The proven platform for making your mixes sound like professional songs,
even if you have no previous experience.
Lock-in my 70% perpetual discount today = $19.90 /month
How To Blend Your BGV Perfectly
The lead vocal is more often than not the topic of discussion in mixing. One frequently ignored topic is the BGV or background vocal.
Although this is understandable, knowing how to blend your BGV in with your lead vocal is an invaluable skill to have.
Follow these steps to create a background vocal that blends seamlessly with your lead, effectively creating a BGV that creates a full sound, without interfering with the lead vocal.
Keep in mind that although this technique is useful, it may not be applicable for all songs or genres. Use your ear and better judgement, to know when to best implement this technique.
Creating a Reverb Dominate Auxiliary
Step 1: Create an auxiliary track and set the send to unity. On this auxiliary track, insert your favorite reverb plugin. Lastly adjust the time of the reverb to tempo of the track. Watch our video “Use Your Compressor Musically,” for an explanation detailing how to accomplish this.
The reverb time is in time with the tempo of the track.
Step 2: On the auxiliary track, insert an EQ after your reverb plugin. Cut some of the mid range and high end, to reduce vocal intelligibility. Essentially you want the auxiliary send to blur and blend into the original signal.
630Hz has been attenuated by 6dB using a 'bell filter.' The high end has been attenuated by 5.5dB from 5.5kHz and up.
Step 3: Change the bus or send you create from ‘Post Pan’ to ‘Pre Fader.’ This will allow you to turn down the volume of your original BGV track, while maintaining the volume of the auxiliary send. Otherwise, you won’t be able to make the auxiliary track dominate to the original signal.
Step 4: Blend both the original signal and auxiliary signal in with your mix. Again, the auxiliary track should be louder than your original signal. Blend them in slowly with your mix, until you content. At this point, your blurred and highly reverberated auxiliary send will blend seamlessly with your lead vocal.
Notice that the original harmony is set much lower than the auxiliary send.
Conclusion:
If you want a BGV that doesn’t interfere with your lead vocal, one that only provides fullness and support, then this technique is perfect for you. Keep this technique in mind for whenever you want an background instrument to blend in with a lead. Its usefulness can extend beyond how it was demonstrated here.
How do you blend in your BGVs?
Sage Audio Membership
Make Pro Songs
There are 8 unique value-points inside the Sage Audio membership, so let’s go over each one so you can decide if it’s the right fit for you.
1. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
You’ll get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
Unlimited revisions with your dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
The Sage Audio 1:1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us to answer all your questions and receive unlimited advanced mixing feedback directly from us.
Unlimited direct access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve your mixes and masters.
Unlimited advanced mixing feedback with detailed suggestions for improvement.
Fast communication to answer all your questions and get tailored guidance that’s specific to your needs.
Unlimited mixing feedback so you can improve your mixes quickly.
This is highly valuable - giving you access to a thriving community of mixing engineers who can provide feedback about what you can improve before sending your mix to be professionally mastered.
SAU is a modern audio engineering education platform that includes in-depth mixing and mastering course curriculums that match the new music industry.
SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from first-time mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout every course curriculum.
SAU course curriculums include Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website, social channels, and portfolio for as long as you remain a member.
Get first access to all future SAU course curriculums to continually build and refine your mixing and mastering skills as the industry evolves.
The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into playlists so you can take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your mixing and mastering skills at your own pace.
