Distortion FX

[[XAP]BobParticipant]

Yesterday started to look at replicating the megaphone that one vocalists uses for a few lines in different songs.

In the past the megaphone into the mic has caused issues with feedback (not a great surprise really) but we like the sound, so run the risk.

I’m not sure whether I can get anything similar from the existing FX??

[croydon_clothearsParticipant]

I’m assuming you’re referring to the non-electronic type of megaphone, reminiscent of the 1920’s!
I would have thought that you could get pretty close to that using parametric EQ. The sound we associate with the megaphone results mostly from the materials the cone is made from absorbing some frequencies and resonating at others. It tends to be quite nasal with a human voice and lacking at the LF end.
Perhaps some experimentation with generous helpings of LF and HF cut, and some high-Q (narrow-band) upper and lower-mid peaks, sweeping up and down the spectrum until you find something you like. I’d start with building a nice honk at around 1.75 to 2.5kHz into the sound with maybe another one around 500Hz.
In a real megaphone the amplification is done mechanically and some compression will help replicate the effect.
You may not be able to get all the way there on the channel’s PEQ, so maybe route it through a separate mix channel and tweak it some more with the GEQ on that mix.
You don’t say if you’re going to have to do this live!
If you are, naturally you can store the settings in the PEQ library, but my instinct would be to get a mic splitter and have two channels for your vocalist, one clean and one for the effect.
Too many things to go wrong otherwise, with all that button-pressing.

[[XAP]BobParticipant]

This is definitely live!

I was going to play with the eq to see how close I could get with that I’ll add a chunk of compression as well, a second channel is an interesting option – need to work that out in my head (given my routing and channel count limitations – including control surface)

It is very reminiscent of an era, as you rightly say.

[[XAP]BobParticipant]

Well, I patched out the normal eq (minor) and squelched it – then just enabled the eq for the relevant pieces. Worked well.

I’m thinking that one of the FX units on an insert with that PEQ, but I can’t insert a blank rack – I’m thinking about a very short delay… 5feet maybe?

[plevrierParticipant]

With a good EQ setup (bandpass) some compression and the Rotator as an insert you should get really close. Just use the drive preset and set it to full drive and play around with the LF/HF knob. (And dry/wet).

The drive in the rotator works pretty well, aldough I would like a tube emulation of a distortion box.

Regards
Pascal

[Author]

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