Looking for something to add some dirt to vocals

[Gentleman Jim]

Duplicate the clean track, make a compressed/distorted track using plugs, mix to taste. Usually I like to either delay the entire distorted track a touch, (40-80 ms), or add a bit of slap or short, thick reverb to it.

I'll use either the plugs that come with Logic/Mainstage, such as Distortion II, Overdrive, or Guitar Amp Pro; or maybe a free plug like Camel Crusher or FuzzPlus 2. Pre-delay is usually done with Logic's Sample Delay; echos are either Logic's Echo or Tape Delay, GSi's WatKat, or Lowcoder's King Dubby. Reverbs are Logic's Silver Verb, Space Designer, or Dreampoint's Freeverb 3.

I'll never get any Cool Guy Points? for using really basic plugs to accomplish this instead of buying a vintage 1973 Tapco 6 channel mixer at a garage sale, then seeking out the correct NOS capacitors for 8 months to get it back to sounding as crap as it did the day it came out of the factory, then spending 45 minutes setting it up and getting the reamped track to sound "natural"... but frankly, the stuff I work on doesn't warrant that level of attention.

[Nick Sevilla]

Please define "Gravel"...

Is it road gravel made of asphalt, or small stones?

Or is it made of pumice stone, or other volcanic rock?

Making gravel sounds is not easy, if you do not know the sort of gravel you are needing.

Logical

Awaiting answer to my earlier query...

The size of the gravel is the key to how to manufacture it properly.

Logical

[TheRealRoach]

Tape. Hit it hard 7.5ips or 15ips. You should be able to find a machine for a few hundred.

[stupid_life]

Tape. Hit it hard 7.5ips or 15ips. You should be able to find a machine for a few hundred.

That would be a good one... too bad I just sold my Fostex because I didn't think it was worth the cost of maintenance versus digital. Maybe I could get a four track to smash the vocals to though... Except how would I dump that into Reaper with the tape sounds and still be able to line the track up?

rat pedal is a good idea. I love the rat on nasty rock guitars but I'm sure it would excel at nasty vocals in the same sort of way. The older Big Muffs used germanium, maybe that would be a viable option, I could build a clone?

Unfortunately I don't have a rat ATM though, I've personally been using a DS1 into an old peavey butcher for my guitar.

I'm pretty sure my butcher has a line out, maybe I could run the vocals into that and instead of reamping, just smash it with preamp distortion and take the line back into my A/D/A?

[Snarl 12/8]

I like my rat on vox.

Remember, like guitar distortion recorded vs. live, you probably need less than you think to get the effect you're "hearing" in your head.

[calaverasgrandes]

I like my rat on vox.

Remember, like guitar distortion recorded vs. live, you probably need less than you think to get the effect you're "hearing" in your head.

doubleplusgood on that.
I always have a hard time talking bands into turning down the gain.
I think sometimes if you tell them the recording process itself is going to add more distortion then they "get it" and will dial back. But you know folks have their sound, and I myself have been guilty of shaking my fist at the old man behind the board and cutting all my tracks too bright with too much gain. Take that patriarchal oppressors! My band sounds like shit!

[Brett Siler]

My favorite distortion on vocals would be reamped through a low watt tube amp that is cranked. I too like the Rat pedal aswell. It just has a great balance of clarity and grit.

I've tried Amplitube like someone mentioned and the Line 6 POD Pro, but they both weren't quite doing it.

[Snarl 12/8]

Anyone try the Craig Anderton "Quadrafuzz" plugin on vox? You can do some serious "tone sculpting" in the distortion realm with that.

OT - it's also my fave kick drum plugin ever. You can get it where it doesn't sound distorted, but it's aurally excited somehow.

Rat is great on drum machine, as well.

[TheRealRoach]

Tape. Hit it hard 7.5ips or 15ips. You should be able to find a machine for a few hundred.

That would be a good one... too bad I just sold my Fostex because I didn't think it was worth the cost of maintenance versus digital. Maybe I could get a four track to smash the vocals to though... Except how would I dump that into Reaper with the tape sounds and still be able to line the track up?

If you have a three-head machine then it's a non issue. wire it up to your converters as you would a compressor, and record the playback from the repro head. All you have to do then is compensate for latency which any program nowadays should allow you to do in a sample-accurate manner. Grab an Otari 5050 for a few hundred bucks and be happy. Run at 7.5 ips and you'll have all the gravel and spit you desire. A distortion pedal/plugin is no substitute, it's just different thing.

[kingtoad]

In computer world Soundtoy's Decapitator is my favourite plugin for this. It can go from incredibly subtle driving/"warming" to absolutely insane in-your-face distortion, in several different flavours, and it has some awesome tone-shaping controls as well. You'll use it for so much more than dirtying up vocals as well - I very often use it on snare and bass these days or on anything that's sounding a little too clean or boring.

[calaverasgrandes]

Well if we want to talk plug ins I like TC electronics Tubefx or whatever its called. It's a very technical model of a guitar amp. Kind of hard to use, but capable of all kinds of distortion/overdrive. You can vary the size, strength and voltage for 3 stages of tubes. So often I will run all three at about medium strenght, medium size and play with the "voltage" to get a less than linear sound.
Stillwell Audio's Bad Buss Mojo is also great. It's more intended as a buss effect I guess but I like to use it on vocals that are too clean and in your face.

[AndyHutchinson]

+1 to Decapitator. We use it all the time at work, and I use it a lot on my own stuff. To me, it sounds best on bass or a drum buss, but it can work on anything. We have a Daking pre at work that breaks up so deliciously, and this is the closest plugin I've found that emulates that sound. Best of luck

[plurgid]

Things I like for dirtying up vocals:

CamelCrusher (free)
http://www.camelaudio.com/camelcrusher.php

The Overdrive Plugin in Logic. It's highly tunable. It works great on an aux send with a bandpass filter in front of it and stereo sample delay after it, with one channel delayed to taste for "largeness".

and for true shitty crappieness: Radio Shack Realistic Electronic Reverb (from the 80's). It is OH so shitty, and not necessarily in the good way. It's easy to overdrive via the "mic in" input. Tune the delay just right and it sounds shitty and huge at the same time. Also great to run as an aux send kind of like a hardware equivalent of what I was talking about doing with the overdrive plugin in Logic. Here's one on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Realistic-Electroni ... 1c180ecf49

[trodden]

My favorite distortion on vocals would be reamped through a low watt tube amp that is cranked. I too like the Rat pedal aswell. It just has a great balance of clarity and grit.

I've tried Amplitube like someone mentioned and the Line 6 POD Pro, but they both weren't quite doing it.

Totes. An old silvertone tube combo or the rat pedal have been my main ways for years. I am digging the massey tape head plug more and more though.

[ashcat_lt]

Could putting a line level signal into a guitar amp actually damage it...?

Not unless your gear is already broken.