Problem with my Ssss (sample recording included)

Special Interest Groups Recording Techniques
1

Hi guys.

Would anyone with more experience kindly tell me what to do to reduce the S on my recordings? They’re too sharp, or to loud, I don’t know the exact term but they’re clearly annoying to the listener.

"In order to maxssssmize the ssssound quality… "

I’ve attached a sample of my reading. I’m using a condenser mic with a pop filter, and I’m about 10min away from the microphone.

Best,

Leo

2

To remove this sss (sibilance) is called de-essing. There are de-esser plug-ins, (including Spitfish which is free).

However de-essing can be crudely done using equalization: by putting broad notches around 4KHz and 8Kz (approx) …
Equalization curve used to de-ess 'in order to maximize the sound'.png

Have a look at the frequency analysis of the sss on its own, note any big peaks 4KHz and above, then use the equalizer to reduce these peaks, (they are the shssh sound).

BTW if you are going to install Spitfish or any other VST plug-ins, use the latest version of Audacity: 1.3 (not 1.2).

BTW2 you are too close to the mic which is causing some distortion.

3

Spitfish does a better job than equalization: it only applies the filter when sibilance is detected …
Before-After spectrogram -Spitfish only applies filter when sibilance occurs, on 'Sound' 'muSt'.png

4

Wow problem solved, thank you so much guys! I wasn’t expecting the solution to be that easy.

Best,

Leo