vocal chain for hard rock: what effects should I use?

[everdrone]

Hi, Im gonna record some of my hard rock vocals. What effects should I use? vocoder, compressor, eq, reverb... Im using:

a $7 mic-->toneportGX preamp-->reaper

cause thats what I have. I tried vocoder, compressor, eq, reverb and it sounded great! Any good effects I forgot? Thanks

 

[Hellion]

Re: vocal chain for hard rock: what effects should I use?

Well, if that's what you have, that's what you have. I'd personally recommend cutting the reverb and using a slapback echo instead (set it anywhere between .15 and .20 seconds with one repeat). I think you'll find the result will be a lot cleaner than reverb.

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: vocal chain for hard rock: what effects should I use?

Compress them hard then compress them again. EQ will have a lot to do with how they sit in the mix, use as many effects as necessary to get them to sit well but sparsely - feel the effects not hear them.

 

[everdrone]

Re: vocal chain for hard rock: what effects should I use?

^cool, I did not realize that, good call! thanks ...reaverb is what I use, not sure if Im using it right cause I gotta find the tutorial on it, not sure if it does what your talking about:

http://www.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/ReaVerb

http://s712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/everdrone/?action=view&current=ggegfasdffdsafsd-1.jpg

http://s712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/everdrone/?action=view&current=re-1.jpg


Im using reaper effects: reacomp, reaverb, reavocoder, reaequalizer...Im not sure if there are others to use...

 

[everdrone]

Re: vocal chain for hard rock: what effects should I use?

Compress them hard then compress them again. EQ will have a lot to do with how they sit in the mix, use as many effects as necessary to get them to sit well but sparsely - feel the effects not hear them.

thats cool I was figuring you were doing double compression with MindPrint Trio to ssl powerstrip, so I tried copying it earlier today and checked out those items. great advice. I tried that today by turning maxing out the gain on the compressor and volume and then compressing in reaper and was impressed. wasnt even singing very loud. makes me wanna get the new voicelive when it comes out. Here was the compressor settings I used today:

Vintage U.K.
GearBox’s Vintage UK model is based on* the truly classic Neve 1073 pre-amp. Designed by Rupert Neve in the early 1970’s, as a discrete transistor mic/line amp with 3-band EQ and high-pass filter, the 1073 was used in a variety of Neve consoles. NOT known for being the flattest or cleanest kid on the block, the Neve 1073 became the “Gold Standard” of pre amps regardless. It’s credits are endless and likely numerous songs playing on the radio right now, as you read this, were recorded with a Neve 1073. Like the American Classic, this model’s sound is based not just on our analysis of the 1073, but also incorporates the kind of “sonic love” you’d have gotten when recording through a 1073 to legendary Revox, Studer, and MCI analog tape machines.


Thanks again!

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: vocal chain for hard rock: what effects should I use?

I like that neve setting for dirty vocals - I wouldn't compress that much in tracking because you can't undo it. I would use the Studio Vocal in Gearbox a lot too. When I compress vocals I usually compress them lightly when recording then I comp the vocals together and bounce it down with a compressor on the bounced file, then I run it through the SSL channel with more compression. For rock you can hit them pretty hard if you want. I always have the lightly compressed track if I need to go back.

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: vocal chain for hard rock: what effects should I use?

Check out this article on Korn and Frank Filipetti, there's some stuff on vocals.

http://emusician.com/mag/emusic_frank_talk_filipetti/

 

[DankStar]

Re: vocal chain for hard rock: what effects should I use?

if you're looking for adding harshness, sometimes I'll toss on something for distortion (like on a second backing track for emphatic chorus yells) like a camelcrusher, blood overdrive, or chrissy. camelcrusher is cool because it has several things it can do. some people don't like to distort their vocals, but if you go light, it can add a nice touch. blood OD can get downright nasty if you really want to hide your voice.

I always like adding a second vocal track and pitch shifting it down and distorting it to make it carcass-y like in the background of choruses. I've never had any luck with vocoders sounding good in a mix.

for free stuff and with a pc, the classic compressor and vanilla compressor are my faves for compression, but the fish stuff is usable too.

I'm sure that line 6 thing has all sorts of distortion stuff too.

 

[everdrone]

Re: vocal chain for hard rock: what effects should I use?

innerdreamrecords.co - thanks - very well written tip and very helpful as always. Cool article. Gives me alot to work with here, Im pretty stoked.

Dankstar - right on - this is helpful. no "right way" to put on effects for sure, gotta experiment with stuff, then eq it. I hear the octave upshift in some of my fav recordings, so I was experimenting with it yesterday, so thanks for confirming that this is a viable option for overtones up/downshiftoctave. Ill have to look up some of the free stuff sometime that you recommend, thanks. Im getting to the point where Im happy with my vocals/vocal-chain finally. :beerchug: