Sibiliance in Vocals

M

Mr T

New member
I'm currently keep getting a lot of sibiliance on my recorded vocals. I'm singing through a Rhodes NT-2 mic straight into my PC using Sonar 4 via my Mackie mixing desk.
Even though I use a pop shield sibiliance stills comes through on my vocal track. Has anyone any tips that they can give, either when I've recorded a vocal track on my PC or whilst I'm singing a vocal that will help eliminate this for me.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.
 
Make sure you're at least 8" from the mic, and maybe instead of singing straight toward the mic, face a spot off to one side of it.
 
More of what APL said - experiment with positioning. In particular vertical position changes can have a big influence - try raising the mic so it is slightly pointing down at your mouth. It's a tedious job but if you devote some time to recording passages with the mic in different positions you'll find one that works better.
 
Ditto to all 3 suggestions above.
I usually set my mics at about eye level (which makes you want to tilt the head back slightly opening the throat and producing a more powerful slightly bassier tone).

Stand between 8"-12" away and turn your head slightly away from the mic (especially during extremely sibilant or 'plosive parts).

You can fine tune the above result also by rotating the microphone, as sometimes a microphones off-axis response may be better for certain situations (i.e. yours possibly).

Finally, a de-esser (while either tracking or mixing), or even an EQ in a compressors side-chain (which I think gives better results over a de-esser, because you have more control, but with more control comes the possibility of doing more damage then good, so tread lightly in the side-chain waters, unless you are delibrilately setting out to mess up your vox).
 
just wanted to add that i struggled a little with sibilance, and after trying some different distances, found a distance that was farther back that reduced it and i actually liked the sound better too......so distance could definitely help
 
All of the other advice given to you is enough to solve your problem,but also maybe cutting in the 6-16khz range might help. too much of the highs will cause vocal sibilance.:
 
I also had many issues with 'sssssssss' I did all of the formentioned, but the best solution I found was finding a Mic(AKG414) with a flat response between 3-7k. My Groove Tubes GT66 has large boosts in this area and It gave me headaces and over prosessed vocal tracks for the longist time. Now while recording sibiliant vocalist I use the 414 and no DeEsser needed.
 
Just thought I'd mention that pop filters are for reducing plosives. They shouldn't have any effect on sibilance.
 
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