Help: I am Essing and de-essing challenged

[kozikowski]

Maybe a sock over my head is worth a try as well.

I wasn't joking. If your microphone is naturally bright and crisp, sometimes getting rid of a little of the crisp right at the top is worth while. I'm going to ask one of our new audiobook performers to check out various clothing groups over her microphone just to get a feel for how they sound.

I look forward to the "Tea Towel" solution to a harsh presentation.

I just recently read about the "pencil trick" -- securing a pencil with a rubber band vertically down the middle of the front of the condenser mike. I haven't tried it yet.

That totally works, but you have to get the pencil from Venus.

The planet, not the manufacturer.

Koz

[kozikowski]

I would not be shocked if on cheap condenser microphones, the rubber band stops the grill from sympathetic vibration. Take the pencil and smack the grill. If it rings as a bell, put the rubber band on.

Koz

[kozikowski]

There is no condition that a good engineer can't make a lot worse.

Koz

[Abdiel]

Abdiel S.wav

(1.1 MiB) Downloaded 27 times

I too would be grateful for help with de-essing. Attached is an excerpt from the raw file. I do have the DeEsser plug in as posted above, but no idea what settings to use.

[Abdiel]

Abdiel SM.wav

(1.09 MiB) Downloaded 23 times

Also, as I gather de-Essing would be the last step in mastering, here is the same excerpt after applying the recommended RMS Normalize then Limiter.

[kozikowski]

I just recently read about the "pencil trick" -- securing a pencil with a rubber band vertically down the middle of the front of the condenser mike.

If you do try that, you have to post back and say how it went. We'll need before and after voice tests.

https://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/Tes ... _Clip.html

What I expect is somebody on one microphone got an improvement and they blabbed it all over the internet. You might get an acoustic shadow if the microphone was using a tiny, pre-baked condenser capsule instead of a real, inch-wide condenser element like this one.

Screen Shot 2020-08-19 at 5.01.28 PM.png (291.21 KiB) Viewed 291 times

See that big round thing in the center. That's the condenser. Your voice pushes that around and makes a sound signal. That type wouldn't work.

Cheap, Inexpensive microphones that don't cost very much use one of these inside.

Screen Shot 2020-08-19 at 5.04.14 PM.png (485.98 KiB) Viewed 291 times

It's still a condenser, but it's about 3/8" (3/4cm) wide. Oddly, that might work with the rubber band trick.

We are on the edges of our seats.

Koz

[Trebor]

I too would be grateful for help with de-essing. Attached is an excerpt from the raw file ...

Abdiel S.wav (1.1 MiB)

There is constantly too much energy in the sibilance-zone between 7.5kHz & 8kHz,
visible on the spectrogram ...

''No sin is perceived'' spectrogram.png (343.73 KiB) Viewed 275 times

Which could be corrected with equalization, (rather than de-essing, as it is constant issue).

But the sibilance isn't excessive, IMO.
The main problem is constant hiss,
(weirdly for a raw recording is in a narrow-band between ~2kHz & ~4kHz).
The next problem is the intermittent crackling.
Then equalization: it's too bassy.

[ The performance is very good though ].

[Abdiel]

Thank you for this analysis. Kind and generous.