What's the vocal technique used on Sara Bareilles' title track off her latest album?

October 7, 2010 10:40 PM

On Sara Bareilles' recent album Kaleidoscope Heart, the intro/title track has an interesting choral/vocal technique that reminds me very much of Sarah McLachlan's Song for a Winter's Night. What is this vocal technique and/or tone combination and where can I hear more of it?
posted by arimathea to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

After listening to snippets of both tracks, I think that sound is generated by mixing together the same melody sung in Sara[h]'s lower and higher registers. If you listen carefully, you can pick out a lower, throatier rendition as well as the higher, floating version on top. Hope this helps identify what you're hearing!
posted by Zephyrial at 11:04 PM on October 7, 2010

Listening to your snippet, it reminds me a lot harmonically of Hide and Seek
by Imogen Heap, even though it relies heavily on vocoder whereas the song you mentioned seems to be pretty clean voices.
posted by threeants at 12:16 AM on October 8, 2010

The Bareilles sample on iTunes just sounds to me like overdubbed harmony singing - she probably sang multiple harmony lines, some high, some low.

With the McLachlan song you mention I think the same thing happened, only some of the background harmonies sound to me like they've had some electronic processing. (I don't know near enough about recording to speculate what they did.)

Actually they both are reminiscent of Enya, vocals-wise - Enya is known for overdubbing her own voice enough to make it sound like a full choir.
posted by dnash at 8:40 AM on October 8, 2010