Minimising plosives...

[Armistice]

I'm about to ask a "fix it in the mix" question... I know, I know, I should track it again, but I can't, the person's dead now, so please....

I have a vocal track which I recorded some time ago which has a couple of plosive issues on about three words in the whole song. It's a "b", as in "babe" - any clues on post-tracking plosive reduction?

It's not bad... just a little irksome, and I'd like to do what I can to polish it up.

Cheers

 

[dintymoore]

Assuming the vocals are on a separate track and that using a seance to re-record the tracks is out:

Can you cut out all the B's and do something to them like bring the volume down or compress just them?

Maybe cut and paste them from someplace in the song where it wasn't bad?

 

[RawDepth]

It can sometimes be filtered out with EQ. It is probably between maybe 30 and 300 Hz somewhere. (does anyone know?) If you use a very narrow Q you can likely filter it without changing much else.

To find it, boost individual frequencies (one at a time) until you hear it get worse. Then pull it down to filter.

Be carful not to remove too much low frequency or the vocals will sound thin and tiny.

If it is only in a few spots you can zoom in on the waveform, highlight the bad area, and apply filtering to only that syllable.

 

[RawDepth]

Oh yeah and, as always, make a backup copy before you apply any destructive edits.

 

[witzendoz]

Set up a compressor with an EQ side chain, similar to a de-esser but acting on low frequencies.

Find the frequencies that cause the plosions and set the compressor to limit fast attack fast release, it should be set up so that it only works when the plosions happen. Experiment with the EQ and compressor until it works.

If you have a dedication de-esser that has a frequency select that goes into the bass frequencies you can us it the same way.

I have done this on exactly the same problem and it will work.

Also shelve below 100hz as this will help and should not effect the vocal sound.

Cheers

Alan.

 

[Armistice]

Yeah... "no" on the seance alas.... and the latency on using a ouija board is just too much...

Thanks for the tips... I'd read something like the sidechaining compressor thing some years ago and thought that was probably what I needed to do (not that I have a clue how with my current set up but I'll see if I can do it) but couldn't exactly remember what it was I should be doing.



Cheers and Merry Christmas...

 

[witzendoz]

Here is a short article about side chaining link.

If using an analog rack compressor there will be side chain ins and outs on the back (if it has this feature). To set up, side chain out will go to a EQ of some king, I use a 31 band graphic, then the output of the graphic goes to side chain in. It does not matter about the quality of the eq as it's not actually in the signal chain it is only used to set up the frequencies that the compressor will act on. If using a graphic cut everything, then push up the frequencies that you want to compress, with plosions it will be 150hz and lower, sometimes more then 1 slider will need to be pushed up to cover the eq range of the problem. If using a parametric use a low frequency and sweep the frequency and width until the compressor is acting as you want.

In the software world I have used a de-essr and set the frequency to pick up the plosion.

Another way to fix this in the software world is to select the actual plosion and apply a low cut eq on the plosion only.

Cheers

Alan.

 

[rayc]

I'm too thick to work out side chaining - in the past I've isolsted the plosive & EQ'd it then automated the vol. fader to duck a little as well - not great but worked well enough.
The low F de - esser sounds like the go - p'haps someone will mod an esser & create a de ploser.

 

[Dogbreath]

I've had a couple like that and was able to copy/paste a better "P" or "B" from somewhere else in the tune.
option?