Much needed advice on vocal track hiss

[Leena]

Hi again,

Firstly thank you so much for all my previous answers regarding my mastering. I decided in the end to splurge my savings on a really good mastering guy for my album which i'm super excited about but brings me on to my next little question -
Basically, I had a meeting with him at the studio to go through my tracks and to check my levels etc - he said they sounded fantastic so that's all good. The only thing he mentioned was my vocal tracks have a slight hiss or a hum on them when they come in and advised me to purchase a de-hisser and also a de-esser for the main vocal track. I've never heard this before and he said it's not too bad but it may be enhanced when everything is mastered.
I did some research and reading around to find out which one to get and decided to download two trial versions of the isotope de-hisser and the fabfilter de-esser since they are with-in my budget. I did look at the sonnox plug-ins but it's far too expensive for me right now, especially after the mastering.

So anyway, getting to the point, i've had a play around with the trial versions but I just can't seem to get it to work for me. I'm finding the controls really odd and everything I do seems to mess with my vocals and make them sound really weird or chirpy which is obviously not what I want - my vocals are very light and ethereal so I really don't want anything too harsh on them. Can anyone give me any advice on making this work?
I'm not too technical with these things, my production/ editing skills rely on me playing around till things sound good so if anyone could help me but help me in a way that will make sense then I'd be ever so grateful.

Thanks for reading.
Karliene.

 

[Armistice]

What are you doing all this one? Your PC / DAW?

Perhaps try "SpitFish" if you can't work out the ones you have... I found it relatively easy to understand and use on vocal tracks... just set the sensitivity knob until you can only hear the sibiliance, and you're done. And it's free.

I've got no experience with the ones you're using, alas....

I'm assuming you have a sibilance problem on the vocal tracks hence the recommendation for a de-esser.

The hiss, you could try to notch filter it out by locating the exact frequency, which should be up above the vocal range... worth a try anyway. Perhaps post a sample so we can hear what the problem is.

 

[mixsit]

You said 'hiss or hum.. Hmmm
Ok assume hiss..
For the future.. why the hiss? Might you be doing a lot of top boost for example?

 

[Leena]

What are you doing all this one? Your PC / DAW?

Perhaps try "SpitFish" if you can't work out the ones you have... I found it relatively easy to understand and use on vocal tracks... just set the sensitivity knob until you can only hear the sibiliance, and you're done. And it's free.

I've got no experience with the ones you're using, alas....

I'm assuming you have a sibilance problem on the vocal tracks hence the recommendation for a de-esser.

The hiss, you could try to notch filter it out by locating the exact frequency, which should be up above the vocal range... worth a try anyway. Perhaps post a sample so we can hear what the problem is.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I've tried spitfish but I never got very good results with it, perhaps because it's a free thing? I'm willing to pay a little bit of money for something nice that I can use again on future albums etc - I just need to learn how to use it.
How do I post a vocal sample? This is the thing, I could do with some more opinions on this as I still can't hear the hiss he is talking about, maybe some very, very slight room ambience but that's it, I don't really even know what i'm trying to get rid of. The essing thing I get....

 

[Leena]

You said 'hiss or hum.. Hmmm
Ok assume hiss..
For the future.. why the hiss? Might you be doing a lot of top boost for example?

Yeah i'm not sure either, I can't really hear what he's talking about. I'm trying to find a way to post a vocal sample to see if you guys know. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Armistice]

Make an mp3 file of the track and stick it somewhere. Dropbox. Soundcloud. Many options. You can even attach them to posts here somehow, although I've never done it that way....