mouth noise

[deepwater]

I an currently recording a great female vocalist with a C3000 mic. The sound quality is great, but she has a lot of mouth noise which the mic is picking up. (smacking and slobber noise). I've used a pop filter and moved her 10" from the mic. Can anyone help?

 

[Middleman]

NO OREOS!!!

Man there goes that technique.

 

[DJL]

Get her to stop making that noise and maybe try another mic.

 

[Jagular]

Hmmm….smacking & slobbering….

 

[baniak]

Hey, at least her nose doesn't whistle when she's breathing. I don't even do vocals, but when I record piano the mics pick up my nose whistling, and it's really annoying. I might have to wear a ski mask next time I record...

 

[Henri Devill]

Hey, at least her nose doesn't whistle when she's breathing. I don't even do vocals, but when I record piano the mics pick up my nose whistling, and it's really annoying. I might have to wear a ski mask next time I record...

Try the those strips the atheletes wear.."Breath Right" I think they are called..

Don

 

[baniak]

aww man... but a ski mask looks alot more bad-ass than a breathe right strip.

If this smacking noise is caused by too much spit, have your vocalist drink some black tea before singing. This helps with drying out the mouth, it supposedly works for woodwind players that have too much spit - I don't know how that would affect the voice, though.

 

[Henri Devill]

You could just wear a football helmet with the strips...Even more menaceing..


Don

 

[crisdhunter]

I’m assuming that these slobbering and such noises are only heard between(at the beginning and end of) verses. If that’s not the case, why are you recording Sylvester the cat? Just kidding.
Try new placement on the mic(I would go above the singers mouth), try eq-ing it out, try de-essing it out, try all of the above suggestions, except the black tea(caffeine dries out vocal chords).

If you can't get rid of it without adversely affecting the vocal quality, you might have to edit it out in the post, this is infinitely easier if you are running a digital setup, which I suspect you are.

 

[tyler657recpro]

I'd say its a technique thing. Or tell her to stop chewin tobacco.

 

[radioprof]

This is a tough one!
Does this happen when she's actually singing or just when breathing?
If it's only when breathing, have her quickly turn away from the mic, breathe, then turn back into it.
Raising the mic also is a possibility but that can result in nasality.
Have her try singing across the mic instead of into it.
This problem has killed more singers and announcers professionally.
You could also try gating or downward expansion but that too can get messy.