Microphones with pedals - tips?

[midwayfair]

Pondering building a small board that can handle guitar as well as vocal effects. Has anyone done a vocal pedal board and might have some tips? I'm thinking just reverb, delay, and maybe distortion of some sort, maybe with an expression pedal control and effects loop so I can have a wet/dry mix. I've seen it done with a small mixer ... I'd like something more compact and simple.

I have a 1/4" mic cable, but I don't think it would be too hard to just use a standard mic jack if needed.

Are there any impedance issues I should be aware of when creating the buffer/splitter to match a microphone's frequency response? Do I need to be aware of anything in particular with the pedals that follow the buffer?

[artifus]

depends on your intended application and environment but i would consider a mic splitter:

http://whirlwindusa.com/media/uploads/splitxfmr.gif  *edit - huge image removed*

from: http://whirlwindusa.com/support/tech-articles/microphone-splitters/

one output would go to foh/monitor console(s) as usual and the other connects to your vox fx (set to fully wet) which would be di'd into a separate foh channel. fx would need to be muted rather than bypassed to avoid dry signal going to the fx channel when not in use. maybe a volume pedal/mute at the end of your vox fx chain? (maybe something like slackers fx loop with tails?) fine for send fx (reverb/delay etc) but distortion/insert fx may require muting the dry mic signal at foh... which could be tricky/trusting your engineer to know your set/intentions. a seperate mutable vox mic and channel is often used here (a cheap and nasty one can work well but be wary of feedback regardless of mic) as you keep control. distorted vox could be sent to a mic'd up on stage guitar amp?

the engineer could also use a spare aux send/direct out, if available, from foh to feed your fx and take a di'd output back to foh that way.

xlr to 1/4" jack to stomp to di to pa can work too.

depends what you want and the venue set up. is this for touring or a regular venue/your own pa?

[deadastronaut]

i built a box ages ago for vocals on stage with effects return, i was sick of asking the ''mixing dude'' for delay/reverb etc etc....him saying ''yep no problemo i'll do that''

then getting on stage later and nothing at all.....the @#$%er .......so i took control...

i took his mic lead and plugged it into my box, short mic lead in...send return for fx.......he never liked me after that..

this was ages ago, and i no longer have it....sorry....but it was a great delight to annoy ''mixing dudes''...

[midwayfair]

depends what you want and the venue set up. is this for touring or a regular venue/your own pa?

It's actually for my own PA ... the reverb in my Peavey is shot, and I figured building a Rub-A-Dub was easier than fixing it. I've also never really been keen on the on-board spring reverb in that thing, and it has an effects loop, so I figured why not just use something better? But then I liked the idea of having an all-in-one board I could cart around, and the idea of also having a delay (with Tap Tempo even) and some other effects was even more fun, AND being able to get all my stuff into a single input with control at my feet instead of halfway across the room was even more appealing.

I tried things with just plugging the 1/4" mic cable into a delay last night. Sounded okay and I didn't get distortion, but it sounded a little dark. The buffer should help.

[moosapotamus]

I dropped the ball on this a few years back...

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=46767.0

... but I'd still really like to get back to it and work out the details.

The link to my preliminary scheme is broken in that thread, but here it is...



~ Charlie

[midwayfair]

Looks intriguing. Thanks, Charlie! I might need to rework something to use a more common input op amp, though.

[wavley]

I do my own vocal effects too, I'm tired of bad/no sound guys at venues.  Mine is e609 into the mic pre of an SVC-350 vocoder (with a buffered splitter coming out of my guitar's RE-101 space echo for the carrier signal), compressor/gate, RE-501 Space Echo for echo and verb, then a passive DI to knock it down to mic level (instead of the +4 out of my space echo), for big venues this goes out to the FOH, for small it goes to an early 50's Bogen tube PA amp.  I was just sooooo tired of not being able to get what I wanted at venues.

[midwayfair]

I do my own vocal effects too, I'm tired of bad/no sound guys at venues.  Mine is e609 into the mic pre of an SVC-350 vocoder (with a buffered splitter coming out of my guitar's RE-101 space echo for the carrier signal), compressor/gate, RE-501 Space Echo for echo and verb, then a passive DI to knock it down to mic level (instead of the +4 out of my space echo), for big venues this goes out to the FOH, for small it goes to an early 50's Bogen tube PA amp.  I was just sooooo tired of not being able to get what I wanted at venues.

Out of curiosity, what do you use for your vocal compressor? I was planning on just using an optical comp (Flatline, most likely), but I'd love to hear other diy-able suggestions in that area.

[moosapotamus]

Looks intriguing. Thanks, Charlie! I might need to rework something to use a more common input op amp, though.

Yeah, the INA217 may not be the best choice nowadays.

Out of curiosity, what do you use for your vocal compressor? I was planning on just using an optical comp (Flatline, most likely), but I'd love to hear other diy-able suggestions in that area.

I'd suggest also searching "LA Light" for a good vocal compressor.

~ Charlie

[jkokura]

Essentially, I'd recommend a 'reamp' setup. Go from your mic to the output of a passive DI box, out from the DI's 'input' to the pedals, then into another DI box and to the board.

No impedance issues, no level issues. You can buy or build actually reamping devices if you'd prefer or if my suggestion doesn't work quite as expected.

Jacob

[wavley]

I do my own vocal effects too, I'm tired of bad/no sound guys at venues.  Mine is e609 into the mic pre of an SVC-350 vocoder (with a buffered splitter coming out of my guitar's RE-101 space echo for the carrier signal), compressor/gate, RE-501 Space Echo for echo and verb, then a passive DI to knock it down to mic level (instead of the +4 out of my space echo), for big venues this goes out to the FOH, for small it goes to an early 50's Bogen tube PA amp.  I was just sooooo tired of not being able to get what I wanted at venues.

Out of curiosity, what do you use for your vocal compressor? I was planning on just using an optical comp (Flatline, most likely), but I'd love to hear other diy-able suggestions in that area.

Right now I'm using one side of a Samson S-Com Plus and it does the job pretty well and the SVC-350 is rackmount too, but it's a waste of the unused channel so I plan on building some sort of a gate and comp but I don't know what yet.