Backup Vocals

[Dorian Green]

Heya!

This is my personal "recipe" but there are dozens of different ones, it really depends what you need.
I use to work with loadza backing vocals in my tracks.
First of all, I try my best to take the cleanest signal, then i just apply Waves L1 on each.I "pan" them" and adjust the levels.Set all the bvs (backing vocals) channel output to a free bus, group them.I set a stereo Aux track with the later bus as Input, leave the fader at 0, then trim the group level (touching one of the bvs track, moving all the others proportionnaly!), to avoid clipping.
I put a stereo Strip Channel Plugin (i.e SSL Channel Strip) then I make an overall EQ and Comp (SSL really "glue" the submix).

I set a send (via another free bus) on EACH bvs channel to a reverb (long or short, just depending on the wanted effect) set their level and panning.
Create a new Stereo Aux inserting a Verb Plugin (be careful, plugins like Waves True Verb must have the direct switch off! Or some phase issue and kind of Flanger can occur, but it can also be a desired effect.)
Then set your Verb Channel level in the mix.
Another tip about reverb; if your reverb plugin doesn't include PRE DELAY feature, you can put a Time Adjuster just before the verb plugin.Cause because of the speed of sound in real conditions, reflection and reverb don't occur exactly at the same time as the dry signal.

Hope it helps!