OT: R&B Production

[rmccam]

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for going a bit off topic here but we all know that this is the place to get answers!

I'm about to take on an R&B project... I'm the guy who's stepping in to fix all of the technical issues that the beat-making producers made (ie. re-recording vocals, re-tracking live instruments, mixing, etc.). I have a bit of experience working in the genre, but not much, so I am turning to those who work in R&B and Hip Hop more often. I just had a few questions:

- Generally speaking, how many vocal tracks, harmonies and doubles are you recording of each part? I'm not talking about alternate takes, but rather, how many of each would you be running in a mix at once?

- The client wants that harmonizing effect that's always used in R&B (and some Pop). I can't think of an example but you hear i everywhere... it's just sounds like a really tight harmonization. How are people getting that sound? Is it actually sung, is it pitch shifted, is it harmonized? If so, what's used, and how much of it?

- Any tips on handling the low end in a mix? Making it sound tight without blowing speakers.

Finally, any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks everyone.

[tlester]

I've done quite a bit of R&B, so I'll talk a bit to how I do things. To your questions:

- How many vocals in the stack? Well... as many as it take to get it think. So, a lot will depend on the singer. If you have a real solid singer with a "thick" vocal sound, two per part can work. If you have a real bad singer with a real thin sound (which is real typical), you can need up to 8 per part. However, when you are going for that many, try to switch things up a bit to cause enough variety in the sound that it actually thickens things up, other wise, it'll just sound louder. For example... Do two tracks close, two 4 feet back, two with a different mic, two with a different mic but 4-6 feet back. Get creative.

The other trick is to get them sync'd up. There are a couple of ways to do this. I see this done in VocAlign. It's also really easy in 7.4 with elastic audio. I also use Melodyne a lot for doing this (Stupid easy). Make sure all the syllables match up as closely as you can. Once you build the stack, then save it as a region group or bounce it down to a stereo track. The copy/paste them where they need to be.

I assume you know this, but this is just really for the BGV's. The lead vocal only needs one double or possibly a triple (Eminem is a good example of a triple).

- That harmonized sound This can be done two ways. One, a pitch program. I do this a lot. I'll drop the left side down by say 11-14 cents and delay that side by say 20 ms. Then I'll do the right side a NEGATIVE 10-15 cents, and delay it around 25 ms. Blend those in with the original to taste.

The second way to do this is having them sing a double or triple vocal line. This is tougher because they have to get it REALLY tight, but it sounds great. Once I have them do this, I'll throw the lead, the double, and the triple into Melodyne (you need cre8 or studio to do all three at the same time). In melodyne, you can quantize the timing of a vocal. You can either quantize to a grid OR do a guide track. I'll choose to quantize the double and triple using the lead track as the guide. This tucks the double and triple right in tight with the lead and sounds amazing. Resist the urge to pitch correct to perfection. It's the imperfections that make this technique sound thick! I'll then pan the double and triple left and right and slightly under the volume of the lead.

- Getting the bass right This is a tough one. You first need to mix in a room where you trust the low end. If you aren't hearing it right, you'll not know when you have it right. After that, it's all about balance. EQ, if needed, to get the balance right. Do over-do the frequencies that are below anything musical. I.e. if your 808 kick is resonating a 60Hz tone, and your base guitar bottoms out at 41 Hz... there's no reason to be cranking up 30 Hz. There's nothing down there but muck.

The BIGGEST THING you can do is make sure it goes to mastering. Especially if you have a less than ideal room.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[rmccam]

Thanks a million!

Coming from a rock/pop background, this stuff is foreign territory. In a rock session, I would never have to worry about the kind of low end energy that an 808 kick, or any kind of sub, could push out. The vocal stuff makes complete sense... you have to get doubles REALLY tight to make things sound good (I hate loose doubles), so I can't imagine having to do it with octuples (which is unbelievable, by the way). Do you think I can pull off most of that stuff with the bundled version of Melodyne? I try to avoid auto-tuning but something tells me that I won't be able to dodge that bullet this time around.

I may take you up on your offer of advice. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks again.

[tlester]

Are you running 7.4? If so, editing with elastic audio may be faster than the bundled melodyne. If not, the bundled version will do fine, you'll just have to do it one track at a time and manually. However, you only have to do each section once. If the section repeats, just copy and paste.

-tom

[rmccam]

Hey Tom,

Is it fairly common to cut and paste repeated sections? Doing that leaves a bit of a sick feeling in my stomach... but when in Rome, I guess.

I am using 7.3 but I can upgrade to 7.4 for free. I haven't yet because my system is running smoothly so I was hoping that to wait until the bugs had been cleared up... but I guess I can just take the plunge.

Thanks Tom.


Ryan

[tlester]

Yes... it's very common in the R&B/Hip Hop world. Don't do it on leads, I'm just talking about BGV's. I'm also talking about "Pop" R&B. If you've got a "real" R&B artist (I.e. a Bobby Womack or Gladys Knight type), then do it all live, but make sure they singers can sing. In the 90's we tossed all the BGV's into a sampler or even an Eventide and triggered them.. A lot of times by hand. Just roll tape and when the part was ready, you hit the play button on the Akai, or assigned them to a pad in the MPC/SP-12, or even the ASR-10. 12 bits baby!!!!

-T

[rmccam]

That's wicked... triggering backing vocals, that is. Ah, 12 whole bits of genuine high-fidelity! Ha! It's funny how we moved so far beyond that only to bit-crush everything... or pay inflated prices for old MPC's. I really do love the sound of 8 bits coughing away a beat though.

Thanks again, Tom.

Ryan