Hey Everyone,

im new to r&b production> Im looking for tips on stacking r&b vocals for 5-part harmonys for chorus.


How many times should i duplicate each part?
How should I pan the harmonies?
How much reverb and delay is standard?

Ive muddled through and made a couple songs that sound good, but Id like to know industry standard so i dont have to fudge around so much.

www.myspace.com/uniquetheguide

Any tips would be great.


Thanks
Farid

With vocals being my primary instrument, I feel the need to offer what advice I can.

The way I tend to do vocals, especially the big, tight harmonies for choruses, is to at the very least double each part. I then pan the parts. You get a much bigger sound when you spread them out across the stereo spectrum.

It really kind of depends on how much work you want to do. I have been known to kind of "overdo it" at times, tripling and quadrupling parts for a bigger sound.

I'm not really sure what the standards are for this type of thing, but I just work with it until it sounds good to me. EQing and effects really depend on what sounds good with that particular song.

Anyway, there's my 2 cents worth. I hope it helps.

Good luck with it!
_________________
--Eric G.

http://www.ericgwin.com

"The modern-day composer refuses to die." --Edgard Varese

So do you pan doubles (meaning there are actually 4 copies of one part of the harmony - a double panned left and a double panned right)?

Do you pan 100% or like pan 75% one side and 75% the other side so that you still hear it all in both sides?

When you stacking the vocals, how often do you rerecord the part as opposed to copying and pasting on the computer?

ShuTenchu wrote:

So do you pan doubles (meaning there are actually 4 copies of one part of the harmony - a double panned left and a double panned right)? Do you pan 100% or like pan 75% one side and 75% the other side so that you still hear it all in both sides? When you stacking the vocals, how often do you rerecord the part as opposed to copying and pasting on the computer?

Yes, I pan them all around. Let's say I double each part of a 3-part harmony: a melody, a high tenor, and a baritone part. When I mix (or submix) the parts, I'll pan one of the 2 melody tracks about 10-15% on the left and the other 10-15% on the right. The high tenor tracks will pan about 50% on either side, and then I'll pan the baritone tracks hard left and hard right, respectively. That gives the chords a nice broad sound.

If I do more than double, then I will pan each track in a different spot all the way around. If you want to hear a good example of this, give a listen to my song, "Next Time You Come Around" on my SoundClick Page:

http://www.soundclick.com/ericgwin

It's entirely acappella, so every sound you hear on it, including the drum and percussion sounds, is a human sound. I recorded the primary chords of it singing each part 8 times on 8 different mics, so what you hear from the beginning of the song is 24 voices singing 3-part chords. If you listen to the song on headphones, it sounds like I'm standing all around you!

When I stack the parts, I almost always sing each part live. Very, VERY rarely will I copy a part from one track to the next or use an artificial double-tracking effect. Sure, it takes longer to sing each voice, but it sounds a LOT better when you rerecord each voice live.

When it comes to copying and pasting, if I'm stacking a part that will repeat throughout the song, I'll submix all the harmony parts onto a stereo pair of tracks and then copy and move the entire stack to the other places in the song. Occasionally, I'll stack the parts for each chorus rather than copy and paste, but I don't do that very often.

I hope all this makes sense, as I tend to ramble!
_________________
--Eric G.

http://www.ericgwin.com

"The modern-day composer refuses to die." --Edgard Varese

Ill try that. And start singing the parts over instead of copying.

Much appreciated!

Farid

No prob.

Be sure to keep me posted on how it goes. Good luck with it!

Later.
_________________
--Eric G.

http://www.ericgwin.com

"The modern-day composer refuses to die." --Edgard Varese