#1
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Mixing Lead and Harmony Vocals
I'm working on a song that has several string instruments and a main vocal and a single harmony vocal. Lead vocal has the verses, harmony on chorus and bridge. When the harmony comes in, would you pan the lead vocal a bit to one side or the other and the harmony opposite? Or do you do nothing and let the harmony throw the balance off? Or add another instrument? Or double the harmony on the opposite side? What's your method?
~Bob
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#2
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I like the vocal in a recording to be straight in the middle, panned a 12 o'clock.
When I add harmony, I often double the harmony lines, panning one take full left and the other take full right. If you don't have multi-track capability, then I would add the harmony line straight up the middle, panned at 12 o'clock. Somehow having a doubled harmony part, at least for me, seems to smooth out the sound and blend the voices a little better. Years ago I can remember hearing some Peter, Paul & Mary recordings with one voice full right and another full left, maybe the third voice straight up the middle. When I did the above recording with 3-part harmony, the main part is center and the other two parts are panned partway left and partway right. This approach, for me, anyway, seems to work okay, but for only two vocal parts, I would think both in the middle makes the most sense. When my son and I did this recording, both our voices are panned at 12 o'clock. - Glenn
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#3
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You could try a very *slight* right/left pan on the two vocals, not enough to be really obvious but enough to put them in a little different space, kind of like two singers standing beside one another.
If one is truly backing the other and you have them both centered, you can do a few other things to differentiate the voices. Put more (or different) reverb on the backing vocal to move it "back" in the mix. EQ the backing vocal differently (try rolling off the highs & lows more than you otherwise might) to make it less pronounced than the main vocal. And/or mix the backing vocal at a lower volume. |
#4
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Quote:
In many cases you'd place the main vocal part in the center, as would be the case if it were being performed. A secondary vocal or harmony would usually be performed by one of the other musicians or someone standing to the side. In that case pan the vocal to that point. I look at mixes as not needing "balance" so much as realistically positioning the players and vocalists. It's the same logic as not throwing a bunch of reverb on the voice that would logically be closest to you, as reverb effectively shifts the imagined visual position farther away. Last edited by Rudy4; 11-22-2022 at 09:06 PM. |
#5
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You can try moving the lead vocal a little bit when the harmony comes in and panning them 11, 1 or 10, 2. Depending on if you mind some contrast between the verse and chorus. But in a mainstream production, arrangers and engineers alike go out of their way to create contrast between sections of a song to keep the listener's interest.
Alternatively, you could probably get away with leaving them at 11 and 1 throughout if you are trying to create a more organic representation with more congruence between the verse and chorus. If you are in room listening to an acoustic group the lead vocal isn't always going to be at 12 o'clock. Another alternative is to mult/double the lead and leave both leads throughout at 11 and 1, or 10 and 2 and drop one of them when chorus comes in. You'd have to mess with the levels to get that to sound right, but it could work. If it was me I might try any or all of the above.
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#6
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I don't have a set formula But I do do tend to pan the Backing vocal out to the side and I don't have a issue with it moving the sound a bit to one side or the other.
Especially that since now everything I do is published to YouTube as video I think the visual reference lets you get away with the sound being a bit off center with the visual identification as to what is going on . Also as Chipolte mentioned I usually do a slight EQ cut with a medium Q in different places on the backing vocals than the lead , to help differentiate them from each other For example in this last song I posted in Show and Tell , the song starts with the chorus and I start with just the single centered main vocal, but on the last line of the starting chorus I add a backing vocal off to the left a bit ....Then with each additional chorus I add an additional backing vocal placed off center to the left or right
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#7
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Thanks everyone! I will try everything. I believe the two voices are so dissimilar that I can aim them both down the middle. Me and my daughter.
~Bob
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