Decapitated’s Crushing Vocal FX: David Castillo’s Telephone Trick

Ever wonder how to take your metal vocals from standard to standout? Knowing how to craft interesting and unique vocal effects can seriously elevate your track. In a recent session, acclaimed producer David Castillo (known for his work with Opeth, Katatonia, and Bloodbath) pulled back the curtain on how he created a brutal telephone vocal effect for the mighty Decapitated. If you’re looking to add some gnarly character to your next production, you’ll want to snag some of these ideas.

We got a peek into his thought process and plugin chain, and it’s packed with actionable insights. Let’s break down how he forged that “br00tal” sound. Check out the full session right here.

The Core Vocal Chain: Building the Foundation

David’s approach, even for an effected vocal, starts with a solid foundation. He typically begins with his normal vocal setup and then sends the signal to an auxiliary (aux) track for the more extreme processing. This keeps the original signal cleaner and offers more control.

Pre-Compression Tweaks with SSL

Before hitting any heavy dynamics, David often starts with an SSL channel strip plugin. This isn’t about drastic changes, but subtle, corrective EQ.

• High-End Lift: If the vocal feels a bit dull, he’ll add some high-end to open it up.
• Clarity Boost & Boxiness Removal: A little bit of EQ here can tackle any boxy resonances and enhance overall clarity. This initial shaping ensures the signal hitting the compressor is already in a better place. For more on carving out space, check out our EQ strategies for mixing modern metal.

Aggressive De-Essing

Next up, a de-esser. For spoken or heavily effected vocals like this, David mentions de-essing much harder than he would on a typical lead vocal. These types of vocal performances often have more pronounced sibilance that needs taming before further processing.

Distortion: Enter The Decapitator

The primary distortion for this effect comes largely from Soundtoys Decapitator. This is a go-to plugin for adding grit and aggression.

• Good Starting Points: David suggests presets like “Angry Vox” or “Punk Vox” as excellent starting points for this kind of vocal mangling. From there, tweak to taste!

Classic Compression: The 1176 Squeeze

No surprise here, the legendary 1176 compressor makes an appearance. David calls it his favorite compressor on vocals.

• Fast Attack for Control: For this particular vocal, he uses a very fast attack. This helps to clamp down on the transients and keep the heavily distorted signal under tight control, more so than a standard sung vocal might require. Aggressive spoken parts need aggressive metal compression secrets beyond just making it loud.

The Pultec Polish

A Pultec-style EQ (like the EQP-1A) is almost always on David’s vocal chain. After the distortion and compression, he uses it to add back a significant amount of high-end, further shaping the tone.

Post-Distortion De-Essing

After adding all that high-end with the Pultec, another de-esser is employed to control any new harshness or sibilance introduced by the distortion and EQ boosts.

Hardware vs. Plugins: A Practical Workflow

David shared his general philosophy on using hardware versus plugins. Typically, for main lead vocals, he might opt for his hardware 1176, Pultec, and even an LA-2A. He’s got a couple of Pultecs and a specific revision of the 1176 that he loves. For backing vocals or when time is a factor, plugins are the way to go to avoid committing and to save on routing.

However, for the Decapitated album, he mentioned that the vocals, being mostly growls and heavily effected, didn’t rely on hardware as much. The necessary color and saturation often came from plugins like the Decapitator or other sources in the mix. While outboard gear can be pushed hard for its unique color, plugins are more than capable of delivering the goods, especially for heavily processed sounds.

Dialing in the “Telephone”: The Aux Send Strategy

To achieve the specific “telephone” quality without messing up the main vocal processing, David sends the signal to an auxiliary track. This is where the real transformation happens.

Initial Distortion and Control on the Main Channel

Before the aux send, he ensures the basic distortion (from Decapitator) and levels on the main vocal track are sounding good and are under control.

Crafting the Telephone Vibe with SSL EQ

On the aux track, another SSL channel strip plugin is used to create the core of the telephone effect.

• Mid-Range Focus: He cranks the mids and filters out a lot of the low-end and high-end. This is classic EQ strategy for that band-passed, radio, or telephone sound.
• Console Drive: David loves driving the input of an SSL console (or a good emulation) to get even more distortion. This adds another layer of grit and character specific to that console sound.

Further Saturation and “Air”

After the SSL, David adds even more character with a saturation plugin. He mentions using “alternate tube” settings, which sounds a lot like something you’d find on a versatile saturator like FabFilter Saturn. This allows for more harmonic complexity and fine-tuning of the distortion. He also adds a “fair amount of air” – a high-frequency shelf boost – to bring back some crispness to the heavily filtered sound.

Leveling and Final Limiting

Because the original vocal was recorded at a relatively low level, a limiter like the Waves L1 is used to bring up the overall volume of the effected signal significantly. More limiting is also applied on the aux track to really make the telephone vocal sit tightly in the mix and maintain its aggressive presence.

Fine-Tuning with a Final EQ

To polish off the telephone effect, David uses one more EQ. He explains that if he feels he overdid a boost on the SSL (for instance), instead of going back and tweaking that plugin, he’ll use a separate, clean EQ for more surgical, narrow adjustments. This makes fine-tuning easier and more precise.

Parallel Distortion: Another Layer of Brutality

Though the main focus was the telephone effect, David also briefly touched upon his love for parallel distortion on vocals, similar to how he might use it on bass. This involves blending a heavily distorted version of the vocal underneath the main vocal, adding thickness and aggression without losing clarity. It’s a powerful technique for adding weight.

Bringing These Brutal Vocal Ideas to Your Mix

1. Solid Foundation: Start with good basic processing (SSL EQ, De-Esser, Decapitator, 1176, Pultec).
2. Aux Send for Effects: Create specialized effects like the telephone sound on an aux track for maximum control.
3. SSL for Telephone EQ: Use an SSL channel strip to heavily filter and shape the vocal into that mid-focused telephone sound, driving the input for extra console distortion.
4. Layer Saturation: Add further saturation (e.g., with a plugin like FabFilter Saturn) for more harmonic complexity and character.
5. Control with Limiting: Use limiters to manage dynamics and bring up perceived loudness.
6. Fine-Tune Precisely: Employ a final, clean EQ for surgical adjustments.

These are some serious techniques you can experiment with in your own metal productions. Getting that perfect vocal tone, whether it’s clean, screamed, or utterly mangled, is a crucial part of a killer mix.

Want to see how pros like David Castillo apply these concepts and countless others in real-world sessions? At Nail The Mix, we give you the multi-tracks from massive metal songs and let you watch the original producers mix them from scratch, explaining every plugin, every fader move, and every creative decision. If you’re ready to see exactly how albums like Decapitated’s Anticult get their sonic power, check out the Decapitated mixing session with David Castillo. You can even grab the multi-tracks and try these techniques yourself! Dive deeper into mixing modern metal beyond presets and see what you can create.