A
abm123
New member
self explanatory question..... I have had some clients ask me about this but apparently I have never used it so....
SouthSIDE Glen
independentrecording.net
There are several techniques that can be used, depending on the exact nature and extent of the sibilance problem, and upon wht kind of tools you have at your disposal. There are dedicated "de-essers" in the form of boxes or plug-ins, and there are also techniques for attacking sibilance with different forms of equalizers or compressors. I'll give just one technique here using a multi-band compressor. (I'm stealing my own text here, taken directly from my downloadable tutorial on compression. I may have to sue myself for copyright infringement 
. )
Sibilance control
[Multi-band compressors] can also come in handy for sibilance control, also known as “de-essing”. Sibilance can come in starting anywhere above 5kHz for a male vocal (or Kathleen Turner) and 6kHz for a female vocal (or Frankie Valli.), but typically has a rather narrow bandwidth where it does come in. We do not want to scoop out too much of the spectrum on the high end here; we can adversely affect vocal and acoustic instrument clarity and presence, cymbals and hi-hats, and overall mix “air” and clarity if we mess with too many of the high frequencies.
For this reason it’s a good idea to use a middle band on the MBC for sibilance control instead of the highest band; the highest band on a typical MBC does not have an upper crossover or boundary setting, it just goes all the way to 20kHz or more, so we cannot narrow our net on the upper end with that band. A middle band (band 2 on a 3-band or band 2 or 3 on a 4-band) has crossovers or boundaries on both sides so we could use one of those to attack just the sibilance only and leave the crisp air above it alone.
Once we have our band picked, set both the lower and upper boundaries of that band to about 5kHz, and turn the band’s output gain up temporarily, just to boost the eventual volume of signals within that band’s coverage. Then slowly sweep the frequencies between 5kHz and 10kHz with the upper crossover or boundary setting until you hear the volume of the sibilance be boosted by the output gain. Make sure you have all the sibilance boosted, but that you don’t go beyond that point. Now you have the upper range of that band set.
Now sweep in the same manner with the lower crossover boundary. When the volume of the sibilance just starts decreasing, you’ve found the lower end of the sibilance and you leave your low end of the MBC band there. Then return the Output Level for that band to normal. Because sibilance is a high frequency (fast wave form) phenomenon, fast attack times are usually necessary. Set release times as needed for the vocalist. Then you can apply the needed compression with the threshold and gain reduction settings. Those settings are entirely dependant upon the dynamics of the recorded content; use as needed, but never more than you need.
G.
. )Sibilance control
[Multi-band compressors] can also come in handy for sibilance control, also known as “de-essing”. Sibilance can come in starting anywhere above 5kHz for a male vocal (or Kathleen Turner) and 6kHz for a female vocal (or Frankie Valli.), but typically has a rather narrow bandwidth where it does come in. We do not want to scoop out too much of the spectrum on the high end here; we can adversely affect vocal and acoustic instrument clarity and presence, cymbals and hi-hats, and overall mix “air” and clarity if we mess with too many of the high frequencies.
For this reason it’s a good idea to use a middle band on the MBC for sibilance control instead of the highest band; the highest band on a typical MBC does not have an upper crossover or boundary setting, it just goes all the way to 20kHz or more, so we cannot narrow our net on the upper end with that band. A middle band (band 2 on a 3-band or band 2 or 3 on a 4-band) has crossovers or boundaries on both sides so we could use one of those to attack just the sibilance only and leave the crisp air above it alone.
Once we have our band picked, set both the lower and upper boundaries of that band to about 5kHz, and turn the band’s output gain up temporarily, just to boost the eventual volume of signals within that band’s coverage. Then slowly sweep the frequencies between 5kHz and 10kHz with the upper crossover or boundary setting until you hear the volume of the sibilance be boosted by the output gain. Make sure you have all the sibilance boosted, but that you don’t go beyond that point. Now you have the upper range of that band set.
Now sweep in the same manner with the lower crossover boundary. When the volume of the sibilance just starts decreasing, you’ve found the lower end of the sibilance and you leave your low end of the MBC band there. Then return the Output Level for that band to normal. Because sibilance is a high frequency (fast wave form) phenomenon, fast attack times are usually necessary. Set release times as needed for the vocalist. Then you can apply the needed compression with the threshold and gain reduction settings. Those settings are entirely dependant upon the dynamics of the recorded content; use as needed, but never more than you need.
G.
slidey
New member
bloody hell Glen, you always reply with a book load (literally in this case)
go sue yourself mofo
if the sibilence is already recorded the digirack de-esser can be good, in my experience not to well on female vocals. The dynamic de-esser on my TC 96K finaliser is awesome
if you are engineering to avoid the S's try raising the mic to point at the eyes more pointing down to the mouth, P's & S's are projected down so raising the mic helps
also (I've not tried this) but fixing a pencil to your mic (eg TLM103 neumann) in the centre of the capsule with a couple of elastic bands helps split the S there for removing the need for desser
go sue yourself mofo
if the sibilence is already recorded the digirack de-esser can be good, in my experience not to well on female vocals. The dynamic de-esser on my TC 96K finaliser is awesome
if you are engineering to avoid the S's try raising the mic to point at the eyes more pointing down to the mouth, P's & S's are projected down so raising the mic helps
also (I've not tried this) but fixing a pencil to your mic (eg TLM103 neumann) in the centre of the capsule with a couple of elastic bands helps split the S there for removing the need for desser
noisewreck
New member
I have also used de-essers on ultra-distorted snares to control harshness on the transients. Another use I have found for it is controlling frequencies around 300-400 Hz to cut out the mud w/o taking away the warmth of a prominent part such as synth bass, especially if it's followed by a compressor.
For vocals, depending on the de-esser, and specially if there is excessive sibilance, it might be better to use 2 of them in a chain with mild settings rather than one with aggressive settings, as sometimes it can be difficult to control sibilance without giving the singer a lisp
For vocals, depending on the de-esser, and specially if there is excessive sibilance, it might be better to use 2 of them in a chain with mild settings rather than one with aggressive settings, as sometimes it can be difficult to control sibilance without giving the singer a lisp
Cyanide-Depende
New member
Heres how i do it....
I use it to cut harshness, reduce sibilence, and if you have it set right, along with some other effects, it can make your vocal track sound like it was recorded in reverse, and played forward. (cool effect i use in one of my songs)
-C$
I use it to cut harshness, reduce sibilence, and if you have it set right, along with some other effects, it can make your vocal track sound like it was recorded in reverse, and played forward. (cool effect i use in one of my songs)
-C$