Hey all I was just crazing thru Sylvia Massey's site, as I've been researching her recording techniques the past couple days, very interesting interviews w her, but anyway I saw this on a side bar, and I thought it was cool. Probably gonna make one as a "try to learn to solder again" project.
STUDIO TIP
MAKE YOUR OWN "PHONE MIC"
The best way to get that telephone effect on a vocal is to use a real telephone! Buy an old telephone from a thrift store. Take apart the handset and replace the wire to the mouthpiece mic (the carbon button) with a length of mic cable. Keep the male end of the mic cable attached to the cable. Solder in a 1.5v small battery on one side of the cable. Reassemble the handset and plug your telephone mic into a line level and you are good to go!
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I cut thousands of commercials on a Yamaha, PM-1000. This consol
I cut thousands of commercials on a Yamaha, PM-1000. This console was not my choice. And some of the commercials required that telephone like sound. I was able to get it out of their lousy, fake Neve, ferrite core inductor, board EQ, quite nicely thank you. Completely roll off top and bottom. Boost the 1.2 K, all that it can give. And you're there, man. Follow it up with an 1176 and a KEPEX-1 and you're good to go.
The other fun way to get the telephone sound was with an old, passive, high pass/low pass, Altec Lansing, EQ. Ya dial in 300-3000 or 4000 Hertz, bandpass, (depending on whether you are American or European). And there ya go.
Then we got Cool Edit and thankfully we could figure out what the filter was FIR? As easy as a click away.
Please deposit another $.25 for another three minutes.
Mx. Remy Ann David
Or...there are also more than a few VST's available - some even
Or...there are also more than a few VST's available - some even free - that can help you get that effect.
Yeah, you could do it that way...kind of a fun little gadget to
Yeah, you could do it that way...kind of a fun little gadget to have around.
You can also get this effect ( 'round these here parts we call that effect "futzing" - LOL) by using a very narrow bandpass EQ... roll off everything below 800hz or so, jack up 1k to 3k by + 6db or so, ( more or less depending on what you like), use a very tight Q, and sweep through the frequency range to find the sound you want. You can either cut or add higher frequencies to taste (above 3k) to either add "bite" - or to also attenuate various nasties that may be too much. If you want it to sound natural, avoid processing with reverb or any other effect that would detract from the way a phone receiver would normally sound.
Also, in today's cell phone-based world, you could put your cell into "speaker" mode and record a conversation or dialogue with a condenser placed very closely to the phone's speaker.
Hell, for that matter, you might even be able to connect a line from your phone's mini-jack audio output. Have someone on the other end call your cell phone and say or sing whatever you want them to, and then run the mini-jack line to your computer's audio I/O.
FWIW