Duplicating "Gospel Choir"
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- James Steele
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Duplicating "Gospel Choir"
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!
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!
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- BKK-OZ
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Re: Duplicating "Gospel Choir"
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.
Cheers,
BK
…string theory says that all subatomic particles of the universe are nothing but musical notes. A, B-flat, C-sharp, correspond to electrons, neutrinos, quarks, and what have you. Therefore, physics is nothing but the laws of harmony of these strings. Chemistry is nothing but the melodies we can play on these strings. The universe is a symphony of strings and the mind of God… it is cosmic music resonating through 11 dimensional hyperspace.
- M Kaku
BK
…string theory says that all subatomic particles of the universe are nothing but musical notes. A, B-flat, C-sharp, correspond to electrons, neutrinos, quarks, and what have you. Therefore, physics is nothing but the laws of harmony of these strings. Chemistry is nothing but the melodies we can play on these strings. The universe is a symphony of strings and the mind of God… it is cosmic music resonating through 11 dimensional hyperspace.
- M Kaku
- Gravity Jim
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Re: Duplicating "Gospel Choir"
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.
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- James Steele
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Re: Duplicating "Gospel Choir"
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!
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- HCMarkus
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Re: Duplicating "Gospel Choir"
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
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Re: Duplicating
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 wrote: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...
Cheers,
BK
…string theory says that all subatomic particles of the universe are nothing but musical notes. A, B-flat, C-sharp, correspond to electrons, neutrinos, quarks, and what have you. Therefore, physics is nothing but the laws of harmony of these strings. Chemistry is nothing but the melodies we can play on these strings. The universe is a symphony of strings and the mind of God… it is cosmic music resonating through 11 dimensional hyperspace.
- M Kaku
BK
…string theory says that all subatomic particles of the universe are nothing but musical notes. A, B-flat, C-sharp, correspond to electrons, neutrinos, quarks, and what have you. Therefore, physics is nothing but the laws of harmony of these strings. Chemistry is nothing but the melodies we can play on these strings. The universe is a symphony of strings and the mind of God… it is cosmic music resonating through 11 dimensional hyperspace.
- M Kaku
- James Steele
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Re: Duplicating "Gospel Choir"
Thanks. I'm a pretty decent vocalist myself so I can probably handle it. I do that better than my guitar playing.HCMarkus wrote: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.
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- mikehalloran
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Re: Duplicating "Gospel Choir"
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.
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.
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- fullertime
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Re: Duplicating "Gospel Choir"
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!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
FULLER - Raleigh/Durham, NC
"You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do."
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MacPro 3gHz 8-Core 16 GRam// OS 10.7.5 // ApogeePSX 100 // MOTU896 // MOTU Audio Express // DP8.01 //
"You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do."
--------------------
MacPro 3gHz 8-Core 16 GRam// OS 10.7.5 // ApogeePSX 100 // MOTU896 // MOTU Audio Express // DP8.01 //