Taming sibilance while boosting highs

[displacedsnail]

Hello everyone,

I've been embossing a good few years now, and with the help of markrob and Johnny Electric, I just started grinding my own HSS/tungsten wedge styli (fun side note: I'm taking my old, dull Gakken needles and cutting them into two new embossing styli each). I figured, new styli, new EQ mapping, so I spent the morning breaking in a new stylus in a Presto 1D head on a Presto 6DSP lathe, then proceeding through mapping by first cutting only with Logic's Vinyl Improver EQ, then digitizing that cut and applying a match EQ between the lathe rip and the original file (though I limited some of the highs, I don't like to apply more than +15db in one EQ), then I did that AGAIN to better match some of the highs. I'm really pleased with the results, I'm seeing a pretty decent match until ~14.5K, which for embossing with an old head, I think is pretty great.

Screenshot 2026-01-30 at 11.47.51 AM.png

The noise floor is acceptable and barely noticeable in the room, but louder of course in the digital rip.

However, the more I boost the highs, the more sibilance comes through. I'm working with TDR Arbiter's Smooth De-esser (-6dB at 7k, which is where I THINK the sibilance is hitting hardest - I'm in the been-doing-this-awhile-but-still-learning stage), but I'm still getting hiss on the esses. I've been adding the de-esser to the input track BEFORE it hits my signal chain. Should I instead put it at the end of my signal chain, like, post-EQ pre-Gain stage? Or do I just need MORE de-essing?

Here's the digital rip of the song I just cut:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hczyQBp9KBqrJDP2-807I_nj0XVL7bIv/view?usp=sharing

Here it is in the room:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zhhBMNMHJ3P3cVPS8

And here's the original:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oNVhE0nZqgsn7KWvDtBeLNulsUgKw_54/view?usp=sharing

FWIW, the weather is out of control right now in Philly, but I'm doing my best with space heaters and humidifiers, my studio is 67 degrees and 36% humidity. I also don't have heat lamps set up atm. Thanks for your help!

- Joe

[spinnertownblanks]

I’ll be in the studio early tomorrow will happily give it a look over

[displacedsnail]

I'd really appreciate that, thanks

[mratx]

Have you tried a dynamic eq or maybe compression just applied to certain frequencies at the end of your chain? I would de-ess up front, and then do a final dynamic eq on the back to tame the problematic frequencies. You can hear it on the hit-hat, too, although it just comes across as extra sizzle on that.

Mark

[displacedsnail]

Have you tried a dynamic eq or maybe compression just applied to certain frequencies at the end of your chain? I would de-ess up front, and then do a final dynamic eq on the back to tame the problematic frequencies. You can hear it on the hit-hat, too, although it just comes across as extra sizzle on that.

Mark

Thanks Mark, I'll try that - I haven't used a dynamic EQ before. This issue has been building as I've been progressively changing my setup and working on getting crisper highs. By the way, I took apart that 1939 ROK I got from you a couple years ago and ended up using pieces of it in a few different machines - it's on/off switch, VU meter, and fuse live on in our travel lathe--and that Audak head still sounds great, we use it as our backup head!

[spinnertownblanks]

The vocal is in the sum signal, but there is a delay with lots of sibilance in the diff signal too. Also it is being affected by the crispy end of the snare as well, i'm just doing a quick test master and will send it back to you to do a test cut to see if it helps, if does, i'll explain what i did, and why

[displacedsnail]

Hey Matt, that cuts WAY better. What'd you end up doing? I work with so much lo-fi and DIY stuff, it'd be great to be able to do more on my end to make things sound better, particularly as I keep pushing to get more consistent high frequencies through embossing. Thanks a ton!

star six nine (spinner's cut).mp3

[spinnertownblanks]

Just had a listen, it’s definitely cleaner, but there’s still a bit more heavy lifting I can do. I’ll explain exactly what I’ve done so far anyway..

The main issues are distortion from vocal sibilance, plus distortion from the snare that runs from the upper mids right into the top end. With this track, these were the areas I focused on:

- Sibilance from the lead vocal in the sum signal
- Sibilance in the vocal delay in the diff signal
- Snare distortion in the sum signal

To deal with this (and it still needs a touch more), I worked in sum/diff for this track. I know you’re embossing in mono, but the original audio is stereo, and it’s still useful practice, especially for anyone learning, as stereo grooves are cut laterally (sum) and vertically (diff).

I used TDR Arbiter set to affect only the sum channel to deal with the vocal sibilance. I then used a second instance of Arbiter in diff mode to tame the sibilance in the vocal delay. It’s very common for stereo delays and reverbs to cause problems if the vocal is sibilant in the diff signal, especially when cutting to vinyl.

After that, I focused on taming the snare 'crack'. This worked best with an HF limiter, as it’s much better at catching fast broadband high frequency transients like snare hits or distortion spikes. If you’re working in software, the HF limiter in TDR Limiter 6 is great, especially when set to Relative mode. I know I bang on about Tokyo Dawn a lot, but their coding is amazing. I’ve been running a studio professionally for 20 years, the last 10 years mastering (Pressure Mastering) and their software has consistently been part of my workflow, whether I’m using hardware or not. TDR almost always ends up somewhere in my mastering chain.

Listening back, I think it still needs slightly heavier processing. Although, you’re embossing in mono, something we’ve never done... so I’d be keen to tweak it further and see how close we can get it to the original. Either way, the cuts already sound great, especially considering you’ve literally made your own styli. That’s a seriously good achievement!

[farmersplow]

Fantastic support from Spinnertownblanks! The world is a better place with you in it!

displacednail: The sound is definitely better now, and the sibilance is gone. Your machine is really something. Keep it up!

(I think I should start getting into mastering myself.)

[displacedsnail]

Wow, thank you so much for such a detailed answer to my problem, STB. I hear you on Tokyo Dawn - I picked up Arbiter on your recommendation a few months ago and love it, so I'm going to consider getting the whole bundle as I delve further into this. I'm going to take the original file next time I'm working and see if I can't replicate what you did myself and clean it up.

When I first started embossing, I was pretty happy to get a good, loud cut up to 10k. But the longer I do this, I want to keep building to something. If I can get clean cuts up to ~14k, I'll be really stoked: particularly since about 90% of what I do are demos, live recordings, bedroom recordings, VHS to Vinyl bootleg soundtracks, art projects, and stuff like that. I haven't felt the urge to start stereo cutting. I think if I can keep pushing with audio engineering, I can make some really great embosses. I have one of Johnny Electric's heads and BOY does that thing make a great, clean impression, but just think of how good it'll sound if I can start getting better at mastering, lol.

And thank you, Thomas! I'm getting somewhere. Here are some of the styli I just ground. I'm "cutting" my teeth using what I have around the studio: re-sharpening tungsten styli I used when I was first getting started, lopping Gakken needles in half and converting them to embossing styli, following markrob's suggestion and crafting wedges out of high speed steel drill bits. It's been a lot of fun, and man do they sound crisp!

PXL_20260129_211310628.MACRO_FOCUS.MP.jpg

[spinnertownblanks]

Fantastic support from Spinnertownblanks! The world is a better place with you in it!

displacednail: The sound is definitely better now, and the sibilance is gone. Your machine is really something. Keep it up!

(I think I should start getting into mastering myself.)

Thanks Thomas! If we can ever help you with anything mastering related, you know where we are.

Joe i have tweaked the master but i will run off a full mono master, as that is the end result and what your cutterhead wants, so i will tweak it this end in the master for you and resend this morning.

[displacedsnail]

Hey Matt,

The next edit and the next cut sounds even cleaner, this is great. I'll need a lot more practice to get here, but this is really encouraging. Thanks!

Star Six Nine (Edit 2, Lathe Rip).mp3

[spinnertownblanks]

Hey Matt,

The next edit and the next cut sounds even cleaner, this is great. I'll need a lot more practice to get here, but this is really encouraging. Thanks!

Star Six Nine (Edit 2, Lathe Rip).mp3

Great! I’m not on speakers today but will listen soon as I get a chance. Glad I could be helpful!