De-esser

[Henchman]

Would be nice to have one. Thhe wave sone uses quite alot of DSP.

 

[Joachime]

I agree!
But should it be a dbx-clone or maybe a UA-designed de-esser?

/Joachime

 

[giles117]

SPL had put out there Plugin version of their Hardware De-Esser. Miss that plugin as they have not updated it to OS X.

They need to I had the hardware unit and the plugin and the plug in worked VERY WELL

It de-essed by throughint eh Silibant frequencsies out of phase (Phase cancellation) with the original track (input signal)

 

[Dan Duskin]

IMHO, the best type of de-esser is side-chaining a LA2A or 1176 with an EQ...

i.e., plug an EQ into the side chain of a compressor (with the same audio signal flowing through it), and turn down the bass and boost the 5-15kHz area (or whatever works best), then comrpess... it will reduce the level of ***everything*** when the \"ESSES\" or loud \"TEE'S\", etc., happen, instead of just making it sound muddy by reducing the highs.

All the more reason UA needs side-chaining for the UAD-1 plugins.... OR, AT-LEAST an EQ side chain built into the LA2A and 1176 plugins!

 

[jr213]

I've been wanting UAD to model the DBX 902 DeEsser for over a year now. It really sounds better than any plugin deesser i've heard.

 

[electronikus]

...All the more reason UA needs side-chaining for the UAD-1 plugins.... OR, AT-LEAST an EQ side chain built into the LA2A and 1176 plugins!

...or at least a multiband-compressor.

 

[Andy_T]

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but doesn't 1176's design prevent it to be
used with side chain ?? I've always thought you can't have side-chain
option with 1176, atleast in the real world, dunno about the software version though.

But agreed, a Good de-esser would be great addition to UAD package.


Andy

 

[Joachime]

All the more reason UA needs side-chaining for the UAD-1 plugins.... OR, AT-LEAST an EQ side chain built into the LA2A and 1176 plugins!

I've been wanting UAD to model the DBX 902 DeEsser for over a year now.

But agreed, a Good de-esser would be great addition to UAD package.

In the meantime, what de-essers do you use?

/Joachime

 

[Arys Chien]

I cut in the middle of the \"sh\" and then pull from both side to make them overlap, and then do a crossfade, the curve type depending by ear.

I thought I was stupid to do so until I read in other forums that some people did that too.

So far this is the best de-essing for me. Far better than any de-esser plug-ins, none of which did their work without affecting other parts of the vocal track.

The other trick of mine is to avoid the \"sh\" during tracking. It's easier when I myself am the singer.

 

[Andy_T]

That's what I do too very often, cut the 's' or 'sh' and lower it's volume
and make short cross fades. I've also been trying the digital fish phones
de-esser which works ok in some cases.

In the past I used Waves stuff in another studio which were ok. I might
consider getting the Waves Ren pack.


Andy

 

[Dan Duskin]

I cut in the middle of the "sh" and then pull from both side to make them overlap, and then do a crossfade, the curve type depending by ear.

I thought I was stupid to do so until I read in other forums that some people did that too.

So far this is the best de-essing for me. Far better than any de-esser plug-ins, none of which did their work without affecting other parts of the vocal track.

The other trick of mine is to avoid the "sh" during tracking. It's easier when I myself am the singer.

That works until you are working on a song that sounds killer with vocals SMASHED through a compressor so you can hear all the breathing and rawness of the voice... i.e., it brings those esses back up in volume again. The only solution in this case it to use a DeEsser or a compressor with an EQ side-chain (that's the best solution). Or you could automate the fader I guess...

 

[Wireline]

In the meantime, what de-essers do you use?

Spitfish from Digitalfishphones...or object level editing in Samplitude...

 

[Arys Chien]

I also use Spitfish from Digitalfishphones when I need to compress the vocal with 2 LA2As. IMO it's better than the Waves R De-esser, which I now regret buying.

 

[Animus]

Would be nice to have one. Thhe wave sone uses quite alot of DSP.

The best I have found is the SPL built in one in Nuendo. Does a much better job than Waves or Spitfish im my experience.

 

[Pricey]

IMHO, the best type of de-esser is side-chaining a LA2A or 1176 with an EQ...

There is a work-around. Send the vocal to a stereo group. Insert an EQ in slot 1 (an EQ with independent controls for left and right, such as Waves RenEQ), an LA2A in slot 2, and a stereo imager in slot 3. Use the EQ to boost the treble in the L channel, and use the stereo imager to elimnate the L channel and place the R channel in the center.

I've tried it. It works. But the results weren't that great, because it's not a split-band de-esser. I have extensively tested many de-essers, and the best is Waves Rennaissance De-esser.

Waves LinMB is even better. It allows you to obtain massive amounts of de-essing with zero treble loss and zero phase shift. But it uses too much DSP.

 

[Pricey]

BTW, here's another work-around for side-chaining. I like putting an 1176 on the drum group. I want to send the kick to the group, so it pumps the cymbals. But the 1176 makes the kick's attack sound like crap.

Here's what I do: I create a second group with the same plug-in settings as a the drum group, and add AnalogX Phase (to invert the phase). The kick track is routed to BOTH groups, so that it cancels itself out. The other drum tracks are only routed to the first group.

The kick track is multed. The mult is routed directly to the 2-bus, and has an LA2A on it (my preferred kick compressor).

It's a cross between side-chaining and group compression. It's much smoother than pure side-chaining (keying one track from another track).

 

[streetbeats]

[quote="Arys Chien":192lp4ro]I cut in the middle of the "sh" and then pull from both side to make them overlap, and then do a crossfade, the curve type depending by ear.

I thought I was stupid to do so until I read in other forums that some people did that too.

So far this is the best de-essing for me. Far better than any de-esser plug-ins, none of which did their work without affecting other parts of the vocal track.

The other trick of mine is to avoid the "sh" during tracking. It's easier when I myself am the singer.

That works until you are working on a song that sounds killer with vocals SMASHED through a compressor so you can hear all the breathing and rawness of the voice... i.e., it brings those esses back up in volume again. The only solution in this case it to use a DeEsser or a compressor with an EQ side-chain (that's the best solution). Or you could automate the fader I guess...[/quote:192lp4ro]

Id argue that an EQ sidechain setup is inferior for the very reasons you give as advatages - the whole program material is compressed, which can lead to a lispy sound.
What Im looking for in these situations is to reduce the amplitude of the sibilant frequencies without affecting the rest of the program.
To my ears the best sounding method of de-essing is that found on some dedicated units that extract (a configurable amount of) the sibilant frequencies then mix them back with the original signal in anti-phase so as to cancel them out.
Failing availability of that, a good multi-band compressor to my ears will sound much more natural than the sidechain method.

but what spleasing to one is ghastly to another so there ya go

 

[Indigo]

I cut in the middle of the "sh" and then pull from both side to make them overlap, and then do a crossfade, the curve type depending by ear.

Mate thats a wicked idea, nice one!!! Gonna give that a try

 

[miraclegyrlz]

In the meantime, what de-essers do you use?

Spitfish from Digitalfishphones...or object level editing in Samplitude...

Spitfish works ok, but unfortunately a limiter ( Saturation) is implemented.
Don't want that sound in every situation.

 

[brian]

The new Sonalksis CQ1 seems like it works great for this, but too bad it costs $250...