Welcome to Sage Audio. Today we’re covering How to Layer Vocals
But first, if you have a mix that you need mastered send it to us at SageAudio.com to
receive a free mastered sample of it.
Start with a Lead Comp
Starting your vocal layering processing with a good lead comp is crucial - it gives you
a solid foundation from which you’ll determine the pitch and timing of your vocal doubles,
Harmonys, and general BGVs. To create a good lead comp, record multiple takes of your lead
vocal, then edit them.
Select only the best parts of each recording and great a compilation of the multiple takes
as your lead.
Let’s listen to the lead comp
of this track.
Double the Lead Comp
With your lead comp created, you can now double it with as close to an identical performance
as possible - so your pitch, timing, and timbre should be as close to the comp as you can
make it. We’ll blend this double in with the lead comp to help strengthen it.
Additionally, small variations in the 2 track’s pitches will make the lead some more in tune.
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Harmony on the Lead
After we’ve created a lead comp and it’s double, let’s add in a vocal harmony to
make the performance more interesting. How you decide on what harmonies you create is
entirely up to you, and will depend on the song, genre, style of vocals, and other factors.
If you’re in doubt you can do a perfect octave or a 5th, which usually sounds good.
Creating Group BGVs
Your track may not include group BGVs, but if it does it’s important to layer at least
3 takes of the performance. Group BGVs are usually Oohs, or shouts, or other vocal performances
that sound better when grouped and performed together than when sung alone.
Small variations in each performance help strengthen the pitch, similar to how a chorus
sounds more in tune the more singers are included.
Layer BGVs with Instrumentation
If you want to add a little extra strength to the melody of your lead or BGVs, you can
subtly layer in an instrument that performs that same melody. For example, in the chorus
I could add in a synth that isn’t too aggressive, allowing it to join in seamlessly.
Since the synth has a perfect pitch, this will help my BGVs sound in tune.
FX on Double and Harmony
Going back to observing our Double and Harmony tracks, we can see which plugins we used.
I had compressed the tracks going in the DAW, so I only used a doubler here, but typically,
strong compression and a chorus effect will work well and cause a controlled but varied
sound.
We’ll process these tracks more with our BGV bus, but we’ll cover that more in a
later section.
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FX on BGVs
For the BGVs and BGV harmonies, some simple equalization will typically be enough to shape
them the way you need, but some compression can help as well. In this particular instance,
I used a very long reverb on some of the BGV harmonies for creative effect.
Similar to our last section, more processing will occur to these tracks on our BGV bus.
Introduce Binaural Panning
If you enjoy the sound, and you’re not terribly concerned with mono compatibility, try binaural
panning on some of your BGVs and harmonies. This will spread the signal to other aspects
of the image, and carve out more room for your lead and other instrumentation.
It can also be used creatively - for example, you can have a harmony start on one side,
then gradually move to the other in time with the music.
9. Harmony and BGV Bus
Last, lets’ talk about our BGV and harmony bus - we notice that the lead vocal comp is
routed to the stereo output, but our double, harmony and BGVs are all routed to a bus.
On this bus, we’ll use compression and various types of tape and tube saturation.
Additionally, we’ll route these tracks to some collective reverb busses, that are subtly
processing the entire track.
If
you have a mix that you need mastered send it to us at SageAudio.com to receive a free
mastered sample of it.
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for watching!