How can I grunge up a pretty voice?

George Dickel and Lucky Strikes.

A vintage Vestax or Electra compressor can get pretty grungy. Also those same era analog echo boxes from Multivox, Electra, Vestax and so on.

 

Have her sing into a megaphone. I've seen a few bands do it and it really adds a nice effect to a voice.



Bryan

 

An overdrive pedal will work nicely. You could also send the vocal through a guitar cabinet and dial in just as much distortion as you need. Coincidentally, I did this just today. Ran a female vocal through a Fender Twin with a pretty decent amount of distortion, then copied that distorted vocal to a new track. For the mix I had both the original AND the distorted track playing together and blended to taste. It worked perfectly and sounded very cool.

A wah pedal can be a nice trick also. Rock the pedal very slowly - too fast and too extreme is just strange.

 

Tell her to start yarling. It works for singers like Scott Stapp.

 

That's hilarious.

 

I think addressing anything but the source (her voice/style) will be disappointing once the novelty wears off, particularly for live stuff.

If you're commited to going the "effect" route, try a separate (2nd) dynamic mic overdriving an underpowered old combo amp rig (which can then be 'clean' miked thru the PA). Haven't tried this live, but in the studio with neat results.

 

One of these;

http://www.tc-helicon.com/VoiceOne

 

that's funny as hell. I like "Whitesnake without the snake"

 

A bit of distortion will help some, but it'll still sound strange if she's singing all prettily. It IS possible to learn to get more snarl in without screwing up your voice. Distortion and similar effects fixes won't, in the end, make much of a difference.

 

A touch of sansamp, run in parallel might do the trick. Better to get it sounding right at the source. Have her soend time trying to mimic singers that have what you are looking for.

 

try one of those green harmonica microphones Sure makes. I heard a guy sing through on and it sounded roughed up.

 

I think she just may need some DIY vocal training.

EI: three bottles of whiskey and 80 cigs a day.

The TC helicons are REALLY cool for that kind of thing. It is amazing how they can transform a voice.

But its cool that you have fixed it at source anyway. Thats easily the best solution!