How to level out sound with loud "S" noise.

[Yompa]

Hi, I'm new to audition, and I'm recording my voice for narration over an animation. I'm recording it so that each sentence is a separate sound file (to sync the animation easier). Because of this, I need each sound file's volume to be as close as each other's as possible to make it all flow in the final animation with all sentences put together.

My approach was to make all the audio files aim for -1 in the levels meter as the max. However, one of the sentences' waveform looks consistent except for a few spikes in volume, which happen when I say the "S" sound. Therefore, when I lower the volume so that the max of the wave hits -1, this causes the rest of the sentence to be quieter than the others. If I raise the volume to match the other sentences, the "S" sounds peak over the 0 and mess up the audio.

I already have a bunch of effects applied to each audio file (it's a Favorites with all the same presets for each file). They all reach about -6 max volume. I'm now trying to go back and edit each file to aim for -1 max volume. My question is: What is the ideal effect to apply to these--on top of everything I already applied--to get these spikes down to match everything else, without messing up the overall sound? Like, I don't want the audio to sound super compressed for example.

Thank you for your help.

(Screenshot shows that one spike towards the middle).

[ryclark · Accepted solution]

That is what the Deesser effect is for under Edit/Amplitude and Compression. Alternatively there are also Deesser presets in the Dynamics Processing or Multiband Compressor. Or if you are adventurous you can just go in and select the 'SSS' bit and reduce it's level.

However in the long run you might be better recording all the dialogue at the same time in one long recording and splitting it up afterwards. Thus you will be able to keep the levels and sound matched throughout rather than having to do an awful lot of processing afterwards.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Should point out that the De-Esser is clearly the one to go for, but if you are going to try any of the other approaches, you need to normalize your waveform to 0dB first, as all of the presets are designed to operate with signals that peak at that level. If you don't do this, you may well end up wondering why nothing has happened...

With the Dynamics Processor it's slightly annoying at present, because the Gain Reduction Indicator is on the graphic page only, and really it ought to be on the settings page too, so you can see the metered effect of any changes you make immediately. So with this effect in particular, normalizing is important.

What works best though depends entirely upon your signal. Even just selecting the 'sss' and hitting the Auto Heal in Favorites has been known to work!

[Yompa]

Thanks all!