Ar. I'm looking for pro's help here. Can anyone please guide me to backup? It's like singing on the 3rd or 5th key from the ORI key... Any programn will help or smth? or just stick to the piano and practisE? anyone pls. thx alot ya.

there's a few plugins you can use for helping your backup voice which is called the harmonizer and pitch shifter. You can use it for your harmony.

stick with the piano if you already have one. It's good enough

mind telling where to get it? pls. thx

you can get it at computer shop that sells audio software... Where do you stay by the way?

currently staying in subang jaya. ar, isit related?

yup, its related. you're staying in subang, if u want, i can pass the plugins to you though.

you need to do a lot of experiments, listen to a lot of songs and observe the backing vocals.

on top of that, you must have a strong music theory in terms of harmony (chords), or else you'll stuck when there're chords you don't know.

and most importantly, backing vocal need well trained ear to listen to the harmony, you'll have to tell what kind of chords are they by just listening or it'll be time consuming to analyze them on piano.

a few approach are 3rds, 5ths, 6ths, and octaves. sometimes 4ths are also nice. dig out your SATB of the ABRSM Theory but it's not classical so breaking the rules is OK given that it sounds good.

btw, nobody in the profesional field ever want to use software to do backing vocals, they'll never cut it.

This post has been edited by little ice: Aug 17 2008, 04:45 PM

u staying in subang too? i'm in ss15.

i agree with you little ice. But not all in the professional industry doesn't use the harmonizer and pitch shifter. They need to use it if they have to. But for this case from TS, he can use both plugins and the piano. It doesn't harm to use the plugins anyway, Why don't we give TS a try rite little ice? http://s.lowyat.net/style_images/1/folder_...icons/icon1.gif

i didn't state not allowing TS to use plugin, but to achieve a good result it's better to sing the harmonized part ala backing vocal himself, and i did give some tips on how to do it.

the problem with plugins is it'll alter the original audio source, so as you know, altering the original signal source will introduce quite some artifacts. not that it's shit, the audio source has to be good too ala good mic/soundcard. also altering the original source means you're actually doubling the original source, so the transients/timing/intonation will be the same although the pitch will be altered, it'll result in way more phasing issue than just singing another part.

regarding the professional field, yes there are people who use plugins or simply digital processor but not for the proper backing vocal type of thing, they're used to create special effect e.g. pitch shift an octave down can create a special bottom harmonics for the main vocal. similar thing goes to guitar harmonizer pedal, you can create special sound but you can't recreate double lead guitar sound.

i used to be a backup vocal for an artist and i also have an a capella group...
for me, u have to listen lots of songs e.g a capella, Rnb's, especially vcal groups..

btw no need software to do back up vocals.. just listen and lots of practice...

good luck!!

the piano will definitely do enough for you.
the rest is left for practice.

the software is nothing more than a shortcut.
using the piano will teach u more