Hey All,
 
HOW IN THE %^&$ do you get cool group vocals if you're just one guy?
 
I'm looking for some sage advice to help me unlock some musicality in my mind. I love group vocals and harmonies, but every time I've ever tried to do them they just sound like me with no real differentiation. I must admit, I'm not a GREAT harmonizer, but I don't think that's the whole story.
 
I've used melodyne and more recently I have a trial of Izotope Necatar. I've tried distance, whisper track, adding more air and really it's only ever produced marginal results. HOW IN THE %^&$ do you get cool group vocals if you're just one guy?
 
If the answer is, it's pretty much impossible, I'll be happier but perhaps demos of melodyne and nectar are misleading because my use of them has really only ever produced a frequency resonation that is often tinny and quite obviously the same voice. Things I'm looking for are "Some Nights - Fun"....would love that. Or any folk duet song...with harmonies.
 
Please and thank you. I'm looking for any and all advice and perhaps a new perspective on old advice too.

First you need good harmonies.  I am not sure how you are doing it, but you can take your lead and copy it another track and then use Melodyne to create a harmony track as a guide to sing along to.  You can do that for several different parts.
 
When you have the parts, there are many ways to process them to make them more "backing", adding a different reverb from the lead, a touch of distortion, different EQ (think lo-fi), etc.

To me, you have to sing the parts and layer them to start. They need to be tight in phrasing and pitch as well, but not cloned, which doesn't really work. I do at least two tracks for every harmony part and I will sometimes use more depending on the song. If you need it, (and i do), use pitch correction to get as natural a sound for each track as possible. It takes some work depending on your singing ability.
 
I usually add a doubler effect on a bus and send the tracks there. I think this really helps with backing vocals. I also use reverb sends and maybe delay sends as well.
 
HTH
 
 
 

The guys above really nailed it.
 
You do need to sing them. Every single one. The software won't do it for you. You can use software to arrange harmonies and then as guide tracks, but that should be it. If you can't sing it all by yourself, get someone else to sing a view lines and blend it with your voices.
 
You can use Melodyne to fix a view notes in the backing tracks but don't use the quick macro to make it all flat. If you need too many corrections, get back in front of the mic. Tough at the beginning, but much quicker once you learned to work your voice rather than the software ...
 
Mixing tricks are numerous. Most important would be EQ and reverb, but that won't help unless the individual vox tracks are good enough to start with.

Another thing to remember is how to mix them.  If you get 2 or 3 harmony melodies, don't pan them to the same place or set the volume so that they're all equally audible.
 
What I do is record the main vocal line, then switch to an instrument I'm more proficient at (usually the guitar).  Then I'll try to come up with a line that fits in my vocal range and adds to the vocal melody without overpowering it.  Then sing that guitar line.
Lately my backup vocals have been lower-pitched than my main "tenor" voice.  I'll often set that much quieter, and pan it to the opposite side from the lower tom drums.  For some songs, even whispering the vocal line (same pitch) in the background can have a great effect.

I can't locate it anymore - probably still out there - there was a video clip of Michael Jackson recording track after track of him singing the exact same vocal line, with Quincy Jones running the recording session.
 
In the video clip, Michael Jackson first of all, NAILS each take with spot-on pitch and intonation, and secondly he would physically move his body between 6" and 1' for each take, so that every one of them was slightly different, both in proximity to the microphone, and also because of slight differences in vibration and tone and such.
 
Layering those all up - with slightly different panning, and volumes, gives an INCREDIBLY rich vocal part.
 
The clip is for the We Are the World song, by the way.
 
I don't think I will ever forget how well that approach worked for vocals.
 
Bob Bone
 

This may not be possible but one of the great things about music is doing it with other people.  Find some musical friends and work with them.  It probably won't help with engineering questions (but "we'll always have the forum") but you'll learn sooo much about making music and, well, differing vocals are so much more easy ;-)  Unless you're M Jackson ;-)

beside the great advice already provided, you can also take a lead or harmony vocal and convert it to midi, then use that for a pad (or multiple ones...) track to further augment the harmonies. sometimes you just want to have some padding during sections that simulate a backing vox but are not specifically a real vocal.

I've always wanted to try the Bowie "Heroes" technique, but don't record in a room big enough:
 
Set up a close mic in front of where you'll be singing.
Set up a mic farther away, and put a noise gate on the input so it only picks up the voice when it's sung louder.
Set up a mic at the far end of the room, and put a noise gate on the input so it only picks up the voice when it's sung loudest.
This way, as the vocal performance changed from quiet to almost shouted, more mics came in and re-shaped the sound.

You'll never get the same flavor of real group vocals doing it all yourself. 
The different timbres of different people's voices is just something you can't emulate.
At least as far as I know. Which of course could be some what limited.