Regarding Vocal Effects As Heard On Records

Hey Everyone..

This is my first post here so first of all, Hi ALL!

My question is, in most recordings i hear there's a vocal effect that makes the vocalist sound like he's speaking through a radio or similar equipment.

For example. The band Muse use that effect a lot. And Metallica used it in the song No Leaf Clover (youtube link :

It helps alot with mediocre vocalists such as myself to be "hidden" behind that kind of effect. I am not looking to hide my flaws just sound decent with my recordings. Plus it's a very cool effect.

Thanks in advance for your help =)

There are actually dozens of plug ins for computer recording that will get your voice to sound like that--I think of it mostly as a 'telephone voice.' It's really just a radical EQing, removing all the lows, and then a bit of distortion and a ton of compression on top. What software do you use to record?

Well Cubase SX3 and recently i been trying REAPER. So is that the official effect's name? Telephone voice?

Different mfrs will call it different things--look for any reference to telephone, phone, radio, or AM in a list of presets. if you can't find it, do a google search for Cubase Phone Voice and see where that takes you--I guarantee you you've already got the tools to do it!

I searched at gearslutz.com and got these reponses:

"High pass 24dB/oct at 300 Hz,

Low pass 24dB/oct at 3400Hz,

6dB up at 1000Hz, wide Q"

"Throw in a bit of distortion on top of the EQ... a guitar pedal like a tube driver will work fine."

"i used the eq technique along with slight distortion and a touch of bit rate reduction, very good effect :)"

I wouldn't even go so high as 6dB, but that's me. Basically, you're cutting off all but the most important parts of the voice, so that's the right idea. You might need to change the center frequency.

Alternatively, use a bullhorn when you record -- no radical EQing necessary!