effect, or do you do something else with it? Thanks, Robert
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 78
Serious Contributor
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Serious Contributor
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 78 |
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by rce_otr: Ok, Who does their own back up vocals, and how do you pull it off? Do you run it through a chorus effect, or do you do something else with it? Thanks, Robert</font> I've done my own backup vocals. I mix with Cakewalk Home Studio and just record the backup vocal and then run it through a chorus or pitch shifter. jd
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 34
Casual Observer
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Casual Observer
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 34 |
I record my own backup vocals. I also use other vocalists when I can get them, which isn't often. I sing the extra tracks and mix them in the multi track recorder (I use PARIS), and I sing the other parts, not create them with mechanical chorus or pitch shifts, these sound like what they are, artificial. Harmonies and back-ups don't follow note for note, inflection for inflection. But a lot of people are so used to machined music they won't notice it isn't real. on singing with yourself: your own voice blends with your own voice very smoothly because the harmonics match. You don't have to try and work with other people, a lot easier, its hard enough to work with yourself. on using other voices: your voice (melody) doesn't "stand out" against your own voice the way it will against other voices. You can get more thrilling harmonics between two different voices than you can between one voice singing two parts, you can also get more dissonance if the voices don't mesh. One of the skills of being a good back-up singer is being able to tweak the harmonics of your voice to mesh with the lead singer's, not nescessarily sing in your own natural harmonics. No matter what I do to my voice though, I can't sound like a ladysinger in a duet or as back-up, it just won't happen. There are subtle harmonics involved which I can't explain but the human ear is very sensitive to. When someone else sings back-up you have the problem that they may not sing it exactly as you imagine it, you have the advantage that they may create something that adds a lot to the song that you wouldn't have thought of. So my advice is, yes, you can sing your own back-ups but don't use chorus, harmonizers, or pitch-shift, though you can; and also consider getting other voices into your mix if possible, or should I say, when possible. In fact, if you sing the parts yourself then it acts as a blueprint for other voices to follow if you can get them, sometimes easier than making up sheet music for them, if they can read it. In the end, you can always do many versions of a song. Do what you have to to get a version down, the vision of the complete song, then improve it later...like using a simple drum track, and replacing it with a live drummer later. They can go from the track you made as a base, but add all sorts of stuff and improvs, maybe years later. You can hear what I've done at my MP3.com or IUMA site: The Water Is Wide, Me Belly Full, Travelling On the Way, all use multiple voices, all mine, all different syles of application. Listen for the deep bass vocals. I sung them as is, really soft in a good mike, so soft you'd never hear them except by doing that... sub-vocal. If I blew them loud enough to hear acoustic, I couldn't hit the note. Because of the problem with my voice mixing with itself so well, I often staggered the vocals a bit to make it clear there is more than one voice. I may have extra vocals on a couple other tracks as well, can't remember offhand. The problems I've had is you really have to know the melody track good to sing with it, multitracking is sometimes more stiff because of this need to synch, and/or takes a lot of post proccessing to make it synch, than doing it live. If you have your own gear its easier to do lots of takes and listen to the master track a lot to get the timing to match hope it helps. but remember, you can do whatever you like, literally, you have to find the sound that you like, however it is done, nothing is better than another. I prefer a live drummer over any drum machine, others want nothing else but a robotic sound, its all in the ear of the artist. hmmm, don't mean to sound too sharp, what I like is what I like and the way I do it, and I'm lucky to have a voice that can... but that is just me. oh links to the music archives and an e-mail link to me are at my homesite http://www.pan.com/folksinger peace Brian ------------------ Brian Folksinger PAN,CMC,IUMA,JPF,52TV http://www.pan.com/folksinger
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 126
Serious Contributor
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OP
Serious Contributor
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 126 |
Thanks for the time you both have given me, I printed this out so I could refer to it often. Kepp making music, Robert
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 126
Serious Contributor
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OP
Serious Contributor
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 126 |
Thanks everyone, really appreciate your time. I go forth enlightened! Robert
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