I’ve got the new CD by Rilo Kiley and in the first song the vocals are distorted so they sound almost like a voice coming in on a telephone. A touch of static, bass removed and a bit like a megaphone treatment without the volume.
I have a friend who’s a choir teacher and he thinks that the sound is made by singing through a harmonizer or a compressor. Anyone know anything about these, if that’s how to get the vocal affect? And if so, where to find one?
Might obliged,
Stpauler
A traditional phone has everything above about 4000 cut as well as everything below 250 (approximately). There’s also a boost at 950 or so. This could all be done with an equalizer (parametric or graphic).
I have not heard the track you mention, I’m just making general comments.
I haven’t heard the track either but I agree with NoCoolUserName’s analysis. (I can also think of the first verse of Rob Thomas singing Smooth.) Telephones were designed to use a small bandwidth while preserving the essential sound of the speaking human voice. Also, a compressor just provides a constant output power level given a variable input level, doesn’t really affect tone like you want. Often used to create sustain effects for guitars, or in post-production to reduce dynamic range. A harmonizer adds other voices in harmony, so they won’t give you the telephone sound either.
Here’s a sample of the Rilo Kiley song courtesy of Amazon.com. Hopefully the actually sample may better explain the timbre.
Thanks for all of your help so far!
Hmm, that link didn’t quite direct it to the right song. It’s the first track “The Good that Won’t Come Out”
Thanks,
stpauler
I’ve posted this question over at homerecording.com and have gotten some great responses.
Thanks,
Stpauler
You could simply use some else’s phone (or your cell phone if you use one) and leave a message for yourself (assuming you have an answering machine), and then record the playback, though I realize most answering machines don’t have any line-out connections that would allow for a relatively “clean” recording, so maybe this option, while inexpensive, may not be the most ideal.
Even better, go to your friendly small electronics store located in malls across the U.S. and get a phone pickup. Plug it into a cassette recorder, call someone and record away.
Telphone pickup, that is.
You can just record the dialog as a normal wav file, then convert the sampling rate to 4000Hz/8-bit with any decent audio program (even Windows Sound Recorder will make it 8000Hz).
There is also a setting on my Boss sound processor called “Radio Voice” that achieves the same effect on a live mic.
FISH