Harmony Recording Awesomeness
How To Record Amazing Vocal Harmonies!
Recording your music alone in your home studio can be challenging, especially if you want vocal harmonies in your song. What if you don’t know any other singers? And even if you do, getting them to your place, teaching them the parts, and then recording everybody can be a huge hassle.
I grew up loving groups like Journey, Kansas, Queen, Chicago, the Beatles, Boston, The Eagles, ELO and Dan Fogelberg. They all had incredible sounding vocal harmony and I wanted to sing those songs.
I grew up loving groups like Journey, Kansas, Queen, Chicago, the Beatles, Boston, The Eagles, ELO and Dan Fogelberg. They all had incredible sounding vocal harmony and I wanted to sing those songs.
Problem: Of all my friends who could sing, NONE of them could sing harmony for some reason
Solution: Sing all the harmonies myself!
Solution: Sing all the harmonies myself!
How did I do that back then?
Well it wasn’t easy in the 80s! I used two tape recorders and bounced my voice back and forth between them until there was 3 or 4 part harmony. It was cool, but it was god-awful noisy (gotta love cassette tape recording). And I certainly could not afford to go to a recording studio.
I was stuck doing things this way until computer recording came around with easily affordable high-quality sound and unlimited tracks. If this technology had been available when I was a kid, I may never have seen the light of day:).
I was stuck doing things this way until computer recording came around with easily affordable high-quality sound and unlimited tracks. If this technology had been available when I was a kid, I may never have seen the light of day:).
Flash forward to today!
Now everyone can afford great- sounding recording capability. And anyone can record harmonies and make them sound like Queen, or Kansas…if they know the right techniques.
Hear what just one voice (mine) can sound like (of course you can do this with multiple singers too:))
Hear what just one voice (mine) can sound like (of course you can do this with multiple singers too:))
Do I need expensive gear?
Nope. You can do amazing things with just a decent USB mic (~$60) and free recording software. You can then do even more with Reaper software, a large diaphragm condenser mic and a USB recording interface box. And all of that is STILL less expensive than going to a commercial recording studio.
Do I need audio recording experience?
Nope again. This course shows you the basics using tow different recording programs – Audacity (free!) and the totally professional but crazy-affordable Reaper software ($65).
What if I’m the only singer?
This course will show you how to sing harmony with yourself! Take a listen to the audio samples below, where ALL the harmony parts were sung by just one person, layering audio tracks one at a time.
Will I learn about harmony-generating software?
Yes, you absolutely will. Though the focus of the course is how to record real singing by real people, sometimes using software to generate harmonies can be easier or faster or just allow you to create different effects. There is a 4-part lesson showing you how to use three different harmony programs – ReaVoice (free, as it comes with Reaper), Harmony Engine EVO, and Vielklang Instant Harmony). These 3rd-party plugins tend to be a bit costly, but they have trial periods to try them out.
So What Do I Get?
These 18 videos will show you step-by step – using either the free Audacity, or the crazy-affordable super-professional software called Reaper, how to start recording your own awesome vocal harmonies
- Introduction to “Harmony Recording Awesomeness”
- Lesson 1: Getting Started w/ Audio Recording Using Free Audacity Software (2 pts)
- Lesson 2: It’s Recorded – Now What? – Editing Your Audio (2 parts)
- Lesson 3: Adding More Tracks, Mixing Them, and Exporting The Final Audio File
- Lesson 4: Multi-Track Recording: The Thing That Allows You To Record Harmonies
- Lesson 5: Time To Sing Harmony With Yourself
- Lesson 6: Upgrade To Professional Sound And Software (Reaper)
- Lesson 7: Basic Recording And Mixing In Reaper
- Lesson 8: Multi-track Recording In Reaper
- Lesson 9: Recording Harmony In Reaper (3 Parts)
- Lesson 10, Pt 1: Creating Harmonies With Software – 1st Doing It The Regular Way
- Lesson 10, Pt 2a: Creating Harmonies With Software – ReaVoice (Free With Reaper)
- Lesson 10, Pt 2b: Creating Harmonies With Software – ReaTune (Free With Reaper)
- Lesson 10, Pt 3a: Creating Harmonies w/Software – Harmony Engine EVO (2 videos)
- Lesson 10, Pt 4: Creating Harmonies w/Software – Vielklang Instant Harmony
- Lesson 11: Learning Harmony Parts Using MIDI files
Here is a video from the course:
So if you love vocal harmony and you want to record amazing vocal harmonies on your computer in an hour or two, this course is for you!
[Much of the material in this course also appears in The Newbies Guide to Audio Recording Awesomeness course. Current owners of the previous courses can contact us here for special discount pricing.]
[Much of the material in this course also appears in The Newbies Guide to Audio Recording Awesomeness course. Current owners of the previous courses can contact us here for special discount pricing.]
Start recording incredible vocal harmonies now for only $39
Double-click to edit button text.And if you are not satisfied, we’re not satisfied. Let us know why the course didn’t work for you and we’ll make it right!