Metal Vocal ensembles. How to record solo?

Metal Vocal ensembles. How to record solo? 

So, I'm trying to put some sweet metal choral ensembles in songs, but I can't get it to sound right. My basic theory is to record about six thousand tracks with different vocal sounds (some more raspy, some more throaty, etc) at different mic positions, layer them with some reverb, and adjust the levels on each. However, I'm having zero luck. Has anyone found a decent way to do this? If you're confused about what I'm talking about, here are a few examples. No links, I'm afraid: 1) The "go to hell" on the song Go to Hell by Megadeth 2) The "you're dead" on Surprise! You're Dead! by Faith no More 3) The "time" "famine" "pestilence" "death" on The Four Horsemen by Metallica 4) The "I want some milk" in Milk (Ode to Billy) by Anthrax 5) The "if you hate me" in Hate Me by Children of Bodom 6) The "to shred" in The Art of Shredding by Pantera 7) The "in - to - the - pit" in Into the Pit by Testament I'm out of examples. Anyway, I know that there's no hard-and-fast rule for how to mix these blasted things, but I'm just looking for ideas. Eq? Reverd? Slight distortion? You be the judge! Thanks in advance. By the way, if you're reading this thread, you're committed to posting a reply. That's the deal :-)

Well if I'm commited... It sounds like you've got the right idea. Were the recordings you mentioned all done by the same vocalist? How far from the mic are you getting in your various mic placements? I don't think I have any of the tracks you refer to so I'm a little in the dark as to what you're looking to do still. Either way, if you're doing all the vocals yourself, you can't expect it to sound too much like a real group of people.

All of those songs are bad ass! Have you tried a different recording space for these tracks - maybe in a bathroom (just an example) or another place with some nice natural reverb? Maybe nudging a few of the tracks a few milliseconds in either direction would help to fatten it up a bit. Also, do you have any one else available that could track a few takes for you using the different vocal methods you've mentioned? Good luck dude! Never tried doing this, so interested to hear how you do!

I've never done that but I have heard some of those songs and the first ideas that come to my mind are -Apply reverb, natural or within Reaper, very short. Like a slapback. -EQ the f*ck out or it. From what I recall those "gang" vocals have a narrow frequency content different from the main vocal and no bottom end at all. I could be wrong, however.

Have you tried a little pitch shifted, mixed with the original vox. I have seen this done live and it works well for metal.

Here's something I did in a few hours this morning that might demonstrate what I'm going for. This is a cover of "Against" by Sepultura. During the chorus, there's a quesion/answer vocal theme going on, with one part saying "don't do that" and the other saying "I knew it". The "don't do that" segments are supposed to have this gang-vocal sort of thing, but with less reverb than the above mentioned songs. What are your thoughts? I think that the variety in the actual recorded vocals, coupled with panning and volume adjustments, give it a pretty cool sound.

>>By the way, if you're reading this thread, you're committed to posting a reply. That's the deal. gawt damn, dude. Nice. All the guitars through UX2?

Ack.. so I'm committed. Do multiple takes of the part with very slight variations. Now copy these to duplicate tracks, say SRC -> L & R and then apply slight pitch shifting by few semitones so the ear hears them seperately from the originals. You could also try small delay times. EQ thinly. Pan widely. And then compress the sum of all tracks to form an even layer, after that reverb to taste. Some of the best results though : A hardware harmonizer. There are no real plugin alternatives. And those things are darn expensive..

Dang. I really want to hear this but Stashbox is blocked at work (audiocave works for some reason)... I'll be back.....