HERE"S the deal...where background vocals sit in your mix is mostly dependent on your SONIC and subconscious perception as to where they belong. If all your life you've been more subjected to songs and genres where the backgounds are more (or less) prevalent in a final mix then asking for an opinion outside YOUR experience is going to be a non starter. I will assume that the volume of YOUR background vocals are, from a level perception, outside an acceptable range, listen to songs styles and/genres that are FAR different from YOUR normal experience. The fix may actually be as simple as raising (or lowering) a bus or track....or nothing.

BMOG


@guitarhacker the quality of this song is awesome, was all of this done in Sonar?  

Yes. All tracks were recorded into and mixed in X1 Essentials.

Getting the mix you are wanting is a matter of listening to things you like very, very carefully to note exactly what they are doing. Then..... try to emulate that in your mixes. It will take some time to get it right. But.... what else do you have but time? 

The idea of doubling a vocal with a second one that was barely audible was something I picked up on these forums quite some time back. I simply applied the same principle to the harmonies. This technique is used a lot in Nashville on country music. If you listen to country, the singer will be singing and you'll be wondering if it's a solo track or harmony because it sounds like both...or neither.... just fatter and better. 

On this project... I did melodyne the lead vocal to pitch correct the little things like drifting a note..... but  the second lower vocal was not touched. timing and pitch were left as recorded. I do not believe the harmony tracks were fixed either. I'd have to go back and solo them to know for sure, but I rarely fix anything but the lead vocals. Especially when the BGHV are so far down in the mix and fairly accurate to pitch to start with. 

If I was doing an Eagles sort of harmony....where the BGHV are as prominent as the lead vocals,  they would all be run through the melodyne strainer. 

Thank you...I'm glad you liked this song. 

twisted6s


HERE"S the deal...where background vocals sit in your mix is mostly dependent on your SONIC and subconscious perception as to where they belong. If all your life you've been more subjected to songs and genres where the backgounds are more (or less) prevalent in a final mix then asking for an opinion outside YOUR experience is going to be a non starter. I will assume that the volume of YOUR background vocals are, from a level perception, outside an acceptable range, listen to songs styles and/genres that are FAR different from YOUR normal experience. The fix may actually be as simple as raising (or lowering) a bus or track....or nothing.

Very interesting point of view makes perfect sense

Sometimes, if you have alot of vox, you need to "thin" each vox, using EQ, taking out the highs and lows to remover freqs that are "not important", and only keeping the freqs that are "really important".
This helps the overall mix and allows you to push the parts you want without lossing the main vox or have things competing for space.
A little reverb can also help push a vox back in the mix.

I like to BUS the BGs and cutoff a little low end, compress and EQ the bus instead of each one individually (unless they are problematic). I also thicken the lead vox with MaxBass plugin to make it stand out more. I usually do a double (Left and Right) of each back ground vocals (unless it needs to only sound like a quartet or a 3 person group). I like to then pan the doubles 100% hard left and right. sometimes 50/50 on other doubles to round the sound more. Leave a whole for the lead in the middle. Depends on the content though.

Not an expert here but I have read and had success with EQ by keeping the lead vox with more highs and lows and less mids (relatively speaking) and the BGV with more mids and less highs and lows.
(Of course this is as well as volume, comp, reverb, delay and panning considerations.)