mic preamps for distortion?

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jagpunk

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I have a vision for my band's vocals.... Distorting them.

I like to think I know what I want, but in reality I don't know where to start. So I have a streamable mp3 for sampling:


stream 30 second sample

stream entire song

What is a cheap way to get this kind of effect to setup for live vocals?
 
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have u tried putting an overdrive/distortion pedal in the chain?

also compressing the HELL out of them might work
 
Well, I was thinking along the lines of a distortion pedal, the only thing is I don't know what a good brand/model is(For between $50 and $85). Any suggestions?


Obviously I would need XLR in and outs
 
you don't need xlr ins/outs, you can use a xlr-1/4 adapter and then a 1/4 line out to the mixer. or you could put on at the mixer as an effect.
 
lets see, judging from the clip, you want your vocals to sound like crap....and you are worried what a good brand of distortion pedal is?....
 
The sound of vocals is based on artistic license. So what sounds like crap to you is what makes a lot of other people buy albums like that.

And by good distortion pedal I'm asking what is a good way to rig this up, that would acommodate vocals?

So far no one has answered my question.

Thanks for your pointless post, gidge.
 
I believe you'll want to use the channel inserts of your mixer. Instead of hooking up an outboard reverb, though, you would use the distortion pedal. I would recommend something called a Big Muff Pie for your particular task. :D
 
jagpunk ,

wat you can do is..
Singing true a guitar amp?
or singing into a bleusharp mic.

remco
 
The idea is to record a clean vocal track and keep that handy. Then re-record the clean one through a distorion pedal, amp, or what have you, and then mix the distorted track with the clean one to taste.
 
chessrock said:
The idea is to record a clean vocal track and keep that handy. Then re-record the clean one through a distorion pedal, amp, or what have you, and then mix the distorted track with the clean one to taste.
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Good suggestion Chess, but if you'll notice his original post, he was asking how to get this sound for "live" work.

Taylor
 
What the fu....
Why would you want to sound like that?
That sounds like crap.
And that son-of-a-bitch is screaming too. :rolleyes:
 
int said:
That orange Distortion pedal made by Boss works for us. You can get them used pretty cheap - almost every shop has one.
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The Boss DS1 - $40 dollars
You would want to put it onto the board like chessrock said, or if you want the vocalist to have control you put the mic cable into the input of the pedal at his feet and send that to channel insert for where his vocal mic would be.
 
Thanks for your suggestions, I actually tried the orange Boss distortion on vocals before, I wasn't particularly interested.

What I did today was buy a zoom 505 for soooooper cheap.
(like new for only $42). Im gonna try that, for three reasons:

1 It not only has distortion, but other digital effects to fuck around with.

2 It has a noise gate, which will probably dramatically decrease the feedback that is inevitable with distorted vocals.

3 If all else fails, I can use it for what it was made for: Guitars.

chessrock, though I was asking for live sound, I will take your suggestion into consideration when we record. Thanks.

To gidge and Michael Jones, its sad to see you waste your own time typing shit like that. I mean, you both have a lot of bbs posts, but I'm starting to think more than half of them was to unsuccesfully make other people feel inferior. Next time you discuss music, make sure it's not from a Bolton-loving Baby Boomer point of view.
 
jagpunk said:
Thanks for your suggestions, I actually tried the orange Boss distortion on vocals before, I wasn't particularly interested.
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I only suggested that pedal because it is so widely available. I had to play with the EQ on our Mackie to make it sound good. The "Metal Zone" pedal (who comes up with these names?) worked well. As does overdoing the compression my Joe Meek Twinsomethingorother. You'll need EQ ( a low cut, and a high cut and maybe a mid boost) to get the sound on that stream. If I were you, when recording, I'd mic up an answering machine and have you scream into a telephone to get the total effect. Meanwhile, tell the sound person what you're trying to achieve and they can probably make it happen, if they're any good. If it is you, cut the lows, boost the mids, maybe cut the highs and give your vox a lot of volume. Prepare for feedback and work your mic to minimize it. I'm not sure if a gate will help you, but it is worth a shot - you'll figure it out.

It's good to see some other punk/hardcore/whatever you wanna call it on this board.

And no offense guys, but the Bolton remark was classic. ;)

Possibly unwarranted, maybe true, but fucking hilarious. :P
 
jagpunk said:
....Next time you discuss music, make sure it's not from a Bolton-loving Baby Boomer point of view.
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Well, I'm not a Michael Bolton fan by any stretch of the imagination, but at least HE knows how to sing.

No one's trying to make you feel inferior. Feelings of inferiority come from with in one's own self.

This board is all about opinions. I gave you mine. If anyone else had posted the clip that you did, I would have said the same thing. That it sounds like crap. It's over compressed, over distorted, the vocals are too low, and the singer has absolutely no sense of key, melody, or harmony.

Most of my posts are either informative, or inquirative by nature. I don't try to persuade anyone towards any type of music, and my own musical tastesd are vast and varied.

In all honesty, the over distorted, screaming, lets tune our guitars down to Bb and play the 3 barre chords we Do know really hard and really loud, has been done to death, and in my opinion, still sucks. Big time.
 
My cousin plays drums in a band like you have described. except they are a christian band. I dont get thier sound either but the kids like it.
 
For live use I would bring a small low powered guitar amp and ask the sound man to send you a monitor feed of the vocals back through the snakes 1/4" jacks. Take that feed and run it through the guitar amp and have him mic that amp and blend it in as desired. You can control the distortion on the amp and not worry about screwing up the main vocal sound for all the other songs. Unless you are doing this on every song then just use a cheap high impedance mic and plug it directly into the amp and have him mic it.
 
Michael Jones said:


This board is all about opinions. I gave you mine. If anyone else had posted the clip that you did, I would have said the same thing. That it sounds like crap
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You're right, this board is opinion-oriented. Even this thread.

However.........

The opinion I was looking for was the best way to achieve that kind of sound. Not your tastes in music. The conservative, play-it-safe music obviously in your collection has also been done to death. You don't have to be a good singer to convey thought and emotion.

I bet you can't stand poetry that doesn't have rhyme or rhythm.

Thanks again to everyone with constructive opinions.
 
Dont worry jagpunk. PR for life! Any how....

DONT USE A DISTORTION PEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THEY SUCK!!!!!!!

AND DO NOT SING THROUGH AN AMP!!!!!!!

The sound clip also has "music" that isn't crusty but hey-Break down the walls. Get a vocal EFX processor, it just like a multi effects processor for your guitar, even has footpedals with XLR ins and outs. $150 get you all that. Distortion (ment for a mic input), delay, chorus, reverb.

And a Blues harp might actually work well...they are only $50, but I don't know if you want distortion for the whole set or not.

And to all those with "Opinions"-Well my opinion is that this guy WANTED THAT SOUND and people should not say that sounds like shit. That was not the question. You were just being rude and imature because you don't understand it. (...or you felt a need to prove something...thats a whole other deal though...typical "I'm better than you", "my music is music and yours is underdeveloped post-reiteration of a passing motzart phaze enveloped in a bourgeoisie talking out of my ass like I KNOW something attitude", or just calling something "NOISE"...funny---thats what they said about Rock N Roll 50 years ago.)

Anyhow , I just had a bad day at work so I felt like I needed to prove something.
 
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