Silencing Sibilance - Back at the Ranch Studio
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1. liked the Drawmer MX50 not only for its natural sound and helpful Air circuit but also because it allows for a range of fine tuning without overwhelming the user with too many options If ease of use is your primary concern the SPL Auto Dynamic De Esser is hard to beat would especially recommend this unit for live sound applications as it truly does have Auto as its copilot The sound is sufficiently transparent for professional studio applications too though some engineers may prefer to have more control of the signal For those who frequently require de essing think a stand alone unit makes a lot of sense primarily because it streamlines the procedure And for live sound applications a dedicated de esser would be my pick every time On the other hand if you only rarely need to de ess tracks and you already own an equalizer and a good quality full featured compressor the roll your own option can provide comparable results and save you some dollars to boot Plus you ll have the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself Brian Knave is an associate editor at EM Special thanks to Kim Cahail and Symetrix Want to try your hand at de essing Record this poem lingering over every ess and have at it Cecily sings a seasonal song Of seedlings seeping sap While sullen Sally swathes her sorrows In sheaths and swirls of scrap Supercilious sunstruck studs In swimwear sewn from scrim Survey the strident sprays of surf Where suckers sin2. on the compressor and the compressor s output back to the channel insert on the receive portion of the TRS Y cable Once you re set up the trick is to boost the frequencies of the sibilant sounds you want to get rid of these usually occur in the 2 to 10 kHz range while cutting other nonproblematic frequencies Because the equalizer now controls the level detector in the compressor and it is set to amplify the sounds you don t 1 of 4 7 29 08 10 07 PM Silencing Sibilance 2 of 4 want it tells the compressor to reduce those sounds first MESSIN WITH DE ESSIN To test the de essers fished through old master tapes and pulled out some tracks knew had sibilance problems These were helpful however none had enough esses to let me keep the tape rolling and really put the de essers through their paces So wrote and recorded a song and a poem each brimming with esses just for the occasion see the sidebars De Ess This and The De Esser Challenge then made two digital clones of each vocal track which allowed me to patch all three de essers simultaneously to the same source material on different channels ROLL YOUR OWN For the traditional de esser used a Symetrix 552E dual parametric EQ patched into the sidechain of an Aphex Expressor 651 compressor limiter chose the Expressor because out of five compressors in my rack it was the most fully featured offering very exacting attack and release time controls as well as othe
3. Silencing Sibilance http www printthis clickability com pt cpt action cpt amp title Silen Electronic Musician Cs PRINT PERSONAL STUDIO RECORDING PRODUCTION SOUND DESIGN Powered by Cickability Click to Print SAVE THIS EMAIL THIS Close Silencing Sibilance Apr 1 2000 12 00 PM Brian Knave EJ my Yarco gotor B Bloglines WHAT IT IS For those not in the know a de esser is just what the word suggests a device for getting rid of unwanted esses or sibilance from vocal tracks Sibilance can be caused not only by the consonant s but by several other consonants and digraphs as well including c sh and ch What s so bad about sibilance Well it can sound ugly even to the point of being painful to listen to Interestingly though people have different tolerance levels for sibilance don t mind a little of it but know many engineers who can t bear even a trace On the other hand recently mixed an album for two Latin American musicians who wanted me to emphasize the esses on their vocal tracks as they felt the emphasis helped clarify their Spanish pronunciation Most of the time a bright plate and some high EQ was all it took to make the emphasis The point is there s nothing wrong with esses per se after all they are required for the proper pronunciation of our language and others The problem arises however when they are significantly louder than the rest of the track It s not uncommon for an i
4. e De Ess control As with any de esser moderation is recommended as extreme settings predictably result in lisping and other unnatural sounds In my tests the MX50 s Frequency control typically ended up somewhere between 3 and 4 kHz and the De Ess control between 5 and 10 dB With the De Ess Band in Split mode and the Air switch engaged those settings produced an appreciably de essed signal that otherwise sounded nearly identical to the original very impressive SPL DE ESSER As the name implies SPL s Model 9629 Dual Channel Auto Dynamic De Esser 599 detects and reduces sibilance automatically What the name doesn t tell you though is that the unit employs a radically different technology from that used in traditional de essers Rather than use frequency controlled compression to squash unwanted esses the SPL De Esser eliminates them by feeding a phase inverted signal of the unwanted frequencies back into the signal path Like the Drawmer MX50 the unit also features a floating threshold that adjusts automatically based on the dynamics and level of the incoming signal Rear panel I O includes 1 1 4 4 inch and XLR connectors both 4 dBu SPL s De Esser is a dream come true for the engineer short on time patience or technical savvy The unit s two channels provide only one knob and three backlit switches each The switches are labeled Auto Threshold Male Female and Active In Male mode the unit starts scanning for ess frequencies at 6
5. ies below the de ess range via cutting so the whole signal wouldn t compress whenever a sibilant sound occurred For the de ess band applied 12 dB of boost at around 6 kHz with a 1 octave Q For the second band applied a 10 dB cut at around 1 2 kHz with a 1 5 octave Q For good measure also dialed in the 552E s low cut filter at 260 Hz there wasn t likely to be much energy down that low but just in case the compressor would know to overlook it DRAWMER MX50 The Drawmer MX50 Dual De Esser 549 employs a conventional de esser design with both amplitude and frequency detection circuits compressor and EQ among others in a single easy to use 1U box Each channel provides four controls two knobs and two button switches as well as a bypass switch and the rear panel provides both balanced XLR 4 dBu and unbalanced 1 1 4 4 inch 10 ABV I O You can use channels independently or link them via the Stereo Link switch for stereo operation which allows both channels to track together without image shifting The unit has a floating threshold that adapts automatically to the dynamics and level of the incoming signal so no threshold adjustment is necessary From left to right the controls are Frequency De Ess Air and De Ess Band The De Ess Band control offers two modes of operation Full and Split with Split mode functioning similarly to the dual band application described in the Roll Your Own section That is in Full mode when the
6. k or swim Shapeless sluts in chamois chaps And sexy satin smocks Shake and shimmy by the shack Where Santa stuffs his socks 3 of 4 7 29 08 10 07 PM Silencing Sibilance 4 of 4 Smelly stallions stain surcingles And sadists strangle sheep While salesgirls with stupendous sagas Sing their swains to sleep In an effort to foil the de essers reviewed in this article wrote and recorded the following song Impressively each unit proved up to the de essing task Salacious Chanteuse Cissy struts on stage in her shiny silver boots Singing sexy songs for all the salaried suits See through sequins and a slit down the side Sure to send a sinner down the slippery slide Salacious chanteuse Sultry siren done stewed my goose Sauteed stir fried seduced By that salacious chanteuse Slummy salutations and a satin smooth smile Shoulder straps slipping sliding slinking s Cissy s style Supersonic sycophantic swizzle and swoop Chartreuse chantilly shake a saint off his stoop Salacious chanteuse Sultry siren done stewed my goose Sauteed stir fried seduced By that salacious chanteuse Find this article at http www emusician com mag emusic_silencing_sibilance index html amp Click to Print Check the box to include the list of links referenced in the article 2008 Penton Media Inc All rights reserved http www printthis clickability com pt cpt action cpt amp title Silen SAVE THIS EMAIL THIS Close 7 29 08 10 07 PM
7. kHz in Female mode at 7 kHz The only variable control is the S Reduction knob labeled simply 1 through 10 which determines the intensity of de essing Gain reduction is displayed in 2 dB steps on a 10 segment meter It would be hard to ask for an easier to use de esser The unit always seemed to function most transparently with the Auto Threshold engaged and ostensibly at least deciding between Male and Female is a no brainer That leaves the S Reduction knob as the only thing to really tweak Even there found the choices are pretty much limited to the left side of the dial as settings above the halfway point 5 tend to produce increasingly muffled sounding results When used sparingly and with Auto Threshold engaged though the SPL Auto Dynamic De Esser worked very well smoothly reducing sibilance while maintaining an impressively natural sound There was however an interesting anomaly for some reason the unit worked better on my voice in the Female rather than Male mode In fact on one long held note a vowel not an ess the unit produced a strange crackling kind of distortion in Male mode However this disappeared immediately when switched to Female mode So it s definitely worth comparing the two settings HEAD TO HEAD In comparison though the three de essers tested here had slightly different sonic attributes all performed about equally well Not surprisingly the two dedicated units were easiest to use especially
8. ly the compressor s level detector which responds to amplitude only is controlled by the main input signal However you can take control away from the main signal by introducing a different signal into the sidechain or key input Pretty much any equalizer whether parametric or graphic will work with this application The quality doesn t matter much because the EQ is used only to control the operation of the compressor it s not in the signal path so it s never actually heard To make this type of de esser first insert the EQ into the compressor s sidechain or key input A sidechain has send and return jacks so here it s simply a matter of patching cables from those to the EQ s input and output respectively see Fig 1a The usual 1 1 4 4 inch TRS Y cable connects the compressor s audio ins and outs to the vocal track s channel insert point A compressor with a key input requires that you first split or mult the signal This can be done by using a mono Y splitter connected to the send portion of the 1 1 4 4 inch TRS Y cable see Fig 1b An option for those working on an MDM a digital audio workstation or a hard disk recorder is to clone the track rather than multing it a better solution in my book because it avoids level anomalies and signal irregularities endemic to Y splitters After multing the signal send one to the compressor s audio input and the other to its equalizer input Last patch the equalizer s output to the key input
9. mount and intensity of ess reduction Also play with the attack and release times the goal being to set an attack that s fast enough to catch initial esses and a release fast enough so as not to compress the rest of the word This is no time to get creative rather strive for a natural unaffected sound minus the unwanted sibilance Use the compressor bypass switch to compare processed and unprocessed signals use makeup gain to balance the levels Obviously it s hard to suggest specific settings here as each situation and compressor is different For the source material worked with mostly my own voice ended up using a ratio of about 7 1 with the threshold set at around 2 dB for a maximum gain reduction of 12 dB Attack time was set at 0 05 milliseconds and release time at around 50 milliseconds fine tuned the sound using other features on the Expressor including a high frequency retrieval circuit comprising two controls HFX Ratio and Frequency dialed in a bit of the HFX Ratio 0 3 at 15 kHz to add some air to the processed signal which helped also disengaged the unit s soft knee control sibilance transients are fast and hard knee compression kicks in faster than soft knee But wait that s not all To refine the sound further and keep the effect as transparent as possible employed two bands on the parametric EQ one as described to reduce esses via boosting and the other to instruct the compressor to ignore frequenc
10. nexperienced singer to generate esses that are ten or more decibels hotter than the other consonants and vowels in the performance Moreover some singers just have very sibilant voices no matter how experienced they are in the studio For such singers it s especially important to find a mic that will help play down the esses Another problem is that signal processing often accentuates sibilance A compressor with a slow attack time for example may let the initial sibilant sound in a word pass untouched while compressing and thus lowering the level of the rest of the word Also certain effects for example bright plates bright reverbs and spectral enhancers may further enhance esses For that reason it s generally best to de ess before applying other signal processing TRIED AND TRUE The conventional de esser is basically a fast acting compressor that is set to attenuate the high frequencies present in sibilant sounds Other de essing technologies are also available as we ll see Nowadays de essers are frequently built into voice processors and as noted earlier some companies also offer stand alone units The traditional do it yourself approach to de essing which is still viable today of course requires two pieces of gear an equalizer and a compressor featuring a sidechain or a key input also known as a control input Sidechains and key inputs access circuits that let you customize the response of the dynamics processor Ordinari
11. r helpful extras Getting good results from the compressor EQ combination took patience and considerable tweaking Though not rocket science this de esser was considerably more difficult to use than either of the stand alone units both in terms of setting it up and in finding the optimal settings Also it seemed slightly less effective overall Of course this was hardly a comprehensive test many variables are involved in this type of de essing and changing any one of them the source material the brand and make of the compressor and so on would almost certainly yield different results There are several ways to arrive at usable settings here s an approach that works for me Start with a high ratio 10 1 for instance a moderate threshold 5 to 10 dB and fast attack and release times on the compressor Now if you re using a parametric EQ dial in the maximum decibel cut in the de ess frequency range and then sweep the frequency with for example a one octave Q until you hear an increase in sibilance With a graphic EQ raise the bands between 2 and 10 kHz After finding the frequencies that emphasize the sibilance go from cut to boost boosting until you hear a reduction in sibilance You can also adjust the bandwidth at this point broadening it if you need to address a bigger frequency range and tightening it to pinpoint singular esses Now fine tune your compressor settings A higher ratio and or lower threshold will determine the a
12. unit detects user selected ess frequencies the complete signal level gets reduced whereas in Split mode only the selected frequencies get reduced The MX50 s upper frequency cutoff is preset at around 8 kHz according to the user manual the lower range is set by the Frequency control which ranges from 800 Hz to 8 kHz This makes it possible to specify a very narrow or wide band of operation or any width in between In Split mode the Frequency control determines the split point above which de essing will occur The De Ess control determines the amount of gain reduction up to 20 dB Beneath it a 9 segment LED displays the amount of reduction http www printthis clickability com pt cpt action cpt amp title Silen 7 29 08 10 07 PM Silencing Sibilance http www printthis clickability com pt cpt action cpt amp title Silen which is helpful when setting the unit A unique bonus is the Air switch which allows frequencies above the sibilant band 12 kHz to remain unaffected by de essing When the switch is engaged upper harmonics are preserved which helps to maintain transparency of processing and naturalness of sound The MX50 is a very effective de esser and it couldn t be much simpler to operate consistently got the best results in Split mode with the Air switch engaged Beyond that it s simply a matter of using the Frequency control to find the esses you want to squash and then determining how much to squash them with th
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