yeah,man,sonic youth,aren't those guys like 50 yrs old now?not that there is anything wrong with that,i mean i am rapidly approaching my mid thirties,blah blah blah,oh,off the subject,right,when i was first "experimenting" with studio techniques(circa 1989)i loved(i guess i still do)that vocal effect! i could not get enough and i did not exactly know how,the engineer guy ,whom was willing to try anything,let me abuse the studio for my ignorant reaching trying to get that "radio" effect,first we tried the distortion pedal,and that squashed the signal sooooo much,you couldn't hear it,it turned into the"dog whistle frequency",then we tried the megaphone,but it was to much work,either that or we had the laziest band and engineer,we eventually settled on miking the answering machine,we would go into the other part of the warehouse use one of the roomate's phones,get the longest headphone cable we cpoud find,then we'd play back the song through the headphones,and the singer would sing through the phone,and we'd pick up the answering machine running live,no beeps though.amazing how much you will put yourself through just to get a "great sound"ahhh,the rigors of studio work,and those quirky,lofty musicians.i eventually learned through this awesome guy dan rathsomething or other (idiot flesh,
polymorph studios,oakland,ca) that through e.q. you could pretty much do what sound you want post production,he would just put the frequencies straight across,have no other effects and it,amazingly got the best out of all the previous attempts i tried,lately because of all the home studios and the amazing availability of just well...everything,i have just gone in after recording dry and with a really intricate e.q.,i just bring out the low mids and the high mids,turn the bass way down and the treble too,it can get pretty grating to the ears for an entire song,which like i said,i can't get enough,so i learned,with that frequency,you can mix really low (quiet)in there and it will still cut through and not hurt.about the little brother playing for virgin records,i am in philly now and i can't even get arrested here,i regret leaving s.f.,but ihear that i wouldn't even like what's become of it,it's all dot com'ers and no need for "original"music,but hey the west is the best,certainly not philly.