Distorting live vocals...

[Recycled_Brains]

My band did a recording recently, where I ended up daisy-chaining the channels on my Hamptone to distort the vocals (a lot!), and it sounded amazing.

Now, our singer wants me to figure out how he can get a similar sound at our shows. The most obvious solution, to me, is to get some sort of dist/OD/fuzz pedal to use.

My question is, are any of you singers out there doing this? If so, what are you liking?

I was thinking a Boss DS-1 might do the trick, since it's durable, and inexpensive, but I'd love to hear what others are doing to achieve this effect.

And while we're at it... how are you interfacing the setup with a PA? Would just a simple XLR to unbal. 1/4" into the pedal, than pedal out to a DI do the trick?

[SoulOfJonas]

I haven't got to use it live so I can't say how it'll act on stage but I bought a Digitech Vocal 300 used for $100 a while back. It seems pretty cool from the quick tests I've done with it. Some of the effects sound cheesy but others, including most of the distortions, are cool:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--DGTVOC300

[fossiltooth]

One thing to be careful of: A distorted signal is going to feed back a lot more quickly than a clean one. It's a good idea to keep it out of the monitors.

Some of those inexpensive vocal boxes by companies like digitech have a wet and dry output, so it is possible to split the signal. This way you can make sure you don't have to deal with:

A) Howling feedback in a small club or,
B) Really low vocal monitor levels, when the house soundguy turns your gain down all the way to save his job.

I'm assuming you're playing smaller venues, or you'd be asking your regular soundguy for recommendations. If that's the case and you're playing to 100 or fewer people, I suggest just putting on a great show as an incredible band! Don't worry too much about bells and whistles like very specific vocal effects just yet.

Unless you're doing something really groundbreaking and unique effects-wise, that stuff tends to just gets in the way when you could focus on the important things. That's my experience anyway.

At smaller clubs, go with a digitech thingy, or a distortion box you dig and a splitter box that works. That, plus a friendly conversation with the house soundguy. (Suggestion: You smile first! He might not have the energy anymore. )

Godspeed,

[wren]

My Boss OD2 is one of my favorite vocal distortions ever. Sounds awesome. Just get a mic-to-pedal transformer (I've had an Audio-Technica CP8201 for years and it's never let me down), the OD2 (or your distortion of choice), a noise gate of some sort, and a DI and you're set. Yup, the monitors will have to be a little quieter, but with the noise gate you should be able to get enough of a level. I knew some people in an industrial band who got away with absurd amounts of distortion on their vocals: daisy-chaining like 3 different dirt pedals together, and then having a Boss NS2 after it all. Worked a charm.

[Recycled_Brains]

One thing to be careful of: A distorted signal is going to feed back a lot more quickly than a clean one. It's a good idea to keep it out of the monitors.

Some of those inexpensive vocal boxes by companies like digitech have a wet and dry output, so it is possible to split the signal. This way you can make sure you don't have to deal with:

A) Howling feedback in a small club or,
B) Really low vocal monitor levels, when the house soundguy turns your gain down all the way to save his job.

I'm assuming you're playing smaller venues, or you'd be asking your regular soundguy for recommendations. If you're playing to 100 or fewer people, I suggest just putting on a great show as an incredible band! Don't worry too much about bells and whistles like very specific vocal effects just yet.

Unless you're doing something really groundbreaking and unique effect-wise, that stuff tends to just gets in the way when you could focus on the important stuff. That's my experience anyway.

At smaller clubs, go with a digitech thingy, or a distortion box you dig and a splitter box that works. That, plus a friendly conversation with the house soundguy. (Suggestion: You smile first! He might not have the energy anymore. )

Godspeed,

Appreciate the advice. All good stuff. Certainly, if it's more trouble than it's worth, he won't want to do it. In my case, I've been stripping my set up down to the bare minimum at shows, for the exact reasons you stated.... focusing on the performance.

Good info. on the feedback stuff. I hadn't considered that at all, as I have no real experience with this. Generally, the vocals are low in the monitors, and the mains for us, as he likes to be blended in more, rather than being on top of everything. I'm suprised to hear that it's as big an issue though. Are we talking even when the pedal is at unity with the dry signal?

I do remember that, when doing sound for a local band that used to regularly play the club that I did FOH for, their singer used a Boss DD3 on his vocal, and the level was always hotter than the usual mic ---> snake setup.

Re: the digitech... simple is what we're after. Lots of motion on stage, so he's going to want to be able to kick that fucker on/off without worrying about multiple switches, and presets and all that. Plus he doesn't approach things from the technical perspective that we often do, so something easily repeatable, easy to use (esp. after a few beers ) is best.

Parallel processing would totally rule, but I know from experience that I can't rely on the sound guys in the tiny dirty clubs we play for doing that right. If someday we have our own FOH, I'd go that route for sure.

Wishing I didn't just sell my noisegate. Oh well.

At any rate, I think we'll start with the DS1 and see how it does at practice, and take it from there. Worst case scenario, is I have a $30 boss pedal to mod or something.

[ott0bot]

wren is right on.

I'd use an impedence matching adapter like the afore mentioned Audio Techinca CP8201, if you don't your vocals will definately sound pretty cruddy, and you'll drive the sound guy nuts. Plug your mic in the AT device, and that into a pedal with your desired sound (i personally like ProCo Turbo Rat), then into a DI of your choice (i like the Radial stuff alot, the ProDI is fantastic for the price), and through the snake into the board.

If you want a to use a noise gate it helps, but if you simply keep the singer in a low feedback area, keep the mic on the stand, and communicate with the FOH engineer I don't see an issue. You may even want this set up as a second mic, so the FOH can kill the signal if something goes wrong, and that way you won't have such an issue with the quality of the vocals when the pedal is disengaged. If this is your only mic, make the singer know the pedal like the back of his hand. You may even want to put some tape on the settings (especailly the level!!!) so it's foolproof.

[vvv]

My fave way is to just have the mixer set up as hot as practicable and typically sing from a few inches away.

When I wanna distort, I eat the mic and howl.

I am gifted with a loud voice, however.

[Recycled_Brains]

Our guy just screams all the time. No actual singing. Handheld 58 is the standard procedure.

The level doesn't have to be extreme for him to be heard, and it's very consistent. Not much in the way of dynamics. I don't think it would be too big a deal to any competant soundman to deal with, given those factors.

I have one of those AT adapters, so that's good. I do notice a rather noticeable increase in level when using it though.

[ashcat_lt]

I built a DPDT momentay switch into a DI box and added two jacks for an effects loop. In my case, the XLR male (direct out) was replaced by a female for mic input. The transformer's already there. This goes out via one of the 1/4" jacks to an amp sim. It kills the signal entirely when the switch is not actively held down. The idea is that if you step on the thing and it howls in your face a natural reaction would be to step back. This is an auxiliary effects mic in our band.

You could wire it, though, so that stepping off the switch just bypasses the loop, letting the direct clean signal through. With two transformers and both male and female XLRs, it could be a one box solution.

[mrc]

I know several people who use an ART Tubepac for just that purpose.

[E.Bennett]

how about setting up a second mic that breaks up like a copperphone or bing carbon mic? they distort nicely.

[calaverasgrandes]

mic to transformer to guitar amp.

[0-it-hz]

I mix for a living. If you plug a distortion pedal into my PA I will hurt you. So will any engineer with any sense of pride in thier work.

Plug that mic into a guitar amp and get it howling and moaning real nice... Then I can mic it up AND give you a good level in your monitor too.

Also, don't fuck with vocal floor processors unless you bring your own engineer and/or PA. Those things shit all over the audio and make monitor mixing an impossible nightmare. I've seen them come through dozens of times and it Never ever fucking works.

[calaverasgrandes]

I mix for a living. If you plug a distortion pedal into my PA I will hurt you. So will any engineer with any sense of pride in thier work.

Plug that mic into a guitar amp and get it howling and moaning real nice... Then I can mic it up AND give you a good level in your monitor too.

Also, don't fuck with vocal floor processors unless you bring your own engineer and/or PA. Those things shit all over the audio and make monitor mixing an impossible nightmare. I've seen them come through dozens of times and it Never ever fucking works.

And that coming from the guy with a megaphone for an avatar so you know its true.

[trodden]

oh man.. here we go again...