Piercing vocal sounds

9

9D329D6

Guest
I just recorded a few songs the other day with my brother and I noticed that when the songs play in my car stereo (factory), the words he uses that start with an "S" are piercing to the ear at a high volume. Unfortunately, he lives far away and I won't be able to get him to re-record his vocals in a reasonable amount of time.

I have a couple of questions.

1) For now, is there a way that I could smooth out those piercing sounds? I do have a Sound Forge wave editing program too.

2) In the future, do I need a new mic? What can I do to avoid these piercing sounds, in general?

Thank you.
 
All you need to do is run it through a de-esser. There are probably presets in sound forge. experiment with it, but you don't need to re-record those takes. hope this helps
 
Also if you recording signal into your DAW was too hot it makes this worse. Then you have to re-record the take. And yes, use a de-esser.
 
Cool, I just figured out how to "de-ess" on Sound Forge. The preset they have is kind of taking away from the feel of the song, maybe too much compression. But, I'm gonna keep playing with the settings.

Also, forgive my ignorance, but what is a DAW?
 
Using a pop shield can also cut back the s'es a bit, in a more natural way than a de-esser does.

DAW stands for Digital Audio Workstation, ie. basically the main thing you record, edit and mix in. For most people nowadays it's simply the computer.
 
If the de-esser does not work, run the vox through an eq, and cut around 2.5-3K. Hard consonant sounds are in this freq range, but obviously differ depending on vocalist.

Use your ear to hear when the edge is off.
You might also want to try a light reverb.

Good luck.
 
Yeah a De-esser will definitely help.

For future reference... try positioning the mic in a diff way... e.g.

If you get the "P" sound coming to thick then put the mic on a slant facing away from the singer so that the air passes over the condenser. You only need to slant it a little. Or hand it upside down with it slanting away as well.

As for the "S" sound, try slanting the mic towards the singer or away. It's trial and error mate.

But a pop shield is a MUST and the de-esser can do wonders when u find the right settings.
 
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