You've got your mix right where you want it. The drums slam, the bass is thick without a hint of muddiness, you guitars are cutting through nicely. There is only one problem. You have a few really harsh ?sss? sounds that jump out too loudly. Let's look at a few ways to fix this problem.

Make Sure Sibilance Really Is A Problem

It's easy to say ?no pro sounding record has sibilance?, but that's a load of crap. I can't count how many hit records have had quite a bit of sibilance. Most recently, I was listening to Skid Row's Slave To The Grind. It has a ton of high end sibilance. Obviously, the producer wasn't bothered by this too much. The second by the Used has a ton of sibilanceas well. If you really think your track has a problem and you don't like the vocal sound, there are some tricks that will help reduce it, but a lot of them can be destructive.

What Causes Vocal Sibilance?

Without a doubt the leading cause of vocal sibilance is the singer. Some singers just have a tendency to sound more aggressive in their ?ssss?. You can look at this as a strength or a weakness depending on what you are doing. When it comes to this sort of thing, I like being as transparent as possible. I don't like changing the persons character unless I have to as a last resort to fit standards that our society places on audio recordings.

The other leading cause of vocal sibilance is using the wrong mic. Some mics will accentuate this effect and make it worse. Some mics just won't work with certain singers. If I have a problem with a condenser mic being to sibilant, I'll switch to my SM7 and that will usually take care of it (but may introduce new problems).

Don't forget to position the mic. If you are getting to much in the ultra high end, tilting the mic 5 or 10 degrees can make a noticeable difference. Another trick is to move the vocalist closer if you are using a cardioid microphone. This will increase the proximity effect and therefor reduce the relative level of your high end.

How Do We Fix It?

If I really think the ?ssss? sounds are unacceptable and I didn't catch it at tracking, I have a few options.

1. Waves C4 Multi-band Compressor ? Sometimes I'll use this plugin. I'll make sure to disable every band but the one I want to fix. I force myself to only use one band and I don't let myself get carried away. You can adjust the plugin so that it will only reduce the desired frequency by a few dB. I think it's called ?range? but I can't remember at the moment. It's usually set to around 8dB or so. I change it to something more like 2dB. The trick is to be subtle. You may need to play around with the frequency to the find the problem areas. Odds are strong it will be different with each singer. I only set at the end of a mix with the entire mix playing. I do not solo the vocals while I set this. If the ?ssss? jump out, there are still going to jump out. The idea here is to barely fit them into the ?acceptable? range (depending on what your acceptable range is).

2. Volume Automation ? Anyone who says that automating levels on vocals is too much work is a lazy ass who should find something else to do with his time. I believed Ron Burgundy coined the phrase ?It's Busch League?. If you want your mixes to sound pro, quite being a baby and get in there are draw drawing lines and clicking on dots until it sounds good. 90% of the mixes I have to have at least some volume automation. 50% have about a million vocal automations. Get in there. If there is an ?ssss? that is to loud, hank it down or fade it out. This is the best way to get HORRIBLE sounding ?sss? sounds to sound better. You'll have to manually do it to ever word that contains the horrid ?sssss? problem. If you used the Waves C4 or some other plugin and found that it effected your vocal sound in places that were fine, this is the tool for you. Get used to it. If you want to sound like a pro, using the level automation is the best tool.

3. Wave Editor ? If the Waves C4 plugin doesn't work and volume automation doesn't work, I'd open up Sound Forge or whatever wave editor that you prefer. I'd find each esss and I'd manually reduce maybe 1dB of the problem frequency. Odds are strong that if you have still having problems after using your C4 plugin and volume automation, you either really screwed up in tracking, you are being too picky about simblance, or you really screwed up applying the C4 and volume automation. In reality, I'd only use the Wave Editor for maybe the one or two parts that really jump out. Again, be subtle.