Live mic effect needed: "wire tap"

[Joshualangman]

Hello, everyone.

I am designing a show in which two mic'd actors have a phone conversation, and I need to process their mics to sound like a low-quality telephone line, or, as the director described, to give it a "wire-tap" feel. I have some FX processors, and the board has some built-in effects as well, but these are all variations on echo and reverb, nothing like what I'm trying to achieve. I think this might need to be a combination of playing recorded "static" sounds with some EQing, but I'm not sure how well this would work. Another idea I had was to send their mic channels to a speaker offstage directed into a lousy walkie-talkie, then mic the walkie-talkie receiver. I'm interested in if there's any better way to do this, whether using some kind of software or simply a low-tech trick that I'm not thinking of.

This is a student workshop production. My sound budget is $15. So, actually, nothing. I will have a MacBook Pro running QLab (pro license) for recorded sound, which could be used to run other software as well. I have various microphones and equipment at my disposal, but I can't really afford to purchase anything.

Thanks!

Josh

 

[FACTplayers]

Instead of using a recorded sound you could give a stagehand a mic and have them wrinkle some paper while the "wire tap" conversation is taking place... Or generate some white noise in audacity and lightly fade it in and out during the conversation.

 

[Stookeybrd]

There are no live software options currently on the market that cost less than a professional budget's worth of funding.

For a telephone sound boost 1.5k to you liking and roll off the high to 3kHz and the low to 320Hz. Work from there to get your sound. Start playing with a gate so that the very last syllable is just snipped a bit.

 

[Jsamuels201]

For a telephone sound boost 1.5k to you liking and roll off the high to 3kHz and the low to 320Hz. Work from there to get your sound. Start playing with a gate so that the very last syllable is just snipped a bit.

What he said. I would also suggest running a hard compressor on both channels and some white noise out of Qlab in the background. You could also try running the conversation through a backstage monitor in addition to or instead of some of the other things suggested to give it a slightly more naturally muffled feel.

 

[Dover]

I would try about 200 or so feet of unshielded two conductor wire wired as an unbalanced loop on an aux insert, and see what kind on interference and line noise you pick up when you run the mics through it. Combine that with the proper EQ for a telephone line as suggested above and it might give you what you want. I look froward to hearing how it turns out if you decide to try it.

I hope this helps
Dover

 

[gcpsoundlight]

add some harsh channel EQ as well, say a decent peak around 3k

 

[dvsDave]

Late to the party, but here's what I've done in the past. Get some analogue distortion by pushing the gain up too high, if you can, apply compression pre EQ, boost around 1.5k (using your mid-sweep, really boost it while they are talking and slowly sweep from about 1.2k up to 2k till you find that sorta tinny sound) and cut around 700hz to about 400hz. Try cutting around 250hz to make the vocals pop a bit more.

 

[Joshualangman]

Thank you for all the helpful responses so far. I have a couple weeks before I need to have this figured out, so if anyone else has any further suggestions, please chime in.

Thanks again,

Josh

 

[WooferHound]

I have done this before by hooking up the phones as they were designed. Thirty volts DC running through the phones wired in series. Then a tap off of the line with a 10mfd capacitor to remove the DC voltage and leave the audio which sounds exactly like the phone that it is.

 

[cpf]

I have done this before by hooking up the phones as they were designed. Thirty volts DC running through the phones wired in series. Then a tap off of the line with a 10mfd capacitor to remove the DC voltage and leave the audio which sounds exactly like the phone that it is.

I'm not sure what impact it has on the authenticity of the sound but I've run phones on 9v batteries, so if finding a 30VDC supply is proving tough you could easily use a 10/12/15V wall adapter instead.

 

[WooferHound]

Phone sets will work on a wide range of voltages. The resulting audio will contain both sides of the conversation.

 

[shatbox]

I would investigate VST (virtual studio technology, can find some free online) or AU (audio units effects) plug-ins. Audacity won't let you do real time effects without a workaround. I know Garage Band lets you use AUs. The key is if you have a USB and or Firewire interface. Latency is the enemy, so stock up on ram. I bet you could route the monitor in Garage Band out the interface. Apple has Logic Studio that has Mainstage 2, though that costs 500 bucks. Check out this Soundtrack support page, it might give you ideas.

sBox

 

[65535]

You might find simply playing with a compressor can give you the effect you're looking for.

 

[waynehoskins]

Late to the party too.

The name of the game is bandwidth-restriction and dynamics-restriction. Communication-quality audio usually has a bandwidth of 3k or less and usually has a rising-response contour within that to improve intelligibility. You'll note that sibilants are far above that passband, around 6k+, which is why "s" sounds aren't reproduced well over the phone.

Off the top of my head, I'd high-pass it really high, like 300 Hz, ideally with a pretty steep high-pass, and low-pass it about 3-4k. Put in a presence boost in the 1-2k range. Compress it a good bit.

Not sure what equipment you have to work with, but parametric EQs in the insert loop would be the easiest way to get such a restricted response.

 

[jakeparr]

If you wanted to do it quick and dirty without a teacher worrying about you frying his board, use 3 phones. 1 for each person and 1 set to mute with a sm57 pointed at the reciever. just cut the end off of an old power adapter and splice it in to the middle pair of a phone cable and your cooking! You should be able to use portable phones with this also.

Good Luck!