I am a big fan of Brain Wilson.  I just listened to his latest release “No Pier Pressure” some of which was recorded at Ocean Way.  I am always delighted by the fullness of the backup harmonies.  Brain tried to emulate Wall of sound and the backup harmonies were always so full.  Some of them were probably double tracked.  Anyway, how can I reproduce that in SONAR?  On Pier Pressure the lead usually has a big hall reverb with a long decay.  The decay on the backup vocals seems to have as much reverb, but with a short decay.  How is this done?  I have heard of using two reverbs on a single track, not sure why.  I have generally defaulted to using UAD’s Plate 140 for all my vocal reverbs.  What do you guys know, recommend?

Did you try to use the OCEAN WAY rooms in UAD?
 
Jim

Brian Wilson's been around a long time, and recorded all over the world. I doubt if he has one standard reverb effect that he uses. The only thing that is consistent is that he uses a lot of reverb. The rest of it is in the singing and the voicing. When I try to sound like the Beach Boys, I use at least three harmony parts, and I double each one, and I make sure that the top note is the highest falsetto I can hit (and not  the third). All the better if I can find some internal motion. I sing the parts with no vibrato -- this is harder than it seems, but it helps. I think the performance is key. After that, try some reverbs. Remember, Brian does everything in mono (although these days somebody must be mixing in stereo for him).
Good luck!

On Pier Pressure the lead usually has a big hall reverb with a long decay. The decay on the backup vocals seems to have as much reverb, but with a short decay. How is this done?

Its done by setting the reverb exactly light that and selecting the exact same type of reverb that Brian Wilson used.
 
OH, one other thing and its a big thing. You will need to record in the same room as Brian Williams did as the room plays a big role in vocal sound, especially the reverb of the vocal.
 
just use your ears and learn hoe to use a reverb and then try to match it the best as possible. That's all you can do.
 
CJ

I have no idea about this particular recording, sorry.
 
But short, long decay etc - maybe gated reverb.
Some use that to create really big sound, without the downside of taking over completely.

On commercial records, it's common to triple-track each harmony part.
Left/Center/Right
So a three part harmony would have 9 "singers".
This is how the part sounds lush/dense... and takes on more of a "group" sound rather than hearing the individual takes.
 
You'll not achieve this effect any other way than doing true double/triple tracking of parts.
Auto doubling (via pitch/delay) can sound nice... but it won't get you that super complex/animated result.
It's the small differences in each take that really animates the combination (especially as the parts are spread out between left/right).  If you run auto-doubling EFX, the result is a LOT more homogenized.
 
Ambience can certainly add a sense of depth/space... but it alone won't take a vocal track and make it sound like a group of singers.

So then, maybe MELODYNE to the rescue.... you can copy some vocal tracks and change them around a bit (a bit of pitch and a bit of timing by phrase should do the trick) and create the Jim R suggestion of 9 tracks for 3 singers. 
 
I do know that Ocean Way had its own reverb ROOM built in the basement of the studio.... don't know if they still use it though... basically was a real hard surface room with a speaker cabinet and a mic in there for natural reverb.
 
Jim
 
 

But as Jim says, just copying tracks and nudging them in the time & frequency domains will not create anything like the same effect as actually singing the part 9, 12 or as many takes/harmonies as you want.
 
The brutal truth with duplicating & nudging is - it's fake and sounds fake.
 
You will almost certainly want to use Melodyne or V-Vocal afterwards to tighten up the timing. Nothing worse than hearing multiple S's & T's sounding at different times.

Also, if you're going for a vintage sound, try a spring reverb.

CJaysMusic

On Pier Pressure the lead usually has a big hall reverb with a long decay. The decay on the backup vocals seems to have as much reverb, but with a short decay. How is this done?

Its done by setting the reverb exactly light that and selecting the exact same type of reverb that Brian Wilson used.
 
OH, one other thing and its a big thing. You will need to record in the same room as Brian Williams did as the room plays a big role in vocal sound, especially the reverb of the vocal.
 
just use your ears and learn hoe to use a reverb and then try to match it the best as possible. That's all you can do.
 
CJ

Gotta love CJ's mangling.
 
None the less, I see his point.