Distortion and Vox & Other FX

[rockrev]

Ok, so I just posted about vocoding . . . now I'm posting about distortion. Yeah, you got me. I've been listening to MUSE. Anyway, I've really been taking careful listens to the singer's vox effects.

1. The vox distortion is very dynamic and saturates with intensity; therefore, it's probably an overdrive and not a straight fuzz/distortion effect. Perhaps a guitar preamp - possibly a plug-in, but it's not D-Fi or Tube. Maybe a guitar amp plug-in.

2. The vox sounds layered but not natural; therefore, I'm guessing there's some vocoding going on there. Either that, or layered & time-aligned multi-takes that have been really Autotuned and carefully blended.

3. There's definitely some dramatic EQ filtering there too. Certainly a high-pass filter set a little bit higher than your typical full vocal. It's hard to tell with all of the effects though - what comes first, second, last, etc. For all I know he could be using a Zoom pedal!

Anyone a MUSE fan? Have some ideas, articles, or research?

Thanks,

rockrev

[Joz]

I'm a muse fan, but sometimes I get annoyed by the vocal distortion/effects. I'll listed carefully and let you know what I think.

Joz

[madrock]

rich costey is a master of distortion in his mixes. the muse stuff is full of subtle filters and distortion, and some extreme too. if you listen, you can hear that he's simply fading distortion in and out at key points to build tension and vibe. this is most obvious in Time Is Running Out.

some things to try are the Roger Linn Adrenalinn, Line 6 Pod, SansAmp GT2 and PSA1, Boss Blues Driver, Electrix Filter Factory, Sherman Filter Bank, Mutronics Mutator, Lovetone pedals and any other funky looking pieces of crap you might chance upon at your local pawn broker. i often saturate the input of a 1073 or 1176 to get fur on the vocals or kick/snare. focusrite isa 115's distort great too but you don't need to spend that much money to mess things up.

getting on an SSL helps too. i recommend the most expensive distortion box ever made: the SL4000E.