Vocal effects for hard rock music?

Sometimes if you have background vocals that are between two lines in a song you could use compression.

Sometimes i've heard reverb added. other than that its plain (as far as i can tell)

Im no expert so you shouldn't go soley on what i say as i am prone to say things that make absolutly no sense sometimes.
 
hr vocal

Is it plain old fashioned hard rock or modern/progressive metal.
Big dark hall reverb and some not too subtle delays were popular in early eighties hard rock. If you record modern mettallic/progressive then you may try some more subtle room reverb (Waves Trueverb if you use software plug-ins) , very clean compressor (C4) for that modern "in your face" sound and some vocal exciter/quad chorus...as used by James La brie (Dream theater). You may use some very subtle stereo flange .The main thing in modern progressive Hard rock vocal is avoiding too much reverb and delay in final mix. If you record new- age music then you may turn "cathedral" reverb to the max. but not in modern HR.
 
try shitty mics...c.b./telephone mics... a touch of distortion can work... well, these are for your lo-fi "cool" rock... mess around with e.q., cutting the arse can put the vox in an interesting place in the mix... remember people hear voices day in day out so your effects have to either be subtle or completely obvious, otherwise they will just sound chud...
 
"try shitty mics..."

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Bob
Shaken, not stirred
 
hehehe... well i'm serious, works nicely on verses, then you pow into the chorus with big clean vocals....

hmmm... lets keep this quiet b-bob, we've discovered a niche market.... maybe we could seel the idea to radioshack






















.....too late :D
 
I would say simply add reverb to taste.
Perhaps harmonize with a backing vocal of a fourth.
Most of the essence of hard rock music is in the timbre or tone of the voice rather than effects.
You might try overdrive or hi-pass/lo-pass filters also...
 
Here's what I can offer

I'm mostly familiar w/ the '80's heavy metal sounds, which as stated before, revolved around dark hall reverb and delay. Just based on the small amount of "nu-metal" I've heard, the vocal sound is much more present, very compressed, and often distorted.
The trend over the last decade has been pretty much the same in all styles of music: in your face. Dry and compressed. Not a whole lot of subtlety in today's popular music. Everything is screaming for your attention all the time, and music more so than anything. But I digress...

I'd say very little reverb, if any at all. Maybe just something subtle depending on the mix. If you can hear the reverb, it's too much. Compress the living crap out of the vox. As an effect I'd maybe add some distortion to key lines or sections for contrast. Maybe an EQ boost around 250 for consonants, a cut in the upper mids somewhere, and then maybe another boost in the high end. That would be my starting point if I were mixing a modern metal song.

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
Im recording my bands independent release (aptly titled basement recordings) right now, I have to admit most of the quality (especially the drums) are of poor quality but I like the vocals alot on the record, What we did for the lead was used a nady sp9 and a shure pg58 (gets that low frequency distortion) and set up our lead vocalist in the shower were we could get that natural reverb.
 
Download Me! Change file extension from .mp to .mp3 .

I posted this clip in the Recording Techniques forum asking how to recreate the effect on here which I think is very cool for hard rock music.

Take a listen.
 
Only a trace amount of slap back echo can add a bit of livelihood to vocal tracks. Also try double tracking vocals at key places.

Cy
 
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