questions about distorting vocals

sick on you · Post by **sick on you** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 3:35 pm

i have a problem. i have a truly goddaweful voice. however, after several years of playing in bands with half assed singers im over it and im just gonna do the damn singing cause at least bad vocals sung the right way are better than good vocals that dont fit the songs. but not being a singer, i dont know what im doing.

so...

in our studio i hooked up a sovtek mig 60 to the p.a. columns as an experiment, and low and behold, i dont sound that bad with a touch of overdrive on the tubes. but, here's my dilema. i cant cart that thing around and run it through the house p.a. at shows, so does anybody have any suggestions for a decent way (maybe a pedal?) that people put distortion over their vocals. not too much, just enough to give my voice a little more bite and kind of give it that crappy garage recording sound.

thanks.

eeldip · Post by **eeldip** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 3:50 pm

bellari mp105.

sick on you · Post by **sick on you** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 3:54 pm

eeldip wrote:bellari mp105.

is that a mic? sounds like one....

checking google...

sick on you · Post by **sick on you** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 3:55 pm

whoa, what the hell is that thing? a mini pre-amp? so what do you run it inline, like mic -> preamp -> p.a.? like a pedal sort of?

eeldip · Post by **eeldip** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 4:29 pm

its a little preamp. its sort of all wrong in kinda the right ways. its super easy to overdrive in the right way, not likemost cheap tube hybrid stuff. it does real tube overdrive. like clean when you are quiet and distorted when you are not. instead of just FUZZ.

anyway, they are like $35 used. its a cheap and easy solution. bring that with you. plug your mic into it, then run that to the board to a line input.

sick on you · Post by **sick on you** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 4:47 pm

eeldip wrote:its a little preamp. its sort of all wrong in kinda the right ways. its super easy to overdrive in the right way, not likemost cheap tube hybrid stuff. it does real tube overdrive. like clean when you are quiet and distorted when you are not. instead of just FUZZ.

anyway, they are like $35 used. its a cheap and easy solution. bring that with you. plug your mic into it, then run that to the board to a line input.

cool, ill look into that. thanks.

jv · Post by jv » Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:31 pm

Actually, a Pod works really well for this purpose. I don't really like it for guitar, but on lots of other things, it's great.

sick on you · Post by **sick on you** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:33 pm

jv wrote:Actually, a Pod works really well for this purpose. I don't really like it for guitar, but on lots of other things, it's great.

i dont like those things either. plus i dont have that kind of money.

lyman · Post by **lyman** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:35 pm

hey, what does the dude in the strokes use for his vocal distortion on the first couple albums/live?

i can relate to your plight. i'll be the first to say that i'm not a strong vocalist. but sometimes us non-singers forget (or don't realize) that.....how can i put this.....do you play an instrument? i assume so. think of how bad you were when you first picked it up. singing is no exception. yes, you've been using your voice your whole life but it's not the same thing, and it's really amazing how much you can progress with a little practice. me, i just hit up every open mic that i could go to, sometimes going to 2 or 3 a week for a period of a few months. i probably played at 20-25 this year. i still suck, but i'm much more confident and that can fool half the people half the time.

sick on you · Post by **sick on you** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:47 pm

yeah im a guitar player that had vocals dumped on him. i dont doubt that ill get better, i mean ive gotten a little better than when i first started, and maybe ill get good enough to not put anything on my voice, hence why im not looking to get anything too expensive. but for now, we wanna book some shows and im not gonna make people have to sit through a half hour of what i currently sound like sans overdrive.

jca83 · Post by **jca83** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 9:47 pm

lyman wrote:hey, what does the dude in the strokes use for his vocal distortion on the first couple albums/live?

a crappy mic with a 1/4" adapter into a little old peavey or something amp with a handle on top. and just mic it.

xSALx · Post by **xSALx** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 12:17 am

jv wrote:Actually, a Pod works really well for this purpose. I don't really like it for guitar, but on lots of other things, it's great.

What is the pod good for? I like messing around with it, but I've never found something that I like using it on.

the riff · Post by **the riff** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 1:32 am

A great and cheap pedal that works well for this is an Ibanez Lo Fi pedal. I recently saw a friend's band play and during parts of the set he had a cool distortion on his vocals. I thought all along they had their own FOH, but it turns out the singer was controlling it from the stage. He just had the setting dialed in well.

I think you can pick these up on Ebay for around $40

zgoheen · Post by **zgoheen** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 1:56 pm

shure green bullet. $100 or so. its a harmonica mic so its got a quarter inch jack. just go straight into a cheap guitar amp and voila. breaks up really nice when you sing loud with you teeth right up on the grill.

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 2:45 pm

zgoheen wrote:breaks up really nice when you sing loud with you teeth right up on the grill.

Breaks up even nicer when you get electrocuted!

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questions about distorting vocals

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