This takes hours to make the vocals work.
We are one of the few bands who manually cut out and duck the sibilance in our vocals. We used to use auto -ducking software but it just didn’t cut it.
We painstakingly go through every vocal layer and clean them up. Here’s a few ideas for making a group sound tight:
If we have several people singing/yelling at the same time, we’ll remove the sibilance from all vocals except one….because you only need one person to produce the “ssss” in “Suck”.
If you want a group to sound super punchy, make the first vowels hit the beat.
Be aware of words like “Quiet”. Make sure the “T” s all start and end on the same point.
Make sure you pan them so they are spread out in the room. eg: if there are 4 people, put them:
-100% : -60% :: +60% : +100%
A stereo compressor over all backing vocals is a good thing. This might be good:
4:1 @ -12dB, 50ms attack, 150 decay
EQ, try a low shelf -6dB @ 200Hz, and take a little around 800Hz
Room reverb = good. Chorus = bad
If you have any tips for crowds I’d love to hear them! Please post them here.
