Most strange, overthetop, kinky studio techniques known2man

[I'm Painting Again]

I'm gonna start this one again because i dearly miss it.

What are some of the oddball mic situations, equipment, etc. you have used. Good er bad, er , i hate these terms, we will say that you liked or thought sounded like farts in a bath of thick oil with yr modded simon says pumping at full blast through a hot amp into a 1/2" transistor radio speaker. ?


i gots a hi-fi tape deck from the 60's with level control that makes things sound so crappy they become sweet, sometimes they go from crappy to sweet and get so damn sweet they turn to total ass again?

[Meriphew]

Ran a drum kit through a Boss T-Wah pedal to add some quack to the track.

[marqueemoon]

I dumped a drum loop onto my cassette 4 track last night really hot, dropped the pitch on the 4 track, then pulled the super-distorto result up in Pro Tools Free, put a gate on the whole damn thing, and left it completely dry. It sounds like a drum sound Lee Scratch Perry would get - if he were a robot.

Blending Soundhack-ified tracks in with their "normal" versions is also great fun.

[I'm Painting Again]

you mean hes not a robot?

im actually gonna try that one.

[marqueemoon]

you mean hes not a robot?

im actually gonna try that one.

He's a strange and brilliant fella, but I don't think he a robot. It would seem like a waste of a lot of good ganja if he was

I totally love gates for messing up sounds. It's great fun.

[soundguy]

I tracked the star wars kid "dancing" in time with a pedestrian beat on the stairs in the b room at electrical. Sorta like a bebop tango, but different...

a perverted star wars tango perhaps.

dave

[crow]

i haven't tried this yet, but keep threatening bands with it. it probably sounds like complete ass but would be fun to try:

- sending a vocal track through a talk box or vocoder and apply different lyrics.

or

- recording a vocal track with just aaahs and adding the lyrics later via talk-box or vocoder.

lemme know if anyone tries it; hopefully i'll get around to it soon.

[Meriphew]

I tracked the star wars kid "dancing" in time with a pedestrian beat on the stairs in the b room at electrical. Sorta like a bebop tango, but different...

a perverted star wars tango perhaps.

dave

You mean the Jedi Master?

[brian beattie]

I once taped 2 plastic cheapo mics together as a 90 degree coincident pair, stuck them inside the one headed kick drum that I keep hanging in my studio for head-resonance-reverb (facing toward the head), and the artist I was working with sung his vocal part through 2 toy megaphones, one set on "baby" and one set on "monster"
It was mushy and horrendous and thick and gooey, and, by god, IT WAS IN STERE-ERE-ERE-ERE-O!!!!!
This thread makes me want to stick a 57 in a plastic bag into a full bathtub, and send something through a speaker in a plastic bag in the water. I bet it would sound underwater...
has anyone here recorded underwater??
brian

[cactus]

apparently My Bloody Valentine pitched a tent in a studio, threw their guitar amps in the tent, cranked up the volume and then miked the outside of the tent.

in school once i found myself "plucking" a rubber band like it was a bass string. i'd like to sample that in a bunch of notes and play it somewhere.
my friend miked himself tapping his fingers on a notebook as a rhythm track to a home-on-the-range type cowboy song. sounded pretty neat.

or, if you have a tape machine with TAC roller (i think it's called), roll the TAC backwards at a fraction of the IPS you recorded at - that makes some eerie sounds.

[moogplayer]

I once ran a broom repeatedly over a naked mannequin for background percussion...


Another one - guitarist punching drunk singer on his bare shoulder to the beat of the song. Close mic'd the shoulder with an AKG D12E for max thud. The guy had to be hurting for the next week!!!

[@?,*???&?]

When I recorded the singer for 'Conglomerate' he was completely naked in the studio when doing vocals. He would come into the control room after a group of takes and listen back nude as well. His choice! Spun out the fact that Marvin Gaye used to do that too.

[dynomike]

I also used the wah effect on drums... with distortion, its sounded insane. Blended that with the dry tracks on different parts of the song is pretty neat.

I recorded a sample of me banging with my thumbs on a desk with a crappy computer mic years ago, which was just sitting on the desk. A little later I found this wav file, sliced it up, and built a whole song around the rhythm sample. I love it when I can use stuff like that.

Also, I accidentally recorded a guitar amp through the drum overheads on the other side of the room. The drums were ringing in resonance with it too, so it had a really really big and roomy sound to it.

Sometimes, accidentally recording the wrong channels can really freak you out though.. I thought I had blown an LDC when recording vocals because it sounded like quiet, distant ass. Turns out I was recording the bass drum mic on the other side of the room.

Man, I've always wanted to record the lyrics through a computer synthesized, monotone voice ala Fred from SimpleText or whatever, then slice it up to the rhythm and vocode/pitch shift to a melody, or leave as a computerized rap. I don't wanna hear any of you stealin this idea though... I will get around to it eventually.

[w_]

Well, this would fall in the "kinky" category for sure. Not something I've done, but read about it in an article a while back.
A certain rock star has a sex addicted guitarist, and to create some guitar parts with "feeling" they just pounded really loud montages of sex/porn sounds through his headphones and recorded whatever he played... they then cut these parts up and wrote some songs around them.

[penrithmatt]

yes,i have recorded under water.vocals and guitars.57 in a condom,head in the bathtub.battery amp in zip lock bag.works great.