How to Record Pop Vocals, Pt III — Mixing

Here we are, at the final stage of the vocal process — mixing. Previously, we’ve gone over recording and editing the perfect vocal take, but before we move on, let’s add some doubles and harmonies to the pie.

A ‘standard’ approach would be to have your big lead vocal down the middle, accompanied by two unison doubles panned hard left and hard right. This can be expanded to four, eight, 16, or as many as you want.

If you record a large amount of unison doubles, you can splay out the panning and get an ‘anthemic’ sound. This will only work if the doubles — either naturally by the singer, or in the editing stage — are all very tightly locked with the lead vocal, otherwise it will sound messy. Peking Duk’s Stranger is no less than 16 vocals in unison at all times [see for a common chorus vocal arrangement].

Keeping on the unison train, try some that are sung much more softly and with more ‘breathiness’, though this doesn’t mean whispered. Adding upper and lower octaves to the vocal melody is also common. Either record them, or pitch some of your unison doubles up and down with a tool like Soundtoys Little Alter Boy and blend those