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I'm thinking of experimenting with effects on vocals and thought why not start a thread about it.

Do you like to use pedals/effects with vocals?
What type of effects do you like?
Specific pedals also.

I'm mostly thinking something different than like normal delay and reverb sounds but feel free to bomb me with anything you like!

I like running a ss/bs TAFM and a muza delay/reverb on vocals. sounds super rad.

the TAFM is great because u can blend in the clean w/ the fuzz.

i feel like a cheap multi effect thing would be great for experimenting w/ different fx.

Are we talking live use or recording or?

For vocals, assuming you want them to remain intelligible or have some level of control, I'd want a mix knob or split the signal so you in effect get said blend at the mixer.

Also be aware that anything that is impedance sensitive may not play well with mics, as there's pickups etc in the chain for the pedal to interact with.

Also, how are you intending to run the vocals into the pedal? You'll likely need some sort of preamp with a master level control (since by the time the normal preamp is done it'll be pushing line level as opposed to instrument)

i use one of these cables w/ the impedance matching transformer built in when plugging a mic into fx pedals.
http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/elect ... index.html

You need a mixer or something to run the mic through so you get the best out of the pedals... Mic signals are way hotter than a guitar and that could be a good thing or bad depending on the pedal... There are several new items out that will let you use mics with pedals... The Eventide Missing Link looks to be the coolest new one...

Yes, I've run vocals through a ton of fx. I generally find that vocals through fuzz or any heavy distortion just turns into WHARRGARBL!!

A very light overdrive can give a cool edge to your vocals.

Other than that, I dig voice -> modulation (leslie sim is my favorite), and delay and reverb are pretty standard.

Ring Mods are pretty solid for robot voices, if you can't get your hands on an actual vocoder.

In general:

Phaser with an adjustable sweep.
Delay.
Reverb.
Filter/EQ.
Vibe.

From my own pedal stash:

Effectrode phase-O-matic deluxe.
DMM. (get my Bee Thousand on)
RRR. (plate settings are my favorite)
Frostwave Resonator. (such an underrated tool for vox)
RRR rotary mode. (WTB a Sweet Sound Ultra Vibe, black model first...but I'll take a purple....whichever has best deal!)

sonidero wrote:You need a mixer or something to run the mic through so you get the best out of the pedals... Mic signals are way hotter than a guitar and that could be a good thing or bad depending on the pedal... There are several new items out that will let you use mics with pedals... The Eventide Missing Link looks to be the coolest new one...

Looks pretty cool, no doubt...but I'm still thinking a Keymaster is the better choice for blending outboard pres, eqs, comps and whatnot...with pedals...using LDC mikes that require phantom power.

Speaking of which, I forgot to mention compression in my previous post
Effectrode PC2A...as close as one can get to a Teletronix LA2A in pedal form. Not a bad sounding setting in it.

I like using distortions and fuzzes on lowest gain settings to either EQ or add texture to vocals. Love love love throwing some reverb drenched tracks to back up dry tracks.

digital delays and reverbs are great imo
also the ss/bs Mini is awesome on vocals. not noisy and really dynamically responsive, great for gnarly clipping whenever you make loud sounds.
an impedance matching cable is important, i think. that eventide looks extremely useful too, just a lot more expensive than a cable

I am talking both live use and for recording. Thanks for the mixer/preamp/correct cables tips, I didn't think of that as an issue.

bigchiefbc wrote:Yes, I've run vocals through a ton of fx. I generally find that vocals through fuzz or any heavy distortion just turns into WHARRGARBL!!

A very light overdrive can give a cool edge to your vocals.

That has been my experience with fuzz too, and some distortions I've tried didn't even affect the sound that much, except bringing a lot of noise and feedback. I have a darkglass b3k that I'm gonna try the next time I go to my bands rehearsal space.

Rustywire wrote:

In general:

Phaser with an adjustable sweep.
Delay.
Reverb.
Filter/EQ.
Vibe.

From my own pedal stash:

Effectrode phase-O-matic deluxe.
DMM. (get my Bee Thousand on)
RRR. (plate settings are my favorite)
Frostwave Resonator. (such an underrated tool for vox)
RRR rotary mode. (WTB a Sweet Sound Ultra Vibe, black model first...but I'll take a purple....whichever has best deal!)

Nice tips, I've definetly been gasing for a frostwave resonator for a while. Or something like that with good controls over resonance.

backwardsvoyager wrote:

also the ss/bs Mini is awesome on vocals. not noisy and really dynamically responsive, great for gnarly clipping whenever you make loud sounds.
an impedance matching cable is important, i think. that eventide looks extremely useful too, just a lot more expensive than a cable

Haha, the standard recomendation in every thread! I really want to try it, on bass and guitar too, and there's one for sale locally here. I'm tempted but I don't know, there's so much stuff I want...

Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D. wrote:I like running a ss/bs TAFM and a muza delay/reverb on vocals. sounds super rad.

the TAFM is great because u can blend in the clean w/ the fuzz.

i feel like a cheap multi effect thing would be great for experimenting w/ different fx.

TAFM seems cool and yes, a clean blend seems useful. I guess some of those Zoom multistomp could be nice as a multi effect. They're cheap and I've actually heard pretty good thing about them. Might try one of those!

I've also been looking at the Big Sky. Fuck, it's so expensive but some of those sounds in there are crazy beautiful and it's so much more than a normal reverb pedal. Can't imagine it wouldn't be cool on vocals too. Anyone tried it on vocals? Tried it at all?

I found one of these in the basement of my new house:
http://digitech.com/en/products/vocal-300
It's dirty as fuck, no idea if it works and no way to really test it, and I have no use for it
If anyone is interested I'd give someone a stupid good deal on it or trade me something totally random/ridiculous

I was given a Shure prologue mic. Made in japan. Looks exactly like an SM 58. It is a hi Z mic as opposed to SM 57 or 58 lo Z impedance. The person who gave it to me used to plug it straight into an amp for sales promotions outside of her store. Should be perfect for plugging into pedals but I haven't tried it, but I think it work good. Maybe look into something like that. They probably still sell them or look on ebay or wherever.