Start To Finish: Vance Powell - Episode 23 - Recording The Background Vocals

00:00:23
We've got some BGVs.

00:00:26
Gabby is gonna sing in the Bridge.

00:00:30
OK.

00:00:31
Wanna try it? Yeah, I'm not totally sure what I'm gonna do so let's just see.

00:00:50
I kind of heard what you're doing, it sounded cool.

00:00:53
Just keep doing it.

00:00:55
It will be good.

00:00:56
It's gonna be really cool, we're gonna make it really huge.

00:00:59
It's gonna be cool.

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Alright? OK.

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Here we go again.

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You're figuring it out.

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-OK? -Can I actually...

00:01:29
maybe have the piano out.

00:01:31
Yep.

00:01:32
Alright, let's try it again.

00:01:57
Cool.

00:01:58
Just the first one for me.

00:02:15
Nice.

00:02:17
Do me a favor, I'm gonna punch you in here, I want you to do those...

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you were just doing.

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Like when you're figuring out your pitch.

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Because we might synthesize those later.

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Do you want me to just do 'Oohs' on the first part of the Bridge? -Yeah. -OK, cool.

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And if we use them we'll use them and if we don't, we don't.

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Here we go.

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Alright, groovy.

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Now let's do a double of that.

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Cool? Of the 'oohs'? The 'oohs' and the end.

00:03:02
The whole thing.

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OK.

00:03:03
Here we go.

00:03:20
Yeah, that's cool.

00:03:22
The double, right? First line.

00:03:25
Cool? OK.

00:03:35
I like that.

00:03:37
Trouble finding the pitch on the first word. The 'no'.

00:03:40
I felt like it might have been pitchy.

00:03:46
Feeling good.

00:03:47
OK, cool.

00:03:47
So now, we're going to go to the next part of this part.

00:03:52
Is that a harmony? Know what I'm saying? Let me think about it.

00:03:57
Yeah, let's make it really big and dreamy I could start with the lower note, maybe...

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Like...

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Play a C for me.

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Like, start on that note...

00:04:15
-That'd be cool. -Maybe? You want to do the 'oohs'? OK.

00:04:20
Yeah.

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You know? Let's make this whole thing really dreamy.

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Ready? Here we go.

00:04:43
That's all right, that's all right.

00:04:45
I'm not sure about that last one.

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Alright.

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We'll get them all again.

00:05:06
You want to figure it out? -One second, one second. -OK, figure it out.

00:05:15
You like that? Yeah, let's try that.

00:05:19
I'll be over here if you need to hear it.

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Alright, I haven't worked this out so we'll see how it goes.

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OK.

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All good girl.

00:05:31
OK.

00:05:34
OK, it's really dumb sounding, right? But, here we go.

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Thank you.

00:05:41
Beautiful.

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Perfect.

00:05:49
OK, here we go, we'll do all the 4 'oohs'.

00:06:07
Yeah, that was great.

00:06:09
Pitchy pitchy but...

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That's not as pitchy as you think, we've got you in solo here, so...

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-Do you wanna do the double of that? -That harmony? Yeah, that piece.

00:06:19
Do the double of the 'oohs'.

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-So you want the same part I just did? -The same thing.

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Here we go.

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OK.

00:06:40
It kind of broke up there.

00:06:42
The Fairchild is kind of crushing.

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-You want one more? -Hold on one second.

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OK.

00:06:48
Hold on, I gotta turn it down a little bit.

00:06:54
Here we go, one more time please.

00:07:12
Yeah.

00:07:12
Are you sure? I feel like that last note is supposed to be minor.

00:07:17
Or some...

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Let me listen.

00:07:36
It's just kind of cool but...

00:07:39
Yeah. It's cool man.

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-Do you like it? -Yeah, let's keep it.

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-OK, cool. -We like it.

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As Fab just said, it's bluesy.

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-And that's cool. -Alright.

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Cool.

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Now let's get the back half.

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The idea, I think, was to do like.

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And then...

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build the Harmony after.

00:08:02
Sure, OK.

00:08:03
OK.

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Here we go.

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Alright, something like that. Let's get the very first note.

00:08:22
Better than that though.

00:08:23
Yeah.

00:08:23
Here we go, get it again.

00:08:37
Yep, that got it. Let's do the double, this will be on three.

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Here we go.

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Give me a second, I'm gonna mute those 'oohs'.

00:09:00
Here we go, one more time.

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First line.

00:09:07
Yep, you got it.

00:09:19
That's pretty cool sounding.

00:09:21
Better than I thought it would sound.

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Yeah, you're a good singer Gabby.

00:09:26
Let me hear what this sounds like in context.

00:09:55
Cool, that was awesome.

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Now, is there anything else that goes with this? I don't think so.

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No high part or anything like that? It's OK.

00:10:07
I don't think so.

00:10:08
I think it's well balanced.

00:10:11
I mean, I'd add something if you want me to.

00:10:13
No, come on in.

00:10:14
OK.

00:10:20
I am going to do something stupid now.

00:10:34
So you just extended them.

00:10:37
Wow! Because, you know...

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What are you gonna do? We got tools.

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Supposedly they're professional.

00:11:03
You know, like that.

00:11:06
Man, it sounds pretty good.

00:11:09
Now, Mike, can you do me a favor? Yeah.

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Can you come out, Pro Tools out into a mic cable.

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And then run it over and plug it into the back of this Vocoder.

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You know what I mean? Yep, I'll just grab an XLR real quick.

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So now I used to be, you know, I used to be from Missouri and forever I said this wrong, I didn't call it a Vocoder.

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I called it a "Voquarter".

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But that was wrong.

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And I was told "You dumb-ass from Missouri." "It's not a Voquarter." "It's a Vocoder".

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That was it.

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It's got a Mic In, just go in the ... right there.

00:12:06
Well, or here.

00:12:08
There you go.

00:12:10
I have to turn this way down, so hold on a second here.

00:12:14
So I'm just wondering if this would be the same as a piano part I played before.

00:12:20
It's got to go with the voices.

00:12:21
So...

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It's basically, what I want to do is I want to, like, 'vocoderfy' the voices.

00:12:29
Like, the 'oohs'? OK.

00:12:34
OK, so we're going to isolate them.

00:12:36
Or do you want me to play them in chords? I think you can play them in chords.

00:12:41
Yeah, I gotta remember what I actually... Cool.

00:12:44
Just check it out.

00:12:46
Yeah, I think I know what to do.

00:12:48
Let's do just the melody first.

00:12:50
I want just to make sure they work. So, just play.

00:13:04
Yeah, here we go, one more time.

00:13:11
The vibrato is pretty deep right now.

00:13:15
Yeah, turn all that down.

00:13:22
Could you go up an octave? OK, so here's the track.

00:13:40
Yeah, you're just going to play along with...

00:13:54
OK, OK. I see what I did now.

00:14:06
I kinda want more of a synthy sounding.

00:14:08
We have that string setting.

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So hold on one second.

00:14:13
Do this for me.

00:14:16
Because it may be that this is just...

00:14:20
So you want me to talk into it while I play.

00:14:23
Just sing... Just do that thing.

00:14:26
While playing it? While playing it.

00:14:28
Yeah, let's see what it sounds like now.

00:14:49
So now you're getting somewhere So, yeah, keep going.

00:15:03
So now do the line.

00:15:11
Yeah, there you go.

00:15:19
Yikes.

00:15:21
Yeah.

00:15:21
So you have to do it kind of quiet.

00:15:24
Here we go.

00:15:42
That's cool.

00:15:43
I could have done that last one better.

00:15:45
Do it again, here we go.

00:16:03
Alright, cool.

00:16:05
Let's do the second part of that.

00:16:23
Just the first line.

00:16:34
Great.

00:16:35
OK.

00:16:37
I just want this little synthy weird and then I'm gonna do stuff to it afterwards.

00:16:43
You guys are done for the night.

00:16:44
OK, what's my homework? Homework is saxophone.

00:16:47
It might be cool if there's just some, sort of...

00:16:52
It's kind of so big now I'm just not quite sure, I kind of had it more of a Disco song, originally.

00:17:00
I know.

00:17:01
Now it's not so much of that.

00:17:02
We broke up the fuzz pedals...

00:17:04
I know man...

00:17:07
But it might be cool if there was a thing like a saxophone in the chorus.

00:17:12
You know? Like...

00:17:16
On top or something.

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But also that...

00:17:19
That's like such a saxophone lick.

00:17:22
And I can do harmony.

00:17:23
Yeah.

00:17:24
Very cool.

00:17:26
So, thank you.

00:17:27
Good work.

00:17:28
And tomorrow I think, really, we'll do the sax.

00:17:34
And then we'll mix.

00:17:35
Great!