Backing vocals come in a lot of varieties: harmonies, doubles, gang vocals, or simply parts which are unique from but not priority like the lead. Let’s talk how to mix background vocals.
How to Mix Background Vocals
The key in getting your background vocals to sound great is to contrast them with the lead, and there are a number of ways to do that.
Let’s talk how to mix background vocals, starting with EQ.
EQ
Background vocals are all about contrasting with the lead vocal.
As I mentioned in my overview on how to mix double tracked vocals, a good way to create that contrast and separation is through some filtering.
A lot of times, if the background vocals are treated exactly the same as the lead, you get frequency conflicts so neither the lead or the background vocals are quite as impactful in the mix as they fight with one another.
An easy way to combat this is to add a high pass filter to the background vocals and filter 100-200Hz HIGHER than you did on the lead.
This somewhat palpably thins out the background vocals which both makes them slot in better around the lead, helps that lead stand out more, and maybe most importantly helps the background and lead vocals gel together better.
To further contrast those background vocals and create more space for the lead, add a low pass filter between 5-6k to soften the top end.
Again, in the context of the full mix, this adjustment is only somewhat noticeable but goes a long way in helping the background and lead vocals work together.
Compression
I’ve talked about a number of techniques for keeping your vocal up front in the mix before which is important because the lead vocal IS the most important element of most mixes.
Part of keeping a vocal up front comes from driving the lead vocal’s compressor hard, particularly with a relatively high ratio.
This ensures that there’s very little dynamic range in that lead vocal, keeping it front and center in the mix despite what’s happening around it instrumentally.
By contrast, we generally don’t want to drive the compression on background vocals nearly as hard.
Stick with a more average compressor ratio of 4:1 to bring some cohesion to your background vocals without giving them the up front attention that the lead vocal is getting and deserves.
Even the difference in the compression ratio can help to contrast your background vocal with the lead.
Reverb
Another way to create space for one track is to send another track farther back in the mix via reverb.
I like to create a dedicated Aux/Return track for all of my background vocals to use as a send. I can blend in as much as I want to push those vocals back and create that third dimensional separation.
My vocal reverb cheat sheet works well for dialing in the right settings for your background vocals:
I like to model my background vocals after “Reverb 2”, potentially adding more time or certainly changing up the additional “Character” settings to give them their own flavor, listed below as “Color/Tone”:
The idea is to push these background vocals a bit farther into the background than your lead vocal.
This can be done with a slightly longer decay time or conversely darkening the character via the “Character, Thickness, and Distance” settings of a reverb plugin like Pro-R 2. This helps to further contrast it with the lead vocal like we did with the EQ filter(s).
Now you simply blend in as much of this dedicated background vocal reverb via the send knob, blending in as much as you like from track to track to give them more of that flavor and to push them farther back in the mix.
Panning Background Vocals
Panning is one of the most important aspects of how to mix background vocals because this is where we can really get these out of the way of the lead and create some separation between the two.
It’s not just about propping that lead up, it’s about giving the background vocals their own unique space in the mix where they can easily be heard and differentiated, as well.
I broke down how to pan backing vocals by type, assigning each type its own location in the stereo field:
Doubled Vocals
As you can see, those doubled vocals go hard left and right. While the other types of backing vocals are more flexible, doubles tend to work best when they’re panned 100% left and right like this.
Note that if you don’t have TWO doubles, or essentially triple tracked vocals, you can easily create them yourself at least on the chorus.
Most mixes have a different take for each chorus, so unless the melody changes between any of them, you essentially have three sets of vocals for the part of the song you’ll most likely want to use those doubles on – the chorus.
Harmony Vocals
While there’s no hard rule as to the best spot to pan harmony vocals, that is a background vocal which is singing the same basic melody as the lead, just pitched up or down slightly for typically thirds, fourths, and fifths, they typically sound best when they’re blended closely with the lead.
You tend to lose that audible honey you get from the blend when you separate them too much, so I like to just pan them slightly off center.
Around 10% off center works well for harmony vocals so that they have a little separation from the lead but they’re still close enough to create that lovely blend.
Unique Backing Vocals
The same rule applies to unique backing vocals, in that there is no hard rule for them in terms of where to pan them to have them sound best.
Hard left or right works well, particularly if the melody is in a similar vocal range as the lead.
Pushing it farther out of the way helps to avoid frequency conflicts, though the filtering I covered earlier also helps to keep it out of the way of the lead while giving it its own unique sound.
You can likely pick up on an ongoing theme as being the key in how to mix background vocals – you want to contrast them with the lead to make BOTH vocals (lead and background) to hit better.
Filter them, don’t drive them as hard on the compression as the lead, pan them wide of the lead save for the case of direct harmonies to give them two dimensional separation, and push them back a bit in the mix via reverb for that third dimension separation.
These are the keys to allowing both types of vocals (lead and all background) to exist in harmony and make your mix sound much better as a result.
