Background Vocals - Tony Maserati

this workshop is going to be about background vocals how I blend them how I affect them and how I try to allow them to be supportive and add energy to the mix most of the time I get background vocals that are pre blended for me depending on the artist the the choice of which harmony is louder or softer is really a personal thing it's a very rare thing that I'm deciding whether the third harmony is is louder or lower than the first harmony and that's primarily because with Pro Tools in this day and age the artists can sit with the producer and get that those elements exactly the way they want them before they send it to me I am afforded the individual tracks which which allows me to do some management and occasionally I like to to change that slightly usually just for a phrase or a couple words and that way I can I can change that that energy or that vibe just for perhaps the words right before the chorus drops or at the end of the chorus something like that and that that can give it keeps a listener compelled which is ultimately the most important thing if the vocal sound is I is this is the same in every chorus and the blends are the same in every course sometimes it gets boring it's highly important for me to make sure that people don't get bored this vocal we're working with an artist named Kay Flay on a song called dreamers and in this case they sent me both they sent me blended vocals in a two track stem and they sent me with effects and then they sent me dry vocals and for this demonstration we're going to be using the drive vocals which may not be the correct blend but we'll see what we can do [Music] okay so you get the idea of what they're doing here this is generally quite a supportive role these backgrounds are playing and they're really just trying to raise the overall energy level of the track let's find our different parts here so you can hear that they're recorded perfectly there's that little delay in there that they've added which is the only effect it does sound like they've been eq'd and compressed a little bit so it doesn't seem that we're gonna need a lot of individual you know doctoring here it really seems like an overall blend and and compaction of energy is what's gonna be necessary the bottom two tracks seemed to be the doubles with the lead let's check that and see how that feels okay so the first thing I'm going to do in that case knowing that these are her doubles is I'm gonna put a DSR on on these vocals on these background vocals any of you who have attended the seminars here at mix with the Masters know that one of the things I teach is we don't need more than one s your ear doesn't really can't discern between how many S's are there unless they're out of time so in this case we want to hear a little bit of that double s but much lower level that'll keep the lead vocal in the Center in front of the listener this life is only so you can hear the getting rid of those asses brings out the that lead vocal in the center you never lose her even with these loud doubles happening on on the left and right sides I may have gone too far but we're just getting started let's listen to this is another double layer but for some reason for me it's adding a bit of a bit of bottom end that I'm not crazy about so I think what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna turn this into a breath a sort of breath ear version I don't feel like I need a third double so what I'm going to try to do if it works is EQ out the bottom and see if I can't get this to be a breathy addition to that that group [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so this one goes out to all the dreamers at sea this life is only what you want it to be okay so you hear that it's sort of giving it just a breathy background to it I'm gonna kind of compress that package a little bit more so that's really up in your face maybe I'll try this guy okay now let's try with the other the other so immediately you can hear exactly what I'm trying to do here the two main doubles are adding body and with this double is adding breathy high frequency you can't really tell what it's doing but it's just lifting the energy up especially in those high frequencies

Channel: Mix with the Masters

Views: 612,891

Keywords: Tony Maserati, MWTM, Workshop, K-Flay, Mix with the masters

Id: a6agrpAFmGw

Length: 9min 54sec (594 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 22 2018