Using guitar pedals for vocals
Connecting a mic to your guitar pedal effects
We can’t connect our microphone directly to our guitar pedals using a simple cable adapter, unfortunately, because the result will be an unusable signal that’s way too soft, and very noisy.
Instead, we need to place an impedance matching transformer in-between the microphone cable’s output, and the guitar pedal’s input. This will transform our microphone’s output into a guitar output, which is what the guitar pedal is expecting to see.
The steps
Connect a dynamic microphone to an XLR microphone cable. You could use any unpowered dynamic mic, like a Shure SM58, or better yet a Sennheiser e835.
Connect your XLR cable to an impedance matching transformer. I like the Audix T50K, which is under $50 at time of writing.
Connect your impedance matching transformer to your guitar pedal, or chain of guitar pedals.
Now, you can use your guitar pedal effects on your vocals, or anything else you can point a microphone at.
Other options
An impedance matching transformer is probably the simplest way to make this connection in a home music writing situation, but there’s other ways to do the same thing. Using a passive DI box would work great, or setting up an effects loop using a mixing board would also do it.
Electrical Audio has a great video out on the basics of using different types of DI boxes:
Electrical Audio’s take on using DI boxes in the studio
I like using impedance matching transformers in a home recording setting because:
Alternative solutions require additional gear, more cables, and a more complex setup.
High-quality passive and active DI boxes are usually more expensive than an impedance matching transformer made of similar quality.
Using an impedance matching transformer for re-amping
You can also use an impedance matching transformer to re-amp audio; that’s where you’re taking previously recorded audio, sending it out to a guitar amplifier, and then re-recording the result. This can be a useful technique, and an impedance matching transformer works for both.
