Distorted / Tape / Valve Amp Vocals

[Matt Darcy]

While trying to put an idea down for a friend, he wanted a distorted or "driven" sound on his vocals. I read that the most common way to get and record this sound in pro-tools was with an analog tape recording plugin, or a valve amp based plugin.

I only managed to find one analog tape plugin for pro-tools LE, but it was $300 and no demo of it, or trial option, or samples, so I wasn't going to spend $300 on a chance it may be the right thing.

The only real valve amp plugins I could find was in guitar amp simulators, and I wasn't sure this was the right thing to do/use, so wasn't going to spend money on that yet.

the best way I achieved it was to actually plug a vocal mic into a vintage guitar valve amp (I know this is what the plugin does - but this was me make shifting, not finding the best way) and then mic up the guitar amp. It worked "ok" but sounded "distant" which is a problem I'm having when micing up guitar amps, or recording vocals in general (I have a post in genaral discusiion on it).

I'm happy to post the result I got from the valve amp to use as a bench mark against my comments above, but I'd really appriciate

a.) peoples thoughts on techniques on how to achieve that volcal distortion
b.) some example of what people have achieved and how they did it.

I'm happy to buy the tools to do it, but not being an experienced or advanced user I want to make sure I get the right tools for the job.

thanks

[dougied]

check out http://www.masseyplugins.com and his TapeHead or THC distortion one might work for ya. They are full version demos for free that are missing a couple things from the registered versions.

[Matt Darcy]

what a fantastic find, I'll have a play with these. and what great value to purchase the ones I like, big thank you for this.

[dougied]

Anytime bud....... anytime. :)

[Whiteyguitar]

I was going to Suggest Massey but if you recently bought PT you will have recieved the Lite version of Izotope Trash, which has some good distortions for vocals another good one for free is Izotopes Vinyl.

[ultrajoebot]

I've also had good luck with Amplitube 2, again going more for a guitar amp modeling type of sound. I think there's a demo of it out there somewhere.

[pgripp]

Try this for fun (and for free!)

a) Insert free Digi Compressor on vocal track
b) Set to "Hard Limit"
c) Pull down threshold for appropriate crunch.

[Matt Darcy]

more diverse replies, excellent, all very welcome and appriciated.

[dopewerewolf]

Try a crappy microphone. Not the most pro-level approach, but I find it works really well. I often record vocals with two mics simultaneously. I use a nice mic to capture a clean vocal and an old 70's tape recorder mic that has some nice warm distortion built in. Then I mix the two takes to get the appropriate amount of clarity/distortion.