Well since your in a DAW forum I'm going to assume you mean making harmonies from a single melody line in post, so here's what you can do:
1) Use a MIDI pitch force plugin, where you play keys and it changes the pitch of the audio by x semitones from the root note (usually defined).
2) Manually pitch force with ReaTune
3) Use a plugin like Pitchproof to automatically force a harmony
If you mean coming up with harmonies to record, here are some tips:
1) avoid parallel 5ths
2) use contrary motion if a part becomes boring
3) try both lower and higher pitches than the main melody
4) don't be afraid to just try single notes with little to no movement, find 1 or 2 notes that are in the scale of all included chords and stick with those - simple is good
5) don't be afraid to have movement in harmonies during a held note in the main melody, this is a great way to attract the attention to the harmonies without getting too complex elsewhere
What about vocal harmonies are you wanting to learn? how to harmonize? how to mix harmonies? Vocal techniques?
If you are wanting to learn how to create harmonies you would want to get some basic music theory.. there are millions of resources out there. You need some basic knowledge of intervals and harmony
Mixing vocals - not my forte.. any thorough mixing tutorials will help. Groove3.com recordingreview.com (killer home recording package)
Reamix etc
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pick out some Beatles and Beach Boys and Queen and CSN&Y tunes and try to sing along all of the voices. after a not so long time you get the idea. (and you trained hearing and singing.)
Sometimes if a harmony is tough for me I copy the main vocal three times and put them on separate tracks, then put a pitch plugin on each of the copied tracks, one set to minor 3rd, one to Major 3rd, the other to 5th and audition by splitting and muting/isolating items against the main vocal track.
It likely wont sound good audio-wise with those large interval audio stretches, its just a way to compose and you can rehearse the seperate lines soloed for later recording perhaps with headphones using the tracks as guides.
Naturally any/all interval[s] can be set on other tracks.
Sometimes if a harmony is tough for me I copy the main vocal three times and put them on separate tracks, then put a pitch plugin on each of the copied tracks, one set to minor 3rd, one to Major 3rd, the other to 5th and audition by splitting and muting/isolating items against the main vocal track.
It likely wont sound good audio-wise with those large interval audio stretches, its just a way to compose and you can rehearse the seperate lines soloed for later recording perhaps with headphones using the tracks as guides.
Naturally any/all interval[s] can be set on other tracks.
Kind of a same-day way of getting things done.
Good interval training too.
Nice tip.
There is something to be said about "just singing", without the help of plug-ins, or autotune.
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root 3rd 5th covers about 99% of it.
The rest is usually resolving or passing notes.
Whatever instrument you play, unless it is "single note only", you can PLAY the harmonies yourself and then figure out singing them.
This isn't rocket surgery, but I have noticed that some people just never "get" vocal harmonies even when dissecting it in the way I just described.
root 3rd 5th covers about 99% of it.
The rest is usually resolving or passing notes.
Whatever instrument you play, unless it is "single note only", you can PLAY the harmonies yourself and then figure out singing them.
This isn't rocket surgery, but I have noticed that some people just never "get" vocal harmonies even when dissecting it in the way I just described.
I don't remember anything that special about them other than Brad's range and the smoothness of his voice harmonizing with itself. He often took one of the normal harmonic intervals an octave up but nothing earth shattering, used to cover their tunes. Even gigged opening for them once when they were RTZ. Brad was the man though and helluva nice guy. Don't get me wrong, I love their harmonies but much of the magic is Brad harmonizing with himself.
To the original subject...
Harmonies are just singing notes in the chords. Start there, find a progression, find the notes in the chords and sing them. Sometimes they move in parallel sometimes they cross paths but the starting point is the basics of notes as they travel from chord to chord.
As Ivan said, not rocket surgery, just needs some baby steps and attention.
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Last edited by karbomusic; 08-14-2014 at 07:10 AM.
Only heard a couple so far. He's selectively doubling a good number of phrases on the lead vocal depending on the song. The other thing is selectively adding the harmonies as well. In other words it sounds like he did this:
1. Sang the lead.
2. Sang the lead again (doubling) in some spots (or doubled the entire thing and muted in some places).
3. Added harmonies wherever he felt like it in an adlib fashion in subsequent runs. I'd almost think those were all his choices.
It reminds me of:
"Hey, can I add some harmonies now?, Sure."
And they ran the tape and he just does a bunch in different places. They sound like good ole diatonic intervals to me but were overdubbed creatively instead of 1/3/5 through the entirety of the line, it's more in and out than that. I also noticed a time or two he sung the usual interval but below the tonic instead of above.
Goes to show how great he was. That one time I gigged with those guys (maybe 1991) they did Longtime in sound check, I was completely blown away because his voice sounded exactly like the album. Dude was incredible and your interest in those vox are surely warranted.
Those are all just a guy singing, no autotune, no copy paste, just pipes and an 8-track tape machine. I want to think they did in Tom's basement over the course of 7 years but my memory fails me at this point.
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Last edited by karbomusic; 08-14-2014 at 01:12 PM.
Thanks, if you find any more in the vocals that are you unique harmony wise I'd be very interested. The doubling I hear clearly but my ear doest yet pick out harmonies so thanks for pointing them out if they are 3/5/octave or otherwise. If you have time and want to go through some of those tracks notating times and what is going on I'd be forever grateful!
Thanks, if you find any more in the vocals that are you unique harmony wise I'd be very interested. The doubling I hear clearly but my ear doest yet pick out harmonies so thanks for pointing them out if they are 3/5/octave or otherwise. If you have time and want to go through some of those tracks notating times and what is going on I'd be forever grateful!
I will certainly try, time is a little tight but I'll do at least one!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ivansc
root 3rd 5th covers about 99% of it.
The rest is usually resolving or passing notes.
sorry, completely wrong.
I strongly recommend classical music theory, at least the groundlaying bit.
1st, 3rd & 5th sounds awful boring. if you want to have something simple, that most of the times works, the sa the best, you have to have the 5th an octave down. thats the least solution that maybe works.
you have to put the lines in such a way, that you can get in one line from one chord to the next with using passing notes. often it comes then, that you end up with 2 lines in the destination chord hitting the same note. maybe thats fine, maybe thats awful and lets collapse the whole thing. so you have to figure that out. and thats where classical music theory (sets for 4 voices) come into play.
its not rocket surgery or brain science (or what??? "rocket surgery"???? wtf is that?? :-)))) you can start with Palaestrina, and with him. its clear, its selfexplaining and it works everytime. from there you get easily (hahahaha) to Beatles, Queen, Beach Boys, Temptations, Supremes, even to Comedian Harmonists.
try it with a midi-string sound and write a 4-voice-piece in using 4 different lines and NOT playing chords. the chords build themselves from the 4 melody lines. if you are done, look at all the chords that emerged from seemingly nowhere. :-)))
Palaestrina is the guy.
edit: for the very advanced J.S. Bach is the guy. look at "the well temperatured piano". these are fugues. fugues consist of 2 - 4 independent melodies. that are woven together in a very, very artistic and crafted way. but you can sing them. you could this masterwork of Bach with 4 singers. its the bible of harmonies.
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whiteaxx: YES there are musical forms that use 6, 9, what have you.
And SURE passing notes are relevant, as I already said.
But the OP was asking about what is essentially POP harmonies.
You know? moon june spoon?
He apparently already has some difficulty "hearing" harmonies, so now is probably not the best time to sully the waters introducing anything more sophisticated.
I strongly recommend classical music theory, at least the groundlaying bit.
1st, 3rd & 5th sounds awful boring. if you want to have something simple, that most of the times works, the sa the best, you have to have the 5th an octave down. thats the least solution that maybe works.
you have to put the lines in such a way, that you can get in one line from one chord to the next with using passing notes. often it comes then, that you end up with 2 lines in the destination chord hitting the same note. maybe thats fine, maybe thats awful and lets collapse the whole thing. so you have to figure that out. and thats where classical music theory (sets for 4 voices) come into play.
its not rocket surgery or brain science (or what??? "rocket surgery"???? wtf is that?? :-)))) you can start with Palaestrina, and with him. its clear, its selfexplaining and it works everytime. from there you get easily (hahahaha) to Beatles, Queen, Beach Boys, Temptations, Supremes, even to Comedian Harmonists.
try it with a midi-string sound and write a 4-voice-piece in using 4 different lines and NOT playing chords. the chords build themselves from the 4 melody lines. if you are done, look at all the chords that emerged from seemingly nowhere. :-)))
Palaestrina is the guy.
edit: for the very advanced J.S. Bach is the guy. look at "the well temperatured piano". these are fugues. fugues consist of 2 - 4 independent melodies. that are woven together in a very, very artistic and crafted way. but you can sing them. you could this masterwork of Bach with 4 singers. its the bible of harmonies.
Good post, the issue of tempo and contour arises though doesn't it?
And if the lead [voc for example] is moving fast [uptempo] it often sounds better if theres eg 'lag' in the harmonies. A lot to do with feeling of course, and yes Bachs harmony is the benchmark imho.
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Coachz: Gave a few of the Boston pseudo-acapella tracks a listen and there really isnt anything there that is NOT either doubled or basic intervals.
What may be fooling your ear on some of the backing vocals is that they alternate between the third HIGH and the third Low, or the same with the fifth.
It might do your ear some good to find and listen to interviews with the guys from the memphis horns about how they voiced their two and three part harmony horn parts.
You will be surprised by how much of their stuff is essentially TWO note harmonies, where sax and trumpet either swap top to bottom on the interval changes or switch to a different interval.
For those interested this guy does some great stuff on youtube. Galeazzo Frudua is his name. He takes songs and breaks down all the vocal parts. Well worth a listen I thought.
To the OP: And then, after all the above discussion about creating harmonies that track the established lead vocal, consider the fact that there is the whole separate art of creating harmonies that do something different behind the lead vocal but still support it (like Beatle "oooh la la la"s)—which can be equally or even more magical than harmonies with parallel diction.
Last edited by Rhizomorph; 08-15-2014 at 01:36 PM.
To the OP: And then, after all the above discussion about creating harmonies that track the established lead vocal, consider the fact that there is the whole separate art of creating harmonies that do something different behind the lead vocal but still support it (like Beatle "oooh la la la"s)—which can be equally or even more magical than harmonies with parallel diction.
Ivan is spot on, the vast majority is 1/3/5 and passing notes are completely irrelevant until they get the basics down; if we are talking about basic pop harmonization and the basics of hearing a simple harmony. It's the same reason 1st grade doesn't begin with particle physics. They are like that because those are the chords they are singing over. The last thing one should do is dive into classical theory just because they want to learn how to sing basic harmonies; that would do nothing but frustrate them. There is nothing worse than overcomplicating something simple for a beginner.
It's akin to suggesting a degree in chemistry for a person asking to learn how to bake good cookies.
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Last edited by karbomusic; 08-15-2014 at 07:23 PM.
Ideally though one would just hear it your head and just get it out on to your instrument or vocal chords or notate it not even knowing the theory of it all. Just knowing that it sounds great. If only ..
Actually the internet can be a great place to learn about many things including harmonies. However the above posts merely are of videos that have harmonies and they are not teaching harmony. THAT is akin to me showing you a video of me writing code and not explaining what it does. It doesn't teach anything to someone like me who is a total beginner.
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Heh - Took me a few minutes to figure out what you REALLY wanted to direct us to in that first post, Coachz!
If anyone is really desperate enough, I suppose I could bash out a quick and dirty MIDI or audio file illustrating the basic intervals involved and how they work, but I come back to the Memphis Horns again.
Go hunt up any and all interviews with them - there are several, audio only and some audio and video.
A masterclass in how to achieve a huge end result using practically nothing.
Get that lot under your belt then go listen again to a few basic and not-so-basic harmony-rich tunes.
Beatles are a fairly good place to start as you get more confident in your ability to isolate each line. Nothing very complicated there but lots of interesting and not so obvious harmonies used. Also (gulp) dare I suggest Crazy Brian and his "brothers", the Beach Boys? Classic 3 note harmonies for the most part but with some great wall of sound part here and there.
vocal harmonies? any good tutorial?
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