--- In logic-users@egroups.com, Barb <beatgirl_@y...> wrote: > How extremely interesting hearing everybody's thoughts on BVs and how > essentially similar (Eli and Ab) your methods are Yep. I read yours just after I posted mine and thought exactly the same thing. I love recording BVs too. > > and try and keep them different and avoid octaves. > Ah the avoiding octaves thing- I have noticed that styles of adding BVs have > changed since the Eagles/Wilson Phillips old-skool style of three- part > blocks. I'm having a real Crosby, Stills and Nash revivial. Their harmonies are absolutely incredible. Every boy band should be forced to listen to them. Most of their recording were done live without any trickery, the vocals are locked solid together and they use really nice intervals. I might be a snob but I'm inclined to think that a lot of the octave based BVs around at the moment are a sign of laziness and lack of talent. (I can feel myself getting flamed as I type.) > I find myself often recording three parts and using two. I used to > be a great stickler for not doubling the third, no parallel otaves, > etc - but these days I think you can definately break some of those > kinds of rules successfully if you want to sound fresh. You don't have to stick to root third fifth at all. In fact we hardly ever use these, at least not on purpose. A lot of the time when we're working out harmonies we find we're singing major 7ths. This is really annoying because they are a bastard to do live. Anyway 6ths, 7ths and 9th are what we end up with a lot. We don't usually work them out on an instrument first, it just ends up like this. > It started to happen with the B52s I think- it was cool when Love Shack and > Roam happened because it was interesting use of only two part harmony. Yep I take your point. If you're using two parts them each one is distinct and you hear this very differently to the way you here a harmony with 3 plus parts. > > tone without wobbles and a high proportion of voiced to unvoiced > > sound. > Yes- agreed- I think breathy BVs work better specially against a > lead that is sung a little harder. Well I wrote this because I reckon that when you're layering up lots of different parts all the unvoiced sounds (breath and sibilance) accumulate and get messy. The voiced sounds tend to blend together better. > If the singer has vibrato it's good to lay off the vibrato for the > BVs (if they can...) If you are trying to get a locked together pad sound it's really difficult if the singer adds a lot of vibrato. > Being up to speed with jazz chord voicings helps a lot with pop BV > voicings and arrangement in general Or just being adventurous. I know all the intervals. The guy I work with doesn't but he writes the better songs. > Ummm....now there's a concept....but I need those tracks/that > power, so I bounce. I don't tend to double parts so I usually don't use a huge number of tracks. The tune we're working on at the moment has 9 tracks of vocals in the chorus. 3 of these are a lead with 2 harmony parts against it (I think one of these is actually a falseto an octave up, the other one might be a 3rd - I break my own rules). The other 6 are a big fat harmony part based around a different melody from the lead. In all I think I'm using about 30 tracks on that tune at the moment and the G4 handles it without and complaints. Since I basically don't trust computers I'm still cautious with my track count. I'm also cautious about making a tune to complex to mix properly. Maybe as I get more cocky I'll run out tracks/power too. Ab