Vocal distortion suggestions?

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:31 pm

Tube pre. killed microphone. Amp Farm. PSP warmer. Massey Tape head. Massey THC. re-amping straight to a small amp out of an Aux in your DAW. I have also recorded with a good mic, but with a small amp with a crap mic plugged into it in the same room, getting picked up by the good mic along with the clean mic. You dont have to mic the amp as well, but it can be good, and it is the same performance, but with the choice of fully killed through the amp, cleaner from the close mic with the amp in the room, or a blend of both.

I usually just go with a good mic through a tube pre getting KILLED.

troymess · Post by **troymess** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 12:29 pm

Everyone, thank you so much for you suggestions. I've been using a crappy radio shack mic through a small amp with a good tube overdrive aux out in to my DAW. However, I'm still trying to find a good plugin, so I have the option of adjusting gain, level, etc. later as I mix.

I'm going to track down the Tape Head plug-in next and I'd love to use the Massey stuff, but according to the site, it's only for Pro Tools right? Unfortunately this project isn't in Pro Tools.

dokushoka · Post by **dokushoka** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 12:35 pm

troymess wrote:Everyone, thank you so much for you suggestions. I've been using a crappy radio shack mic through a small amp with a good tube overdrive aux out in to my DAW. However, I'm still trying to find a good plugin, so I have the option of adjusting gain, level, etc. later as I mix.

I'm going to track down the Tape Head plug-in next and I'd love to use the Massey stuff, but according to the site, it's only for Pro Tools right? Unfortunately this project isn't in Pro Tools.

Try "Blockfish" then. Its vst and Au and has a cool saturation knob.

trodden · Post by **trodden** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:28 pm

audiosweet wrote:ive always enjoyed a good rat distortion on vox

yep. mine sits plugged into and aux send more than it does in front of my stack. It works great in both places though!

madtho · Post by **madtho** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:32 am

A pretty good vocal distortion thread. I like the PJ Harvey little Marshall amp thing (I'm assuming battery powered mini-amp?). The distorted vox on 'To bring you my love' are my favorite.

-mad

mertmo · Post by **mertmo** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:37 am

I'm not sure if this is the type of sound that the original poster was after, but...

I have gotten a very nice silky type distortion for vocals by cranking a mackie preamp all the way up and pushing the hi mids and hi end of the eq. Sounds
fantastic for what it is, not necessarily overt distortion, but a nice smooth airy thing
that mixes with the clean vocal very well. Evens out the dynamics very nicely, too. It's reason enough for me to keep one little mackie mixer around...!

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:33 am

mertmo wrote:I'm not sure if this is the type of sound that the original poster was after, but...

I have gotten a very nice silky type distortion for vocals by cranking a mackie preamp all the way up and pushing the hi mids and hi end of the eq. Sounds
fantastic for what it is, not necessarily overt distortion, but a nice smooth airy thing
that mixes with the clean vocal very well. Evens out the dynamics very nicely, too. It's reason enough for me to keep one little mackie mixer around...!

On a pretty big record I worked on...some of the vocal drive, and guitar drive were both just mackie pre's in a little VLZ mixer turned all the way up. Can be amazing.

mertmo · Post by **mertmo** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:46 am

I've used the mackie trick on drum submixes with amazing results too. Hmmm, this is making me want to wire up my little mackie to the patchbay just for this purpose. It's been a while since I've used the mackie distortion trick and I really miss it.

KyleHale · Post by **KyleHale** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:12 am

i've recorded a band that screamed and they wanted some vocal distortion. I used Izotope Trash and it seemed to do a pretty good job.

Anthony Caruso · Post by **Anthony Caruso** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 1:45 am

Just using plug-ins.....the guitar amp simulator is a good one. In fact, I like Amplitube on everything EXCEPT guitars! A really awesome/gross digital sounding one is just chaining as many L2's (or whatever limiter you have) as your inserts allow. Make sure to put the Output level of the last one all the way down so you don't blow up your head, then pull the threshold all the way down on all of them. Cautiously pull up the output on the last one until its at a reasonable volume. Or unreasonable. Whatever. Nasty.

troymess · Post by **troymess** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:42 pm

Hey everyone, I'm replying with a sound clip this time. I took a lot of different suggestions (thanks again!) and used them.

Here's what the path ended up being:

Cheap mic (REAL small freq. range)-->Art Tube Pre-->Line 6 POD (light gain setting)-->Input on my DAW

I also used a lot of plugs for the audio bus on the vocal tracks. Here's the plugs:

*SSL Channel Plug (currently using some random vocal setting)
*L2
*2 seperate reverbs

I opted for the Lind 6 instead of my RAT only because of the versatility the Line 6 offers.

Keep in mind, the mix is fairly rough and all my equipment is very modest. I try to polish as much as possible to make up for my poor equipment.

In this mp3 clip, you'll hear most of the song (at least where there is vocals) and then it'll fade out and you'll hear JUST the vocal tracks to make it easier to pick apart.

I can't express how much I appreciate all your advice. I'm still doodling a lot with this project. It's a lot of fun because of how "experimental" the sound is for the genre. Lots of electronic drums and weird parts.

Here's the link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?exwnssszjvd

trodden · Post by **trodden** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:46 pm

troymess wrote: Here's the link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?exwnssszjvd

the vocals remind me of coalesce, kinda. with the effects and panning.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 10:59 pm

recently:

--slam the limiter on the Focusrite Green Voicebox (the only thing I like that pre for these days is slamming things into distortion)

--mic into marshall battery-powered practice amp

--totally overdrive the inputs of a cassette deck, record repro head into DAW, slide back in sync. (good for drums too)

@?,*???&? · Post by **@?,*???&?** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:12 am

Impress your friends, buy a Western Electric Ekotape mic and use that when tracking. Don't be fooled by imitations.

Search 'vintage microphones' on ebay, these show up all the time under several different brand names- grey case, square venting on one side.

Frickin' awesome.

logancircle · Post by **logancircle** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:52 pm

I second Massey's THC. Just buy it--it's what they call stoopid-cheap. Even with the drive all the way down you usually get tons of distortion, and if you turn it up it's totally destroyed. Pretty cool for the price. Also try Massey's Tape Head plug and experiment with putting it before and after THC in the chain. I usually like Tape Head at the end of the chain, not that there's a chain.

Message Board

Vocal distortion suggestions?

Who is online