Issues with Sibilance

K

KennyTheInsane

New member
Howdy, ya'll.

I've been keeping myself busy recording Spoken Word/Poetry artists in my area. For some, everything goes smoothly and there's not much I have to do to the raw recordings to get them "cleaned up". For others, I have a horrific amount of sibilance/harsh "S" sounds on my recordings, that I can't seem to prevent while recording or get rid of while tweaking. I've tried keeping my microphones at a 70-90 degree angle, and keeping them at least 6 inches away from the performer's mouth, but that hasn't always worked.

For my last project, I used a Sennheiser E-840 Dynamic, and an AKG P-200 Condenser. I had these plugged in to a Scarlett Focusrite 2i4 Interface (96Khz, 24-bit). My software shifts between Audacity and Cubase Elements 6, depending on the need.

Any ideas on how to fix/prevent the problem?
 
I've heard of so many ways to prevent it, like having gum in your mouth, but I never tried it. A good mic, vocalist and proper mic placement works wonders, but my suggestion to fix the problem is 1-4 (I use a combination of 1 and 3 or 1,2 and 3):

1. Use crossfades to reduce it.

2. Use automation to reduce it.

3. Use a deesser plugin.

4, Use an eq and compressor sidechain combo.

Techniques For Vocal De-essing
 
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If you're getting sibilance for some sessions and none for others, the first thing you should look at are the differences between each session.

Which mic, software, settings, levels were used for the recordings that don't have the sibilance as an issue, and which for the sessions with sibilance as an issue?

Fixing sibilance begins at your gain staging.

Your mics are of decent manufacturers and so is your preamp. Unless they are all old and beat up, then it might be your settings.

There's so many possibilities for things to go wrong.

It might even be the performers themselves generating the sibilance.

Peace.
 
Different people are going to have more sibilance than others... personally, I have to DeEss the shit out of my vocals if I do a verse... it has to do with that artist's jaw structure, the way the teeth and tongue sit in the mouth, etc. etc. etc. ... try having the capsule of the mic slightly above the artists mouth and then angle it down a little.

That should help cut it down, but probably won't eliminate it... you'll more than likely have to use a DeEsser. Pro Tools comes with one, and honestly I use it about 80% of the time.. but since you're not using PT as your DAW I'm sure there are some free ones out there. Massey offers a DeEsser plugin that's not free, but you can get an unlimited trial of it as a demo plugin, it just won't recall your settings for you anytime you reload the session so make sure you bounce the tracks out or leave your session up... (or you can do like I do and just make a quick note of your settings on that plug)
 
+1 to the eq and sidechained compressor combo. I've doing that for quite a while with the LA3A and it works wonders and sounds so much better than a de-esser.
 
I appreciate the tips, guys. I do know that it's my performer's way of speaking that causes most of it. This one guy in particular always gives me vocal tracks with ungodly amount of sibilance. I'll try what out the suggestions.
 
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