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How To DeEss Vocals: 4 Ways To Tame Harsh Vocals
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Jul 17, 2023
?️ FREE Vocal Production Cheatsheet ?️ (Discover how to record, edit, and mix vocals like a professional.) https://www.orpheusaudioacademy.com/vocals In this tutorial, I'll show you 4 different ways to deEss your vocals! By using these techniques, you can smooth out your vocal sound and make them less harsh. Whether you're a singer or an audio producer, this video will teach you how to deEss your vocals for better sound quality and mixing. ? PLUGINS & GEAR USED IN THIS VIDEO ? ⚡Waves Sibilance: https://www.orpheusaudioacademy.com/Sibilance ⚡iZotope RX: https://www.orpheusaudioacademy.com/RX ⛓️ LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO ⛓️ ? Learn how to remove noise from your vocals: https://youtu.be/VV9ZAYTqqa0 ? How to record pro vocals from home: https://youtu.be/SJywnbct1xQ ? Get upfront vocals: https://youtu.be/516SKTKdSmE ⌛TIME STAMPS:⌛ 0:00 - Why you should deEss vocals 0:42 - Tactic 1 2:27 - Tactic 2
View Video Transcript
0:00
Ever have trouble with the S sounds in your vocals being too harsh
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In this video, I'm going to show you four different ways to DS your vocals
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from a very simple method to an advanced laser targeted method for very precise and professional results
0:14
By the end of this video, you'll never have to worry about harsh, sibilant vocals ever again
0:20
With Orpheus Audio Academy, helping you make better music and grow fan base online
0:25
And what we're talking about here is that harshness that's called sibilance, that
0:29
S sound and that T sound and wish all that kind of stuff. We want to take that out of our vocals because
0:36
it's not very musical. It can be very grating on the ears. We want to take that out. And so method one
0:42
the very simplest method that you can use is simply not to record civilent vocals. Don't record
0:49
them. Why are you recording sibling vocals? Stop it. I know easier said than done. But this can actually
0:55
there's actually techniques you can use to avoid siblings. Number one, use. Use a
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a pop filter have a pop filter on your microphone pop filters generally are better at taking out
1:04
plosives those like those p and b sounds but uh it can help with some of that that siblings as well
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but the main thing you're want to do is just move your vocal up and set your microphone up
1:16
instead of recording directly into your microphone you want to move it up to be about at nose level
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like this actually just raise it up so that the microphone is at nose level or eye level and so that your
1:28
your mouth is actually going below the microphone. And this isn't going to hurt the quality because condenser microphones are very sensitive
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They can pick up a lot of detail. I can go and like scratch on the wall in the back of the room and you'll probably still be able to hear it
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And as you probably already know, getting clean, unscibolent vocals is only one part of the puzzle when it comes to creating pro quality vocals from home
1:58
So if you want more help with this, then be sure to grab my free vocal production cheat sheet in the description below
2:03
This walks you through how to record, edit, and mix professional quality vocals from home
2:09
Because if you have a weak link in any part of your chain, would it be recording, editing or mixing, you're not going to have pristine pro vocals from home
2:19
So be sure to grab that cheat sheet in the description below. It's completely free
2:23
All right, with that, let's move on to Method 2, which is to use a Dessor
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So every DAI, I believe, has a stock de-sor. Here's the one in logic that we want to use
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And so this DSER is going to do what it sounds. It's going to D-S, your vocal is going to take out that S sound
2:42
And so a D-Ser is simply a compressor that responds to frequency rather than amplitude, right
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So a regular compressor, it starts to compress when the amplitude or volume crosses the threshold
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In this case, the de-sor is going to. to kick in and process your vocal your vocal, your vocal, your vocal
3:00
your vocal, when a particular frequency frequency range across the vocal, across the threshold
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so that's what we have here. So we have our frequency range right here. So once this frequency range right here
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you know, it's, um, it's gonna be a range. You can see range on here split versus wide
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So wide would be more like the, a wider vocal range where a split is just a very particular range
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So I believe is like above 4k. Um, I'm not sure how the logic one works. It could be different
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in this and versus like other Dessors. But this is a frequency range area that is going to trigger the Dessor
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So when this frequency range passes this threshold here, which we set here where we want it to be
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So when too much volume accumulates in that frequency range so that it passes this threshold
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it's going to reduce the volume of that range. And how much it reduces is this control here
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So pretty simple. so we hear this vocal without any de and then with the in So not too bad because I recorded it like I said with using method one where I
4:13
moved the microphone up. I'd always do that when I record. So I'm not recording directly into the microphone
4:19
It also costs down implosives as well. And so it's not too bad, but it's a little, still a little bit similar
4:25
So we're going to turn this on and we're going to Dess it
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And then one thing you can be helpful to find that most sibilant range is just pull up an EQ and then boost and see where that harshest, those harshest frequencies are
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So it's usually like 4K and up, maybe 5K and up up up up to like 8K or so
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I found the harshest part was right here around 7 or 6.8K
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So again, we're going to want to turn that off. And so that's what I have set here, right around there
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And so we're going to turn this on and we're going to start reducing. And we're going to keep an eye on the detection here because we only want to take out the siblings
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We don't want to take out the actual vocal itself. So you can see that yellow there
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So that's when it's kicking in. We can see it's only taking out one that k sounds and the t's sounds
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So it seems like our threshold set pretty well. And how much we want to take out here is what we want to decide
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so you can see out of my mind so you can see
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when I take out a really a ton it almost sounds like a lisp
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is being introduced there so that's probably a little too much Tandy cause is playing in my mind
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Tandy cause is playing in my mind Tandy cause is playing in my mind Tandigas is playing in my mind
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Tandy causes playing my mind. Now, part of that is just the way I sang it
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I didn't sing it the clearest. But we can hear that we are taking out some of that siblings
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So that is method two. So moving on to step two, we can use a different type of de-sor here
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I really like siblings by waves. So this is just a de-sor, but it's a little bit more
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advanced. It's a step above the other de-sters out there. And that's because Waves developed this
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plugin, Sybilance, with technology that allows it to separate all the different elements of
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the voice from the siblings. So in other words, the plugin identifies, okay, what is vocal, what is
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siblings? And it allows you to then determine how much of that siblings you want to take out. So it's a
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little bit smarter than other deesters out there, which is why I kind of put this in its own category
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and it's what I typically use when I'm Dessing. So we got this in here
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and I'll just break down the controls real quick. So you got this display up here. So you're seeing the waveform, you're seeing what parts are being taken out, what's highlighted in green here
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And then here's your controls for how you determine that. So you have your threshold. So it's just like with the other one
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just determining, right, how much that waveform we're going to take out so you can see these lines moving
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So if we put the threshold way down, then it's reading like almost the whole waveform and could be taking out a lot
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Which we don want We just want to take that sibling cell So we going to move the threshold up about here So then we have range So after the frequency range of siblings passes across the threshold
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we're determining how much we want to take out so we can pull this, set this how we want
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And we can see at the top how much is being taken out changes as I adjust the range control
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So that is pretty extreme, obviously. So we're going to pull that back up here
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And so, again, your goal here, as with a lot of signal controller plugins, like EQ or compression
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is you don't really want them to be audible. You just want their effects, right
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People don't want to hear a D.S. They just want to know, hey, they just want to hear a vocal
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That sounds good and doesn't sound simple. With that, then we have detection here. And detection, we can think of us as like bandwidth or the cue point on like an EQ
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And so the lower values down here is going to pick up like just the S parts
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And if we go higher, then it's going to take out more of the sh or whoushi type sounds
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We're going to have it more down here. And then mode over here, wide versus split, just like with the stock, Dessor, full band
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wide is over here. So it's really looking at the entire bandwidth of the frequency ranges
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Or split is looking at just those higher frequencies so at like above 4K
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So we'll put it around here. And we have look ahead here. This will introduce some latency, but it produces better results because the technology is able
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to look ahead to the upcoming waveform and know where the siblings is going to be
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So it can take it out. So you get better results with look ahead and monitor here
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you can hear just what's being taken out. That's pretty good
10:08
We're just hearing those consonants. We're just hearing the siblings. So we know we're going wrong if we're starting to hear some vowels
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So if I pull this down, what do we hear? So it's pretty forgiving, actually
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It's pretty gentle. But we're starting to hear some vowels in there, so obviously we don't want that
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So I'll put this about back to where it was. And so that is the third way to go about Dessing your vocals
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And before I share with you the fourth and most precise best way to D.S
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Your vocals, if you've gotten value from this video, go ahead and hit like
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And be sure to hit subscribe as well while you're at it. If you want to make sure that you don't miss out on any new tutorials I release on producing music from home
11:20
All right. So the absolute best way to D.S. Your vocals, I'll turn off siblings here
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is to edit your vocals in a program called. RX. Now I say this is the best way to DSER vocals. I guess I should say this is the most precise way. I wouldn't say it's necessarily the best way because it does take more time. And sometimes the best way is just the fastest way. And so that's where you want to use something like Sybilance. But if you want to, you know, you're trying to use DSER plugins and it's just not not sounding great, not sounding how you want, then we can edit this in RX. So I've done other tutorials on how to set this up. I'll link those in the description
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description below and how you can actually edit in isotope Rx inside of logic if you have logic
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Otherwise you can just like export this and edit in Rx and import it back in
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Here our vocals and I think we listening to the chorus over here So we got our spectrograph here So we at the bottom are the lowest frequencies and the top are the highest frequencies And then the brightness indicates volume
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And so let's listen. Dendie Gusses. So we can hear right here is where it's that symbol and says
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So you can see how it's the brightest section. If I turn it down, you can still see how I'm like right in here
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And we can listen to this that. Ouch. That does not. Sound good. So then what we can do is just simply do a Dessor we do and turn down the volume
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So we'll pull up gain here. And let's just try reducing by three. We don't want to do too much or
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we'll sound like we have a Lisp. And it's get the best results when you're, when you're being
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very strategic, just taking out the most fending portion. Right. Like you could say like this whole
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section here is bright but now we're taking out a lot of frequency ranges so we might just want to do
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this brightest section here and see how that sounds all right we will render that and see how it sounds
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so that's pretty good um then we got a little bit up here render that and the got says please
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that's almost like too much it's almost on again this part just the way i saying it almost sounds a little bit lispy
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Let me just do two. Let me just do one. I'm gonna leave it alone
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So that is that and we can look through here. My mind, rewind, let's go back in time
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where the rhythm takes me to a sweet... Right, if like this part was a little too much for us
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we could turn this down a bit. down a bit. Taste me to a sweet
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rhythm. Taste me to a sweet escape. Right or this. Usually you're only going to do
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like 3 to 6 dB. We could do 6 dB. We could do 6 dB. We're getting reduction here
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That might be a little extreme. I'll do 4. Typically what you're trying to do is trying to get these bright
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parts to match the brightness of the rest of that area. So pull that down
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Into a sweet escape. No you don't. No you don't ever stop the team
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And that's how you can do very precise D-Sing, really awesome. And of course, RX also has a D-Ster built in up here
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Kind of have the same things. You have a threshold cut off. You can use a classic algorithm or the spectral algorithm here
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As well, if you want to learn this tool, just another form of deester. but I kind of like manually just knocking down those sections that are a little too much that the actual Dester plugin is not handling well
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And then we can just hit file, override original file. And then we close this down and it's going to rewrite the waveform with our edits in place
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And now we have D.S this. I'll go ahead and turn on Sublance as well
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And we'll give this a listen. Go back in time
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With a rhythm Taste me to a sweet escape No you don't
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No you don't Not bad Now we have de-s our vocals Now like I said earlier
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Obviously de-essing your vocals It's just one piece of the puzzle When it comes to creating
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Pro-quality vocals from your home studio So if you want the full picture
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Then go ahead and download My free vocal production cheat sheet In the description below
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Orpheus Audioacademy.com Slash vocals Now if you want to learn in detail how to create professional radio ready songs from your home studio only using budget
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gear and stock plugins then go ahead and click the video on the screen right now and with that
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keep creating and always be adventuring
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