Recording Forum

[D]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54hUDN5yVd4

I know he is a real to real guy, but how about in pro tools?

[omni]

If I did not hate that band so much I would give you the answer.

[Snaporaz]

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D wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54hUDN5yVd4

I know he is a real to real guy, but how about in pro tools?

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use a distortion pedal, plugin...

or put the vocal mic into your mouth until clipping, then make a youtube video for further sonic reduction

[Snaporaz]

oh, ProStools turning into an Ampex or Studer machine

[Zooey]

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Snaporaz wrote:

oh, ProStools turning into an Ampex or Studer machine

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You're logged in under the wrong alt.  Log out and come back with the correct one. 

[Snaporaz]

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Zooey wrote:

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Snaporaz wrote:

oh, ProStools turning into an Ampex or Studer machine

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You're logged in under the wrong alt.  Log out and come back with the correct one. 

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You remeber under what pseudonym I use the term "ProStools" ?

[Zooey]

It was just yesterday and not so hard to remember. Plus your posting style and grammar are...unique. But if the mods don't care that you have three alts, I don't either!

[gubu]

Yes, some sort of distortion pedal/plugin/tape saturation/mic in gob.

You could also try a few different compressor plugins and try them each with a really fast attack time - below around 15ms. Sometimes you can get a very pleasing distortion this way. And sometimes it can sound like kaka. You'll just have to try it and see.

[D]

While the entire vocal is mildly distorted, you can also hear a "squealing" clipping sound at strong points. Do you think these vocal takes were actually clipping during recording, or it's an after effect? 

Would one way of producing this distorted vocal quality would be to record hot with clipping, then bounce the track to another one to retain the distorted/clipping sound without clipping the new track?

Or could you technically buss any vocal track re-route it with a high preamp gain and re-record it back into your session?

[gubu]

Honestly, you could probably achieve a very similar effect by simply plugging a dynamic mic straight into an old guitar amp with plenty of gain.

Re-amping, as you describe, would work too.

Re:- Clipping the input and bouncing to another track..

There is no need to do this. Simply add trim of ~3-6dB to the distorted track to prevent any intersample overs. You get distortion from clipping your A/D convertors, but the resulting waveform won't contain any sample above 0dBFS.

[D]

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gubu wrote:

Re:- Clipping the input and bouncing to another track..

There is no need to do this. Simply add trim of ~3-6dB to the distorted track to prevent any intersample overs. You get distortion from clipping your A/D convertors, but the resulting waveform won't contain any sample above 0dBFS.

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Sorry, could you describe this in simpler terms? Want to understand exactly what you're saying. Do you mean re-routing a vocal track through an overdriven preamp and setting a compression limiter on the track that it is fed back to in my DAW?

[Rudolf von Hag…]

I know gubu, he is very busy with his baby all night, and you never know when he has time to post between changing pampers...

- gubu meant that when you record the vocals with a high level, means the peak of the vocal track comes near 0 dB, then you raise the fader of the vocal track to + 6dB and this track will distort, actually called clipping

however, when you record the vocal with a low level, lets say the vocal peaks -12dB, then you would have to raise the fader by +18 dB

-----> now most digital audio production software the fader can only be raised by +6 dB, in other words you can not drive a track which has a peak of -12 dB into clipping with the fader ----> you would have to use a GAINER plug-in, a gainer can raise the level by adding up to +24 dB, this will also drive low recording level tracks into clipping.

[gubu]

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D wrote:

Sorry, could you describe this in simpler terms? Want to understand exactly what you're saying. Do you mean re-routing a vocal track through an overdriven preamp and setting a compression limiter on the track that it is fed back to in my DAW?

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You asked about clipping the input when recording to achieve distortion, and then bussing to another track to preserve that distortion without adding more distortion.

In simple terms, there is no need to buss to another track in this situation. The distortion gets recorded/encoded, but the highest level signal/sample in that digitally encoded signal will never exceed 0dBFS on playback, unless you apply further gain to it.

You will need to apply trim to avoid intersample overs (google) when your audio has peaks of 0dBFS (and it will do if you've clipped the input), but there is absolutely no need to buss/group this signal to a separate track.

[Zooey]

To answer D's earlier question, the ringing of the distortion at certain frequencies indicates to me that the vocal was sung through a mic'ed guitar amp.  Knowing the White Stripes and the studio at which they recorded, it was definitely tracked that way and not added during the mixing. 

You can get a very similar effect with convolution plug-ins, but it's easier and cheaper just to run a mic through an amp with a small speaker. 

[Rudolf von Hag…]

DO NOT COPY THE WHITE STRIPES

BE AN ORIGINAL

[D]

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gubu wrote:

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D wrote:

Sorry, could you describe this in simpler terms? Want to understand exactly what you're saying. Do you mean re-routing a vocal track through an overdriven preamp and setting a compression limiter on the track that it is fed back to in my DAW?

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In simple terms, there is no need to buss to another track in this situation. The distortion gets recorded/encoded, but the highest level signal/sample in that digitally encoded signal will never exceed 0dBFS on playback, unless you apply further gain to it.

You will need to apply trim to avoid intersample overs (google) when your audio has peaks of 0dBFS (and it will do if you've clipped the input), but there is absolutely no need to buss/group this signal to a separate track.

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Gotcha. Recording hot doesn't equal playback being hot. Thanks again, gubu.

And thank you everyone for the other suggestions you have provided. 

[D]

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Rudolf von Hagenwil wrote:
DO NOT COPY THE WHITE STRIPES

BE AN ORIGINAL

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Definitely not my intent. But they are good! IMO

[D]

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Zooey wrote:

To answer D's earlier question, the ringing of the distortion at certain frequencies indicates to me that the vocal was sung through a mic'ed guitar amp.  Knowing the White Stripes and the studio at which they recorded, it was definitely tracked that way and not added during the mixing. 

You can get a very similar effect with convolution plug-ins, but it's easier and cheaper just to run a mic through an amp with a small speaker. 

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I'm curious Zooey, do you think the approach would be to sing into a dynamic mic and record the amp with a condenser?

[Zooey]

A dynamic mic will work better with the input of an amp (and not need phantom power).  You could record the amp with a second dynamic mic or a condensor mic.  I don't think it matters a whole bunch since the frequency range of the vocals will be limited to what the amp can reproduce.

Since the vocal in your example isn't totally crapping out, it is possible they split the signal and are blending a miced track and a clean track. 

[Rudolf von Hag…]

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D wrote:

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Rudolf von Hagenwil wrote:
DO NOT COPY THE WHITE STRIPES

BE AN ORIGINAL

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Definitely not my intent. But they are good! IMO

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I like them. A good band which makes simple and naive rock, as we did 50 years ago. The kind of music people like, straight forward and no schnick schnack.