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[organica]

How do you  record backup vocals/instruments ? Do you think about and approach them differently than say.... lead parts in the early stages beyond tones/good takes/in any manner ? Does it help to do so ?
thx ,

a

[Tidewater]

Groups?

Real 'singing' backing vox, I move them back a bit.. maybe.

Uhh.. I like a small group, around a wide pattern, or maybe use fig-8, and put the voices I want less on the outside of the group, and make the pickup pattern work for it, or put the strong voices in the back of the group, or other side of the mic.

Eagles bkups sound much different than the Ramones, Huey Lewis, or Led Zeppelin.. what are you going for?


M

[Bobro]

Dogs barking, cars, church bells... rain is great, hope it's still raining this weekend. I always open the window when recording background stuff. Got the noonday siren the other Saturday, it fit right in by pure chance, dives down in pitch right before a change.

Well you did ask.    

I agree with DivideByZero that a wide pattern or figure of 8 is good, why bother trying to spread out and balance sounds later when you can just record them that way?

[organica]

DivideByZero wrote on Fri, 17 February 2006 07:23

..what are you going for? M

Nothing particular right now . On another thread I noticed that Terry had mentioned that a certain mic was was good for BGV's .......
it got me thinking / investigating that "realm" /technique
Hence , a question was born ....  
thx ,

a

[Tidewater]

I think bgvox can be as complicated to get right, as anything.

The ability of the participants to sing in a background 'head' (mind).. not everyone gets it, for sure. Full voices won't always work.

Tuned in talent helps!


M

[compasspnt]

I would venture to propose that BG Vocals are the single hardest thing for the normal band to do.  If you don't know what to do, how to phrase, how to sing WITH the lead (both in timing and type of voice), and most especially, to sing in tune, it can be a painful thing to deal with.  I will often just do them myself, to avoid the hassle.

It's usually a little better with a solo artist.

This is one of the things (just one) which made The Beatles so unique.  They were awesome background vocalists (and not too bad on leads, either).

In the case of more than one BG singer at the same time, I find as much as possible it pays to have them on one mic, and to get the balance live.

For other "background" instruments, such as percussion, marimbas, little overdubs like that, a good room with a good omni capsule can do wonders.