i'm not usually one to post these kinds of "what was used on this track" threads, but the question has been bugging me lately with regards to a few mclusky recordings.

the sound i'm talking about is probably best heard on the track "support systems," as the distortion is there when falco is singing really quietly at the beginning, but clearly clips when he kicks in, and it sounds fucking great.

the same sort of vocal sound also seems to be present on "lucky jim," "kkkitchens," and even on the do dallas album on "whoyouknow" and slightly on "the world loves us and is our bitch"

so, i guess this is a question for steve, but i'd be interested in hearing from anyone with info that could help me out.

is it a specific mic? preamp? compressor? combination of the three? two? purple? chartreuse? boss digital delay?

I'm familiar with McLusky, but not those songs. Try this out though:

Pod Pro 'Tube Saturation' model preset,(NOT one of the amp models) then after, the compressor function in the Pod Pro, then hit it with Parametric EQ.

Considering the fact that you're totally fucking up the source, Mic selection may not be that important, and you may have improved results by using a mic not normally used for vocal applications.

hmm. i don't have a Pod, so i can't try it at home, but i'd love to hear some sort of demo or comparison between a clean signal from a mic, and a signal from the same mic through the settings you described, if you could swing that.. maybe it will convince me to get a pod =P

thebookofkevin wrote:hmm. i don't have a Pod, so i can't try it at home, but i'd love to hear some sort of demo or comparison between a clean signal from a mic, and a signal from the same mic through the settings you described, if you could swing that.. maybe it will convince me to get a pod =P

Damn, I had a POD 2.0 that I got rid of a couple of years ago, and that one didn't have balanced XLR I/O.

Dude, just fucking distort it. Use an overdrive, use a compressor cranked to hell, use a shitty karaoke mic, run a signal into an impedance transformer to a guitar amp. There are fifty thousand ways to fuck up a voice.

Sing through a megaphone, Butthole Surfers-style.

thebookofkevin wrote:the sound i'm talking about is probably best heard on the track "support systems," as the distortion is there when falco is singing really quietly at the beginning, but clearly clips when he kicks in, and it sounds fucking great.

i wasnt there obviously, but if you asked me to do that and i were recording it at EA, i would take the close mic tape out > IVP > compressor > console. (in mixing, not tracking) putting the distortion before the compressor would be how it'd retain the more/less [program dependent] amount of distorion. this would also mean on initial tracking of the vocal, you were a little more light handed on the compression going in, so there's still a fair amount of dynamic range.

alternately maybe take a mult of that track and do what i said, but have a clean running parallel for a little more definition.

it sorta runs on the same principle of vocals where the room mic pops out more when the singer belts, because your close mic is compressed to clamp the level in place, but nothing's keeping the room mic from jumping in and out.

we may have covered this before.


http://www.electrical.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14078
http://www.electrical.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15981
http://www.electrical.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6755
http://www.electrical.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12843

i did a seach before i posted, but none of them answered my questions.

and the last one you linked to was a troubleshooting thread. the guy DIDN'T want distortion.

wtg.

i've used distortion plug ins, i've run my voice through a harmonic percolator, and i've overdriven the preamps on my mixer. all three sound different. none of them sound like the effect on falco's voice in those songs.

yes. that is what the word "may" means.