vocal distortions?

  • Thread starter Thread starter nattydread
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nattydread

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Does anyone know of any (outboard or plug-in) that has decent quality distortions for vocals? Im trying to find some and i can only find 1 box that has any which is the kurzweil mangler but my local dealer cant order them and id rather not order stuff so i was wondering if anyone knew of any? thanks
 
When I think of putting distortion on a vocal track, it's usually because I want to mess it up some. Therefore "quality distortion" for a vocal seems counter-intuitive. However, I commonly use the "Da Tube" plugin that comes with Cubase for some harmonic saturation on vocal tracks. You can drive it to heavier distortion if you want. I also use the "Ruby Tube" limiter plug sometimes. I'll try just about anything to mangle the sound. Check out the simulanalog guitar plugs (freeware). They include a number of guitar distortion simulations.
 
PSP Vinatage Warmer can do some interesting stuff. Quadrafuzz can be exceptionally cool, but you kinda' have to play and experiment with it for a while.
 
Or you could send the track out to a small guitar amp and beat the piss outa it... mic it up and print to a separate track ..blend to tase :)
 
It's almost always better to distort when tracking, IMHO. A 57 through a Rat Shack impedance converter and your favorite guitar overdrive pedal works nicely. Track alongside your usual vocal mic and blend to taste. Otherwise, a Reamp will let you give your pre-recorded tracks the same treatment.

I've never been satisfied with plug-in distortion sounds for anything. Maybe that's just me.
 
skipwave said:
It's almost always better to distort when tracking, IMHO. A 57 through a Rat Shack impedance converter and your favorite guitar overdrive pedal works nicely. Track alongside your usual vocal mic and blend to taste. Otherwise, a Reamp will let you give your pre-recorded tracks the same treatment.

I've never been satisfied with plug-in distortion sounds for anything. Maybe that's just me.
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Sansamp GT-2 pedal works nicely for this. My alltime favorite, however, is an MXR Dual rack limiter. Great for distorting the bejesus out of a vocal track for an effect.
 
chessrock said:
MXR Dual rack limiter.
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I use my MXR Limiter pedal for just that. Very cool for an effected drum room mic as well.

About the Dual Limiter, how useful is it? I've been considering picking one up on evilBay for a long time now.

Oh, and apologies to all for hijacking the thread.
 
man im using protools so the cubase plugins arent an option hah but thanks for the suggestions. Ill try some of the other suggestions and see how that works i suppose. Thanks
 
dude this is the kind of thing where you need to just experiment. seriously.

that being said once i had the singer sing thru a 57 into a mixer, aux'd out to a gorilla mini-amp, mic'd with a 57, in a separate room.

that sounded really good.

another thing you can do for a more subtle sound is just crank your tube pre.
 
software wise, stuff like amplitube................................................vocals are the only thing they are remotley useful for.
 
doing alot of hardcore and metal ive worked out a few ways to do this. if you want hardcore, screamo sound (blood brothers), take a shitty pre that offers a in and out gain control. turn the in all the way up and the out all the way down. this will give you a sharp mettalic clip. if you want a more garage tone reamp. record a fairly clean vox you like, the using your console outs hit the in on an amp, mic this and bring it back on a diff channel during mix down. blend this in with original and color to taste. another is get an old cb mic and wire an xlr on it. this will give you a mettalic very eqed tone ( like old radio). i also tend to use more dynamics for these types of vox performances as alot of ldc have to much of the airy sound and that will make the distortion harshish.
 
nattydread said:
man im using protools so the cubase plugins arent an option hah but thanks for the suggestions. Ill try some of the other suggestions and see how that works i suppose. Thanks
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Try running the vocal thru Amplitube. Can get some pretty cool distorted vocal sounds. Let me know what you came up with.

Eddie
 
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