Make me sound like I'm underwater

J

Jeppo

Member
"Hey man the tracks sound cool, but for the one song can you make me sound like I'm singing underwater??". This is a request just in from a student band I've finished tracking. Now I always like a challenge, though I'm not sure where to start on this one.

I have at my disposal the effects card on my Akai DPS 16, though I mainly resort to my Lexicon MPX-1 for shits and giggles. Maybe this will involve some kind of wah-wah effect on the voice? Anyone had this request before? I'd be interested in hearing your wise suggestions!
 
Jeppo said:
"Hey man the tracks sound cool, but for the one song can you make me sound like I'm singing underwater??". This is a request just in from a student band I've finished tracking. Now I always like a challenge, though I'm not sure where to start on this one.

I have at my disposal the effects card on my Akai DPS 16, though I mainly resort to my Lexicon MPX-1 for shits and giggles. Maybe this will involve some kind of wah-wah effect on the voice? Anyone had this request before? I'd be interested in hearing your wise suggestions!
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It really depends on what you are looking for.

You could use a phaser, flanger or leslie cab perhaps. Depending on what effect you want.

You could even have the guy sing into moving fan blades.

Carl
 
digitaly stretch to 50% and then stretch 200% back to original length in medium quality. do this 2 -3 times.

i should add i consider myself more a noisician than a musician.
 
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there's some cheap noise reducers that (if you overdo it) sound exactly like the sound is underwater. You can tweak the hiss reducer on Goldwave to do this.
 
You know, there is one really obvious way to achieve the desired effect



I read that Geoff Emerick, the famous Beatles engineer, almost got sacked by EMI for trying to record sounds underwater. He ruined a Neumann mic. I'm not that eager to try that one though.

I do have concerns about drowning the lead singer - he still owes me £140.
 
A chorus with a pretty fast modulation ought to get you part of the way...vary the depth till you get close. Then maybe add some reverb.
 
A fast flange ot trmolo effect will do it. A Leslie will do it to. Or do what the Beatles did on Octopus's Garden and just gargle a mouthful of water.
 
Get a simple multiband compressor like the nuendocomp or ME compressor that allows you to SOLO the low end(or alternativly just use an EQ set to a huge,steep lowpass).then add a little touch of chorus.

this will actually simulate correctly what happens to sound(to our ears anyway)heard underwater.
 
Well folks, just to fill you in with the outcome. We ended up using an auto-wah effect with some reverb. The funny thing was it didn't sound like the singer was underwater, but it gave the voice a pulsating effect (not unlike the leslie speaker effect that others have mentioned). Personally I thought it sounded pretty shit, but when the guy jumped up & down screaming 'That's it! That's it!' I wasn't going to stand in the way of progress.

So I've got my £140 without having to tie a brick around his neck...

Thanks for your suggestions though!
 
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