I took the plunge on the Waves sale and bought the Vocal Rider and De Esser. I haven't messed with the latter yet.
However, I did try the Vocal Rider. It took me a while to get the side chain working in Reaper. It involved getting into the pins and figuring out the magic combination. Tested it out on a song I'm working on currently. Definitely looks to be a time saver. I found that recording the automation of a playthrough with Vocal Rider gave the best control. It allowed me to edit the automation points manually before finally rendering the vocal. That's useful because the Rider is pretty conservative in the level changes, not dropping nearly enough in the quiet parts of the song. A few edits of the parameters gave a better result. I need to understand better how the plugin works, and how to find the right settings.
Seems like a good buy at $39 on sale. Looking forward to trying the De Esser.
However, I did try the Vocal Rider. It took me a while to get the side chain working in Reaper. It involved getting into the pins and figuring out the magic combination. Tested it out on a song I'm working on currently. Definitely looks to be a time saver. I found that recording the automation of a playthrough with Vocal Rider gave the best control. It allowed me to edit the automation points manually before finally rendering the vocal. That's useful because the Rider is pretty conservative in the level changes, not dropping nearly enough in the quiet parts of the song. A few edits of the parameters gave a better result. I need to understand better how the plugin works, and how to find the right settings.
Seems like a good buy at $39 on sale. Looking forward to trying the De Esser.