How do you create vocal distortion?

[HoosierSnd]

With the exclusion of Amp Farm and Lo-Fi, Recti-Fi and that ilk, what pluginz would you folx use to introduce smooth full-bandwidth distortion to a vocal track?

I can't seem to find it...

Thanks,

steveV

[blake eat world]

sans amp PSA-1

[aurelio funk dias]

Call me to sing

[Marc Edwards]

I've never used the plug-in version, but the Mooger Fooger phaser pedal has an input drive that sounds great for smashing things up a bit. I also like the SansAmp PSA-1 (once again, outboard not plug-in).

[Rams Boy]

How about the good old fashion way. Run the output of the mic pre into a second mic pre. Crank up the gain to taste.

[Philthy]

Or the really old-fashioned way- drop a bee's hive into the vocal booth and lock the door.

[Charles Dye]

Steve,

One way I create distortion that sounds a little different is to overdrive Renaissance EQ (I beleive I learned this from this forum). It has a kind of solid state distortion sound, but it does not sound as "digital distortion" as you might think. Then post the overdriven eq you can place a LPF and shape the top end to taste.

I've also recently been overdriving the Ren Comp in "Warm" mode. It sounds very different than the eq overdrive. Try overdriving any plugin, the way each plugin deals with clipping seems to always create different results. And the results aren't always ugly and unusable.

Have fun,
Charles


[This message has been edited by Charles Dye (edited May 26, 2001).]

[Jim S]

Originally posted by Marc Edwards:
I've never used the plug-in version, but the Mooger Fooger phaser pedal has an input drive that sounds great for smashing things up a bit. I also like the SansAmp PSA-1 (once again, outboard not plug-in).

How do you run your mic into the Sansamp or Mooger Fooger? Aren't they for guitars or keyboards? Isn't there a huge impedance difference?

[Mike Tholen]

I used to do this stuff alot, here's how I've done it-
split the signal into 2. leave one alone(for now).
the other one? well on it's insert I would run it through an ssl line amp jacked up until it sounds cool. then wack it into a compressor (la2a,dbx 165, whatever) or maybe 2 compressors. maybe the first one's output overdives the 2nd one's input(whatever sounds better). by this time you'll have a TON of noise. gate that SOB! but use the "dry" signal to trigger the gate. Then run an eq after the gate to shape the tone of the signal.
If the dist sound is too much to fully articulate the syllables then just mix a bit of the dry signal in with the distortion. also eq the dry signal to blend nicely w/your distortion.
Hope that made sense-Mike

[This message has been edited by Mike Tholen (edited May 27, 2001).]

[Marc Edwards]

Jim S : I'd track it clean first. I don't know if I'm brave enough to go to disk smashed up. I also don't know many singers that would perform well if they were hearing a Sansamped version of what they were singing.

This also leaves you with more options later on...