Compression via Distortion

**AlecBeretz** · 02-05-2013

I would like to compress vocals using distortion... after the vocals break a "threshold" I want them to start gradually distorting with volume (in a GOOD way. i could just slap a limiter on it but it would sound awful)

the obvious answer is to use a tube preamp and just run it pretty hot, but i have no tube preamp... stuck in the digital age. yaaay.

Is there a way to use side chain compression to have a clip distortion plug in act on the vocal track? Any other ideas would also be solid. Thanks guiz.

**Justsomeguy** · 02-05-2013

I can think of two ways, although i've only tried one;

the way i've done it in the past is just to set up a parallel bus for the vocals with distortion on an blend it back in with the dry one.

However, and this is just guess work/logical thinking, you could do the same thing but put a noise gate before the distortion plugin on the parallel bus so that the distortion only kicks in when the vocal crosses the threshold

just a thought

**Bobbsy** · 02-05-2013

I've had some degree of success using the distortion side of a guitar emulator (included in most DAWs) on vocals. As I recall, it took a LOT of setting up and tweaking to get the effect I wanted rather than just an ugly mess--but I got there in the end.

I should say that, in my case, I was going for a science fiction "alien" voice rather than anything musical but it still might be worth a play.

**RecordingMaster** · 02-06-2013

Originally Posted by AlecBeretz

I would like to compress vocals using distortion... after the vocals break a "threshold" I want them to start gradually distorting with volume (in a GOOD way. i could just slap a limiter on it but it would sound awful)

the obvious answer is to use a tube preamp and just run it pretty hot, but i have no tube preamp... stuck in the digital age. yaaay.

Is there a way to use side chain compression to have a clip distortion plug in act on the vocal track? Any other ideas would also be solid. Thanks guiz.

This is not an advert, I just speak from my experience with it but...purchase the AVOX Warm plugin from Antares. It's a tube emulation plugin tailored for voice, is easy to use and dial in a cool flavor, takes up barely any CPU power, and if used in the right context, can sound pretty great imo (and it's pretty affordable). It's real easy to overdo though, so be careful and remember to keep a/b'ing.

First you choose whether you want a hotter, more distorted sound "crunch" or a thicker, richer tube grit "velvet". Once you choose your flavor of the day, you tweak the 3 controls. Input Gain, Drive and Output. The only controls that will affect your actual tone are the input gain and drive controls. The input gain tells the plugin when to really heat up based on how hard you hit it. There is a blue line in the input meter, so if you set it so your signal passes that blue line on the louder peaks/passages (aka threshold), it will distort the heaviest there. The "drive" basically tells it just how much distortion is created once the threshold is passed.

Works great for what you described. If you want it constantly distorted without varying dynamics, you can press the "omnitube" button.

Cheers and good luck!