Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of Joe Moore

May 3rd, 2010 – Today I thought I’d talk a bit about producing vocals. Vocals are a pretty complex topic, and whole books could be written on recording, arranging, and producing them properly so I thought I’d stick to a pretty straightforward technique that many don’t think about: doubling vocals.

When many record vocals for the first time and begin applying the principles of active listening, they’ll record the main vocal line, and add harmonies. If they’re really paying attention, they may even add octave doubling of the vocal. This, along with careful mixing, will provide a pretty good result, but there are a few other ways to double the vocal that will add the vocal fullness you hear from the most polished commercial productions.

Octave doubling is an interesting beast and I almost consider it in a different category from regular vocal doubling. Even though it’s technically the same note, but in a different octave, I consider it a harmony rather than a double. The octave double stands out even more as a harmony if it’s mixed prominent. To get the same effect as normal vocal doubling, the octave double must be mixed with low gain (and usually a high or low pass filter depending on if it’s an octave below or above) to blend with the original vocal, rather than to harmonize it.

What I consider to be real doubling, is a note in the same octave performed with the same timing. You can double whole sections, lines, or just words, but the idea is to mix the doubles with the original so that they aren’t really noticeable. They are there to support the lead vocal without being distracting. If the doubles are off timing-wise, or vary in melody, they turn into adlibs which are also good, but are a topic for another day.

When you mix the doubles, they shouldn’t be mixed too loud, and are generally panned left and right. Depending how many doubles you have recorded, they should all be panned to different positions (generally in equal left-right weight). Fewer doubles gives a more intimate and straight-forward feel, a lot of doubles will fill out the soundscape quite a bit and are useful for big productions where the vocal needs to pop out more.

Of course, the use of doubles should be used judiciously; you don’t want to go overboard! If the vocals are constantly doubled, you lose dynamics and the audience will probably get listener fatigue. Usually I’ll only arrange the doubles to occur during certain phrases or words in the verse. I’ll use doubling on almost every phrase in the chorus to bring some lift. I may even increase the amount of doubles in each subsequent chorus to ramp up the intensity. Of course, it all depends on the song and the vocalist who I’m working with. There aren’t any hard or fast rules in music, no matter what anyone might tell you.

Lastly, I’d like to touch on how I pan doubles. I normally leave the lead vocal in the centre, and in situations where I only want to use one double for accenting, I’ll also pan it centre. In situations where I want something more substantial or want to contrast the technique I just talked about, I’ll record two doubles and pan one on the left, and one on the right. The degree to which I pan them depends on the overall mix, but they are almost always panned to equal mounts on their respective sides.

If I want to add even more doubles (at this point I’ll be filling out the chorus and not the verse), I add them in pairs so that the weight is equal. I’ll pan them left-right equally, but with different values than the values that are already there. For example, the lead vocal will have zero panning, the first pair of doubles might have values of 15 and -15, and the second set of doubles will have values of 30 and -30, if that’s what works with the production. Also, keep in mind that as you add vocals, you’ll need to carefully EQ each vocal track to keep everything clean. You might also notice phasing which you’ll hear as slight filtering.

This is by no means a rigid guide to vocal production. There are many other techniques and philosophies for dealing with doubles, but the techniques in this article have worked for me. Hopefully you’ll be able to take something useful from it to use in your own productions. Do you use doubling in other ways? If you use vocal doubling already, how has it worked in your productions?