Vocal compression and sibilance

[ButchVig]

Originally Posted by notbillcosby

Hey Butch! Thanks for the years of great listening and pages of super cool inside info!

I've been battling with sibilance issues lately. I read in another thread that you lay the vocal compression on fairly thick; I do the same thing, but the further I bring up the compressor, the more S sound I hear, almost to the point where it seems like that hissy letter is sticking out more than the rest of the vocals. I try to EQ and de-esser my way out of this, but then vocal tracks end up sounding muddier than the rest of my mix.

How do you deal with this? I listened to Siamese Dream a bunch recently after reading all of these threads, and it seems like Billy's voice should be full of S noise, but they are as smooth as I could ever hope for. Do you stop compressing before the S's stick out and ride the faders more to help even out levels? Is there something else I'm missing?

This is a good question for the engineers. What are the fave de-essers out there?

If the de-esser your using sounds like it dulls the vocal, maybe you should try another one.

Also, if your using a digital system, can go in and draw volume dips when the sss's stick out, a time consuming pain in the butt, but it works.