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How to make vocals barely intelligible?

Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredrWrlds2ndBstGeoshredr
edited July 2020 in General App Discussion

Say you have a spoken word vocal clip. How would you make it just barely intelligible? Right at the point where it seems that if you really concentrated you could make out what the voice is saying, but you actually can't.

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Comments

  • michael_mmichael_m

    You could heavily compress them to remove all the dynamics then low pass them to get a muffled sound. Then just reduce the volume until it’s hard to make out the words.

  • TheOriginalPaulBTheOriginalPaulB

    Reverse it, then adjust the volume.

  • JeffChasteenJeffChasteen

    Another vote for extreme compression.

    Or hire the young Michael Stipe.

  • michael_mmichael_m

    @JeffChasteen said:

    Or hire the young Michael Stipe.

    :D

  • rs2000rs2000

    Use a vocoder and cross the bands. (Virsyn Matrix Vocoder or a Drambo patch).
    The wilder you get, the harder it gets to understand the words.

  • jolicojolico

  • haulin_noteshaulin_notes

    Two little words: peanut butter. 🥜

  • KnoepfeKnoepfe

    Cut it in a lot (!) of pieces and reverse every single piece. Melody and attitude doesn’t change, but it can sound almost like another language... somehow...

  • JeffChasteenJeffChasteen

    @michael_m said:

    @JeffChasteen said:

    Or hire the young Michael Stipe.

    :D

    “The Only Band That Mutters”
    😀

  • CracklePotCracklePot

    @JeffChasteen said:

    @michael_m said:

    @JeffChasteen said:

    Or hire the young Michael Stipe.

    :D

    “The Only Band That Mutters”
    😀

    🤣

  • oat_phippsoat_phipps

    @JeffChasteen said:

    @michael_m said:

    @JeffChasteen said:

    Or hire the young Michael Stipe.

    :D

    “The Only Band That Mutters”
    😀

    Ok, i loled. It was low volume, and drawn out, the type of laughter that’s more appreciative than outright hilarious uproar, but yeah that’s good.

  • JeffChasteenJeffChasteen

    @oat_phipps said:

    @JeffChasteen said:

    @michael_m said:

    @JeffChasteen said:

    Or hire the young Michael Stipe.

    :D

    “The Only Band That Mutters”
    😀

    Ok, i loled. It was low volume, and drawn out, the type of laughter that’s more appreciative than outright

    hilarious uproar, but yeah that’s good.

    I don’t know who originally coined it, but it has been floating around town since the early days. Christ, I’m old!

  • GavinskiGavinski

    @JeffChasteen said:

    @michael_m said:

    @JeffChasteen said:

    Or hire the young Michael Stipe.

    :D

    “The Only Band That Mutters”
    😀

    Got a very wide grin from me, great line. 😂

  • iOSTRAKONiOSTRAKON

    Sometimes I just make up words added with sounds / almost speaking in tongues and then add a shit ton of fx

  • AileromAilerom

    What do you mean by barely unintelligible? That means only very slightly unintelligible. So any subtle processing would do. Slight distortion, slight tube overdrive, a little smearing chorus. Unless I'm misunderstanding and you really mean slightly intelligible, as in you want to only just make out what is being said. In that case there are a million+ ways to achieve this.

  • Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredrWrlds2ndBstGeoshredr

    @Ailerom said:
    What do you mean by barely unintelligible? That means only very slightly unintelligible. So any subtle processing would do. Slight distortion, slight tube overdrive, a little smearing chorus. Unless I'm misunderstanding and you really mean slightly intelligible, as in you want to only just make out what is being said. In that case there are a million+ ways to achieve this.

    I like the idea that it is 90% unintelligible, but someone really concentrating might make out a word here or there. This can be accomplished strictly through performance, obviously (eg, Ian William Craig), but I’d also like to know some production tricks to do it.

  • JeffChasteenJeffChasteen

    @iOSTRAKON said:
    Sometimes I just make up words added with sounds / almost speaking in tongues and then add a shit ton of fx

    That is my approach as well.
    I call it “heathen glossolalia“

  • GavinskiGavinski

    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr so you mean 'barely intelligible' I think!

    Interesting thread BTW

  • Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredrWrlds2ndBstGeoshredr

    @Gavinski said:
    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr so you mean 'barely intelligible' I think!

    Interesting thread BTW

    Thank you for the correction. I was unclear. How silly of me!

  • JohnnyGoodyearJohnnyGoodyear

    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

    @Gavinski said:
    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr so you mean 'barely intelligible' I think!

    Interesting thread BTW

    Thank you for the correction. I was unclear. How silly of me!

    But intelligible.

  • GavinskiGavinski

    I totally knew what you were talking about, yup, no worries!

  • AileromAilerom

    .> @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

    @Ailerom said:
    What do you mean by barely unintelligible? That means only very slightly unintelligible. So any subtle processing would do. Slight distortion, slight tube overdrive, a little smearing chorus. Unless I'm misunderstanding and you really mean slightly intelligible, as in you want to only just make out what is being said. In that case there are a million+ ways to achieve this.

    I like the idea that it is 90% unintelligible, but someone really concentrating might make out a word here or there. This can be accomplished strictly through performance, obviously (eg, Ian William Craig), but I’d also like to know some production tricks to do it.

    I had no idea what you meant but now I do. I'd probably start with heavy tube overdrive, automating the drive control to select where the intelligible bits come through. So many possibilities though.

  • Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredrWrlds2ndBstGeoshredr

    In my head I’m hearing something that sounds reversed, but isn’t. Perhaps I could reverse the vocal, process it, then reverse it again. I’ll try that tomorrow.

  • AileromAilerom

    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:
    In my head I’m hearing something that sounds reversed, but isn’t. Perhaps I could reverse the vocal, process it, then reverse it again. I’ll try that tomorrow.

    That sounds crazy. I like it a lot.

  • drcongodrcongo

    Stick it in a granular synth like SpaceCraft

  • drcongodrcongo

    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:
    In my head I’m hearing something that sounds reversed, but isn’t. Perhaps I could reverse the vocal, process it, then reverse it again. I’ll try that tomorrow.

    Or you could do the Black Lodge trick, record your vocal, reverse it, learn to sing the reversed version and then record and reverse that. This is how the people speaking in the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks works.

  • GavinskiGavinski

    I wonder how much effect something like attack softener would have on it

  • bleepbleep
    edited July 2020

    If you use a granular engine to play back the spoken words in normal (forward linear) manner, but where every short grain is played in reverse, then this comes out as intelligble if the grains are small enough, actually. As you increase the size of the grains, the vocals gradually become more and more garbled. You should be able to find a sweet spot where you can just barely make out the words if you concentrate (and if you have heard them in a previous loop).

    This kind of thing is quite nice to play around with using iDensity (based on memory, I think I tried this at one point).

    Edit: added funfact, some science study once found a link between dyslexia and the ability to distinguish such grain-reversed spoken words.

  • Instrumental_reasonInstrumental_reason

    Barely legible like Cocteau Twins or My Bloody Valentine?

    I would suggest a combination of multilayring the vocals, having low volume on the vocals compared to the instrument, a lot of reverb and a slurred pronunciation. I think i read that BMV also played around a lot with the speed of the recordings.

  • TheOriginalPaulBTheOriginalPaulB

    Get extremely drunk before recording it...

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