\'smooth\' rob thomas vocal effect - how to...

A band wants a vocal effect on a song just like on santana's 'smooth' with rob thomas - can anyone give me a few tips on how to get this - thanks

as far as i can recall, there isn't really any noticeable effects on that voice is there.. im guessing your singer just didn't say, make me sound like rob thomas... tim

EQ out a good chunk of low end, leaving some midrange in at 2k and above?

It's been awhile since I heard that track but from what I can remember there may be a slight chorus and/or flange effect going on there.

If you're talking about the switch to a low fidelity sound then Waves Q10 has a couple of presets that will get you close. One is called Telephone and the other is called AM Radio I believe.

I saw a wedding band get the effect for that song live with a small hand held megaphone. I know Tom Waits uses megaphones all the time and I've also recorded with them. If you don't have a megaphone you can use the eq method mentioned above or use distortion. Amp Farm or any amp modeling program will give a wide range for effects. And if you don't have any of these options, run your mic through a guitar effects stomp box. The classic orange pedal (i forget who makes it) works well. I've used all these approaches at different times to record some version of the telephone/distorted/am radio vocal. You also can run your mic into a guitar amp and mic that up. Experiment.