de-essing with no de-esser?

[Chris Jahn]

I just realized that i dont have a de-essing plug in, i never really needed one before, but now i do, BAD, its hip hop and the vocals are WAY up front and basically spoken. so what are some other methods (filters, eq'ing, etc...) that have the same resualt?

I tried a high cut filter and it did an ok job, but is there anything else?

thanks

[xfinsterx]

Do you have a multiband compressor?

Otherwise we will be sidechaining.

Let me know.

[SouthSIDE Glen]

From "Compression Uncompressed" by some guy:

"Multi-band compressors can also come in handy for sibilance control, also known as “de-essing”. Sibilance can come in starting anywhere above 5kHz for a male vocal (or Kathleen Turner) and 6kHz for a female vocal (or Frankie Valli.), but typically has a rather narrow bandwidth where it does come in. We do not want to scoop out too much of the spectrum on the high end here; we can adversely affect vocal and acoustic instrument clarity and presence, cymbals and hi-hats, and overall mix “air” and clarity if we mess with too many of the high frequencies.

"For this reason it’s a good idea to use a middle band on the MBC for sibilance control instead of the highest band; the highest band on a typical MBC does not have an upper crossover or boundary setting, it just goes all the way to 20kHz or more, so we cannot narrow our net on the upper end with that band. A middle band (band 2 on a 3-band or band 2 or 3 on a 4-band) has crossovers or boundaries on both sides so we could use one of those to attack just the sibilance only and leave the crisp air above it alone.

"Once we have our band picked, set both the lower and upper boundaries of that band to about 5kHz, and turn the band’s output gain up temporarily, just to boost the eventual volume of signals within that band’s coverage. Then slowly sweep the frequencies between 5kHz and 10kHz with the upper crossover or boundary setting until you hear the volume of the sibilance be boosted by the output gain. Make sure you have all the sibilance boosted, but that you don’t go beyond that point. Now you have the upper range of that band set.

"Now sweep in the same manner with the lower crossover boundary. When the volume of the sibilance just starts decreasing, you’ve found the lower end of the sibilance and you leave your low end of the MBC band there. Then return the Output Level for that band to normal. Because sibilance is a high frequency (fast wave form) phenomenon, fast attack times are usually necessary. Set release times as needed for the vocalist. Then you can apply the needed compression with the threshold and gain reduction settings. Those settings are entirely dependant upon the dynamics of the recorded content; use as needed, but never more than you need."

G.

[Massive Master]

Digital Fishphones SpitFish. Free, excellent... Free...

Excellent.

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by Massive Master

Digital Fishphones SpitFish. Free, excellent... Free...

Excellent.

yeah, but is it any good? And how much is it?



Seriously, I second John's vote for Spitfish.

G.

[Chris Jahn]

yes i do have a multi band comp, and thanks for the info on its use glen, ill give that a try ASAP, but i wouldnt mind knowing about the side chain thing finster mentioned just for some knowledge!!!!

And i will check out the aformentioned plug ins as well, thanks everyone!!!

[punkin]

I didn't see a price posted on their website. I'm wondering if it's an affordable product

Ditto the spitfish...while you're at it checkout their other free yet reasonably priced plug-ins

[noisewreck]

Originally Posted by Chris Jahn

i wouldnt mind knowing about the side chain thing finster mentioned just for some knowledge!!!!

Basically you split the signal and feed one part of it into an EQ where you exaggerate the "S"s and feed the output of that EQ into the sidechain of the compressor that's compressing the non-EQd stream. This will make the compressor more sensitive to the "S"s and kick in when they're pronounced.

[masteringhouse]

Exactly, or use high pass and low pass filters to choose the frequency band for the side chain.

Another "trick" is to use the above sidechain signal, reverse the polarity, and feed an arbitrary amount (latency compensated) back into the original signal. It works like a pseudo-automated EQ. The idea being that when the "essy" part of the sidechain signal gets louder, it gets reduced by the same amount in the original signal. I've also used this technique for tracks where the low portion of a kick is a bit much, while leaving the attack intact. You can also try adding an expander to the sidechain track to make it threshold sensitive.

The nice thing about this technique (at least theoretically) is that it attacks the problem (frequency imbalance) rather than reducing the entire level of the mix based on a problem frequency.

Oh yeah, and if your DAW supports routing and polarity reversal, it's free.

[Freddy]

If only a few places are causing a problem, a split that causes a brief x-fade on the "sss" (right in the spot you want) can work wonders.

[giraffe]

Originally Posted by masteringhouse

Exactly, or use high pass and low pass filters to choose the frequency band for the side chain.

Another "trick" is to use the above sidechain signal, reverse the polarity, and feed an arbitrary amount (latency compensated) back into the original signal. It works like a pseudo-automated EQ. The idea being that when the "essy" part of the sidechain signal gets louder, it gets reduced by the same amount in the original signal. I've also used this technique for tracks where the low portion of a kick is a bit much, while leaving the attack intact. You can also try adding an expander to the sidechain track to make it threshold sensitive.

The nice thing about this technique (at least theoretically) is that it attacks the problem (frequency imbalance) rather than reducing the entire level of the mix based on a problem frequency.

Oh yeah, and if your DAW supports routing and polarity reversal, it's free.

hey, neat!!

[PhiloBeddoe]

+1 for spitfish. I have a few others like Waves De-Esser and I reach for the spitfish every time.

A simple volume duck on 'S's and hard consonants can do wonders if there's not a million of them. Often you will spend just as much or more time tinkering with a de-esser as you would doing the automation.

[Chris Jahn]

I down loaded "spitfish" and i cant get it to go into logic!!!!, I am a little duh when i comes to computers, so when i read the "how to open it and put it in your program" section of the instructions, and it was like total greek to me.

Ive never downloaded a plug in, can anyone help me by writing an idiot proof how to!! i use a mac with osx, and logic express.

Ive loaded printer drivers and such with no problem, but this is a little less user friendly