How Many Vocal Layers Do U Do In A Chorus?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shipone101
  • Start date Start date
S

Shipone101

New member
I Do About 6 Tops.

How Many Do You Guys Do And What Level Of Panning For Each..?
 
Usually, I only pan for singing parts where I have a bunch of harmonies to play with. Other than that I want everything to be in the center. If I'm doing panning it would likely be some crazy thing where I want an obvious panning effect.
 
sleepy said:
Usually, I only pan for singing parts where I have a bunch of harmonies to play with. Other than that I want everything to be in the center. If I'm doing panning it would likely be some crazy thing where I want an obvious panning effect.

COOL. HOW MANY LAYERS OF CHORUS' DO U TAKE?
 
Depends on the artist many times. For singers I usually want at least 2 of everything, 3 helps. So if we're doing harmonies I'd want two of each. That's four. Ad libs take up 1 or two. If we have more harmonies or other parts 8 to 10. There can be small fills here and there that can take up tracks also. Might just be a short vocal take. It really depends.

Rappers are usually less but 3 or 4 is usually what it ends up being for 1 part. Depends on what the artist is doing could end up being just as in the singer scenario but instead of 2 of each there's just seprate stacks for separate parts. Well, same thing does for singers.

I don't usually have a preset amount of takes I'll need ahead of time. I let the artist do what they want and if it's my call I'll ask for additional takes of parts if I feel I can use them later on. I don't feel that I have to have a certain amount of parts for the chorus if a verse has a certain amount of parts. It really depends a lot on the artst.

I worked with a singer recently and while she had a very nice voice she couldn't nail some of the higher registers that I wanted. I did do about 4 layers of stacato takes, just to accent some words and after I ended up doing a harmony in a part or two by pitching some of the extra takes I took. I don't like to use the same take on two tracks even if I'm pitching/processing one so I took 4 of the same so I could have two to do whatever I wanted. I had the stacks, and had 1 take for additional things she wanted to throw on to. The part was actually pretty simple, it probably sounds like more than it is.

Some singers I just need a few takes for, no harmonies, very plain. I believe I worked on a track recently where I had 3 takes of the same part but might have only used to. Just sounded better without creating a harmony.

Don't worry about how many takes. Just use what you need. More is always better than less. If you can get more good takes, get more good takes if they'll allow you more flexibility down the lines. You might just get two takes that sound good period and if that's all you think you need, that's fine. If 1 takes is all that's needed, that's fine also. It really depends.
 
I usally record the chorus 4 times and pan them 25 left 50 left 25 right 50 right
 
I've had up to 6 before- 1 was left completely dry in the center
2 had the same reverb on them one panned left, the other right
another 2 had more effect like compression and stereo spread panned L and R
last one EQed hi in the center
play with the vol. on all of them to see what you like best


this was for an ambient chorus with no additional harmonies. I wouldn't recommend for a club track.
 
for the Hip-Hop/rap songs i do 2, i only have them do the main vocals then the adlibs, and thats it, but i use a stereo image VST along with reverb to make it sound like i layered it a few times
 
Last edited:
Sleepy can I hear some of your work? Specifically the one you are referring to here with the female singer. I would like to hear how those effects turned out.
 
ummm chorus... If it singing atleast 6. I suppose it depends on the vocalist skills if he/she can change the tones and pitches of his vocals to make them blend and ring nice. If they are not experienced then it probably wont sound good after 3 or 4. If it's rapping hmmmmm. I guess between 2 and 4 i haven't. You'll usually notice if it's to much and it starts getting mucky.
 
Last edited:
How long is a piece of string!!
Its all totally dependant on what style track im recording.
Ive done songs with 10 tracks of vocals and tracks with 1 or 2. My advice is to do extra takes of everything so you have something to fall back on. But dont track everything just because you can! If a vocal is good enough, sometimes you dont need to track it at all!! Let it shine! Its all subjective to your ear and what you want the track to say!
 
Back
Top