How to make vocals brighter without boosting the sibilance

One of the biggest problems when adding top end to a vocal is that you usually end up boosting the sibilance too.

You know exactly what I’m talking about:

• S’s become sharp.
• T’s become aggressive.
• The vocal starts sounding painful instead of expensive.

Recently I’ve been using a method that has completely changed how I add brightness to vocals, and honestly, I prefer it over Fresh Air and many other “air boosting” plugins out there.

Why this works

Instead of boosting the entire high-frequency range, we separate the vocal into two parts:

• the harsh sibilant content (the S’s)
• everything else (the musical brightness and air)

This lets us increase brightness while keeping the annoying stuff under control.

Isolate the sibilance

Use a dynamic split processor like Masterlab DynaQ (or any alternative) to separate the LOUDEST high-frequency signal from the rest. How?

1. Create a split point somewhere in the upper frequencies.
2. Hit Solo Above.
3. Adjust the threshold until you’re mostly hearing S’s, Sh’s, T’s and other sibilant content.

If you’re hearing too much of the vocal, keep adjusting. The goal is to isolate only the harsh stuff.

Boost the “Below” section

Now switch your attention to the Below section. This is where the magic happens.

You’re now boosting everything except the S’s, meaning only the signal that sits BELOW the harsh stuff.

Start increasing the gain of the lower portion until the vocal reaches the brightness you’re looking for. You can make the vocal almost infinitely bright, and it still sounds extra clean.