Vocal textures with EQ and plugins?

[Dr. Jeep]

Ok. I was curious as how one arrives at some current vocal effects. This is nothing new but I wasn't sure how one arrived at it. I am referencing the lead vox on The Bravery record (kind of Strokes-esque in a way) Sounds like an EQing thing, possibly a little amp-ish plugin. Anyone pull this off or can tell me a good place to start? The vocal is thinned down while accentuating some cool sibilance and a little grit. It may be cliche at this point - but I would like to learn how to do it.

[Fishybob]

Diggin the retro!

Take off the majority of the lower frequencies. Add a touch for presence. Then get it saturated. I use Antares Tube to drive the signal so that it distorts slightly.

It's a great analoguey sound much like White strips (except they used a nearly all analogue studio with real tapes n stuff).

If you want to give it a more convincing alalogue sound chip off some of the highs too.

Hope it helps.. Man I love that sound!

[Kevin Deschwazi]

Try singing through a guitar amp.

Like fishybob says play around with some tube plug ins too.

If you try and do anything to extreme with eq (ie. using it as an effect) it'll probably just end up sounding crap.

[chessrock]

I've come accross one plugin that does a pretty decent job at that stuff. Check out one called Quadrafuzz.

It's not really very intuitive or user-friendly, but you can start by just messing with the presets, and evenutually you should come up with something decent that works.

[Dr. Jeep]

Thanks for the tips. Yeah - I had played with some approaches, but found that if I did it strictly with EQ is sounded like ass. The amp plugins at least rounded the frequencies off with more finesse.

Was' everyones fav. amp plugins to mess with? In terms of the most authentic tones? For vox or grit or even - darest I speak it - guitars?!?

[Kevin Deschwazi]

here are some freebies that might be worth a try:

http://www.simulanalog.org/guitarsuite.htm

http://www.silverspike.com/?Products:RubyTube

[Dr. Jeep]

On this topic - how much compression can I expect from using said amp plugins? Right now I run RenVox compressor (which I find to be the best for vocals) then some EQ. I don't know if that is the best order persay - but I am wondering if the amp mod simulation may already provide enough compression that I don't squash it down too much. I know this can be subjective but I am wondering if peeps just don't run a vocal thru an amp (or a plugin) and call it a day so as to give it that more 'live' feel.

Playahs?

[chessrock]

Originally Posted by Dr. Jeep

I am wondering if the amp mod simulation may already provide enough compression that I don't squash it down too much.

Any amp simulator type plugin ... if it does what it's supposed to do ... should compress it plenty, and anything else would be way overkill.

.

[Cloneboy Studio]

Two words:

Izotope Trash.

The ultimate lofi, screw things up plugin. Great for getting those trashy, nasty sounds that are so hip today.

[Dr. Jeep]

Yeah - I got Izotope Trash. I think it is by far the best. Although Sansamp and Amplitube LE have their place - but Trash seems to be the easiest on the CPU.

[Fishybob]

Originally Posted by Cloneboy Studio

Two words:

Izotope Trash.

The ultimate lofi, screw things up plugin. Great for getting those trashy, nasty sounds that are so hip today.

Good call! I forgot about that beauty!!!

Presets are pretty darn good and you can mangle and shape as much as you like. A bit CPU heavy, if I remember rightly?