combatting siblance

[suprstar]

If you're de-essing a certain band of frequencies, and it's not ONLY clamping down when there's a sibilant sound, then either you're choosing the wrong band (could be slightly off), or there's too much highs in your vocals to begin with. Can you post a sample?

I'm not selecting a freq. range, I'm just using the stock cubase 'de-esser' plug. There's a 'S-reduction' pot that goes from 0-10, a male/female selector, and an 'auto threshold' button that presumably bypasses the pot. I havent been able to mess with it yet, but I think I can reset my eq back to normal, volume automation has to do the trick. If I can't get that to work I'll post a sample. Such a simple answer I feel silly not having thought of it myself...

Hold a towel between you and the mic.

I have a double pop filter betw. the singer and the mic all the time, unless I somehow overlooked it, which I doubt.. That's SOP here,

Also, how hard are you pushing the compressor on the vocals??

not very - 2.0:1 / -28 threshold / +3db gain on the output

 

[jlewis]

try a higher ratio, or try multi-band compression just to focus in on the highs

 

[XLR]

Get Spitfish from Digitalfishphones. Freeware. Really good regardless.

 

[philbagg]

I'm not selecting a freq. range

This is your problem.

"S" sounds are different on a lot of vocals, some of em are closer to 5/6kHz, others are closer to 8/9kHz. Look for a free de-esser plug-in with more available parameters (specifically for frequency). Then, use an EQ with a narrow Q and boost around this area and sweep through til you find the area where the S sounds are most harsh, then remove the EQ and apply the de-esser to that area.

 

[dariunas]

jake578 has given great advice. I have done exactly that a few times before. It's rather manual, but it works nicely as long as you don't have anything else going on that needs to be retained in the audio.

 

[Richard Monroe]

It's so much easier to control sibilance at the source than to try to EQ, compress, and de-ess it out of existence. It's not about mic control. It's about self control. If you don't hiss like a snake, you don't have to start carving up sound like trying to kill cancer cells with chemo. Just shorten the "S" consonant. Get on it, and get *off* it. Create a mnemonic and practice it spoken, then sung. - " Sally Struthers snatched a snack from Suzie's shack." Of course, some perps like "Sammy Simmons slurped a snack from Sally Struther's snatch". It's just a matter of sensational style in sucking stories.-Richie

 

[Bob Ross]

DAMMIT NOW you tell me, my next album was gonna be SuprStar's Super Sexy Slutty Stripper's Secret Six Song Cd! Back to the drawing board.....

that title may be worth the sibilance

True story: In 1978, after the studio I worked at acquired its first flanger (a one-off built by engineer Seth Gussow) I wrote and recorded a song whose lyrics (mind you, I was way too into Jon Anderson/Yes at the time) were designed almost exclusively to trigger that trippy swirl when too much sibilance hits a through-zero flange:

"Atlantis at dawn's suspended waters;
the question of space spans centuries,
while systems slowly slip from grasps,
ours, in cycles, or in seemingly still waters."

(© 1978 Bob Ross)

Pompous bunch o' twits we were for sure...but that sound, omigod, like pure KY Jelly dripping from the speakers!

 

[Bob Ross]

Emerick, in his book about recording the Beatles, talked about them using that technique at times to avoid sibilance.

Jack Douglas, who produced the Double Fantasy album, tells a story about Lennon "flashing" away esses with a wave of his hand. I've tried it, and it's surprisingly effective! Hard to do intuitively while trying to sing naturally, but man, talk about defeating it at the source.

 

[philbagg]

Jack Douglas, who produced the Double Fantasy album, tells a story about Lennon "flashing" away esses with a wave of his hand. I've tried it, and it's surprisingly effective! Hard to do intuitively while trying to sing naturally, but man, talk about defeating it at the source.

You mean quickly putting your hand in front of the mic when saying an "s" sound?

I'd imagine the vocalist spending more time trying to spell the words in their head and time the wave, than focusing on a good vocal performance. And, IMO, sibilance on "tape" is definitely worth a good performance.

 

[sumpm1]

Late to the thread.

I have found that your distance from the mic, and the angle that you face the mic in relation to your mouth will allow for less "s" sounds.

Another thing that helped me with this: use a standard dynamic mic pop filter (windscreen) : AND stretch it over your condensor mic.

http://www.headsetsdirect.com/accessories/61486-01.jpg

The suggestion using the towel was a good one as well.

NOW, for a DeEsser plugin: this is what my compressor plugin doing this job looks like:

https://img64.imageshack.us/i/screenshot10na.jpg/

You find the offending freq range in ReaComp by selecting the "preview filter" option, this will allow you to HEAR what triggers the compressor, and LISTEN for the "s" sound while dialing the lo and high pass filters; try to isolate that sound with the pass filters.

Set your attack and release to zero, dial your threshold until you see the "s" sound successfully triggering the compressor, and set your ratio high enough to effectively lower the sound of this track when the "s" sound comes.

You can do the same thing in a multibiand compressor to effect less of your freq range, but i have found that you are making few OTHER noises than the sibilance during this sound; so it does not hurt to just use a compressor.