Mouth Noises when recording....what do I gotta do?

sdp530

sdp530

New member
Hey I have a particular artist that I record (rap) that has a deeper voice with a lip smacking problem. My setup includes a focusrite platinum pro preamp with a Blue Baby Bottle mic, we have a standard black nylon wind filter on the mic and have not had problems with plosives just lip smacks. Is there some particular mic placement strategies I can implement to reduce this? Is there something the vocalist can do to reduce this? Is there a way to edit lip smacks out in editing? I tried silencing the lip smacks while mixing but some of them were in the middle of words and couldn't be edited out. If you have any suggestions to reduce or eliminate my problem I would appreciate any input.

Thanks
C
 
sdp530 said:
and have not had problems with plosives just lip smacks. Is there something the vocalist can do to reduce this?
Click to expand...
I've found that not smokin' weed helps tremendously. If thats unavoidable, keep him hydrated with gatorade or something similar, and keep lip balm on him.
 
Have him turn his head if he is going to do this. May not be possible, but try something like that to make him aware of the noise. Like willis says, kepp him hydrated. Can't hurt.
 
I used to have to deal with a similar problem when I worked for a company that produced books-on-tape. One of the narrators had a problem with clicking sounds he would make. I used to edit out the really bad ones using the pencil tool in Sound Forge. Once you recognize them in the waveform, smoothing them out is easy. But it does take some time.
 
tell him about it and ask him to watch it.
you can edit them out too. draw volume envelopes that dip down in volume in the middle of words if you can't edit them out. although most lip smacks occur at the beginning of words/phrases. this is because you're opening your mouth to take a breath.
 
Point the mic between this upper lip and his nose, off-axis, it'll reduce it a bit. Pop filters help too...

And go with MadAudio's suggestion..
 
Just a thought...someone mentioned that the smacks are most likely at the beginning of a phrase when they take a breath. If this is the case, tell them to not close their mouth in between the phrases. Sure it may feel a very little strange, but I'm sure they can manage it. If their mouth's already open, there's no room for lip smackage :D
 
thanks for the suggestions, I am going to try this stuff out, always open for more tips hehe :)
 
Any vocal coach will tell you to close your mouth and breath through your nose. That way you don't get 'breathy' noises. A good way around this is to have him be conscious of it, keep his mouth open, but close off his throat with his tongue by placing it on the roof of his mouth in order to inhale through his nose. This significantly reduces the 'breathy' noises (unless you WANT them) and should cut down on the smacks.


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well the people that stated the computer editing said what i would've said.....i think threatening him with a tech-9 would also help..and seeing as how hes a rapper...walk right into the vocal booth and put the gun to his head and say "BREAK YO SELF FOOL! Look here, playa....yo lip smackin don't sound right on the track. check dat shit, playa." he should understand that:D
 
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