[Jamie]

Hi all,
         Any one got any tips/experience on recording multi part vocal harmonies? I've recently spent many frustrating hours trying to manually line up 3 and 4 part vocal harmonies with some success, but not enough.
          I'm getting too many small issues around timing, intonation, word length etc. I see those guys who do multi part harmonies in a new light!

Cheers

Jamie

[Ramshackles]

Practice.
We have some pretty dense vocal harmonies. If you go on our website and check out 'Sister' and the latter half of 'Bluebell Woods', you'll hear some three (and even four I think) part harmonies.

Practice, practice, practice gets you 90-95% of the way there.
We practice together often and these practices often include short discussions as to how long we hold particular notes, where we stress syllables or not etc etc.

We usually record them separately - different mics suit our voices and it is easier to edit small timing errors after the fact. Editing consists of cutting and shifting the odd word/note where the mis-match is too obvious. I have used Cubases' VariAudio a couple of times which allows you to alter the length of notes.
It's also important to have a clearly defined lead and to treat this differently when mixing. Even in songs where it seems like all harmonies are equal (look at fleet foxes etc), if you listen carefully, there is a clearly defined lead vocal,.

I think an important thing is not being too perfect. If it is too perfect it sounds fake.
If you can practice enough to get 90% of the way there, then you really don't have to do much editing at all.

[KEROUAC1957]

I've only recently started trying to record harmonies. I'm not sure how common this is but I found that working out the harmonies on a piano helped. Then I recorded the piano notes onto a track with the correct note length and sang my harmonies to exactly match what the piano was doing. So I repeat that for each part and then take away the piano tracks.

For more basic one note harmonies I just wing it. Also I try to get the harmonies to sound as good as they can without any accompaniment as you'll generally find they sound better once you add instrumentation. So if you can make them sound fairly good on their own they'll sound great in a mix.

[Boydie]

It's also important to have a clearly defined lead and to treat this differently when mixing. Even in songs where it seems like all harmonies are equal (look at fleet foxes etc), if you listen carefully, there is a clearly defined lead vocal,.

This is soooooooooooooooooo important and a really good point

For me I record the lead vocal first and then I tend to experiment with other harmony vocal lines

My recommendation would be to not be too strict with the harmony line - don't feel like you have to add a harmony to every line - somethimes "less is more"

It is also sometimes better to "weave" the harmony line around the lead vocal so that it sometimes harmonises and sometimes "doubles"

[habiTat]

Some great advice already..

One thing I find helps is to record the lead vocal, then when you are ready to record a harmony, mute everything except the lead vocal and, say rhythm guitar, something to keep time and tune. Turn the lead vocal down a touch, so you can clearly hear it still but are not competing with it. Once recorded, listen back to the newly recorded harmony on its own, you'll soon hear if it sounds ok. Record each harmony like this, with the others muted, always using the lead vocal as the guide.

Hope that helps

[Jamie]

Hi guys,
             Good advice thanks for the tips. One thing I didn't post earlier is that I'm not only talking about harmonies where you sing the same words at the same time, I've also been experimenting with offset/syncopated vocals (I'm not sure what the technical term is for this but I hope you know what I mean) and I think this multiplies the opportunity for errors. But, I think the tips you've suggested would also apply for this type of vocal too.

Thanks

Jamie

[jtgautreau]

it is indeed time consuming and requires a lot of practice, not to mention good EAR. with harmonies, I think the most important thing is to FEEL the harmony...... does it sound good? listen with a fresh pair of ears and close your eyes and enjoy it......you'll know when things are off.

Now having said that, there's some technique here too... I have Roger Love's book and CDs and he recommends you sing the other harmonies like different "lead lines" watching out for pitch and tempo issues. I've tried this but I admit it's hard and doesn't come natural to me. I need the main lead vocals to guide me

[Alan Starkie]

Technical advice for great sounding bvs:

1 - Record each bv twice exactly the same (never use auto tune as they'll give phasing issues).
2 - compress each bv and cut low end.
3 - edit silence out or gate each bv.
4 - pan each matching pair 50% left/50% right.

Mix the bvs so they enhance the lead voc. If they stand out, they're too loud.

Acapella needs a different mix obviously.

[Jamie]

Hi guys, thanks for the tips and advoce.

Cheers

Jamie