Attaboy, Donny!

For those folks just stumbling on this thread, don't forget that, in addition to swapping out mics and/or pre-amps, try moving the position of the mic around the room for each overdub to reduce the room's "voice" building up in the final mix. It's not so much a problem in well-treated recording spaces (which I know Donny's is), but the average project studio can have problems with acoustic modes that the ear ignores when in the space, but the microphone does not.

Good thread. One of the joys of my setup with UAD stuff is in addition to actual differences available in mic placement approaches etc. I also have Ocean ways studio environment available to me. Think of remicing a mic recording, that’s what it does. It’s what I used on Rats, among other stuff.

Until recently I actually only used harmony hardware instead of singing harmony too. I think as you say, attention to details of a sonic footprint makes all the world of difference. In the zone can become capable of embracing these things as we use them just as a SOP.

Your follower in learning,

Tony

DonnyThompson, post: 459102, member: 46114 wrote: Hi gang...
So, after a little hiatus, I’ve been recording again. Yesterday, I was doing some pre production arrangement on a song I’m working on; arranging some backing vox ...
Whenever I record- overdub harmonies myself, and singing each interval myself, I remember what Boswell used to suggest - which is to try to switch up mics - and sometimes preamps too, to avoid the potential for the various vocal tracks to end up all sounding exactly the same in terms of Sonics.
Bos used to mention this here on RO; that sometimes making some changes - even small ones- from track to track, really does help in providing nice textures that are slightly different in tone, and I wholeheartedly agree with him... because several years ago I tried it and was very happy with the results in terms of tone(s). I’ve made these changes from track to track many times, and always found that the tracks had a cool vibe when ultimately combined.
Well, I itotally screwed the pooch yesterday and I gnored that approach, ( maybe it was because I was “in the zone”? ... getting things done at a nice pace, and not wanting to interrupt that. I think we all know how elusive that zone can be at times, and when we get there we don’t want to stop what we are doing to make alterations in the gain chain...)
After listening with fresher ears this morning, I was reminded of just why I used to do what Bos suggested, because the tracks I laid down yesterday with the same mix, same pre and same mic position in the room, sound “flat” ( not flat in terms of pitch, but flat and lifeless in tone ) with a lack of excitement and definition; and an overall “smear” that I’m not digging. I was using a nice mic, too, and a nice preamp as well...but I should have swapped mics here and there and maybe used a different pre on a few of the tracks.
I guess it hammered home the importance of the capture process; at the very least, it reminded me what NOT to do. LOL
Anyway, just thought I would share the experience. I’m gonna retrack all the harmonies today, and channel my “inner Boswell” while I do. ;)
-d.

So basically by extension, I can no longer use the argument that I can't clean up or move anything around in the studio because I'm tracking vocals and BG vocals and that might change things... So far I've had my wife somewhat buffaloed by the argument that changing anything in the room was akin to changing something in the chain and that I was going to be cutting more BG vocals so everything needed to be the same.... Ah well -- I guess it's time to move those guitar cases and that jacket - maybe even those socks...

This is a good suggestion Donny because I've been doing all my vocals on my own and I never thought to change up the mics so my BG's have all been using the same signal chain as my main vocals. I'm totally going to try this! Thanks Boswell DonnyThompson

Unless you are restricted to only one mic and one pre and you're the kind of artist that knows about "the zone" , it's best to put up at LEAST a couple of choices before you start. It's really easy to be ready. Like my Guru says.."Do the work old man"

I used to have the two channels of my art pre, and dbx compressor, set on different settings so I could quickly plug into the different settings.

The advantage to having two mics that both sound good on you, is you can leave them setup in the sweet spot, should you have to go back the next day to punch in something if you were perhaps too in the zone the day before.