Vocal effects? ARGH.

[*ToNeS*]

Okay, so I've been belting out some vocals with my band for a while now and I'm starting to get a bit keen on the idea of some vocal effects (particularly distortion and delay, as cliche'd as I am). I recently went out and brought a BOSS 'Metal Zone' pedal in the mistaken belief that I could run a mic through it to the P.A and stomp on it for some grit on my vocals.

WRONG! The bloody thing feeds back intolerably if you push the distortion or the level to any kind of hear-able levels. Even cracking down on the treble control doesn't help. I was wondering if anybody out there has messed around with this kind of thing? Are there specific stomp boxes (I'm not interested in a processor, as everyone I've met sounds like digital arse or has no bypass function) made for this kind of thing? Is it possible for me to use the one I already have? I thought I might have hooked it up with the wrong kind of leads or something (cannon to quarter inch from the mic into the stomp box, quarter inch to quarter inch from the stomp box into the mixer).

Thanks for any forthcoming insight.

[Skel]

I'm not sure why you aren't interested in a real effects processor like a Yamaha SPX1000 - awesome reverbs and delays - you would sound incredible if you can sing. They have footswitches so you can turn it off and on. I think there might be a switch on your mixer to switch between -4 dB and somthing like + 12dB to switch between (for lack of a better term) studio quality devices and devices such as stomp boxes - you might want to look into that, as that could be the culprit. Also, how to you have the send and receive signal levels set up on the mixer and the stomp box?

[Skel]

Oh and from what you describe - I'm not sure how you have this connected. You should have a "send" on your mixer (quarter inch) in which you send the vocal signal to your effects processor (stomp box) input, and from your stomp box output, go back to the "receive" of your mixer - mess around with the levels until you get it right. Distortion on vocals, though? I can see delay, but not distortion.

[*ToNeS*]

Originally Posted by Skel

Oh and from what you describe - I'm not sure how you have this connected. You should have a "send" on your mixer (quarter inch) in which you send the vocal signal to your effects processor (stomp box) input, and from your stomp box output, go back to the "receive" of your mixer - mess around with the levels until you get it right. Distortion on vocals, though? I can see delay, but not distortion.

So the box should be a seperately connected entity to the mic? Because I had the mic lead running (from the mic) into the stomp box, and another lead running from the box's 'out' into the mixer. We tried running it through the mixer's effects loop, but nothing happened. I'm certain distortion can be done - I will make it so

I'm not sure what the send and receive levels were at the time (it's a rehearsal space mixer that I'm unfamiliar with), I'll have to have a look this week at practice. What do you recommend that they be set to?

This Yamaha SPX1000 thing, how much do they go for? I've had terrible experiences with Digitech vocal processors - they make me nervous as hell onstage because they're so unreliable and are difficult to navigate.