A great performance by Johnny Cash & Bob Dylan that has no, autotune, tape echo, vocal doubling… just heartfelt playing and singing.
“Can you put some reverb on my voice and turn me down?” -Nearly every singer I’ve worked with
As a music listener I usually do not like doubled vocals. What’s a doubled vocal? It’s when a singer records a vocal part then records a second, identical vocal part with the intention of mixing them together so the listener hears both simultaneously.
Why I don’t like them… when I hear a doubled vocal I hear a singer that isn’t confident, fears their voice, is worried what people will think of their singing… and so they doubled it to make themselves sound unnatural and now their voice is okay since it’s no longer their natural voice. When I hear a doubled vocal I find it hard to connect with what the singer’s singing. I feel a disconnect from them.
When producing records I find singers that are reluctant to use just a single voice often change their mind when their vocal recording sounds amazing. If I can get a great vocal mix by affecting the dry recording with tasteful effects the singer tends to come to their own decision that the single vocal is better than the double. That taught me that, again, doubling vocals is usually done as a defense against a bad sound. Producers, get a singer’s voice to sound great and they’ll trust you and their voice.
Harmonies, group vocals, ad-libs, tape echo… all these are not the same as doubled vocals.
Let’s listen now to a beautifully recorded single vocal and appreciate the power in it…
Here’s an example of a beautiful song by the late songwriter Elliott Smith that, in my opinion, would have been even more intimate had Mr. Smith used a single vocal take…
If you’re singing in front of a band then you’re telling the audience you have something to say. Don’t make your singing purposefully obscured or intentionally difficult to hear. People want to hear what you’re singing. It’s fine to make vocals sound as reverbed, changed, and affected as you want if it comes from a genuine place of creativity like My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts but I often see artists using those techniques to obscure their singing out of fear. Trust yourself and your voice. Singing in tune, out of tune, out of key, warbly, scratchy, perfectly… this is all what is unique to your voice. Be fearless in your vocals and give the listener the gift of letting them hear you.
Exceptions! There are a two times I know of so far when I’ve preferred a doubled vocal to a single…
Cat Power’s song “Metal Heart”
I notice in this song it sounds like she recorded two very different vocal takes and mixed them together. It does not sound like she attempted to make the two takes identical. To me it feels even more intimate than if there were one vocal.
Drink Up Buttercup’s “Gods And Gentlemen”
The lead vocal is doubled and in mixing we decided it served the song better. The doubled vocal gave the song a quality of distance in time from the listener that we wanted.
Gods And Gentlemen – Drink Up Buttercup
Last: a new toy for singers that looks fun. Hopefully I’ll be picking one up soon…
Wow… the voice box sounds pretty cool. I have been thinking about picking up the EH POG for awhile now.
I also agree 100% about the doubled vocal. I think honesty, emotion, and confidence greatly affect the listener and the doubled vocal definitely steals some of that.
First of all let me say that I’m a fan of your work. I dig old “good” music and its hard to come by these days in this cold, sterile, auto-tuned, digital world. I think you do a bang up job in particular on the Dr. Dog stuff. Regarding your blog post, I agree completely about the double tracking of vocals. But I am having major problems recording vocals and I was hoping you could help with some free advice for a poor rock n roller. I have read every article I can find, I have tried everything, still not achieving that classic rock n roll vocal sound I’m looking for. I just want my vocals to sound “REAL” for lack of a better term. Any advice?
I love the vocal sounds of…
-Early Sun Records (which I know is slap echo, however when I try that it sounds like modern rockabilly).
-50’s stuff like Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers, Dion and the Belmonts.
-The British Invasion (which I know is usually double tracked, but when I double track it sounds too busy).
-60’s garage like the Sonics and the Kingsmen
-Early punk like Stooges, VU, etc…
I know that’s a wide range of stuff but I’d be happy with getting any of those sounds.
Here is a list of equipment I have in my extremely low budget studio, I’m running ProTools LE through and Mbox 2…
- MICS
Shure SM7
Shure KSM32/SL Condenser
MXL V63M Condenser
Shure SM57 Dynamic
AKG D8000S Dynamic
- PREAMPS
Groove Tubes “The Brick”
ART Tube MP Studio Mic Preamp
Behringer MIC200 Tube ULTRAGAIN Preamp
- MIXER
Behringer Xenyx 802 8 Input 2 phantom power with British EQ
- PEDALS
Black Finger Compressor
Holy Grail of Reverb
English Muff
Fuzz Face
Boss Distortion, Super Chorus, Delay
- AMPS
Orange practice amp
Old Crate practice amp from 70s
Also I do realize it takes a lot of talent and a special performance, but in this case I’m just asking about the actual recording sound. A lot of times I get answers like, “You’ve got to sing with your heart/gut/whatever” and I definitely understand that.
As a huge proponent of doubling or even tripling (or even quadrupling, hahaha, its true) vocal tracks, I think it’s sort of a non issue. An original song by an artist is their creation, their expression, I think that when an artist feels another vocal track is needed it’s their ear that makes the judgement of how those lyrics are best delivered, how that song is to sound. The song writer is waiting for that moment of cohesion, that magical coming together when they say, “Yes! That’s it, now move on to the next thing…” In the end it’s their ear they have to please just as a painter makes paintings in a particular way to please their eye. Doubling of vocals is just another effect at the artists disposal like reverb, echo ect… Obviously I love your work and I love your examples of what you think is good, I just don’t agree that the Elliot Smith song, for instance, is some how wrongly recorded, or somehow flawed, it’s more like do you like the track or don’t you…? It’s sort of like a “if my aunt had balls she’d be my uncle” kind of thing! Haha. Anyway great post. Also, a couple weeks ago I had a conversation with a friend who wondered if My Bloody Valentines washed out indecipherable lyrics and over distorted sound was originally the result of a percieved singing deficiency on their part…? That would be funny since that sound became the model for so many people!
all pretty situation-dependent, imo. while tracking lead vocals, double-tracking vocals is my default; whether we use it or not is up to the song. some times it only comes in during certain parts, sometimes not at all. and sometimes it’s the tweaked and effected vocal that gets panned hard ala JD, bit-reduced or something else. can conceivably kill the intimacy but nice to have around if you think it can have some unexpected impact, and then make that judgement call. that said, elliot smith’s double tracked vocals always drove me crazy!!!
Hi Luke! Thanks for the compliments.
Well, the way I record vocals has been….
Super close up to an expensive mic Wunder Audio CM7, or farther back with a cheap mic like the 57. I particulalrly like EV mics like the RE20 and PL6. I didn’t have any good mic pres for a while so we used the pres on our Allen & Heath board and we recorded through an 1176. I tend to use a low cut around 90Hz.
When mixing the vocal I use at least one compressor. I usually am mixing from a computer and so I’ll put a de-esser on first, then a hardware compressor, then a hardware EQ. I like to boost a lot when using an EQ so it has to come after the compressor or my boosting will trigger it. Then I often use a mono, distorted tape echo (or digital echo that I EQ to sound like tape) and a quiet mono spring reverb. I have a real tape echo and spring reverb but there are some great plugins – even the ones that come with Logic – that sound great: Space Designer Old Spring Reverb sounds good and there tape echo if you use the distortion and tape fluctuation.
Also, I often add, in the computer, some distortion. I’ll send the recorded vocal to a bus and put Logic’s clip distorion on it and quietly sen it out along with the dry vocal and onto the hardware compressor. If the studio has an iso room I’ll setup a small amp instead with a mic and send the vocal from the console to the distorted amp and mix that back in.
If you’re trying to make your vocal sound older with what you have try the Shure SM7, sing close to it into the Brick or the ART. Cut out everything below 90Hz. Put it through compressor or a plugin that emulates an 1176. Set the attack sow and the release fast. In mixing add a little of the Holy Grail (that’s the reverb on the We All Belong record) and also put the vocal through one of your amps, turn it up and the high end down, put a 57 on it and mix that in quietly. (I’ve never used The Brick or the AKG or MXL so I’m unfamiliar).
Often, I find to make it sound older requires a lot of EQ, up or down, in the high end. All mics sound different so I can’t say if your recording will need the high end boosted or cut but that’s usually where I find the biggest impact for making it sound older.
As an aside, I actually am not trying to make mixes sound old. That doesn’t appeal to me. I’m trying to make them sound great and if what sounds great happens to also sound old then that’s fine. I know what you mean, though.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you want any more specifics.
Bill
I like your site and the way that you approach music and recording etc. Some cool tips that I am going to try. I’ve tried recording my songs and redoing the vocals, and I have never found that I felt comfortable enough with the second try. It always feels fake or something. I’ve put together a few CD’s of my songs and for the most part they are recordings that I made right when I wrote the song. I just turn on my recorder (which back then was a sony camera!) and somehow the pressure makes me stick it through to the end. I mean, I have a lot of recordings that are not that good quality and the songs need work etc., but the point is that getting a good vocal track for me is about feeling it right and having a good sound setup. I agree totally with what you are saying in that regard. I also wondered what you think of the Shure Beta 58A ?
Cheers and thanks a lot for doing this site. Brielle
Hi Brielle,
I actually don’t have a Shure Beta 58 but most everything Shure makes is good so I’d trust that mic. If you record your instrument and vocal together and love it that’s perfect. That’s how Bob Dylan does it so we know it works. You’re right that the sound is secondary to the performance and you’ll find you can actually change the sound significantly after recording it if you want to. Everyone feels under a bit of pressure when the record light flicks on but I think it’s helpful. It focuses your mind on what you’re doing.
Hi Bill,
This is a like a gold mine of honest advice for someone like me. I’m pumped that I’ve stumbled upon this website, and I hope that there’s more to come. I’m also a huge fan of dr dog and the sound of the records you and them put out there. I write, perform, and record music of my own and friends of mine, and I hope one day to turn it into something more. Its hard to tell where to start though. What advice would you give someone who is starting up in your profession? I also live in philly, and I dabble in some studies at temple university. But I have wondered if it would be a smart move to major in some like “sound engineering” or something of that nature. On the other hand, I feel like there’s much more to the profession than to simply go to school for it.
Joe