Do you get mouth clicks?

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So whether we you’re doing voice over work, a podcast or streaming one of the things that can be a real issue for some people is the dreaded mouth noise! But what is mouth noise I hear you say??

Mouth noise is when you have a mucus build up in your mouth (lovely) and it creates these kind of clicks and wet noises when you speak.

So what can you do to make sure you don’t totally gross people out while you’re speaking? Well there are a lot’s of ‘quick fixes’ like eating an apple (science stuff says acidity in apples helps reduce the build up of saliva) or brushing your teeth or chewing gum etc – But they’ve never really worked that well for me. What I realised is -  it’s better to fix the problem long term.

So really the best thing you can do is watch what you eat and drink!

It’s really easy to underestimate the effect food and drink has on our voices. Things that are high in fats / sugars and lactose will all give you that really sticky mouth feeling which will then give you problems when you speak. So try to avoid things like milk, coffee and sugary foods before a recording session or a stream. The other thing is to avoid big heavy meals if you can as this will restrict your diaphragm and also cause some issues.

But here’s the big one… Stay super hydrated! It might sound obvious, but this for me has been the biggest thing.  I try to stay generally hydrated as best I can, but if I have a big recording session, I’ll just make sure to make extra effort 24 hours or so beforehand. Now saying that, we’ve had those times where you’re watching a sad movie and you just HAVE to eat an entire tub ice cream to make you feel better  …just me? … Ok but what I mean is, we can’t always eat the right things 24/7, so if there’s times where you’re recording and you’re still getting a little mouth noise then post edit can save your life!

Whatever software you use, there are ways to edit these out with things like de-clickers. But my personal preference is to use the spectrogram in Adobe Audition – then I can spot those little suckers a mile off and I just use the healing tool to get rid of them manually. It might take a little more time, but if you can stay hydrated and watch what you eat – you shouldn’t get too many at all!

What are your hacks for avoiding mouth clicks?