When it comes to record-making, vocal harmonies can be the icing on the cake. For the producing engineer, doing it with the artist for real takes time and skill. For those times when the artist isn’t there, we look at one tool that could offer a serious alternative.

In Summary

When harmonies are needed, and doing it for real is still the preferred method when the talent is in the studio. However for those times when the artist is absent or otherwise unable to record, using a tool such as Antares Harmony Engine can be used to bridge the gap.

Going Deeper

Harmonies For The Arrangement

Far from being a contrivance to give vocals on record the wow factor, vocal harmony has been a staple of musical composition, spanning centuries and genres taking in classical, choral, gospel, and beyond. From its blues and folk routes, modern western styles borrow heavily from the traditions of two and three part harmony, often arranged to reflect either the number of sections in a choir or performers in smaller groups of singers. With many bands of the twentieth century laying claim to the ‘harmony group’ moniker, harmonies that are integral to the arrangement continue to pervade to the present.

Harmonies For Texture

There are still plenty of genres that do not lean on harmonies for their arrangements; indeed any style that trades on minimal elements such as Hip Hop or Punk would in many cases sound too sweet with them in. With record-making and what happens on stage not as closely bound as the listener might think, it is still common for music that is seemingly free of harmonies to feature them nonetheless. While opinions vary as to whether recording parts in unison can ever be considered as ‘harmony’, plenty of records exploit octave layering at sometimes imperceivable levels in the mix to bring depth without sacrificing the song’s overall leanings.

Harvesting Harmonies

When extra parts are needed, given the right conditions most producers and engineers will understandably work with the artist to add layers as needed. This of course is not always an option, with factors such as the presence or absence of the necessary arranging or musical skills, or those of the singer themself all playing their part.

Given the right tool, extra voices can be generated thanks to modern tools such as Antares’ Harmony Engine. Taking advantage of the company’s mature pitch and time manipulation technologies, Harmony Engine sets out to bring intervallic enhancement from an intuitive GUI.

In the video we take advantage of Harmony Engine’s easy-to-navigate layout that makes it easy to see which auto-generated voices are doing what in terms of their intervals and the level at which they’re ‘singing’. We create a three part block harmony with an existing mono vocal, complete with organic imperfections for realism. We then further demonstrate its voices’ realism by generating a simple unison part, before going back to harmony and opening the doors to a whole load more than just three or four singers…

Antares Harmony Engine Headline Features:

• Professional harmonies from a single source

• Four independently adjustable harmony voices

• Humanize control for natural-sounding performances

• Create vocal arrangements note-by-note or automatically

• Compatible with the Auto-Key plug-in and Auto-Key Mobile

Conclusions

For generating harmonies from thin air, Antares Harmony Engine is more than just competent, both in terms of function and realism. Given the complexities of synthesising humanity’s oldest instrument, and overcoming the listener’s innate ability to smell a rat with all things voice-related, its hard to think of a tool that does it better.

When the singer’s real-life range is known, generated voices’ inversions should reflect this. Additionally, any harmony arrangement, the best results are often to be had by balancing voices around the top line, rather than just standing them on its shoulders. In the video we demonstrate this by sitting a 4th underneath the source and a 3rd above it. The aim here is to weave an ensemble effect that envelopes the top line as opposed to teetering above or below it.

No matter which tool is used, or how good it is, the engineer has their part to play. With the right parametrisation, harmony generation can bring a lot for when the real thing is out of reach..

A Word About This Article

As the Experts team considered how we could better help the community we thought that some of you are time poor and don’t have the time to read a long article or a watch a long video. In 2023 we are going to be trying out articles that have the fast takeaway right at the start and then an opportunity to go deeper if you wish. Let us know if you like this idea in the comments.