10 replies to this topic

[BMWTurbo]

Hi Gents...

I've been playing around with tweeter locations etc of late and Am experiencing an annoying little sibilance on some female vocal tracks, namely Track 7 or 8 I think on the F1 Status Disc.

I've searched on here for sibilance and have seen numerous references to it being centred arond teh 3.5Khz region, which I will play around with pulling back tonight to see what effect it has. I've also been looking on the net a fraction and have found reference to 10-16Khz region creating this also, so I was mainly chasing peoples experiences with what area creates this annoying little quirk.

I guess a little sytem break down might help identify anything odd I've done that may be causing this also.

Active front stage, Arvus tweeters, HP 1250Hz 24dB/oct, Morel HCW8 mid LP 1250Hz 12dB/oct (have tried 18 and 24 also), mids in kicks, tweets on doors just in front of kicks.

Any suggestions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Ben

Edited by BMWTurbo, 13 January 2006 - 10:39 AM.

[shiny_car]

i agree that sibilence tends to be around 3kHz. so if you have an EQ, 'cut' around there. probably worth attenuating a bit an octave higher, say 6.3kHz if that's available.

you could try altering the HP of the tweeters. maybe choose a higher xover frequency, say 2.5~3.2kHz and use a lesser slope, like 12dB/oct. you may also need to match the morel driver with a shallower slope (eg: LP 1.25kHz 12dB/oct).

play around. usually adjusting the EQ and xovers can reduce sibilence properly.

[BMWTurbo]

shiny_car, on Jan 13 2006, 12:12 AM, said:

i agree that sibilence tends to be around 3kHz. so if you have an EQ, 'cut' around there. probably worth attenuating a bit an octave higher, say 6.3kHz if that's available.

you could try altering the HP of the tweeters. maybe choose a higher xover frequency, say 2.5~3.2kHz and use a lesser slope, like 12dB/oct. you may also need to match the morel driver with a shallower slope (eg: LP 1.25kHz 12dB/oct).

play around. usually adjusting the EQ and xovers can reduce sibilence properly.

Cheers Shiny.

I have a 5-band para each, for tweets and mids, with adjustable Q so should be able to pull it out okay

I did try a higher x-over freq in the earlier stages, so might try that again. I was trying to get as much 'on axis' as I could from the tweeters, hence the low x-over point as the mids are in a vertical plane, not on axis at all.

I am currently running the LP with 12dB as I like the smoothness as they blend into the tweets this way, it's not highly noticeable, but more subtle. I'll have to find a nice cool place and have some more of a 'play' on the W/E

[fuddbutter]

also remember the F1 disc has alot of sibilence in it, it's just the way it was recorded. if you take it out then when you listen to other music it wont have any "sparkle"

[BMWTurbo]

Rob, on Jan 13 2006, 12:21 AM, said:

also remember the F1 disc has alot of sibilence in it, it's just the way it was recorded. if you take it out then when you listen to other music it wont have any "sparkle"

I haven't noticed it on any other disc's aside from the F1 as you mention, which suggests perhaps it is the disc. I was using this as my reference disc, perhaps I should look somewhere else also to cross reference it.

[~Spyne~]

"...3kHz- 7kHz is the area where vocal sibilance resides. 3kHz-5kHz is a very common peaking area in rock music because human hearing is pretty sensitive here and extra output here makes it sound louder.

It also adds a harshness that is particularly fatiguing so don't over do it. Because of the high sensitivity in this region you can add warmth without loss of clarity by attenuating this region a bit..."

from link

[fuddbutter]

i would look at getting a sheffield lab's CD to use as a reference disc, they seem better recorded.

[~Spyne~]

and yet the F1 was used to judge caasq-vic???
even though we were all tuning with the sheffield labs disc.
meh, end mini-bitch

[Winno]

I'd tune it to sound great using the music you listen to daily. That way, your daily music will sound better.

Have a setting for this and then have a setting for when you use the F1 cd if you enter comps.

[Cyberpunky]

sibilance isnt a problem that needs to be fixed unless your mixing a band live.

F#1 Vs shefeild meh...my system sounds *ok* with both...go figure
tune it for all music...its that simple
peace
Cyberpunky

[Captn_Awesome]

Yep Punky is correct (as usual) silibance is usually caused by incorrect mic techniques - both on behalf of the audio engineer and the artist. Also certain nationalities are more suseptable to it than other and similar differences between males and females. Its something that is often bought on because not many recording studios use a 31band eq on the vocal tracks rather they rely on normally built in parrametric eq's on the console - and as it is generally accepted that you should boost vocals on the channel by about 3-4dB (some say 6db but i find it becomes too noticeable even with a wide q) @ between 800htz and 2k it can have a great affect on silibance especially when used in conjunction with a wide q. The main reason for doing this is because this is the power range of the human voice and because 2/5th of f**k all people sit and 'listen' to music this helps to bring the vocalist forward and higher above the noise floor.

So yes firstly I would check that the disc isnt the culprit rather than the system