
When doing so, you first need to determine the frequencies at fault. If you attenuate too much, you can certainly change the timbre of your vocal in a negative way. This seems like an obvious choice to remove unwanted frequencies, but approaching vocal sibilance with this method needs to be implemented carefully. You will most likely need to use a combination of these forms of processing during mixing, to accomplish the desired effect. Keep in mind that not all of these techniques are recommended, nor do they work in all situations. Let’s look at some various mixing techniques that can be used to attenuate vocal sibilance. This section may be a bit more common knowledge to audio engineers, but it’s important to cover it regardless. Unlike equalization, or compression (mentioned in the next section) using clip gain to attenuate the Ess sound accounts for the frequency variance that occurs with various sibilants.įurthermore, using clip gain is the only foolproof method of attenuating sibilances without affecting other frequencies or aspects of the performance. To control sibilance during editing, simply use clip gain.Īgain, this processing is time-consuming, but it is one of the better ways to get rid of sibilance. This pen or pencil would be equal distance from the capsule and singer, with the singer’s distance from the microphone being roughly 8 inches.

One trick that was used during this era, was placing a pencil or pen between the microphone capsule and the vocalist at the same height as the singer’s mouth. They employed various techniques and tricks to ensure that their vocal performance was as pleasant and balanced as it could possibly be. Using software or hardware to fix a sibilant vocal is all well and good, but sometimes the “fix it in the mix” approach isn’t the best option.īefore post-production was readily available, many artists had to learn how to properly sing into a microphone. We’ll master it for you and send you a free mastered sample.

If you’re currently working on, or have already finished a mix send it to us here: We’ll be looking at techniques that can be implemented during tracking, editing, mixing and mastering, so be sure to read the full blog to know how to accomplish de-essing at all stages of production. With that said, let’s look at some of the different ways de-essing can be used during mixing and mastering to create a balanced vocal frequency response. Although De-Essing is needed, it isn’t talked about as much as other forms of processing.
