Recording vocals with vintage warmth/distortion

[DBCrocky]

I am doing recording with a band, and the singer says he doesn't like the crystal clear sound of a good vocal condenser mic, but instead likes the warmth and distortion of a sm58. He likes the sound of the vocals on Black Keys recordings.

What successful methods have you used to get a warm, distorted, vintage vocal track. I am willing to look at mics, preamps, or post production equipment (or techniques).

My apologies if this is in the wrong forum, please move if warranted.

Thanks!

[father of fires]

Just use an sm58.

Maybe run it through a small tube amp and mic the amp.

[JohnDavisNYC]

on the track 'tighten up', the vocal mic was a Neumann U47. the preamp was either one of our BAE 1084's, or one of the channel strips on our Auditronics desk. the mic and pre were fairly clean, if i recall correctly, and the distortion came from the SoundToys Decapitator plugin... Tchad Blake named one of his presets after it, although i'm not sure if he actually used those settings on the mix. Irrelevant, anyway, unless your singer is Dan, and Tchad is mixing it...

can't speak for the other tracks on that record, but that's what went down on that one. The 58 through an amp thing is always good, though.

one of my favourite cheap but high quality options for slightly driven vocals is the Electro Harmonix 12AY7 mic pre... it drives beautifully with a good tube mic in front of it. not sure if a handheld dynamic would push the front end enough.

john

[DBCrocky]

Thanks for the suggestions!