Vocal Effect on Radiohead's National Anthem

[bloodsuga]

Does anyone know how they achieved the vocal effect on Radiohead's National Anthem off Kid A? I'm talking about the part when he first starts singing, it sounds like he's inside an aluminum can. One of the coolest sounds i've heard.

[ClaySchmitt]

Bumping this, I am curious as well.

It almost sounds like a vocoder?
or like the effect of a guitar string resonating?

[bloodsuga]

I was thinking a Vocoder as well. Maybe some odd computer sound playing the melody line along with the vocals.

[Agli]

could be a the vox track reverb through a short delay with long feedback

[Tibbon]

Sounds like a reverb bus being sent through a very short (few ms.) delay with a large amount of feedback. Part of it might have been run then through a ring modulator to give it even more of a metallic sound.

[speakercoil]

Bumping the hell out of this... I have been wondering as well... A friend of mine achieved a similar effect using some effect in Alberton Live called "Resonator"... But I don't think that's what they used, because I read the programs they have used in the past are ProTools, Cubase, and now they use Logic. However I have never heard Nigel state they used Alberton.

Sooooo... I still want an answer. For a while I thought maybe it was some kind of manipulated effect through a plate reverb, because it has a very "metalic" tonal quality to it. I don't think it is a vocoder though... It's too metalic. I think it is some kind of filter, but I can't figure out what the hell it is... This is my #1 most desired vocal effect to learn.

While were at it though... What's the effect on "Kid A".

Nigel is a genius.

[speakercoil]

Originally Posted by Tibbon

Sounds like a reverb bus being sent through a very short (few ms.) delay with a large amount of feedback. Part of it might have been run then through a ring modulator to give it even more of a metallic sound.

Yeah the ring modulator sounds about right as far as what I just said about the filter... But I am not sure. I am interested in more ideas.

If someone achieves it by screwing around... PLEASE post an audio clip showing how close you get.

This is what my friend achieved with "Resonator" on Alberton Live...

Music

The song to look for is "Liquid Gravity"... It's pretty damn close... There is minimal vocals in the song, but you can get an idea of what the effect sounds like. Also he has a Thom Yorke remix on there of Harrowdown Hill which is pretty cool.

[shaggseb]

According an interview Yorke gave to The Wire in 2001 they had the vocal vocored trough Greenwood's Ondes Martenot on the song "Kid A".

They also used something called the Palm Speaker who's, quoting Radiohead, "creating a halo of hazy reverberance around his vocal. The Palm Speaker is something else that Monsieur Martenot invented, to go with the Ondes. It's a bit like a harp with a speaker in the middle of it. The strings are tuned to all 12 semitones of an octave, and when you play a note in tune, it resonates that specific string and it creates this weird kind of echo that's only on those pitches".

Maybe that's we can hear on The National Anthem

Hope it helps

cheers

S.

[Patric Noonan]

My mate got a very close approximate of that effect with a waves plug years ago, it was one of the modulator effects, maybe metaflanger or enigma, i think the latter though. It sounded very similar.

Originally Posted by shaggseb

According an interview Yorke gave to The Wire in 2001 they had the vocal vocored trough Greenwood's Ondes Martenot on the song "Kid A".

They also used something called the Palm Speaker who's, quoting Radiohead, "creating a halo of hazy reverberance around his vocal. The Palm Speaker is something else that Monsieur Martenot invented, to go with the Ondes. It's a bit like a harp with a speaker in the middle of it. The strings are tuned to all 12 semitones of an octave, and when you play a note in tune, it resonates that specific string and it creates this weird kind of echo that's only on those pitches".

Maybe that's we can hear on The National Anthem

Hope it helps

cheers

S.

[eligit]

Originally Posted by shaggseb

According an interview Yorke gave to The Wire in 2001 they had the vocal vocored trough Greenwood's Ondes Martenot on the song "Kid A".

They also used something called the Palm Speaker who's, quoting Radiohead, "creating a halo of hazy reverberance around his vocal. The Palm Speaker is something else that Monsieur Martenot invented, to go with the Ondes. It's a bit like a harp with a speaker in the middle of it. The strings are tuned to all 12 semitones of an octave, and when you play a note in tune, it resonates that specific string and it creates this weird kind of echo that's only on those pitches".

Maybe that's we can hear on The National Anthem

Hope it helps

cheers

S.

palm speaker.

we have a winner.

[speakercoil]

Originally Posted by shaggseb

According an interview Yorke gave to The Wire in 2001 they had the vocal vocored trough Greenwood's Ondes Martenot on the song "Kid A".

They also used something called the Palm Speaker who's, quoting Radiohead, "creating a halo of hazy reverberance around his vocal. The Palm Speaker is something else that Monsieur Martenot invented, to go with the Ondes. It's a bit like a harp with a speaker in the middle of it. The strings are tuned to all 12 semitones of an octave, and when you play a note in tune, it resonates that specific string and it creates this weird kind of echo that's only on those pitches".

Maybe that's we can hear on The National Anthem

Hope it helps

cheers

S.

SWEET! Where the hell did you dig up those articles!!!! I have read soooooo many articles on Radiohead and Nigel Godrich, and watched pretty much every interview on youtube and own Meeting People Is Easy... I mean I have done my research, and then... BAM! There is the answer. THANK YOU for that...Vocoder through the Martinot, that's awesome... Too bad I cannot afford one.

As for the palm speaker... I can't find much on the internet about it without it just blabbing about the Martinot, which is cool and all... But I want to see if I can purchase JUST the palm speaker... Hard to find. From what I have read it seems to be the correct answer... As three sites have described it as "metalic" in tonal quality.

THANKS!
-Grant

[Mount Cyanide]

Sounds a lot like GRM Tools to me.
Though I prefer the eccentric, romantic concept of the Palm Speaker way better.

[eligit]

Originally Posted by Mount Cyanide

Sounds a lot like GRM Tools to me.
Though I prefer the eccentric, romantic concept of the Palm Speaker way better.

honestly it really does sound like strings resonating in response to notes being playing "at" them.....like when you hit the high E string on a guitar and it makes overtones of the low E string activate.

that sounds like what is happening on this tune....they are playing his vocal take "at" a set of strings....and when his voice hits certain notes/overtones....it activates the strings of the "effect". no plug ins needed.

[shaggseb]

Where the hell did you dig up those articles!!!!

here

The Wire: Adventures in Modern Music: Issues

Unfortunately I didn't have any scanner, otherwise i'd scanned it for you.

cheers

S.

[speakercoil]

Originally Posted by eligit

honestly it really does sound like strings resonating in response to notes being playing "at" them.....like when you hit the high E string on a guitar and it makes overtones of the low E string activate.

that sounds like what is happening on this tune....they are playing his vocal take "at" a set of strings....and when his voice hits certain notes/overtones....it activates the strings of the "effect". no plug ins needed.

BRILLIANT comparison with the guitar strings... That is exactly how it sounds... I have tried doing something similar to this with BG vox before and a piano with a weight on the sustain pedal... Doesn't produce as metalic a sound, but they are larger strings... So naturally it is more subtle because it takes more volume to resonate the strings, and if you have too much volume going in, then you don't pick up the resonance well enough.

However this makes a lot of sense... If you have something smaller like that, it could work beautifully.

[shaggseb]

Hi

I found the Wire article online here :

Radiohead Press Cuttings -> The Wire, July 2001 - "Walking on Thin Ice"

Cheers

S.

[djahm]

PSP has a free plugin, Pianoverb, that does something similar...
I'd try blasting the vocal through monitors at a open tuned electric guitar(s) (sympathetic resonance but no direct sound picked up). That would be more fun.

[speakercoil]

Originally Posted by shaggseb

Hi

I found the Wire article online here :

Radiohead Press Cuttings -> The Wire, July 2001 - "Walking on Thin Ice"

Cheers

S.

OMG... That article was amazing... Thank you.

So I guess the palm speaker was used on "You and Whose Army?"... along with a mic with an egg carton over it. lol... Brilliant. That's another one of my favorite sounds.

-Grant

[bdkauff]

I remember reading somewhere that the vocal was put through a radio or something...not sure how that would get the desired effect?

[speakercoil]

Originally Posted by bdkauff

I remember reading somewhere that the vocal was put through a radio or something...not sure how that would get the desired effect?

I dunno, but at Blackbird they had a few of these HUGE old school Telefunken tube radios and I always dreamed of running a vocal through one... They looked freaking awesome, but I never got to hear one. :(