How do you explain the disk I've cited here? It exhibits false sibilance?
(I ask because its just a remastering of previously issued tracks rather than any fresh recordings so I think its safe to assume no mics were involved).
The words I used were, "particular recordings will provoke that misbehaviour", meaning that there are aberrations on the recording: the recording chain, including what the sound engineer has decided to dump into the mix, can certainly inject into the recording enough awkward tonality to trigger severely objectionable sibilance. And a whole host of other baddies as well ...
The analogy I might use is a car going along a curvy mountain road. If the road is beautifully made, perfectly cambered with smooth surface,then any old car can take it at high speed, no problems. In other words, the "audiophile" recording being experienced.
On the other hand, a dodgy road team did the job: rough surface, potholes, nasty ripples mid-corner, alignment poorly done. A typical car will find it a nightmare -- severe sibilance is experienced -- yet a highly sophisticated vehicle with excellently sorted out suspension can traverse it with no great drama. The people in that vehicle can still feel that the surface is far less than optimal, they are aware of the road's character, but it does not disrupt the sense that the situation is under control.
With my tweaking I have always found that I can get very close to, or achieve how the latter vehicle performs, with regard to getting the playback system to "cope". So long as the musical message gets through for me, without having some distortion or other disturbing element "glaring" at me, then I feel the playback side has done its job -- making the enjoying of the musical event as stress-free as possible.
Frank
As I said: Some electronics (or rather the ill-advised use of them) can make the problem worse. Overuse of wide-band compression certainly is one of those ill-advised uses.
Other than that I have not heard the cd you are talking about and hence cannot comment on that directly.
I wouldn't touch anything that has been 're-mastered' in the last 8 years or so btw.
Other factors can give the false impression of a sibilance problem with the singer: From a drummers overactive use of his cymbals via strident brass sections all the way to a replay speaker design which allows the mid range run into cone break up.
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