Lip smacking (!?)

[nuemes]

Yesterday I recorded a female vocalist (standing just over a foot from a C414mic with pop filter>Avalon M5 pre>RNCcomp>ADAT) and repeatedly heard what sounded like digital distortion spikes during her vocal phrases. I was loosing my head over the sound because all the levels checked out and I had recorded this same config many times with different vocalists with no issue. She didn't notice the sound but it was killing me. I finally solo'd her voice after checking all the cables and sure enough, what sounded like occasional digital spikes popping was actually her lips making smacking noises before and after phrases.

She wasn't wearing any lip gloss and had plenty of water handy throughout the session so it seemed like there was no real fix to the issue - we just had to live with the sound.

She took no notice of it and was pleased with the final results but I can hardly listen to the mixdowns because it triggers my brain like nails on chalkboard.

Anybody else have this experience? Is there anything that can minimize it short of rolling off the high end (which I don't want to do because it would affect her range too much in the mix).

 

[Dogman]

I think the only real remedy for this, is she just has to be very careful, and pull away from th mic, if she is going to do this. Probably easier said than done, but short of just not smacking her lips, and you editing each lipsmack, she has to be very conscious of this, and try to eliminate it from the start. Good luck.
Ed

 

[whyseye]

....I spend a good portion of my day editing out lip smacks and strange breaths.....it's always the same people, too.......I don't have any answers, mind you.....just commiserating.....

 

[tkingen]

There may be some things you can do. Can you transfer the track over to an audio editor to remove the lip smacks? That's when the beauty of editing in a DAW becomes a blessing. Or, are you using a digital mixer to automate fader and mute movements?
These fixes aren't as much fun as getting a top notch performance to begin with but they could help out in fixing the problems after the fact.