Recording Vocal Harmonies

In this lesson we're looking at recording Vocal Harmonies. This is a good way to flesh out a vocal part and make it sound bigger. It's a pretty common technique in all styles of music, though different styles use Vocal Harmonies in different ways - for instance a rock band might have 2 or 3 BVs that are fairly close in pitch, while a boy band might use more parts to effectively sing full chords.

Key points

• You can use a guitar (or keyboard) to figure out the harmony parts you want to sing
• Take some of the low end out of the EQ on the backing parts to let the lead vocal stand out, preferably with a lo-cut aka hi-pass filter
• Record multiple takes and see which ones sound best - you can always get rid of something if you don't like it

Find the Graphic EQ on iPad

Towards the end of the video we discuss EQ and lo-cut, etc. On iPad, Garageband does have a graphic EQ for each track, it's just a little hidden. See this short video clip to help you find it, along with compression, etc!