Duplicating "Gospel Choir"

[James Steele]

I'm revisiting an old project and I need to do some backup vocals and want them to sound like a gospel choir. I did a overdub session years ago with three female vocalists, but I screwed up and wrote some harmonized parts for them to sing and the result ended up too "sweet" sounding. What I really needed was just a lot of voices singing a part in unison (or maybe with an octave stacked on it as well.) I did get some great gospel "improv" though out of the session that I plan to use (interestingly the BEST take came from a woman with NO professional experience who only sang in her church!)

Was wondering if I have any options as far as "faking" it? I'm considering trying to just stack the crap out of myself singing the part and faking a woman's voice which I can probably do convincingly. The line I need sung is "freeeeeeedom" over and over. Real easy part. Other option is find a high school or junior college chorus or something and setting up some mics and seeing if I can record them in their rehearsal room and get something useful I can fly in and manipulate should there be any timing inconsistencies. That would probably sound best... but not sure about the protocol for doing this? Call a school and offer to make a donation to the program in exchange for a session, etc???

Lastly I don't know if any VI has come so far to convincingly do something like this. If it has, I probably can't afford it for just this one project.

Thoughts? thanks!

[BKK-OZ]

Antares' Harmony Engine EVO, Izotope's Nectar, and Vielklang's plug can all do this for you. Not a big fan of Antares' pestering selling practices, but you can get EVO from Audio Deluxe for approx. $70, now in 64 bits.

[Gravity Jim]

I like Harmony Engine a lot. Really speed up the process, and if you're multitracking your own voice, running a track of HE off the lead vocal can make those parts sound like part of a much larger and mor dynamic group. Ditto on not loving Antares as a company, but I do dig the software. I recently bought the Nectar suite, but haven't had a chance to compare the harmonizer with HE.

[James Steele]

Thanks! And just for clarity, I'm trying to just have it sound like A LOT of voices singing in unison mostly likely. No harmonies. Probably just need variation of attack time and vocal timbres. I'll check out the Antares plug. Thanks!

[HCMarkus]

Better than any digital manipulations: sing as many radically different ways as you possibly can; throaty, nasal, pinched and squawky. Or call my friend, vocalist Brian Darnell to do it for you.

[BKK-OZ]

Thanks! And just for clarity, I'm trying to just have it sound like A LOT of voices singing in unison mostly likely. No harmonies...

All those plugs have settings/options to do just what you are after, unison with a bit of smearing, pitch or timing, is the way to go.

[James Steele]

Better than any digital manipulations: sing as many radically different ways as you possibly can; throaty, nasal, pinched and squawky. Or call my friend, vocalist Brian Darnell to do it for you.

Thanks. I'm a pretty decent vocalist myself so I can probably handle it. I do that better than my guitar playing.

[mikehalloran]

My suggestions are the same but I'll add one:

Listen to everything you can find that Edwin Hawkins has arranged.

If you have any Antares plugs - even if they are old and incompatible, there might be a discount on Harmony Engine that you can qualify for. I have the whole suite now but only because it's cheap to upgrade. HE is the jewel in that crown.

[fullertime]

Hey James,

I had that EXACT same issue on my churches last CD that I produced...

Solution:I used "Polar" and sang about 50 loops... Each time changing the pitch and timbre of my voice and it was sweet! ... And actually fun:)

IMHO Polar is one of the most under used Plugs MOTU has available! What a great resource.

It worked so well that I did it on another song but this time invited my spouse, a few friends and my two kids... It literally sounded like an arena full of people (or maybe an out of control Irish pub)

Peace!



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