]etting a good lo-fi vocal sound?

[gravyface]

You could try running the SM57 into a guitar amp and then miking the amp with another 57 or LDC in the room (or both). A small tube amp with the gain cranked should give a nice tube saturation on the vocals.

[Silent Sound]

The Shure 520D is great for this! If you can find an old 520D, I'd go with that over the new 520DX, but the DX sounds pretty good as well. They come with a standard 1/4" instrument jack so you can plug it straight into an amp, and should run around the same price as a SM57, maybe a bit more. You can also easily convert it to XLR and a low impedance with just an XLR connector and a soldering iron.

That's what I'd do. It's a great mic to have around for those strange effects. Plus if you get a used 520D and don't see yourself using it after this, you could sell it for around the same price you bought it for.

Another option would be to take a mic like an SM57 and boost the mids and cut the lows and highs. That's where a lot of this "vintage" sound comes from. Not so much the distortion as it is the narrow frequency response. You'd have to play around with the EQ to see what works, but this could get you in the ball park. Then you could reamp it later or add some distortion via a plugin if that's your thing. But you'll want to cut out those lows and highs first, other wise it could be really hard to hear the distortion on the vocals while still maintaining the intelligibility of the lyrics.

[AAsa]

The Copperphone - Placid Audio

this mic is instant lo-fi and always gets a 'what th' from the clients.
best to blend it with something more normal sounding.

[gouge]

recently been using an sm57 into an ivp with a mudhoney pedal in the effects loop, that hits the desk and gets the highs reduced with the shelving filter.

i really like that setup as an effect. maybe just give similar similar a go with your ds-1.

you've got nothing to lose by setting up a second vocal mic and tracking that. just get a sound you like.

to me you get a more vintage lofi sound when you run the vocal through a guitar amp and mic the speaker.

with the guys i record we are always trying stuff like this just to find out what it sounds like. it's part of the fun i reckon.

[gouge]

forgot to say, you could also try bouncing the vocal to tape 4-5 times. j mascis has mentioned this method in interviews.

on my list of things to try in the future is the tape bounce, an ampex 600 preamp plus need to play withthe marshall a bit more

[lakeshorephatty]

I do a lot of lo fi vocals.

I don't bother with guitar amps much these days because I use a culture vulture more often, but certainly a dynamic mic or ribbon is pretty key to avoid a lot of hash when its distored. I used to use guitar amps often and the nice thing is getting an effect or two off the amp in there, such as verb. A little goes a long way.

Typically you're going to need a fair amount of EQ and dynamic processing as things can get really peaky. When its all said and done though it can sound really nice!

I have done the mic blend too with a hi-fi mic and if you have the channels, this would give you more options later.

Sometimes cupping a dynamic mic can be a weird enough sound even without an amp involved.

Russell

[mijome07]

Originally Posted by x_25

Options are limited because we will be working on tape. I am considering an SM57 and then maybe a boss ds-1 in an effects loop?

Slap an EQ before and/or after. Boost the mids.

[x_25]

Originally Posted by mijome07

Slap an EQ before and/or after. Boost the mids.

Yep, that is starting to sound like the right plan for this. It turn out my father (who's hobby is amature radio) owns an Astatic D-104, so I will probably try that as well.

And thanks to everyone elses suggestions as well, there will be much experimentation the next few days. If this were a paying gig I would just up and buy one of those Shures, but I am doing it gratis, so budget is a concern.

[Ron Vogel]

I have a few old vintage speakers I wired up xlr's to for this. Great low-fi sound...some are killer on guitar amps too. If you do this you need tweets, mids, and woofers to experiment with.

[garyboy2024]

I'm into using a ribbon mic in these cases... even something cheap like a fathead would do the job nicely.They really roll off the highs in a pleasing, "lo-fi" kind of way.

[mijome07]

I recently posted this elsewhere:



Astatic 332 crystal omni mic made for recording.

I have an MXR EQ (6 band version) pedal and a octave/fuzz pedal. I can make my voice sound 8 bit.

I also just picked up a vintage Teac EQ w/ 10 bands and 2 channels. I'd like to stick this EQ before and after the octave/fuzz to really tweak it out.

Forgot to mention I'm using a compressor after the preamp. Nothing extreme. You can always use a compressor the squash the 'you-know-what' out of anything.

The Teac sounds really good, especially running like say, a drum machine or synth and making it sound lo-fi.

[danerius]

Originally Posted by x_25

Ok, I am going to be recording a local folk punk/ukulele band next week and they are looking for a kind of lo-fi sound on the vocals. They said they used to have a harmonica mic that they loved but it got lost (I am assuming crystal mic in that). Any suggestions for getting a nice, non grateing lo-fi sound?

Options are limited because we will be working on tape. I am considering an SM57 and then maybe a boss ds-1 in an effects loop?

I havent tried this but it may be worth a shot. And I wouldnt bother with makin a casin for it. Just use the handset as it is + xlr connector