Help: I am Essing and de-essing challenged

[croninjj]

Attempting to fix my seriously incessant sibilance is making me go deaf and blind. Can someone give me guidance if I provide a brief sound file? I use Paul's de-esser plug-in, an AT2020 XLR mike, and Duet 1/Maestro2 interface. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[Trebor]

I have masssstered Paul-L's de-esser. If you attach a few sibilant seconds to a post, I can suggest settings.

[croninjj]

Great. Thanks. I have attached a raw WAV file. It will be a challenge! Thanks for any help.

[Trebor]

If this makes sibilance sounds lispy at any point, change the threshold value to -21dB, (or even -20dB).

Suggested De-Esser settings for 'Cronin_Audacity_sibilance.wav (1.52 MiB)'.png (14.23 KiB) Viewed 2890 times

The de-clicker plugin is the same place you got the de-esser plugin.

Suggested De-Clicker settings for 'Cronin_Audacity_sibilance.wav (1.52 MiB)'.png (23.18 KiB) Viewed 2890 times

DeClicking process is computationally intensive, (i.e.slow)

''Cronin_Audacity_sibilance'', Before-After De-Esser & De-Clicker settings shown above.flac

(1.57 MiB) Downloaded 99 times

[croninjj]

Terrific. Thanks for your help. A great improvement.

Another question for you, if you don't mind. I am reading a debate about when the de-esser is applied -- before or after EQ and Compress. Thoughts?

[jbarkley]

I would always de-ess after the eq and compressor otherwise you might add other high frequencies which might cause problems. For example if you are de-essing before equing and you are boosting your vocals highs the harsh sibilance might come back.

[Trebor]

...A great improvement.

Having listened to that again, -22dB is taking off too much: I'd now go with -20db threshold on the De-esser.

I am reading a debate about when the de-esser is applied -- before or after EQ and Compress. Thoughts?

Equalization can undo de-essing. Compression will, to some extent, undo de-essing. So de-essing should be the last step.
If the sibilance is really excessive you could de-ess twice: once at any point in the workflow, to remove the worst offenders, and then a second time as the last step, after compression & equalization.

[croninjj]

Thank you both. This has helped me solve the puzzle. I'm new to the Forum and very appreciative of the prompt and friendly assistance you have provided.

[kozikowski]

If the sibilance is really excessive you could de-ess twice:

I wonder how much of this you can help with a sock over the microphone. Too many makers are producing microphones with piercing sound because it's "more professional." It's not professional to need multiple layers of correction just to produce a simple, pleasant voice track.

There's anecdotal evidence that fan or environmental noise can cause sibilance.

What.

Not directly, it turns out stiff Noise Reduction can cause tonal problems. So you can prevent sibilance by unplugging the refrigerator while you record.

Then there's the Pillsbury Cookie Problem. Pillsbury discovered that home cooks preferred by a very firm margin to "Do Something" to a package of cookie mix. So they left the egg out. You have to add the egg with the milk and the product flew off the shelves.

It's can't be professional unless you DeEss it.

Koz

[croninjj]

That should be easy. Maybe a sock over my head is worth a try as well. 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. ????

I am in a pretty quiet environment, however -- a closet lined with quilts. Well, just for recording. They let me out to do other things. Interesting thought about noise reduction.