Techniques for Distinguishing Backing Vocals?

[chillowack]

Does anyone here have any tips or techniques for differentiating backing vocals, i.e. making them sound distinct from the main vocals?

What I have in mind is a sort of "compressed" effect, but I don't want to limit suggestions, so I would appreciate hearing any ideas or techniques people have for doing this.

Thanks.

[kozikowski]

Unless you have the original, multi-track pre-mix, you can't take a performance apart into individual instruments and voices.

Sometimes, under limited circumstances, you can partially remove the lead singer. The process leaves you with a mono show, not stereo, when it works at all.

Koz

[steve]

Does anyone here have any tips or techniques for differentiating backing vocals, i.e. making them sound distinct from the main vocals?

if you mean in an original multi-track recording that you are recording -

A common technique is to pan them differently. If you have another instrument to balance them against you could pan them a bit to one side, otherwise you could pan them wider than the lead singer.

Ideally if you want the voices to be distinct you should have singers that have naturally contrasting voices and/or have them sing in different ranges.

If you want the backing vocals to stand out more you could add a bit more "presence" to the voices by pushing up the high frequencies a bit (suggest above 2 kHz).
If you want the backing vocals to drop back a bit (so that the lead vocal stands out a bit more) you could roll off a bit of top end.

Of course there is always adjusting the level in the mix to make whichever one that you want to stand out a bit louder than the other.

[chillowack]

Unless you have the original, multi-track pre-mix, you can't take a performance apart into individual instruments and voices.

Sometimes, under limited circumstances, you can partially remove the lead singer. The process leaves you with a mono show, not stereo, when it works at all.

Koz

I'm sorry, I now realize I wasn't being clear in my question.

I'm creating this music, it's not someone else's.

Thanks for this info though.

[chillowack]

if you mean in an original multi-track recording that you are recording -

A common technique is to pan them differently. If you have another instrument to balance them against you could pan them a bit to one side, otherwise you could pan them wider than the lead singer.

And when you say "wider," what exactly do you mean?

Ideally if you want the voices to be distinct you should have singers that have naturally contrasting voices and/or have them sing in different ranges.

In this case I'm doing all the vocals myself, but that's a good point.

If you want the backing vocals to stand out more you could add a bit more "presence" to the voices by pushing up the high frequencies a bit (suggest above 2 kHz).
If you want the backing vocals to drop back a bit (so that the lead vocal stands out a bit more) you could roll off a bit of top end.

Excellent, this is just the kind of idea I was looking for.

What's the best way to boost the high frequencies?

Thanks steve, this is very helpful.

[steve]

And when you say "wider," what exactly do you mean?

On a stereo recording some of the sound is more in the left channel than the right, and other sounds are more in the right channel than the left. When this is listened to through loudspeakers it gives the impression of the instruments/voices being spread across a "sound stage" in front of you.
On a mono recording, all the sound comes out equally through both the left and right speakers, giving the impression that the sound is coming from a single point half way between the speakers.
So at one extreme you can stereo that sounds like the band is spread wide in front of you, and at the other extreme you can have mono sound where the "sound stage" is just a single point. Most stereo music is somewhere between these two extremes, being "wider" than a mono mix, but not so wide as to sound like some is coming from the extreme right and other sound from the extreme left.

If you are recording multiple vocal tracks for the backing vocals you can pan some to the left and some to the right, and place your "singers" at different positions across the sound stage. You would normally have your main vocal in the centre.

When applying stereo reverb, there is often a setting called "width" which controls how "wide" the reverb sounds. For this control to have a noticeable effect the vocals must be on stereo tracks. (If you apply reverb to a mono track, you end up with mono reverb).

So to make your backing vocals wider than the lead vocal, you would pan the backing vocals off-centre, and use a wide reverb and you would have your lead vocal in the centre with a more narrow reverb.

What's the best way to boost the high frequencies?

Easiest way is with the Graphic Equalizer effect.

[chillowack]

And when you say "wider," what exactly do you mean?

On a stereo recording some of the sound is more in the left channel than the right, and other sounds are more in the right channel than the left. When this is listened to through loudspeakers it gives the impression of the instruments/voices being spread across a "sound stage" in front of you.
On a mono recording, all the sound comes out equally through both the left and right speakers, giving the impression that the sound is coming from a single point half way between the speakers.
So at one extreme you can stereo that sounds like the band is spread wide in front of you, and at the other extreme you can have mono sound where the "sound stage" is just a single point. Most stereo music is somewhere between these two extremes, being "wider" than a mono mix, but not so wide as to sound like some is coming from the extreme right and other sound from the extreme left.

If you are recording multiple vocal tracks for the backing vocals you can pan some to the left and some to the right, and place your "singers" at different positions across the sound stage. You would normally have your main vocal in the centre.

When applying stereo reverb, there is often a setting called "width" which controls how "wide" the reverb sounds. For this control to have a noticeable effect the vocals must be on stereo tracks. (If you apply reverb to a mono track, you end up with mono reverb).

So to make your backing vocals wider than the lead vocal, you would pan the backing vocals off-centre, and use a wide reverb and you would have your lead vocal in the centre with a more narrow reverb.

What's the best way to boost the high frequencies?

Easiest way is with the Graphic Equalizer effect.

This is great info Steve (and very clearly presented!), thanks a lot for taking the time to explain this.

From what you're saying, it sounds like the ability to pan backing vocals should be a factor in considering whether to use mono or stereo tracks for recording. (I recently changed most of my stereo tracks to mono to conserve space, per the Tips: but now maybe I'll change the backing vocal tracks back to stereo, so I can pan them.)

[steve]

You can pan mono tracks (use the pan slider on the left side of the track), but if you wish to apply a stereo effect (such as stereo reverb) you need to convert the track into a 2 channel (stereo) track.

If the 1 channel (mono) track is panned off-centre, then to convert it to a stereo track all that you need to do is "Mix and Render" (In Audacity 1.3.12 that's in the Tracks menu).

If the 1 channel (mono) track is panned dead centre, then you need to duplicate the track (Select the track then Ctrl+D)
then make sure that the two copies are directly above each other (click and drag them if necessary)
then click on the name of the upper track of the pair and select "Make Stereo Track"

So there's no need to go madly converting all of your tracks to stereo - just convert them to stereo as and when you need to add a stereo effect.