Sizzeling S's.. ouch!

Well...this is not a genre I listen to... but from a technical aspect....(my daughter just asked me...WHAT are you listening to?)

OK from the technical side of things.... on my system the s's didn't sound all that overly loud. There was ...to my ears... a very high and clear upper end presence.   Listening on cheap computer speakers.... not ref mons.

When I record, I try to shoot for a sweet high end.... I like to be able to understand the words and the upper freqs assist in that aspect. Too much and you get sibilance..... so I will play around with the EQ. I use a multiband parametric EQ. I will roll the top end off (at times...because each song is different) generally in the 7khz range and higher. That removes or lowers the sibilant freqs and still lets the sparkle shine through in the 3k to 6k range. It also tends to "calm " the sizzle on the cymbals as well.

If you don't have a de-esser plug-in you can try the sonitus multiband compressor on the vocal tracks and only tweek one of the higher bands to compress only the SSSS sounds.

Hi Ari, I have listened to it and personally I dont mind the top end on the vocals as they are. At least your 'esses' sound smooth and are not harsh like some sybilance can be. I would not worry too much about it. There are different types of harshness and yours is not nasty or anything like that. I tend to make sure that vocals are reasonably crisp anyway as it really helps with diction etc.

But if you are really concerned then maybe do some surgical editing like Frank has suggested etc. I tend to do that in other programs like Adobe Audition etc..

If you don't have a de-esser plug-in you can try the sonitus multiband compressor on the vocal tracks and only tweek one of the higher bands to compress only the SSSS sounds.

Thanx. I wasn't really sure what a de-esser is, but i know exactly what the multiband compressor is. This is exactly what i was thinking of doing except i was afraid I'd lose the crispness of the vocals.

daeser1

try the clip gain envelope

Believe it or not i have never used a "clip gain envelope" I'm not sure what it is, but i will definitely look it up..
Thank you..

Envelopes are the key to all automation of a mix. They are a line that you can put over the waveform in track view and adjust by making nodes (elbows) and then draging the line up or down. They can control gain (pre effects bin), volume (post effects bin), pan, all kinds of things. The list is dynamic so if you add an effects to the track that can be automated you will see new envelopes to choose from.

In track view you can right click on a clip and select the envelope you want.  There are many to choose from. The clip gain controls the output of the clip before it even goes to the effects. This is the one you want to use for fixing recordings that have little spots that are too loud.   Keep in mind this envelope is per clip, not per track like the track volume so if you have split the recording into clips you have to add one for each clip.  Track envelopes cover the entire track.

If you zoom in far enough where the ssss sound is you can see it. The wav will be really close together and appear darker then the rest of it. Make two nodes in the clip gain envelope on each side of that ssss part and then pull down on the line between the two sets of nodes. You will see a notch created in the line. This causes that little section of audio to play back at a lower level.   So this for a few of the ssss sections and keep adjusting it till you get it just right on each one. If you like the results do all of them.  You can also do things like making one node on each side and one in the center and pull down on the center one to make a V in the envelope line.  This is like a quick fade out and back in.  In some cases this works better and is less noticeable.

On a vocal track you can adjust each word till it's the perfect volume, reduce breath noise to almost zero to get it out of the forground but not make the track sound "fake", all kinds of stuff.   Once you get good at envelopes your mind will go wild with all the things you can do with them. 

A couple ideas:
1) if you change the song to "FLEE life for what it DID" you'll get rid of a lot of sibs.

2) a painstakingly effective method is to envelope each 'esssss' out to where you can still hear the 's' but it's not distorting.  De-essers (even the better ones like spitfish) can be frustrating IMO but if you can get it to do what you need more power to you.