More than Sibilant S's
amdx
I listen to a podcast in which the narrator has whistling S's.
He is aware and has had many suggestions to correct it.
But recently it has been diagnosed that it probably is not
an audio system problem, it is coming from the narrator.
Other than speech therapy for the narrator, is there anything
that can be done to reduce the whistle amplitude.
Listen to the first two or three minutes for a sample.
http://www.soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke110.mp3
At 3:40 minutes in he discusses the diagnosis of his whistle.
It can be irritating while listening to an mp3 player on headphones.
Odd, I just listened to it on my computer speakers, the whistling is
there but not nearly as irritating.
The whistle has been under discussion for 50 or 60 podcasts.
Any suggestions?
Mike
Don Pearce
I tried a broad filter at -4dB from 3kHz to 9kHz, and that did a lot
of good.
Just out of interest has he tried the old trick of a piece of chewing
gum stuck across inside the front teeth?
And finally, do tell him that the word solder really does have an "L"
in it. The way he is saying it sounds like a sexual perversion.
d
amdx
"Don Pearce" <sp...@spam.com> wrote in message
news:4afcdebd....@news.eternal-september.org...
> On Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:44:49 -0600, "amdx" <am...@knology.net> wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>> I listen to a podcast in which the narrator has whistling S's.
>> He is aware and has had many suggestions to correct it.
>>But recently it has been diagnosed that it probably is not
>>an audio system problem, it is coming from the narrator.
>>Other than speech therapy for the narrator, is there anything
>>that can be done to reduce the whistle amplitude.
>>Listen to the first two or three minutes for a sample.
>>http://www.soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke110.mp3
>>At 3:40 minutes in he discusses the diagnosis of his whistle.
>>It can be irritating while listening to an mp3 player on headphones.
>> Odd, I just listened to it on my computer speakers, the whistling is
>>there but not nearly as irritating.
>>The whistle has been under discussion for 50 or 60 podcasts.
>> Any suggestions?
>> Mike
>>
>>
>
> I tried a broad filter at -4dB from 3kHz to 9kHz, and that did a lot
> of good.
>
> Just out of interest has he tried the old trick of a piece of chewing
> gum stuck across inside the front teeth?
I'll get a few suggestions together and send them to the Podcaster.
>
> And finally, do tell him that the word solder really does have an "L"
> in it. The way he is saying it sounds like a sexual perversion.
>
> d
Re: Solder
I don't know if your in the states but I think this is Americanised to
soder. Listen to http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/solder?db=dictionary
Thanks, Mike
Don Pearce
Oops - I was listening to the introduction. The actual speaker has
another problem - as you say the whistle. The chewing gum is a
definite fix for that one.
For post processing, his whistle is pretty much spot on 3kHz. Put in a
notch at that frequency and all the stridency of the sound vanishes.
d
Scott Dorsey
> Hi All,
> I listen to a podcast in which the narrator has whistling S's.
> He is aware and has had many suggestions to correct it.
>But recently it has been diagnosed that it probably is not
>an audio system problem, it is coming from the narrator.
>Other than speech therapy for the narrator, is there anything
>that can be done to reduce the whistle amplitude.
>Listen to the first two or three minutes for a sample.
>http://www.soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke110.mp3
>At 3:40 minutes in he discusses the diagnosis of his whistle.
>It can be irritating while listening to an mp3 player on headphones.
Bubble gum between the front teeth. Raise the microphone up so the
speaker has to crane his neck a little bit. Tape a pencil to the front
of the microphone.
A lot of cheap condenser microphones have a lot of narrow peaks in
the presence region that can make sibilance worse. Try a different
mike. The RE-20 is very good in this respect since it doesn't have
much presence peak at all, even.
If all else fails, use a de-esser. And note that heavy compression will
always make sibilance worse... fix the problem before you compress.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Arny Krueger
> <am...@knology.net> wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>> I listen to a podcast in which the narrator has
>> whistling S's.
>> He is aware and has had many suggestions to correct it.
>> But recently it has been diagnosed that it probably is
>> not
>> an audio system problem, it is coming from the narrator.
>> Other than speech therapy for the narrator, is there
>> anything
>> that can be done to reduce the whistle amplitude.
Classic over sibillant S's.
>> Listen to the first two or three minutes for a sample.
>> http://www.soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke110.mp3
>> At 3:40 minutes in he discusses the diagnosis of his
>> whistle.
>> It can be irritating while listening to an mp3 player on
>> headphones. Odd, I just listened to it on my computer
>> speakers, the whistling is there but not nearly as
>> irritating.
>> The whistle has been under discussion for 50 or 60
>> podcasts. Any suggestions?
The listeners need lives. It is not good but it is not that bad.
> I tried a broad filter at -4dB from 3kHz to 9kHz, and
> that did a lot of good.
Agreed.
Low passing it at 3-4 KHz has similar results.
> Just out of interest has he tried the old trick of a
> piece of chewing gum stuck across inside the front teeth?
There are many MP3 players around that include equalizers. Winamp is one of
them. Why not tune the playback to suit yourself?
> And finally, do tell him that the word solder really does
> have an "L" in it. The way he is saying it sounds like a
> sexual perversion.
American pronouncement of the word.
Mike Rivers
> it probably is not
> an audio system problem, it is coming from the narrator.
It's ALWAYS a speech problem. It ALWAYS comes from the narrator.
Nothing in the audio path can cause sibilance, only exaggerate what's
there.
> Other than speech therapy for the narrator, is there anything
> that can be done to reduce the whistle amplitude.
Orthodonture can help. As an alternative, you can try what an engineer
friend of mine used to do before they had good de-essers. Stick some
dental wax (costume wax, what they use for blackening out teeth will
work, too) behind the front teeth to fill up the crack. That's quite often
where the whistle comes from.
If it doesn't work, you can have a good laugh in the studio, the narrator
will be more relaxed, and most likely the sibilance will be reduced because
of it.