What is sibilance frequency range?

[EddieRay]

If I want to reduce the "SSS' sound from a vocal track, what frequency should I play with? I've seen charts that place this range at 2.5khz and others at 6khz. Neither seems to do the trick. My attempts at cutting the sibilance just makes me sound a bit gay (as in "Here cometh the thun!").

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

Male voices around 6K........ female voices around 7K.......

 

[fenix]

^ yes! And whiny high pitched emo kids at 6.5k

 

[ChristopherDawn]

^ yes! And whiny high pitched emo kids at 6.5k

I thought they counted as girls?

 

[Jimbo Jones]

Here's my 2 cents.
I would run the vocals thru a graphic or parametric eq. If its parametric set the gain way up (more than 6 db) and sweep the frequency in between 3k and 7k. When you get the freq. that makes the "s" sound the loudest and harshest, then that's the freq you should use to de-ess the vocal.
If you use a graphic then just keep sliding the different freqs up & down until you do the same.

 

[starch]

Dido what Jimbo Jones said. Or, if you really want to get creative you can sidechain a compressor, then dial in the trouble frequency and turn your compressor into a de-esser. Or I think one of the other posts I was looking at recently posted a free de-esser plugin. You may do a search.