Q: I’m the vocalist in a band, and we’re doing shows where we’re playing the songs off of our album. We want to have the same sound, effects, and processing on my voice as we used in the studio. How can we do it?
A: There are several ways to approach adding effects and processing to vocals.
The first, and easiest, is to get a PA system or mixer with built-in effects. You simply apply whatever effects you want to the vocal channel on your PA, and you’re good to go. The drawbacks are that if you’re playing a gig and you’re not using your sound system you’re out of luck. Another potential problem is that the built-in effects may not be flexible enough to recreate your studio sound and processing. Also, if you want control over effects during your performance, you’ll have to rehearse the changes in advance with the sound man.
Another option is to go the guitarist route, and use pedals. You’ll need to get a DI box to convert the mic’s XLR output to a 1/4″ cable, and you might look for one with a built-in mic preamp to boost your signal. But after that, you can use any guitar pedal effect (or multi-effect) you’d like, and control them with your feet as a guitarist would. There are also pedals, like the TC Helicon Voice and BOSS VE pedals that are designed for vocals, so you won’t need any kind of additional DI or preamp. With this method, you are sending the soundman or PA system the “finished” vocal signal with no further processing required.
Finally, if you want maximum tone, fidelity, controllability, and the ability to reproduce your recorded vocals, you can take studio effects onstage with you and either run them at the front-of-house position with the mixer, or use a mic preamp and the processing onstage, under your control. As with the last option, with this method you’ll be sending the soundman or PA system the “finished” vocal signal with no further processing required.
Whichever method you choose, you’ll find incoprorating vocal effects and processing into your live show is easy, once you have the right gear.
