Distortion in vocals on purpose?.?.?Whats the best way?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Freudian Slip
  • Start date Start date
Freudian Slip

Freudian Slip

New member
Hi guys!:) I have spent the better part of my life trying to keep vocals clean.... Yet I see more and more people are distorting vocals and bass guitar. The bass is easy but I would like to know what you think is the best way to distort vocals in a good way. I guess I would describe it as saturated.... If you guys could tell me how you like to do it it would help me alot.

So you knows.... I run through a Mackie board into a Echo layla and then into CW9.03. I also have the suite with amp-sim in it.

I would also like some popular examples of distorted vocals if you can think of any?? I would like to study the sound some more. I am starting to think it's used alot more than I notice maybe??


Thanks

F.S.
 
Yo Sigmund:

Just a wild shot here. Try running your vocal through a guitar distortion algorithm.

I have this older huge FX box that has a patch that does something like what you may be looking for. Can't think of the name of the patch as I put this box in my basement because of its size -- big box. It has many quality patches but I've got them on the Yam 2816 and I have a smaller Lexicon in my studio if I need to use it. But the few times I used this patch, it did some wild distorting things.

Green Hornet:D :cool: :D
 
i've been trying to get that too...

something like NIN - that would be really tite..i love how his distorted vox sounds.
 
i think an amp sim would work well.........

check out the song 'drivin' on my nowhere radio site

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1642&alid=154

the backing distorted vocal was achieved using an amp sim.......also, singing through a cheap amp and cheap mic with the gain up could be worth a try........

beck's 'devil's haircut' has some distorted vocals........
 
High!

Play back the track through a marshall 4x12 and distort as desired. Mic the result... Will be nicer, I assume. The cheap amp thing has the problem that you are quite likely to get feedbacks, which most distorted tracks don't have...

aXel
 
Thank you all for your responces:D I think I will try some plugins first off.

I had thought about the guitar amp angle volltreffer, and I just happen to have a marshall half stack in the other room. perhaps I will give that a shot. I won't have any problem with feed back because I don't monitor my input. I could record it then pipe it though with no chance of feed back:) I do wonder about running a +4 signal into my amp though? anyone know if that's a problem? I would assume it will handle it...

camn: Ya no VST.... I'm on CW9.0 and I don't have a vst wrapper.
I do think I will try my amp simm out though.. I have never used it before on anything, but I might have to mess with it for this. Thanks.

powderfinger: I will check out the tune if I can get a decent connection. ahhh..... Devils haircut, good one! Ya see there's one I'd have never picked out... It's so obvious too.. Major distortion.

The Green Hornet: Cool sounding box :D how big is this effects box??? Does it take up a corner:D!!!.... If some day you vanish.... Should we assume you where drinking MR. Pibb over it, spilled some on it ... it pulsed green light and transported you to another deminsion??
(hey.. it could happen.. whoe the hell knows what's in MR. PiBB)


Thank's for all the help.

Any more songs I could referrence would be great!

Later

F.S.
 
Freudian Slip said:
I do wonder about running a +4 signal into my amp though? anyone know if that's a problem? I would assume it will handle it...
Click to expand...

Smacking a Marshall head in the face with a +4 signal should provide plenty of preamp distortion.;) You might want to try the low-sensitivity input first.

.. who the hell knows what's in MR. PiBB)
Click to expand...

Carbonated prune juice. :eek: :D
 
Vocal Distorta!

I've messed around a little bit with distorting vocals at key moments...
one thing I did once that ended up being pretty cool was to actually sing through
a vaccuum cleaner tube that was about 1 1/2 feet long...with a microphone at the other end that plugged into
my marshal. I set the distortion so it sounded right and then just mic'd it like I would a guitar. Another thing
I've done just to get the vocals a little bit 'harsher' is to put a small amount of a distortion plug in on the
vocal track. This made it seem like the vocals were right on the edge of clipping...and brought attention to
them...I dunno...depending on the song...mellow (beck)...or something more aggressive...would definately
take some fiddling with no matter what technique you use. Good luck! And as for the vaccuum tube
singing...ya gotta sometimes try crazy things to get crazy effects!!
 
when i want distorted vocals, i run a large diaphram through two preamps. last time i used a mxl 2003 into a hhb radius preamp, then into a behringer mic2200...and i cranked the gain on both of the preamps...the result was a crunchy vocal sound, but it was not harsh (like runing vocals though a guitar distortion, or something)
 
the most killer example I can think of.. other than all the wonderful things by NIN... Is the last track on Fiona Apple's second CD. It's not intentional.. i think.. but she just peaks the pres a little bit during an intense part.. and it makes me go gooey.

xoox
 
Thanks guys for all the suggestions and examples!!
now I just need to write a new song where I can fit this in:)




Later

F.S.
 
i would think u would just want to use a tube mic pre and overload it..............i haven't done it that way, but i have a friend that was in a metal band and that's how he distorded his singers screams........that way when he sang it wasn't distorted....

i've overloaded the board before.........it's not as cool as tube distortion becasue with tube, depending on the volume going in it distorts more or less, but the board sounds alright.
 
back in the day (last year) i recorded some vox over distorted guitars. didn't sound quite right. then we distored the vocals with a built in distortion effect in cool edit pro, and it sounded amazinG! like the vocals were part of the guitars but still VERY clear. like they are trying to escape from the guitars. hard to describe, but an amazing sound!

sorry, just thought i would share my story :)
 
lucid....
which plugin did you use? I'll have to try that...

NIN, here i come..haha
hopefully!
 
just the plain distortion effect in cool edit pro! can't remember more than that, because i no longer use cool edit. i have been engulfed in the power of samplitude :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top