Toys for vocal effects.

[Bellringer]

Sometimes I find the best vocal effects in a toy store instead of a multi vox box. I have a toy megaphone with pitch shifter, alien vox, and a megaphone (AM radio type sound). Another cool sound is a pair of toy walkie talkies. They give a ghostly otherworld sound to a vocal. Speak and Spell is fun for a robot voice.
I'm always looking for other interesting, creative ideas. Does anyone else have any cool toys for effects? Share here!

[Chaorta]

I do a lot of spoken word and, when singing, voice treatments with my stuff. Here are some of my favorite tricks i've used:

Hang mic from ceiling, hold a glass mason jar next to your mouth, sing.

Record a vocal pass, compress the shit out of it, then run it through your headphones, and mic the headphones with a large diaphragm condenser.

I once found pieces of aluminum siding on the side of the road, so i took them home, suspended them from the ceiling in my shower in a V shape, then hung a stereo mic in between them, and sang from about a foot away. REALLY tripped out effect.

[smopo24]

i made a telephone mic that i think is pretty neat; you can do a search on how to make one, it's easy!

[dagosto]

Here's another trick with sheet metal. Solder or tape a contact mic to a large sheet and sing into that. Or you could play the track through a loud set of headphones and hold it next to the sheet metal. Careful with the sheet metal. A friend of mine cut himself while messing with my contraption.

Those kids cassette players with the toy microphone are great. I had an old fischer price a while back that let you play back with the cassette door open so you could slow down the tape by pressing down on it. Lost it in a move.

[Chaorta]

Originally Posted by dagosto

Here's another trick with sheet metal. Solder or tape a contact mic to a large sheet and sing into that. Or you could play the track through a loud set of headphones and hold it next to the sheet metal. Careful with the sheet metal. A friend of mine cut himself while messing with my contraption.

Those kids cassette players with the toy microphone are great. I had an old fischer price a while back that let you play back with the cassette door open so you could slow down the tape by pressing down on it. Lost it in a move.

Cheap Reel To Reels are good for that too.

[dagosto]

Originally Posted by Chaorta

Cheap Reel To Reels are good for that too.

But those aren't toys man. Those are relics.

[dolivas]

I got a tiny toy keyboard that does wonders on vocals as well. this toy keyboard has a mic input that for some reason(probably due to bad Chinese slave labor) routes whatever audio you run into it into the tone generator circuits and effects as well. if you have a sine wave selected as a sound it would try to make the mic signal conform to the sine wave being generated it fails at it miserably but the actual contortions sound great that it outputs. It also applies some vibrato and chorus effects that the toy has to use for its own tone to the mic or instrument signal.

[dagosto]

hey dolivas, can I borrow that?

[EvanExempt]

Originally Posted by smopo24

i made a telephone mic that i think is pretty neat; you can do a search on how to make one, it's easy!

I was thinking: the Roland VT1 voice transformer is available with a telephone jack. It's actually a post-manufacture modification by this company called Shomer-Tec. Apparently this mod is pretty popular in the spy/surveillance paradigm. Check out the link:

Shomer-Tec


Here's the Item as-is on the Samedaymusic site: Sameday VT1

Just some interesting info. I thought.

[Nubus]

my telephone mic has a 1/4" plug so it can go into a guitar amp or a Di, being that the phone is high impendance I guess. I was a pain soldering those teeny old ass wires.