How do you prevent sibilous vocals?

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easlern

easlern

Boredom artist
Is preventing sibilous vocals a matter of annunciation? Is there a tool to eliminate it? I have a pop filter but it doesn't seem to help this issue. How do you guys prevent it?
 
Need to be a bit carefull about using the compressor WHILE tracking, keep it conservative then because you'll be bummed if you get a great take and it's too squished . Save the real heavy processing until after!
I wish I had'nt discovered that the hard way! :(


bigwillz24 said:
You can also try pulling the mic out of the singers mouth.
Click to expand...

Unless yer singers a gal; then it's the special mic BW! :p
 
easlern said:
Is preventing sibilous vocals a matter of annunciation? Is there a tool to eliminate it? I have a pop filter but it doesn't seem to help this issue. How do you guys prevent it?
Click to expand...

try positioning the mic a little differently. angle in slightly, don't have it straight on to the singer. just an idea of course, don't sacrifice the sound of the voice.


and yes, learn to use a de-esser
 
I'm having to be concerned with this regularly
because I'm always recording new singers, with
various levels of experience.
I don't like how the de-essers affect the
rest of the vocal -- not that I have
a lot of experience using de-essers, though.
I try to correct with
mic choice. I recently found that using
an omni that is pretty flat up top did
well with keeping the essing down.
On the other hand, some mic's really
pick up and accentuate the essing.
Also, which pre you use can affect
how much essing is picked up.
 
Brackish said:
On the other hand, some mic's really
pick up and accentuate the essing.
Also, which pre you use can affect
how much essing is picked up.
Click to expand...
Brackish bring up a great point, that sometimes the wrong mic or wrong mic/pre combo can be too crisp on the high end for the current singer. If you're using an inexpensive LDC or other mic with a known presence peak in it's response and/or are combining it with a hot or slightly over-gained preamp, that can bring out the sibilance in many.

Also, having the high frequency that it has, sibilance tends to have a directional character to it; it's often brighter level with the mouth than it is abover or below it. Sometimes just raising (or lowering) the mic height a couple of inches can make a world of difference, get that capsule out of the line of sight of the singers mouth. If it's hanging from a boom, raise the capsule to about eye level or so. If it's mounted on a floor stand, drop it down to about chin or upper neck level.

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Also, having the high frequency that it has, sibilance tends to
Click to expand...



The factory pre-set for my de-esser has the
essing located at 5000Hz, but with female
singers I've found the hiss more located
around 10,000Hz.
 
If it's you who is singing, try singing louder. Sometimes sibilance is just a volume problem. Your consonant sounds are always about the same volume no matter how loud you sing. If you sing louder the esses will be quieter in comparison, and therefore, not a problem.
 
In my experience, most sibilance is in the 2-5K range and rolling off a little there may help. Some people find it at higher frequenices, but I have not. (This is probably because I use the same singers all the time.)

Here's an excellent article that covers the problem:

http://emusician.com/mag/emusic_silencing_sibilance/

Enunciation is part of the problem, and some skilled singers do better than others in controlling this.

One thing to watch out for: sibilance can cause a fast transient peak--a spike you won't see or won't notice on the meters--that can result in ugly digital distortion, or bad clipping on an analog machine. I used to have a Kenny Rogers cassette that was full of clipping on his sibilant sounds.

Regards, --Konrad

PS I like close-miked vocals, but to each his own. Depends on the style.
 
First off, yes, it is sort of an annuciation thing. A properly trained vocalist SHOULD be able to sing with softer sibilance. But knowing that is not always an option try this (another option to avoid a de-esser hitting an ENTIRE vocal track):

Set the high band of your vocal eq to the vocalist's sibilant frequency and then set that control up for gain automation. Whenever there is a sibilance problem, VERY briefly duck that bands gain to remove just enough of it. Having a control surface where faders can be used to track automation input comes in very handy for this...
 
I was reading "Behind the Glass" the other day, and there was a mention of Lennon & McCartney "flashing" their ess's. what exactly is "flashing ess's"?


and i don't want any replies about showing certain parts of bodies ;)
 
MessianicDreams said:
I was reading "Behind the Glass" the other day, and there was a mention of Lennon & McCartney "flashing" their ess's. what exactly is "flashing ess's"?


and i don't want any replies about showing certain parts of bodies ;)
Click to expand...
Well, it apparently does involve a part of the body...though maybe not the blouse bunnies.

The quote I've seen referrs to "flashing his esses by waving his hand". The only thing that made any sense to me when I read that was that he instantanously flashes his hand in front of his face when pronouncing his esses in order to block/partially mute the sibilance.

Sounds a bit too macarena-ish to me. John Lennon doing the Madonna Vogue. Uh uh.

G.
 
I kept waiting for someone to answer: "How do you prevent Sibilous vocals?" by stating the obvious... Don't record "Finlandia".
:p
 
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