If you’re familiar with my music, you’ve probably realized by now that I am a huge fan of that “Wall Of Sound” backing vocal technique employed by such greats as Queen, ELO, The Beach Boys, 10 CC, Godley and Creme, Jellyfish, Muse, etc. Current technology allows us to use harmonizers to create very quick vocal stacks that sound extremely convincing. While I love to use harmonizers live, I always create my bgv’s the old fashioned way: track by track. At the end of the day, I will have tracked 24 voices in all: 6 per part. It might seem tedious, but I have developed a Pro Tools template that allows me to quickly and easily manage all of those tracks. After years of perfecting this concept, I now want to share my template and technique with all of you. Here’s how I set it up.
The Basics
The 24 tracks are divided into the 4 major choral parts, Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass. The session is further broken down into 6 voices per part: s1-s6, a1-a6, and so on. I chose the letter/number method for easy reading along a control surface scribble strip and to reduce text clutter in the track lists. The first 12 tracks, s1-b3, are panned 100 left, and the remaining tracks, s4-b6, are panned 100 right.
The Groups
P T’s implementation of groups makes tracking, mixing, and editing multiple tracks an absolute breeze. In this case, I have created several groups, which will allow you to single out tracks by part, quartet, and even pan position.
Parts
Each part has it’s own group. When active, you’ll be able to mute, solo, and edit the sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses separately. What’s brilliant about pro tools is that you can assign any letter to the group name. So, I have assigned group S to the Sopranos, A to the Altos, etc. You can turn each group on and off by pressing the period on the numpad, followed by it’s respective letter, followed by the period again. So, by hitting “numpad period A numpad period,” you can activate the alto group. Pressing the above key combo again will deactivate it.
Quartets
I have created 6 quartets. s1-b1, s2-b2, etc. This allows you to single out 1 voice per part. This will help you quickly locate any pitchy vocals that you might be hearing. By auditioning each one, you can quickly pinpoint a flat track. The groups are named Quartet 1-6. Since Pro Tools allows you to have 4 groups of 26 letter assignments, I have assigned Q to quartet 1, 2Q to quartet 2, 3Q to quartet 3, etc. For Quartets 5 and 6, I have given the pneumonic f and x respectively. I couldn’t use S, due to the use of S for the soprano group.
Panning
There are 2 groups with single out the left and right sides of the stereo field. They are called “Left” and “Right,” and have the letters L and R assigned to them. This allows you to gain further perspective on your vocal tracks. Sometimes you may need to hear one side or another and compare.
BGV’s
Lastly, I have created an all encompassing “BGV’s” group, which is assigned to the letter V. This will help you solo, mute, and edit the bgv’s as a whole.
The BGV Aux Track
All track outputs are assigned to Bus 7/8 and fed to an aux track named “BGV’s. It has been included in all groups for convenience. I picked an arbitrary bus like 7/8 in an attempt to avoid interfering with most common bus assignments. You can change the bus assignments to fit your routing needs.
The Compressor
On each vocal track, I have instantiated the standard compressor and selected the “Vocal Leveler” preset. This brings the track up to an optimal level, and helps level it out a bit. I chose not to put the compressor on the aux bus, as all of those vocals tend to cause it to breathe, so I opted to make it an insert effect. Don’t worry, 24 compressors don’t really tax a system.
Package Contents
Within the zip file, you’ll find 2 items. The vocal template .ppt file, which will allow you to create a new session using the template, and a demo session folder. The demo is the chorus from a tune called “Euphoria,” which uses all 24 tracks for stacked BGV’s. This will give you an idea of how to make use of the tracks and groups.
Terms
This file is yours to do with as you please, whether it be putting it on multiple Pro Tools rigs, emailing it to a friend, etc. However, I kindly ask that if you are wanting to post this on twitter, facebook, another blog, etc, please post a link to this post as apposed to deep linking to the file or putting the package somewhere else and linking to it.
Donate
If this template and accompanying pro tools session was helpful for speeding up your workflow and inspiring you, please consider leaving a tip. Time went into putting all of this together for you, so donations of any amount is greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out this file. If you have any modifications and enhancements that would greatly improve the template, feel free to email it to me, and I’ll incorporate it into the next release. I’d love to hear your feedback. Please feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks again, and now go record some awesome bgv’s.