Vocal Production Tip: Sibilant Reverb
May 13, 2009 5:54 PM, By Richard James
It is fairly common to use a number of different reverbs on a lead vocal, including a short ambient plate, as well as a longer and more spacious reverb. One alternative technique to try out, as employed on many George Michael tracks, is to set up a reverb only on the S sounds.
The effect can easily be set up by routing the lead vocal to a separate bus on which a high-pass filter is inserted and set to allow only the most sibilant sounds to pass thru. In place of a high-pass filter you could experiment using a de-esser plug-in left in Listen mode, and it’s also worth trying a compressor next in the chain to flatten out any peaks. This high frequency only signal can then be sent to a reverb plug-in. The result is that only the S sounds hit the reverb.
Listen to the author's example of sibilant reverb.
Recommended listening for this effect: "Jesus To A Child" by George Michael.
Jesus To A Child - George Michael
One method to achieve sibilant reverb is to send a vocal to a separate bus with a de-esser plug-in, such as Eiosis E2Deesser, on the bus left in Listen mode, and put the reverb or delay in series after the de-esser.
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