Ep. 292: How To Fix Sibilance

Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: A VO's Journey: Voiceover and more voice over
Episode: 292 - How To Fix Sibilance
Date: August 26, 2025
Host: Anthony Pica
Guest/Co-host: Gabby

The main theme of this episode is addressing the common and pesky issue of sibilance (“the over-pronounced S sounds”) in voiceover audio. Anthony and Gabby break down what causes sibilance, why it is particularly troublesome in voiceover work, and provide both technical and performance-based solutions for reducing or eliminating it. The conversation includes practical tips, software recommendations, anecdotes about learning to narrate, and engagement with listener questions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What is Sibilance?

• Gabby defines sibilance as “an over pronounced S. It’s not a lisp, it’s not a speech impediment... It’s S’s are kind of a sharp sound and on a microphone especially, they become exacerbated.” (00:32)
• Sibilance is particularly aggravating to listeners and is a top concern among audio professionals. Gabby’s most-viewed YouTube video is about sibilance, indicating widespread interest and frustration. (02:15)

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2. Causes and Contributing Factors

• Some microphones—especially brighter models with less bass—accentuate sibilance even in people who haven’t had the issue before.

  • Anthony: “The rode NT1A... it should come with a label. It says warning, sibilance increased by 1000%.” (03:20)
  • Gabby: “I have a Sennheiser MK4. Same thing. And so I... find it's the brighter mics... less bottom end.” (03:35)

• Sibilance is a frequency phenomenon, most problematic between 6,000–8,000 Hz, and sometimes individuals have it at multiple frequencies. (05:45)

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3. Technical Solutions (Dealing With Sibilance in Post)

• De-Essers: Both hosts discuss plugins and tools such as iZotope RX and Adobe Audition's built-in De-Esser.

  • Gabby: “The newest Izotope product, Velvet, has a really good De-Esser in it. That's new... But you have to be careful because... We can hear it. We know that a De-Esser has been used.” (07:18)

• Manual Editing: Both recommend manually editing sibilant sounds by zooming in on the waveform, identifying the dense S section, and either reducing the dB or deleting the compacted part.

  • Gabby: “The S is a very consistent, like you were saying, it’s a very compact pattern... you can simply manually grab that solid middle and go boop. And delete it.” (08:44)
  • Anthony: “You’re not going to get clips in there... You can delete that area and... also manually just highlight the whole thing and just reduce the dB level a little bit.” (09:28–09:46)

• Manual vs. Automatic: Manual editing is feasible for short projects but impractical for longforms like audiobooks. Use plugins or batch processing for larger scale tasks, but fix egregious sibilance manually if needed. (15:28–15:42)

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4. Performance Techniques (Dealing With Sibilance at the Source)

• Tongue Placement: Gabby demonstrates that sibilance can be reduced by adjusting the position of the tongue.

  • “The further back in your palate your tongue is, the less annoying the S becomes. If you put the tip of your tongue... right behind your... teeth, you're going to get a very sibilant sound.” (06:27–07:00)

• Self Awareness and Modulation: Anthony recounts training yourself not to hold S’s so long, self-modulating loudness, and building these techniques into muscle memory over time. (11:45–12:40)

• Practice Trick: Gabby suggests a unique technique: “Change all your S’s to Z’s. Because we don’t hold a Z the same way we would an S... it can kind of retrain your brain a little bit.” (12:40–13:24)

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5. Anecdotes & Listener Engagement

• Gabby comments on current vocal trends (“vocal fry” and sibilant S’s in young women) and notes that sibilance issues are much more apparent in recordings than in face-to-face communication. (10:04–11:12)

• Anthony and Gabby answer listener questions about DS plugins, manual editing, and general narration struggles.

  • “I have to isolate the sound, so it can be time consuming.”
  • “If you come across just one or two that are major, you know, fix them real quick, you can do it manually, and then you don’t have to worry about it messing with any rest of your audio.” (15:30–15:42)

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6. Broader Narration Skills & Learning

• Both hosts share their personal stories about learning to read aloud and transform text into authentic, performative narration.
  • Gabby calls it “brain-eye-mouth coordination” and discusses how even literate readers struggle at first with reading aloud for performance. (19:06–19:53)
  • Anthony recalls his early struggles and learning to “read ahead” and turn other people’s words into his own—stressing that it’s a gradual journey for all new voice actors. (19:53–21:55)
  • Gabby: “Don’t beat yourself up... you’re just a baby. This is a journey.” (21:53)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Gabby: “For whatever reason, sibilance is more annoying to the average person than any other audio faux pas. Sibilance is the one that makes people’s skin crawl.” (01:53)
• Anthony (humor on mics): “The rode NT1A... should come with a label. Warning: sibilance increased by 1000%.” (03:26)
• Gabby: “You can simply manually grab that solid middle [of the ‘S’ sound wave] and go boop. And delete it.” (08:44)
• Anthony: “There will be pieces that you'll do for whatever reason seem to be an S or a ch every other term... Or maybe you wake up one day and you're just super sibling, right? It just, it happens.” (11:45)
• Gabby (on progress): “It is a journey. And it takes a long time. It took me so many voiceovers to feel even comfortable doing voiceover.” (21:57)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:32 – Defining sibilance; why it matters.
• 03:20 – Microphones that accentuate sibilance.
• 05:45 – Sibilant frequencies and why De-Essers can cause muffling.
• 06:27 – Manual EQ targeting for sibilance.
• 07:18 – Software recommendations: iZotope RX, Izotope Velvet, Adobe Audition.
• 08:44 – Manual editing: “boop” trick for S waves.
• 10:04 – Gender, vocal trends, and sibilance.
• 11:43 – Learning to self-correct sibilance during reads; forming habits.
• 12:40 – “S to Z” practice tip.
• 15:28 – Manual vs. batch processing for sibilance removal.
• 19:06 – “Brain-eye-mouth coordination” and reading aloud as a skill.
• 21:53 – Encouragement: It’s a journey; don’t be discouraged.

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Conclusion

Anthony and Gabby’s conversation gives listeners a comprehensive, practical guide to tackling sibilance—from both the technical perspective (hardware, plugins, manual editing) and the performance side (mouth technique, training, unique tips). Engaging anecdotes, humor, and active listener involvement make the episode relatable for new and experienced voice artists alike.

Next episode: breath control in narration and voiceover.

Transcript

[A]

Hello. Hello. Welcome to VO Journey Academy Live. My name is Anthony Vo Daddio.

[B]

I'm Gabby.

[A]

Gabby. And we are voice actors.

[B]

We are.

[A]

Yes, we are. It's good to see everybody. If you're new, please hit the like and subscribe button. Also hit that bell notification. So you know when we go live and you get a notification. Yeah, absolutely. And we've got a chat. If you want to say hello, tell us where you're from. Any questions is where. We love to get questions. Yes, love to get questions. Please, any questions anytime. Even if they're on topic or they might be something off topic for voiceover, we'll still love to answer them. What are we talking about today, Gabby? What could be the topic for our special program today?

[B]

Well, yesterday we talked about plosives.

[A]

That's right. That's right.

[B]

Day we are going to tackle sibilance.

[A]

Sibilance. This is VO's journey. With your host, the incomparable Anthony Pica. Oh, the S's.

[B]

Check one, two. Siblings.

[A]

Siblings. Siblings. Tell us what sibilance is.

[B]

It's an over pronounced S. I mean, it. It's really that simple. Right? It's not a lisp, it's not a speech impediment. It's just that it's S's are kind of a sharp sound and on a microphone especially, they become exacerbated.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And we get this, you know, kind of thing and it. It. People are, for whatever reason, sibilance is more annoying to the average person than any other audio faux pas. Sibilance is the one that makes people skin crawl.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

My single most viewed video on my YouTube channel is about sibilance. Hundreds of thousands of views on sibilance. Not even related to voiceover. Right. Just wanting to know, what is it? How does it happen? You know, that sort of thing. Right. Okay, so I think first, you know, it's a phenomenon that we become aware of in voice acting more so than other professions because. Because it directly correlates to the quality of our audio. And anything that has the potential to be very distracting to people, like sibilance is something we have to address. There are also microphones that make it so much worse. Like people who weren't sibilant prior to getting on that microphone are suddenly nothing but one giant walking S. Oh, my goodness.

[A]

The rode NT1A. Not the NT1, but the one NT1A.

[B]

1A.

[A]

Oh, the microphone. It should come with a label. It says warning, sibilance increased by 1000%.

[B]

I. I have a Sennheiser MK4. Same thing. Same thing. Oh my God. And so I don't, I don't know about you, but what I find is it's the brighter mics, right? It's the mics that have less bass, less bottom end. They make sibilance so much worse.

[A]

Absolutely.

[B]

So in many instances, I think the issue is one of tech, not the speaker, right? Not always.

[A]

Yeah. So, so, so if we break down the tech side of what sibilance is, right? Sibilance is basically a frequency, all right. And that is repeated, right, by wave files when we say S that are very close together. So these frequencies are compacted and they're at a frequency range that's very. Not fun for us to listen to. It hurts our ears. It's annoying. All right, so basically when we, when we compact, like with, you know, instead of what I'm doing now, which if you look at your wav files, right, they're, they're more, they're not so tightly together. But if you notice Ss, CHs, even sometimes T, if you hold out that T, right. Those can be very closely compacted and it exasperates it almost. It pushes that not friendly frequency to that next annoying level. So what we do, right, and it's from the technical aspect is we can manually. Well, there's a bunch of things called de Essers out there, which I actually do not like. I like to create my own. But basically what we do, either whatever you use, they are plugins or things that you create that target that very nice frequency and we simply reduce the DB level of that frequency so that it's not so loud and it's not so harsh. We don't want to get rid of it because you still need that, you know, you still need the sound.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, and if you do de Essers too much, it can. Your. Your audio will start to sound muffled because frequencies, those frequencies usually live between 6,000 to 8,000 Hertz somewhere in there for men and women. And sometimes, unfortunately, some of us can have two different frequencies within there that we have to tackle. So what we can do is we can go in though, and target that. And if we target it, hyper target it, we can use the whole file, get rid of it in one fail swoop just by reducing.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That frequency level. Yeah.

[B]

So let's, let's talk about it from a systemic standpoint. And good S's on that one. Yes, systemic. Yeah, for sure. So that obviously, meaning the, the origin point. So, you know, the S starts with the speaker and So I think that one of the things people need to understand is it's about tongue placement. The further back in your palate, your tongue is, the less annoying the S becomes. So if you're one of those people who puts the tip of your tongue or flattens your tongue right behind your front teeth, you're going to get a very sibilant sound because you're forcing that air from behind your teeth. So really it's retraining yourself to move your tongue to the top of the roof of your mouth so that instead of this, you get this and it's much less. Okay. And yes, it's going to take some training and some kind of reprogramming. Absolutely everything you're talking about, right. The plugins and you know, that becomes a way to deal with it a little bit more in the moment. So, I mean, you know, Izotope is the gold standard, right. Everybody loves Izotope when it comes to these sorts of tricks and things. Adobe Audition has a built in De Esser, the newest Izotope product. So RX is always, you know, the standard, but the newest Izotope product, Velvet, has a really good De Esser in it. That's new. That's been one that people have had a lot of success with. But yes, you have to be careful because people who know, who know, right. We can hear it. We know that a De Esser has been used. We can detect the De Esser. So there is actually one other thing that people often forget about. You can manually edit an S now,

[A]

you know, I love, I love it. I mean, I love that. Yeah, please go on about it because people don't know that. And it's actually, you know, my favorite way to do it. Really?

[B]

Yeah. So if you go on mic and just write, take a word like sibilance and say it. Say a few things. Do a Sally sells seashells by the seashore. Right. And you will see when you blow your wave up, when you zoom in nice and tight, the S is a very consistent, like you were saying, it's a very compact pattern. And so what you'll notice is it has two tapers, right? It has the taper at the front, it has the taper at the back. But then the solid middle, you can simply manually grab that solid middle and go boop. And delete it. Because it's the same sound.

[A]

Exactly. And because it's so compacted.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You're not going to get clips in there. If you try this with any other part of your Audio you get this like.

[B]

Yeah, but with someone aware.

[A]

Right. But this you don't. So you can actually. You can delete that area and you then you can also manually just highlight the whole thing and just reduce the

[B]

DB level a little bit. Yep.

[A]

And you've literally done it.

[B]

That's it. Yeah. There's a lot of ways to mitigate the problem. And you know, the thing about the manual editing is that honestly, once you become more accustomed to it, you get faster at it. It's really not that big a deal.

[A]

Yes. The.

[B]

I will say I think women have a greater tendency for sibilance than men. I think a lot of it has to do with the way especially younger women are being taught to speak. And it's a lot of like the trends that we're seeing right now. It kind of goes along with vocal fry in that fry used to be something you just sort of naturally had or didn't. And now everyone is sort of forcing the fry. Yeah, we see a lot of women that just really, really overdo their S's. And I think somewhere along the way, right. It was maybe like it makes you sound more animated or makes you sound more lively or more interested in what somebody else is saying, but they didn't really realize the harm that that would create later. And it's not really an issue usually face to face. It's again, when it's in a recorded setting.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

That's when it becomes very apparent. Yeah.

[A]

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So the other. And then the other way, of course, you know, was. I think we're getting to. Is you can manually do that. And then in the end. And the last part, right. Is us as the person of the input, right. That the words are coming from. We can start to recognize how we can mitigate some of those S, those S's on our own, right?

[B]

Oh yeah.

[A]

So, you know, some of the things that we can do. Right. Is practice not holding out your S's so much. I was just doing it right there. We can then practice when it comes up. You can self modulate how loud you make it. So, you know, it becomes something that. And then it. You will build it into a habit. And now you will always. The thing is, the reason why all of these things are, I think are important to learn about is because there will be pieces that you'll do for whatever reason, seem to be an S or a ch every other term, whatever. And you. Or maybe you wake up one day and you're just super sibling, right? It just, it happens. So you have Tip. But over a period of time when you practice more and more, you'll get better at self modulating it. So it won't be as bad. But early on, you know, it might be the bane of your existence. I mean it was for most of us.

[B]

So yeah, there's one trick, it's a weird one and I don't, I don't always recommend it for everybody, but I guess it's, it's kind of one of those, it's worth a shot and see if it works for you. It's to change, take a, take a piece of copy and change all of your S's to Z's. Because we don't hold a Z the same way we would an S. So that's interesting. Right, so if you were saying zo instead of so. Right. There's an automatic difference in the hold time for that consonant and it can kind of again retrain your brain a little bit. So.

[A]

Yeah, I really like that. I've not, I've not actually heard of that.

[B]

Yeah, it's a weird one. But, but like I said, some people find it very effective to just practice with.

[A]

Oh yeah.

[B]

Let's go to the chat. We got a lively one today. Let's see what people are saying.

[A]

All right, so let's see. We had. Sarah says my nemesis. Darn you siblings. Nemesis is the better one. That's the nemesis. See, Jamie says I love my DS effect. Such a cringe saver. Let's see. Chris says I'm kind of self conscious. My audiobook demo where I realize that I am, I'm a heavy breather.

[B]

Well, you're in luck, Chris, because tomorrow we will talk about breath control. It's on, on the list.

[A]

We're gonna, I think out of everything. I think my number one question, honestly though is what do I do with breaths? You know, because, and, and, and, and, and I'm excited. Yeah, we won't give it too much away, we'll talk about it tomorrow. But I think it's a really great topic and it's kind of multi level topic. It's not just one size fits all. And that's where, you know, that can be what confuses people sometimes for sure. Let's see, is it me or is the. Wait, wait, hold on. Sorry. Okay. Sarah says.

[B]

Oh, she was asking somebody else which DSR they use. So some people talking about rx. Yep.

[A]

Let's see. Chris says, is it me or is audio cutting out? And then he says we're good now, so.

[B]

Oh, okay. We might have had an Internet hiccup.

[A]

Yeah. Who knows?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Let's see. I refreshed and it got better. I was having a weird day. Okay, so maybe. I don't know. Let's see. I have to isolate the sound, so it can be time consuming. That kind of goes into. Like I said now, I think on shorter pieces. Gabby.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Doing it manually is fantastic.

[B]

Oh, yeah. If you're dealing with an audiobook, that would be excruciating.

[A]

It is hard, especially if you have a lot of S's. I mean, if you come across just one or two that are major, you know, fix them real quick, you can do it manually, and then you don't have to worry about it messing with any rest of your audio.

[B]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

Let's see, we've got Strange Cat. Hello. James says, would have never in a million years would have thought about replacing the S with a Z. I love that idea.

[B]

I am a font of useless knowledge, James. That's what you'll come to find. Yeah.

[A]

Let's see. Chris says, I thought it was because I'm kind of husky. Lol.

[B]

How odd. Yeah. Huh. No, I've never heard that. I don't think. I don't. Yeah. Huh. How interesting.

[A]

I should have a lot of siblings. Okay. Yes.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Excited to talk about breath control? I'm editing my first audiobook for Academy Voices. Nice.

[B]

Oh, boy.

[A]

Oh, wait. Realizing I am illiterate, you know, I had to say that was one thing. I know we've got a couple of minutes, but on a side note, I don't. Gabby, I bet it wasn't. Well, maybe I would be interested to hear your story a little bit. And send. Because you were in the radio. But I know for me real quick, I had. I had done all this acting before. I like live stage acting and I was a teacher. I was used to talking in front of people, but I was never a speech giver. So I. Reading other people's words right off a page and then trying to make them my own without any practice was difficult for me at first. I wasn't used to it, so I messed up a lot as I was reading because I wanted it to sound a certain way and what was coming out of my mouth wasn't that way because I hadn't yet figured out how to take other people's words and still make it sound like my own. But I'm interested. Because you were in radio, did you have. What were your challenges? Did you have any challenges like that when you first started?

[B]

Not like that, because mine goes back way before. So I was a journalism major. Right. I was an English major. I was heavily involved with the early days of podcasting, which was like Internet radio stuff. And between that and my theater work, like, you know, like, I always joke and I go, remember in English class when, you know, your teacher would call on people to read aloud in class and, like, half the room would just shrink and try to disappear? And I was always the default call. Always, like, if nobody wanted to volunteer, she would call. I was reading.

[A]

But you were a reader, I bet, weren't you?

[B]

Yeah, for sure.

[A]

So, like my wife. I'll never forget when I was my wife. She's a she. She's always been. She's a phenomenal. Always been a reader. And so read. Just reads books like crazy. But anyways, the point of bringing up is because we were. When we were younger, we would read to our children at night. You know what I mean? I'm like the actress, so I want to be like, I want to read and stuff. She's such a better reader than I. When I was. Now I feel like I've. I've leveled the playing field. But she's such a. Just because she's, you know, she's read so much. And, you know, and that's another part of it, you know, I. I didn't read a great deal. It's funny, as a. As a. An adult, I read 10 times. I didn't read very much when I was younger, but as an adult, I've just read so much. I consume so much more now than I did when I was younger.

[B]

So it could be a topic unto itself. But I call it brain. Eye, mouth coordination.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

It's really all. It is time that it takes for your eyes to see it, your brain to process it, and then your mouth to spit it back out. And it's such a coordinated effort that it's a muscle memory that we can build up again, like an athlete. It has a very similar construct, and the more you practice it, the better you get. I have met so many people in my time in voiceover that I'm like, look, I know you are a literate human being. Right. And right now, yeah. You feel like, what is going on? And it's because while you're highly literate, you're used to reading in your head. You're not used to translating it to the allowed part. And that's where the disconnect is coming from.

[A]

Absolutely. Oh, absolutely. And one thing that I did, and I would say, and I've learned actually more about it recently, about Myself as well. But early on, I had gotten this. I'd always wanted to be a speed reader because I always read very slow when I was younger. So I'd gotten this book, this was a while ago, about how to speed read. And the idea was. The idea of this run, right, is that, you know, speed reading is nothing more than taking in more. Right. Of the words and even a different pattern ahead, more and more in, like, chunks instead of just one word after another, right? And you know what I mean, I was always horrible at it. But as time went on, you know what I mean? And as I was doing voiceover, it's like, okay, well, I'm gonna try at least to read ahead, right? And I found that I actually was able to read ahead and speak right? And it actually, whenever I did that, it was awkward, it was uncomfortable at first, but I was able to do that and not mess up. Now, mind you, it wasn't the best performance, but I was able to not mess up my words. Now, I did that for a while. Now, as time has gone on, what I then realized was after you get. So if you are at that point where you can read ahead and still say the words, right, and you can't catch up to your reading ahead, right, that's that brain eye, that's that coordination. I think that you're talking about Gabby. Now, as time has gone on, I have tried it now, and it's actually more difficult because I'm. I feel like I'm on. Like I can read and like, what. What I see immediately coming, I'm able to say I'm able to make it my own now. Whereas early on I was not like that. It was very difficult. So now, you know, it's. A lot's different, but, you know, honest. I mean, Gabby's probably. We've done so thousands and thousands of voiceovers. So on the other note, don't beat yourself up about sometimes they be so hard on themselves. I'm like, you're just a baby. You're just starting out. Don't beat yourself up. This is a journey.

[B]

Yeah. You gotta practice.

[A]

It is a journey. And it takes a long time. It took me so many voiceovers to feel even comfortable doing voiceover.

[B]

Hey, let me tell you, the other side of that coin, way down the line is when you get to the place where I am, which is that I read something right and I read ahead, and I realize I'm not even paying attention to what I said, the meaning, right? I'm not connected to the process, and I have to backtrack because I'm like, oh, my God, I'm thinking about something else. I'm daydreaming, yet my mouth is moving and I'm reading these words. So I'm not clearly. Right. I'm not connected to my character at this moment. Yeah.

[A]

Or. And you get into the situations where you're like, you start forming opinions about, hey, you guys should write this a little differently. I think this, you start. You start directing. The people who are supposed to be directing, sometimes they don't mind. Sometimes, you know, you got to know when and when not to. But anyways, thank you guys so much for being with us today. We really appreciate it. And we're very excited about tomorrow. We're talking about breath control. Right.

[B]

We'll be back.

[A]

It's going to be wonderful. Make sure you check out veo Journey Academy. This is the time. Got so many exciting things. I know. We've been going over it. I just want to remind you lovely people, great time to be a part of it. So have a wonderful, wonderful Tuesday. We will see you all tomorrow. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye, Goodbye.