How do you handle The S's in your mix?

[Trill The Beatmaker]

Do you simply add an de-esser? Or do you automate? How about selecting the S region, seperating it from the main track, and then mixing differently from the main track?

[HERESY/KNOKK SHOPE]

De-esser, automation and crossfading. I picked up the crossfading thing from Rail Jon Rogut. Not in any particular order, but it's always one of those or a combination.

(And you can make your own de-esser with an eq and compressor.)

[Jbishop]

there is a trick you can do with a multi band compressor where you find the frequency and key the compressor to turn on just for those frequencies

[bandcoach]

de-esser, compression, noise gate, eq tweaks, re-recording with an ear to avoiding prominent s sounds, whatever gets the job done most cleanly

[hollandturbine]

You could try sticking two pencils up your nose to break up the air flow while doing some demented walrus impersonations, but using tape to fix a pencil in front of the mic will probably work just as well.

[bandcoach]

has someone hacked your username?????

[hollandturbine]

has someone hacked your username?????

Unfortunately no.

[Trill The Beatmaker]

I picked up the crossfading thing from Rail Jon Rogut.

Wow thats dope. I do this method as well. Just naturally started doing it. lol

Everyone has some great suggestions. Unfortunantely you may not have the luxury to re-record a track so your stuck with what you have.

When I listened to 50 cent The massacre album the vocals were so smooth and the S as well as the Ch sound were clean. When I hear recent mixtapes with all the trap music and watnot the S's are considerably noticable. Maybe its because of the high presence instruments used in these tracks that accumulate together. Since the only low end is either the 808 or a kick.

[CPhoenix]

When the S's are too strong for my de-esser to get rid of it without effecting the rest of the track... I usually just cut up the audio a little and start crossfading and trimming lol. I try to avoid that dirty work but... sometimes you can't get around it.

I'm sure other people break out the EQ when the de-esser isn't working. But it takes me waayyyy too long to find the right frequency and to get the Q right. I hate tweaking parametric EQ's lol. Too much time, too pain-staking, and i'm not being paid enough money for that. I'd much rather have some fixed frequencies now and only break out the parametric when I really need to get surgical w/ a sound... which I'm finding is getting less n less necessary, at least for me.

Cross-fading takes care of it for me without sacrificing the overall mix at all.

[strayboom]

do not overcompress the vocals. personally, i don't really like to use de-esser. if there is a vocal track with bad sounding S's, i'd EQ it a bit and lower the volume of S's. this is similar to de-essers but maybe a bit more precise because you actually hear what you are doing and the work is done by you. an automated de-esser always works as you set the parameters. your ears and hand can tweak the different bad sounding parts as you want, where you want.