Backing Vocals and Harmonisers

[Happy Jack]

The Question I'm Asked Most Often Is ... "Is that a cello?"

 

BUT

 

The question I'm asked most often by other musicians is, "How do you do those harmony vocals?".

 

There doesn't seem to be a thread anywhere about BVs, so I thought I'd stick this here.

 

At every live gig with my two main bands, I bring

 

 

That's a Pedaltrain Nano (plus an extra pedal off to the left) fitted on top with a Diago mains power distribution and underneath with a battery pack that can deliver up to 1A - note the label on the Harmoniser pedal.

 

The bread and butter end of the board is

 

 

I still rate the red Mic Mechanic as one of the most useful things any vocalist can carry, a genuine Swiss Army Knife of a vocal pedal. 

 

https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DDW

 

The green Duplicator is, essentially, a Mic Mechanic with the Echo function replaced by live ADT, really useful if you need a voice 'thickened up' on stage.

 

https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DDX

 

In The Junkyard Dogs I route lead singer Rick through the Mic Mechanic and drummer/BVs Paul through the Duplicator. In Damo & The Dynamites I route lead singer Damo through the Duplicator and I put my own voice through the Mic Mechanic solely for some subtle pitch correction ... essential (IMHO) if you're going to use a harmoniser of any kind.

 

Ah yes, the harmoniser. For that we need the other end of the board.

 

 

Since The Junkyard Dogs routinely sing in 3-part harmony there's no call for a harmoniser pedal. For those gigs, I swop out the harmoniser for the TC Helicon Voicetone X1 (on the left there). I've always sung and I carry a tune well, but my voice is a muddy baritone which simply does not cut through in a pub rock setting. The X1 is frankly a bit of a novelty act thing; it has eight settings, of which just one I find useful but thats OK, I only need that one setting!

 

https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DE4

 

With Damo & The Dynamites it's a whole nother thang. The drummer doesn't sing so all the BVs are me, and we do a lot of stuff where the song is 'made' by the harmony BVs ... think how lame a lot of early Elvis would have sounded without The Jordanaires. To achieve that I use the TC Helicon Voicetone H1, and that's the pedal that gets noticed; used wrong it's the most complete train wreck you can imagine, but used right it can really deliver. 

 

This pedal has the facility to run your guitar/bass through it which will automatically set the correct key, which is cool but of surprisingly limited use. Firstly, if you operate it like a pedal (i.e. with your foot) then you are either restricted to a single set of harmonies or you have to kneel down and fiddle with it between songs. Secondly, if you play a fretless bass or a double bass then the smallest error in your intonation can have catastrophic impact. 😂 I keep the whole board at waist height beside me and operate it manually.

 

Note the Tippex marks at E and A for easy location on a dark stage. As an aside, on one occasion I used this pedal to tune my bass at a gig ... I sang each note (EADG) with the pedal correcting my pitch, and tuned to it. 

 

https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DE1

 

When multiple harmonies are not needed but I still want it to sound as if more than one person is supplying BVs I switch to the TC Helicon Critical Mass. This is something of a halfway house between the Duplicator and the Voicetone H1; it can be used in quite a subtle way but it certainly beefs up the sound of a stripped-down 3-piece.

 

https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0CGT

 

I should probably state for the record that I am NOT sponsored by or affiliated to TC Helicon ... I just like their pedals. All five of these were bought by me, with my own money. 

 

Speaking of which, all these pedals have increased in price substantially since I bought them, by well over 50% in a couple of cases. On the other hand, we now have blue passports.

 

For context, in the unlikely event that someone wanted to duplicate precisely my vocal pedal board today, and bought new all the way (I always buy pre-owned if I can), they would still have change from a grand. That's including the Nano and both power supplies.

 

If my board got nicked and I needed to replace it, I would expect to spend half that figure. Now ask yourself how much a half-decent bass guitar costs ...

 

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Happy Jack

[Silvia Bluejay]

One thing to keep in mind is that effects on BVs, and especially the harmoniser, sound great but have the tendency to sound louder than normal, naked BVs. The setlist I'm given at every Damo And The Dynamites gig has a column detailing what the BVs go through on each song, so I can adjust the BVs channel's volume manually to be loud enough to be appropriate to the song and enjoyable, but not overwhelm the lead vocals.*

 

Edit to add: that's what almost all sound engineers at big open air events get spectacularly wrong unless they've studied the band's live videos extensively in advance. That, of course, is very unlikely to happen, understandably.

 

Edited August 29, 2022 by Silvia Bluejay

[Fishfacefour]

Wow that's extremely helpful and really interesting.

My singing has got really poor as I'm completely out of practice.

 

In one quite electronic band I was in I always went through a Digitech vocalist vhm5. Super massed harmony with a robotic tinge. 

Had a built in keyboard or could use midi. This was a unit from the mid 90s so can only imagine the leaps and bounds the tech has done since then.

[Happy Jack]

Incidentally, this is what we're talking about:

 

 

[Happy Jack]

Mind you, no matter how good those pedals are, they can't save you from

 

 

[Woodinblack]

I use the critical mass for certain vocals (brick in the wall). I have a mic mechanic in the house that I haven't used, I used to use the voice live for things that I use the critical mass for but it kept having a bit of an issue.

[Owen]

WEM! Old School.

[Happy Jack]

1 hour ago, Owen said:

WEM! Old School.

 

Mine of course. That's a 6W Clubman. In my studio it sits next to a 12W Westminster and a 17W Dominator.

[Owen]

Nice, a WEM for all occasions.

[Bolo]

People often ask me: "Bolo, I don't like you"

[Happy Jack]

Re-titled to avoid (further) confusion.

[tauzero]

On 29/08/2022 at 17:17, Happy Jack said:

Mind you, no matter how good those pedals are, they can't save you from

 

 

 

The other version is when the boom joint isn't quite fully tightened, and the mic gets performance anxiety and gradually droops lower and lower.

[tauzero]

And funnily enough, I've just got my TC Helicon Double and Create XT off the shelf where they've been living for years, wondering whether to sell them or try to use them.

[police squad]

I used to use the Harmony G-XT with great sucess. But it's just sitting on my pedal board these days.

That first Damo video has superb pedal use

[fleabag]

This old pedal i've had for many years, is the danglies for vocalists, lead or bv.

 

You can alter anything on the main and harmony / ADT - the dymanics, loudness, EQ, delay,  reverb, pitch blah blah. 3rds, 5ths, triple voice, radio ( honest ! ) and gender on any harmony

 

It's dynamite as long as you put the work in.  It has loads of user presets too.

Edited September 1, 2022 by fleabag