Voice Sibilance in Headphones
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Hi, i'm facing a weird issue with my system sound, basically most videogames/movies have voice-sibilance, and it's pretty rough to my ears, this doesn't happen at all with Music somehow, or again with voices during explosions or anything else louder than voice.
Basically when an actor speaks, the "ST" or simply "S" words sound way too high and my ears can feel that..
My audio rig is kinda complicated, i have an Asus Strix Soar 7.1 as dedicated sound card, which i suppose works just fine , because it did work great up until my Logitech G432 died(it was stereo mode), then i have replaced them with Razer Tiamat 7.1 V2 , but now the issues began..
Since this is a "true" 7.1 sound system(Strix is set to 7.1), it comes with an amp and it requires the soundcard to have some bass cross-mix (idk what this is), that Strix Soar doesn't have!
I've tried this on a friend's pc, that has built-in 7.1 realtek card, and it was sounding just fine (bass included).. , so in order to fix the bass i had to download "equalizer APO" , and i will post my configuration for that software down below in this post.
Now, after all this , the bass is sounding great.. But there is this sibilance problem! If i set windows audio to 100 and the AMP to half, the issue is there, viceversa if windows is set to 50 and the AMP to >70, still sibilance!
With low audio, i can't really hear it, but i don't really wanna keep the audio completely low.. Some internet forums suggest to import an equalizer curve on Equalizer APO, but i don't really know which frequencies to touch, also my Strix Soar Software has an equalizer already.
44.1Khz/24bits.
This might seem a long post, but trust me, it took way more time to fix the bass then to write this.
I really thank anyone that has enough patience to read this and help me!
I'm not sure if I can help but it seems to me that some frequencies are more prominent causing the sibilance. Perhaps you can figure out these frequencies (frequency raange) by using a peak filter. Set the gain to a negative value and carefully change the frequency whilst listening to a voice (with sibilance). When it dampens a bit then you're on the right frequency and the peak filter can stay as filter for your config. Btw. I don't know why this sibilance happens in your setup. The only thing what happened to me is that I bought new pair of headphones which had more treble. So at first the sound (voice) felt a bit harsh to me (sibilance-like). Soon my ears (brains) got used to it.
I have something similar to what you describe, i have added a peak filter, but do i need to select the channels before?
The frequency here what does represent?
I've added this, no difference whatsoever for now
Last edit: Guido Colato 2020-04-24
I'll try to guide you. But first, does the sibilance also occur when you don't have the Copy channels command? Or with and without the filters?
In the peak filter command you see a rotary dial for the gain. When you dial it to a possitive dB value a peak will appear on the set frequency. A negative gain will create an indent. Perhaps you need to remove both high and low filters before of this happens. Now dial the frequency knob to move the indent. After you have detected the frequencies (the sibilance have to get less) then you could insert a channel selection command before the peak filter. This to figure out which channel causing the sibilance.
Anyway, this is what I would do. Perhaps there are better ways.
Last edit: Peter Verbeek 2020-04-24
Thanks i'm tryng this right now, i just don't understand the select channel -> filter..
I mean, i have to select a channel first, then apply a filter under such channel?
Edit : Ok, i have tried to put -40db in 7Khz, and the sibilance seems to be gone or minimal, but the sound is very "bass" i would say, like in a movie theatre.
Last edit: Guido Colato 2020-04-24
This is so much easier with Peace but I'll try to explain. When you add a filter command, this filter is applied on all channels, in fact if you don't add a device command the filter is applied on all devices.
If you want a filter on one particular channel, first you set a channel then beneath it you add the filter.
Yes i know, but i can't get the same bass quality when i'm using Peace sadly, anyway i have selected "all" channels and put the peak filter, so far the Sibilance is gone or minimal, but now that i think about it, the sibilance occurred with speaking from front and center channels (center channel usally very loud) , i'll try those.
Well, at least the sibilance is under control. What bass quality are you talking about? Or what do you need to do to get the bass quality? Perhaps it's possible in Peace.
It's related to the headset that i have, because it's 7.1 "true", it does have a dedicated sub, and my soundcard doesn't have the "flexbass" options that usually asus soundcards have, so i have to copy the channels to the sub channel in order to get subwoofer inside normal audio, otherwise i'll get sub only from 7.1 audio sources, like videogames for example but not from music.
I wasn't able to do this in Peace, but maybe i'm just noob with the software, you can see in the first photo i've posted what i mean to "copy" channels into sub channel, at least that's what i do in order to get bass from other channels with equalizer APO.
If you want to use Peace beneath is what I would do. Of course I'm not going to tell you should use Peace.
Setting the routing table on the Effects panel of Peace as shown in the attached image you get something similar what you've done with your copy channels command. In this case I've included all channels.
Unfortunately you can't enter a value. All values just add up to 1 in this case 8 times 0.125. (Entering a reroute value is a feature on the Peace wish list)
Another way is to simply paste the copy channel command in the Configuration Editor to the Commands window of Peace.
I've tried this too! The difference is that without peace it sounds normal with bass, with peace i get the "bathroom" sound effect for some reason..
For sure you're not a noob as you found not only the Effects panel but also the routing table :) Anyway, it could be a matter of positioning the copy channel command. The copy commands in Peace or yours are basically the same.
This bathroom effect is weird. I'm not sure what could cause it. I suggest either to stick with the Configuration Editor or to copy the command onto the Peace Commands window.
Did you already manage to get the bass right? You could use a high shelf filter to reduce the bass.
I'm using this in photo now, with peak filter i do resolve sibilance but sound is too "deep" and feels off , so i went back to this i've found online, i don't even know what high-pass filter does here :D
Without that pre-amp settings up top i get distorted bass.
Edit : I'm now using Peace thanks to a your tutorial on youtube ! I've applied low-pass on 83hz, and the "bathroom" effect went away, i'm using combined with your commands.
So, because im in Peace, how can i get rid of sibilance here?
Last edit: Guido Colato 2020-04-25
Looking at your Peace screenshot I'm wondering if your sound is clipping as the peak meter is almost at 100%. Clipping is recognized by a distortion, a kind of grinding sound. To prevent this you could dial down the pre amplifying (upper horizontal slider). Or as you have already set, let Peace do this.
If this high peak is caused by the bass (due to the copy command for instance) then select the subwoofer in the speakers list (at the right) and dial down this pre amp.
Concerning the sibilance, in Peace the same applies. Take a slider with a peak filter (by default they all have) and set the frequency you have found earlier. Then dial this slider down a bit, not to deep at first and listen to the sound.
To get the best frequency you need to move the frequency of the slider to the left or right. I suggest to do this in the graph. Go to the Graph window (button beneath Effects button) and check the "Adjust frequencies in graph". Now slowly move the graph handle of the slider to the left or right whilst listening to the sound.
Let me know if you need a short explanation of frequencies, gains and filters, so what it all means and how to use it all.
Thanks, i've set up two peak filters , and it seems to have reduced sibilance so far.
The peak meter was high because i was listening to some loud bass test sample during that screenshot, i will also enable "avoid clipping".
If you made this software sir, i have to thank you a lot, without this i would have had issues forever.
EDIT : Ok , seems like sibilance is not gone, i will try to lower all the frequencies after 2k slowly.
Last edit: Guido Colato 2020-04-25
You're welcome. I hope you'll find a good filter setup to dampen the sibilance. Keep at it as it can take some effort. Another tip: the so called quality value of a peak filter determines its width. A high value and the width is small, a low value and the width is wide.