drawing out the lip smack?

Howdy folks. I'm getting super close with my third album and had a meeting with the engineer who will be the last stage mixer on the project. His one comment was there were a lot of little mouth sounds which should be drawn out. I have tried using that feature in Logic Pro but not to any great success. Now it's my task to do this in the next two weeks, so I wonder if there are any good tutorials available or anyone has any useful tips?

 

Many thanks!

 

- Fredo

Hi Fredo,

 

I'm sure others have more Logic-oriented solutions. The easiest solution I've found is Soothe from oeksound. Though not cheap, the remove mouth clicks preset is magical.

 

If you have an iLok, I suggest trying the demo. That should allow you to go through your vocal tracks and bounce each in place before they ask you to purchase the plugin:

 

https://oeksound.com/plugins/spiff/

 

I also have used Acon Digital's DeClick with some success:

 

https://acondigital.com/products/restoration-suite/

Thank you, Xchrisxtopher! I own Soothe already but I find that it does a tiny bit of damage to the overall sound beyond the clicks. I really want to learn to do that drawing technique. Do you do that ever? I don't know about Acon Digital's DeClick but I feel like some of the stuff I'm looking to remove would be so very subtle that either a plugin will ignore it or take a whole lot away with it...

I think you just open the audio file editor and select the pencil tool. If you aren’t zoomed in enough it won’t work (and is a zoom tool until you’re zoomed in enough).

Thank you, I find it a little puzzling. Sometimes it works sometimes I can’t seem to draw. It’s probably what you suggest.

Yes, you need to zoom in close enough to actually be able to draw, else the tool acts as a zoom tool.

 

Also, make sure you have Show as Sample and Hold enabled from the local View menu to see the actually stored waveform which is quite different from the normal, neat display that tries to show what it looks like after DA-reconstruction and filter. S/H display is needed so you know where to actually draw. Even then, it may take a try or two to get it right.

 

Then, be aware that you're modifying the actual audio file itself, so always work on a copy.

The only viable solution is to use Izotope RX 7 and manually apply Spectral Repair to each click.

 

This can fix mouth clicks and most other artifacts completely and without any audible compromises. I understand if that's an expensive solution, but it's how all professionals do it.

 

Preferably this should be done at the production/pre-mixing stage, but I do it all the time at the mastering stage as well.

 

Automated de-clicking (using plug-ins or offline processing), re-drawing the waveform, or narrowband dynamic EQs will cause much more harm than good.

I think I agree with you, lagerfeldt. At least under my surgical hands, when I redraw it often sounds quite odd, and sometimes it's hard to even figure out where in the waveform the problem is occurring. I will look into purchasing Izotope RX7. Is it very difficult to learn?

The only viable solution is to use Izotope RX 7 and manually apply Spectral Repair to each click.

 

This can fix mouth clicks and most other artifacts completely and without any audible compromises. I understand if that's an expensive solution, but it's how all professionals do it.

 

Preferably this should be done at the production/pre-mixing stage, but I do it all the time at the mastering stage as well.

 

Automated de-clicking (using plug-ins or offline processing), re-drawing the waveform, or narrowband dynamic EQs will cause much more harm than good.

 

I defer to Lagerfeldt as he is an expert in the field. But I would give Acon Digital’s Restoration Suite a try. It’s a cheaper option, and you can solo the DeClicking algorithm to be sure you’re only catching the clicks. Which means you can make sure you’re not sawing off the spectral content of the vocals you actually want. I use this approach fairly regularly and am happy with the results.

Thank you, xchrisxtopher! I really appreciate the advice!

The only viable solution is to use Izotope RX 7 and manually apply Spectral Repair to each click. (...)

 

RX7 also includes special-purpose plugins dedicated for well defined issues, such as de-click, de-pop, de-mouth (smacks), breath control, etc. That's what I use when having such issues, and it works wonders (including on non vocal tracks too! I recall having once to suppress some small clicks in a fat synthesizer track - digital distrortion maybe? - and I used these tools very sucessfully). The good thing with these tools is that, it's quicker to adjust their setting than to try and isolate something visually and redraw it (a waveform shape or a spectral diagram), and they enable you to listen to just what they are removing from the signal, which even further helps setting them up.

Holy cow, you both are right, this plugin/app is amazing. As soon as I engaged the de-click vocals effect all of those mouth noises disappeared, leaving the recording sounding pristine! Such a great tool! Thanks so much!!!!

Which one did You tried, RX7 or Digital’s Restoration Suite?

RX7, it works miraculously. I also used it to declick some live upright bass I recorded as well. In that case, while the mouth click plugin worked, what worked much better was the declick plugin. It gave me much more control so I wouldn't also be removing some of the fingers motion on the strings.

Ok! Thanks for your inputs!

Holy cow, you both are right, this plugin/app is amazing. As soon as I engaged the de-click vocals effect all of those mouth noises disappeared, leaving the recording sounding pristine! Such a great tool! Thanks so much!!!!

 

You're welcome, Fredo