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Live recording de-ess advice please.


garybrun

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I am working on a recording off my  daughter and son who played at a wedding.  (proud dad)
But I can not seem to get the de-ess correct without taking away from the vocal.


Here are two versions... a little dryer mix.

http://www.garybrun.com/wedding/dry.wav

Http://www.garybrun.com/wedding/remember.wav  more ambiance.

Thanks in advance people.

New mix with peoples suggestions.

Gary

 

Edited by garybrun
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Gary
Well the vocal sounded pretty good to me.
I have a couple of de-essers and I can never get them to work well for me. Sometimes I just split the waveform
around the ess and reduce the volume. Kind of hit and miss though.

Craig Anderton has written about vocal techniques. Here's one of them:
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/how-make-your-vocals-twice-good-part-1

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Bjorn, Martin and Gary have said it all.
Really beautiful!
If the "dry" version is not de-essed; Leave It Alone!
If it is; Leave It Alone!
Take a listen to some Carrie Underwood, there's plenty of "harsh esses" there.
Again, simply gorgeous.

Tom

BTW, I get decent results with FAbFilter ProDS.

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1 hour ago, DeeringAmps said:

Bjorn, Martin and Gary have said it all.
Really beautiful!
If the "dry" version is not de-essed; Leave It Alone!
If it is; Leave It Alone!
Take a listen to some Carrie Underwood, there's plenty of "harsh esses" there.
Again, simply gorgeous.

Tom

BTW, I get decent results with FAbFilter ProDS.

Thanks for that...
I have de-essed both of the files the best I could.

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Welp, I don't think you have a deess problem, I think you have a midrange piano problem. You might volume automate the piano mids down when she is singing. That is a show stopping vocal.

On the piano solo, you can hear the midrange problem, and is the piano compressed a fair bit? You might back off on that to keep the piano more dynamic.

Killer diller!!! Great performance, and the sparse mix is a great choice here.

 

cheers,

-Tom

 

 

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9 hours ago, emeraldsoul said:

Welp, I don't think you have a deess problem, I think you have a midrange piano problem. You might volume automate the piano mids down when she is singing. That is a show stopping vocal.

On the piano solo, you can hear the midrange problem, and is the piano compressed a fair bit? You might back off on that to keep the piano more dynamic.

Killer diller!!! Great performance, and the sparse mix is a great choice here.

 

cheers,

-Tom

 

 

Thanks a lot Tom.
Will look at it again and check compression and post another for you evaluation.

I must say I really appreciate this site and learn a lot.

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13 hours ago, emeraldsoul said:

Welp, I don't think you have a deess problem, I think you have a midrange piano problem. You might volume automate the piano mids down when she is singing. That is a show stopping vocal.

On the piano solo, you can hear the midrange problem, and is the piano compressed a fair bit? You might back off on that to keep the piano more dynamic.

Killer diller!!! Great performance, and the sparse mix is a great choice here.

 

cheers,

-Tom

 

 

I have tried to implement your suggestion Tom.
Thoughts please?

http://www.garybrun.com/wedding/em_modified.wav

If anybody would like to have ago here are the original tracks with nothing added.

http://www.garybrun.com/wedding/tracks.zip

I find piano really hard to mix.

Edited by garybrun
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Gary, you produce some of the most professional recordings around, and this is no exception.  Not surprisingly, any of those 3 versions would stand and its own.  If you hear a de-essing problem, you have better ears than me, however, reverb might tend to exaggerate a de-essing problem (if you can hear it).  The good news is that talent apparently runs in your family, congratulations!

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6 hours ago, Lynn said:

Gary, you produce some of the most professional recordings around, and this is no exception.  Not surprisingly, any of those 3 versions would stand and its own.  If you hear a de-essing problem, you have better ears than me, however, reverb might tend to exaggerate a de-essing problem (if you can hear it).  The good news is that talent apparently runs in your family, congratulations!

HI Lynn.
Thanks for taking the time to listen and for the extremely kind comments.
If you look back on my work a few years ago the improvement has come with feedback from the good members of this forum, so those comments are high praise indeed.
Most of my work has been in "live sound" so the crossover has not been that difficult.

Once again thank you.
For those who are just starting...  there is a lot of information on here from good and talented people.
Whom mean well and are willing to help you hone this amazing craft.
I myself take all the criticism and suggestions I can take as too get better.

I look forward to watching and hearing how we all develop.

God Bless,

 

Gary

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wowzer Gary - you should be proud - lovely voice and playing.

I agree with Tom, the piano is too hot (listening to dry mix).  The mids are actually painful to listen to and completely eat up all the eq space. Try a big eq scoop and automating the volume on the louder sections 

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2 hours ago, daryl1968 said:

wowzer Gary - you should be proud - lovely voice and playing.

I agree with Tom, the piano is too hot (listening to dry mix).  The mids are actually painful to listen to and completely eat up all the eq space. Try a big eq scoop and automating the volume on the louder sections 

Thanks Daryl.
How does it sound on the Soundcloud update at the bottom?

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Oh man, this is hairs on the back of the neck stuff. Gary that is a drop-dead gorgeous performance - I should think #ProudDad doesn't even come close to the emotions you must feel seeing your kids perform that live - I know I would be in pieces. I loved it: hot, cold, dry or wet - you can serve that to me any way you choose and you'll get no crits from me.

However, do listen to the folks one here who - unlike me - actually know what they're talking about when it comes to mixing. FWIW I listened to the dry and the modified mix and the modd'ed one was definitely a little more balanced to my ears in terms of the ratio of piano to vocal.

Beautiful stuff

Andy

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13 minutes ago, Andrew Ball said:

Oh man, this is hairs on the back of the neck stuff. Gary that is a drop-dead gorgeous performance - I should think #ProudDad doesn't even come close to the emotions you must feel seeing your kids perform that live - I know I would be in pieces. I loved it: hot, cold, dry or wet - you can serve that to me any way you choose and you'll get no crits from me.

However, do listen to the folks one here who - unlike me - actually know what they're talking about when it comes to mixing. FWIW I listened to the dry and the modified mix and the modd'ed one was definitely a little more balanced to my ears in terms of the ratio of piano to vocal.

Beautiful stuff

Andy

Thanks Andy for the listen.
I always take all of the advice on board and I am very appreciative of it too.
I have learnt so much here over the years.

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