Need a Beck sound!

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Bert

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Does anyone know how i can get my vocal to sound like "Beck's shouting through a mega-phone sound"? At the moment I am going through a guitar effects unit with a well overdriven wah, but it produces far too much noise. is there a dedicated unit to do this?
any help would be rad guys.

Cheers
Bert (no i dont know ernie!)
 
Got a mega-phone lyin around?

cause that would be the easiest thing. There are some vocal processors out there, and they aren't overly expensive. I'm pretty sure DOD makes one however. I'm sure you could come really close to emulating that sound with a piece like that.
 
what does DIY mean???

It seems that a lot of people come here looking for a processor to produce a certain noise, when most of the time they can do it naturally and have it sounding much, much better.

If you can't get a megaphone, hook up the shittiest speakers you can find to your stereo, plug in a junk mic, kill the base, crank the volume, and start screaming "Hungry Like The Wolf".

Adam
 
1. Compression.
Heavy compression. I use an old Arion compression pedal combined in different ways with a Boss distortion pedal and a Hush unit. You can try different configurations.

2. Toys. See old thread:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=21282

3. Manual. Cup your hands over your mike and your mouth so no air can get out while you are singing. Try it with different mikes to get the right sound.

4. Overdrive signal. Experiment. It gives a neat effect when you overdrive your line volume by turning it up to the point of distorting it. Different units have different overdriven sounds. Try it with your pre amp, gain, etc.
 
Like Vurt says, use a cheap mic through a boombox, crank it, and mic the speakers. Ever heard of the band At the Drive-In? I saw them live last year and they even used the boombox trick on stage. Fucking crazy live band, too! If they're ever playing anywhere near you, go see them.
 
I've never heard of those guys, Lazdyboy - any mp3's out there?
 
i tried the diy approach guys, and it didn't come out no good. well not good enough. i like the at the drive in approach, gonna give it a try. oh yeah, one more question, anyone know where i can get a touch of Beck magic?

guys thanks, me gonna go into studio and experiment.
bert
 
Why are you so hung up on Beck first of all? You should really try to find your own niche. I'm sure Beck would agree that if you want to do anything worth while you need to be yourself and let your light shine.

If you like Beck's sound though, there's nothing wrong with getting ideas from his work to better yoor own stuff. He's a master of anti-production like mixing sounds not normally heard together, using guitars with old strings, different forms of low-fi recording, etc. it all depends. When you say "Beck Magic" are you referring to: production, or orchestration? And what album? One foot in the Grave and Mellow Gold are a whole different thing than Odelay!. Mutations is totally different, not even touching Midnite Vultures. You gotta be yourself, brutha. There will never be another Beck. I wanted to be him once too.
 
beck can bite my bum

hey, i've got my own niche man, i just dig on beck. by understanding some of the things he does, i get better ideas for my music. i know its a bit of a cliche to use the megaphone vocals thing, but i really like it. i am trying to fuse kraftwerk with beck and the beta band. i got something which sounds half decent i think.
anyway rats, thanks for replying man.

bert
 
No offense intended, Bert.

Kraftwek and the Beta Band? Sounds kewl. Take me in and dry the rain.
 
I know theres a patch on the Roland SRV 3030 unit called Cheap Radio which will be perfect. have a look around on multi fx units. otherwise, just play around with eq, maybe use a lot of mids, little bit of hi's, no low frequencies, compress it loads and then through a distortion. i know this sounds mad, but try sending it through a marshall amp. ive done it before,...it works:-)
 
at the drive in are one of the best bands around! oh lordy do I love them. ross robinson produced their new record, and it's amazing. so much compression with two guitars trading lead and rythm. this thing is so friggin thick! man I love that record!

~james
 
These days there are plenty of cheap plastic electronic toys that are pretty cool. Little megaphones and mics that can record and playback like, 5 seconds of super low res, blown out, noize. Check out these or just get an old, cheap megaphone from your local junk shop or ebay. Sometimes the most elegant solution is the most unorthodox and wacked out.
 
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