Lisp vocals

T

tollbooth

New member
hi there

i've just had a wierd situation - client came in with vocal song files and one of the singers has what can only be described as a pronounced lisp - double 'ss' definitely comes out as 'th'

the client (who engineered the sessions herself) - claims the singer did NOT have a lisp - could this be some form of sibilance? what could have caused it? can i get rid of it with a de-esser (i tried using waved de-esser - which helped a little but not much)

any ideas? sorry it's an odd one!

paul d
doncaster
uk
 
...So she does have a lisp in real life, or just on the tracks? It probably doesn't matter, just wondering.

Is the vocal track separate from the rest of the mix? If so, you could underhandedly and cleverly record a track of ssssssssssssssssssssss, and any time that sound should occur, crossfade into that. It'll either save it or make a problem into a huge problem.

If it does work [at all] it would still be a beeeeyatch to fix everything.
 
The lisp thing worked out pretty well for Stephen Jenkins of Third Eye Blind. Maybe it'll do the same for this singer...maybe not. I feel for you. That sounds like a bit of a delicate situation..."I hate to tell you this, but you have quite a lisp." Sometimes producers have to be diplomats too :D
 
a lisp may also be a problem of overcompression and over-deessing when recording... I often prefer a little too much 'ss' in the sound than having not enough which is lispy...

The tip with the 'ss' track might be worth a while, but you could try to do this half-automated: use a narrow band pass on the 'th' and this as sidechain to an expander gating the 'ss' track. This way you should not have any timing problems... You only have to select whether you want an s at a time or not by cleaning the 'ss' track at the 'th' places...

aXel
 
Lisp Vox

thanks guys - all these are great suggestions, though i did go back to this session straight after posting the thread,and i have to admit :o that i DID try the extra track of 'sssssss' set up next to the vocal track - i like the idea of automating this with a gated sidechain, and i will try that as it seems fairly straight forward to set up in Digital Performer and the Waves De-esser.

thank you for the moral support regarding the role of the producer - i've come up through the engineering route, but also used to work in marketing and i'm still learning my craft as a producer and how much psychology and diplomacy there is in it, but also that diplomacy does not always mean submission. it's a hard lesson to learn but very fulfilling.

thanks guys. thought i was going bonkers on this one!

all peace and good happiness stuff

paul d
tollboothmusic
 
If you end up using the sssss track idea, you should post the results so we can hear it. I would love to hear how it turns out. You never know what you're going to face when it comes to recording. I guess that's why home recorders are so good at workarounds. Good luck with it.

P.S. This has nothing to do with the thread, but I just had to share. I just found this out today. The President of the United States is coming to the TINY town where I am in Florida tomorrow. When I say tiny, I mean this town is 80 acres. The U.S. Postal service doesn't even recognize it as a town that you can ship to. Just really strange. There shutting the road down for 7 hours. It'll be cool to see the President in person. I may even get to meet him.
 
Aargh...I hate ssssssssibilancccccccce!!!

I record lots of VO for TV, and I hate having to deal with sibilance. I've found that trimming a little off the 8k area usually works - but it depends on the person really.

Ugh. Yuk.
 
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