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dealing with female sibiliance

H

Hart

Guest
I'm working with a woman on some stuff and I'm having a little bit of a problem with sibilance. She's running a MKH416 into the Symetrix 528E. I'm not incredibly experienced at producing women's voices so I was hoping for some tips to try. She has not been using the de-esser on the 528. So I guess that could be a start. Is there a sweet spot I should notch with EQ to deal with it perhaps? I would post a sample but it's not my voice and I don't have permission.
 
The first thing I'd try is mic position. You may want to move the mic around in relation to her to see if you can find a sweet spot that gives you the timbre that you want without the sibilance. Of course, the room sounds come into play if you get her too far off mic. Also play with putting her slightly off-axis.

The MKH 416 may not be the optimum mic for this woman. At higher frequencies - where sibilance lives - the mic has a lobar pattern that's going to make it easier to pick up any problems that she may have with pronunciation.
 
I agree about the 416. It doesn't sing on females the way it does on males. Got any LD condensers laying around, Brian? I think even an inexpensive one may perform better on a female voice.

The other option is to de-ess with software. I usually prefer de-essers that use phase cancellation to de-ess. I know the Waves RDe-Esser will do this. I would imagine there are free VSTs out there as well.

Emmett
 
Unfortunately she's not local,she's sending me files from her home studio. Thanks for the input guys.
 
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