brooklyn:Brooklyn/Tech/Audio/Sibilance: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 15:02, 22 May 2026

Sibilance

To address sibilance—the harsh, irritating "essss" sound—on a DiGiCo Sx1, one can use a dynamic EQ:

DiGiCo's S31 dynamic EQ: Here, the blue band has the dynamic EQ turned on; here, around 5.5 kHz, the volume is currently being lowered, which corresponds to the RTA frequency during the 's' sound.

Steps to follow:

Touch the "Show dyn EQ" button in the menu bar, and then switch one of the EQs to a dyanmic EQ
Dynamic EQ must be in "Over mode", i.e. arrow on threshold pointing to right, i.e. when level is higher than threshold, the EQ adjustment is applied
Dynamic compression ratio of 2:1 to 3:1 has enough of an effect without influencing the sound too much
The compressor must typically be quite fast, i.e. short times, to sound as natural as possible
EQ frequency typically in the range 3 to 8 kHz
EQ gain should be –5 to –15 dB; if too much, intelligibility will be reduced
EQ Q typically 1 or higher

What exactly is sibilance?

Sometimes audio that has been pre-recorded and prepared for playback can have too much harshness:

or a live vocal can sound very irritating, especially in Afrikaans—same video, [later at 23:03].

Also, listen to 10 s of this (start at 4:01):

That “S” sound at the end of a word is called “sibilance”. It occurs typically in the 3 to 8 kHz range; that same range is needed to get clarity and presence in a vocal. Too much, almost like cymbals, very quickly becomes very irritating. However, too little, and a person battles to hear what is being said.

From the clip: This is the 'wy' of 'wys' in 'Wil ek vir jou wys wat leer...': the frequencies shown at the bottom correspond to the yellow cursor at the top.

This is the 's' of 'wys' in 'Wil ek vir jou wys wat leer...'—note the portion that is significantly louder. The 5 kHz peaks at –50 dB, which was previously –63 dB—that’s a 13 dB difference, which represents more than four times the volume (6 dB is a doubling).

The process of removing sibiliance is called “de-essing” or “desibilising” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-essing).

The first step in the process of improving sound is normally recording better quality sound at the sound, thus placing the microphone further away, and aiming the microphone higher or lower (away from the mouth), as you can see in, for e.g. https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/managing-sibilance or https://urm.academy/death-to-sibilance/.

If one already has the sound, you can process it via an EQ. The challenge with this is that taking away too much of the “s” sound results in losing clarity and presence. Thus one wants to only take away the problematic portions when they are excessive, but leave them the rest of the time, i.e. compress that which annoys, but only when necessary.

Reaper’s built-in 'De-esser'

Reaper’s “De-esser” is a single-band dynamic EQ.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 == Sibilance ==
-Sometimes a vocal can sound very irritating—listen to 10 s of this (start at 4:01):
+To address sibilance—the harsh, irritating "essss" sound—on a DiGiCo Sx1, one can use a dynamic EQ:
-<youtube>JEHmr1__AsM</youtube>
+<pic src="/images/b/be/Dynamic_EQ_on_S31_for_sibilance.jpg" width="100%" align="text" caption="DiGiCo's S31 dynamic EQ: Here, the blue band has the dynamic EQ turned on; here, around 5.5 kHz, the volume is currently being lowered, which corresponds to the RTA frequency during the 's' sound." />
-That “S” sound at the end of a word is called “sibilance”. It occurs typically in the 4 to 8 kHz range; that same range is needed to get clarity and presence in a vocal. Too much, almost like symbols, very quickly becomes very irritating. However, too little, and a person battle to hear what is being said.
+=== Steps to follow: ===
-<pic src="/images/e/e7/Sibilance.wy_of_wys.png" width=100% align=text caption="From the clip: This is the 'wy' of 'wys' in 'Wil ek vir jou wys wat leer...': the frequencies shown at the bottom correspond to the yellow cursor at the top."/>
+* Touch the "Show dyn EQ" button in the menu bar, and then switch one of the EQs to a dyanmic EQ
+* Dynamic EQ must be in "Over mode", i.e. arrow on threshold pointing to right, i.e. when level is higher than threshold, the EQ adjustment is applied
+* Dynamic compression ratio of 2:1 to 3:1 has enough of an effect without influencing the sound too much
+* The compressor must typically be quite fast, i.e. short times, to sound as natural as possible
+* EQ frequency typically in the range 3 to 8 kHz
+* EQ gain should be –5 to –15 dB; if too much, intelligibility will be reduced
+* EQ Q typically 1 or higher
-<pic src="/images/7/7e/Sibilance.s_of_wys.png" width=100% align=text caption="This is the 's' of 'wys' in 'Wil ek vir jou wys wat leer...'—note the portion that is significantly louder. The 5 kHz peaks at –50 dB, which was previously –63 dB—that’s a 13 dB difference, which represents more than four times the volume (6 dB is a doubling)."/>
+=== What exactly is sibilance? ===
+Sometimes audio that has been pre-recorded and prepared for playback can have too much harshness:
+<youtube>mAlhPGCET8M</youtube>
-The process of removing sibiliance is called “de-essing” or “desibilising” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-essing).
+or a live vocal can sound very irritating, especially in Afrikaans—same video, [[https://www.youtube.com/live/mAlhPGCET8M?t=1383 later at 23:03]].
-The first step in the process of improving sound is normally recording better quality sound at the sound, thus placing the microphone further away (which Marthinus already does), and aiming the microphone higher or lower (away from the mouth), as you can see in, for e.g. https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/managing-sibilance or https://urm.academy/death-to-sibilance/.
+Also, listen to 10 s of this (start at 4:01):
-If one already has the sound, you can process it via an EQ. The challenge with this is that taking away too much of the “s” sound results in losing clarity and presence. Thus one wants to only take away the problematic portions when they are excessive, but leave them the rest of the time, i.e. compress that which annoys, but only when necessary.
+<youtube>JEHmr1__AsM</youtube>
-<pic src="/images/c/c1/Sibilance.reaper.de-esser.png" width=100% align=text caption="Reaper’s built-in 'De-esser'"/>
+That “S” sound at the end of a word is called “sibilance”. It occurs typically in the 3 to 8 kHz range; that same range is needed to get clarity and presence in a vocal. Too much, almost like cymbals, very quickly becomes very irritating. However, too little, and a person battles to hear what is being said.
+<pic src="/images/e/e7/Sibilance.wy_of_wys.png" width=100% align=text caption="From the clip: This is the 'wy' of 'wys' in 'Wil ek vir jou wys wat leer...': the frequencies shown at the bottom correspond to the yellow cursor at the top."/>
-Reaper’s “De-esser” is a single-band dynamic EQ. In the DiGiCo S31 we have this same functionality available via a dynamic EQ:
+<pic src="/images/7/7e/Sibilance.s_of_wys.png" width=100% align=text caption="This is the 's' of 'wys' in 'Wil ek vir jou wys wat leer...'—note the portion that is significantly louder. The 5 kHz peaks at –50 dB, which was previously –63 dB—that’s a 13 dB difference, which represents more than four times the volume (6 dB is a doubling)."/>
-<pic src="/images/a/a1/Sibilance.s31.dynamiceq.jpg" width=100% align=text caption="DiGiCo's S31 dynamic EQ: Here, the green band has the dynamic EQ turned on; here, around 5 kHz, the volume is currently being lowered. For the purpose of de-essing, the mode (top right) must be set to 'Over' so that when the level at 5 kHz exceeds the threshold, then the level of the 5 kHz band is reduced."/>
+The process of removing sibiliance is called “de-essing” or “desibilising” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-essing).
+The first step in the process of improving sound is normally recording better quality sound at the sound, thus placing the microphone further away, and aiming the microphone higher or lower (away from the mouth), as you can see in, for e.g. https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/managing-sibilance or https://urm.academy/death-to-sibilance/.
-=== General guidelines ===
+If one already has the sound, you can process it via an EQ. The challenge with this is that taking away too much of the “s” sound results in losing clarity and presence. Thus one wants to only take away the problematic portions when they are excessive, but leave them the rest of the time, i.e. compress that which annoys, but only when necessary.
-To find the most appropriate centre frequency: while sweeping, boost the frequency so that it sound worse, because it’s easier to hear increased irritation than a reduction of irritation. In the S31-world one can do this in a live environment by routing the same input to an unused channel, and then mute and solo that channel, and listen for the most problematic frequency in the headphones. At Brooklyn Campus specifically, there is a channel named “Test” that you can use for this purpose.
+<pic src="/images/c/c1/Sibilance.reaper.de-esser.png" width=100% align=text caption="Reaper’s built-in 'De-esser'"/>
-The dynamic EQ threshold needs to be high enough to not influence other sounds too much, but low enough to result in a significant improvement in the sibilance.
-The compressor must typically be quite fast, i.e. short times, to sound as natural as possible.
+Reaper’s “De-esser” is a single-band dynamic EQ.