DE ESSING

[rayc]

I'm REALLY sensitive to essing. Not unusual I know but REALLY.
I was watching a few videos today about de-essing in Reaper and amongst the various ways to manage the sound they all agreed that finding the freqs was step #1.
There were some cool ideas like side chaining ReaEQ & ReaComp to exaggerate and grab the sound and the very cool thing was to do it as a pre volume rather than a vol effect.
I look forward to trying these but the original issue of isolating the freqs of esses, ths, chs etc remains.
Next time I record or ask someone to record a vocal I'm going to ask them to make those sounds before or after the track so that I have clear easily located starting points for that task. Obviously some of those tings will wander in the performance but I'll have a better starting point.

[Greg_L]

A de-esser is nothing but a multiband compressor. You find the offensive frequency and squash it down.

I think the best way to find that frequency is to listen for it, loop the section where it's bad, and sweep with a narrow EQ. When you nail it down, hit it with a de-esser or manual EQ notch.

And make sure the sibiliance is really in the track and not exaggerated by reverb or delay. Effects make sibilance seem worse than it usually is.

[Armistice]

What Greg says - but I also do a deep narrow volume cut, usually just a V but occasionally with a bottom to it, depending upon the length of the syllable - you'd be amazed at how much of the actual volume you can do without at those points as a way of de-emphasising the noise.

Also useful for random pops and clicks.

Like everything though, getting a good performance is a good starter. I have to know the words well enough when singing to just turn my head off axis a bit at the sibiiant and plosive spots to make sure it's not too bad to start with. That takes practice. And also easy enough to "demand" when your singer bitch is actually you - more difficult when you're collabing...

[rayc]

A de-esser is nothing but a multiband compressor. You find the offensive frequency and squash it down.

I think the best way to find that frequency is to listen for it, loop the section where it's bad, and sweep with a narrow EQ. When you nail it down, hit it with a de-esser or manual EQ notch.

And make sure the sibiliance is really in the track and not exaggerated by reverb or delay. Effects make sibilance seem worse than it usually is.

Yep, you taught me to do that a couple of years ago based on finding the snap in a snare or something. I apply that but I'm pretty lazy too - I often reach for a de-esser plug & hope that it'll have a preset that works. I then spend more time trying to dial that in than I would've sweeping.

[rayc]

What Greg says - but I also do a deep narrow volume cut, usually just a V but occasionally with a bottom to it, depending upon the length of the syllable - you'd be amazed at how much of the actual volume you can do without at those points as a way of de-emphasising the noise.

Also useful for random pops and clicks.

Like everything though, getting a good performance is a good starter. I have to know the words well enough when singing to just turn my head off axis a bit at the sibiiant and plosive spots to make sure it's not too bad to start with. That takes practice. And also easy enough to "demand" when your singer bitch is actually you - more difficult when you're collabing...

Yep, David, I usually end up notching the volume envelope for the really bad stuff even after de-essers and the sweep compress method. As i don't sing I don't have to work on my delivery!!!

[rayc]

This is what Greg & your good self were talking about but with possibly a different perspective:
[BBvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci096z4 ... aV&index=8[/BBvideo]
and this is pretty cool as it does the manual bit with a trick I didn't know and the automatic way is an approach I've not used with EQ triggering Comp via pin connectors/side chaining:
[BBvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGPJ1Uiyqz0[/BBvideo]
I was impressed with the bit about visually IDing the likely ess spots.

[WhiskeyJack]

This thread is full of gold. Good one gang.

[Armistice]

This is what Greg & your good self were talking about but with possibly a different perspective:
[BBvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci096z4 ... aV&index=8[/BBvideo]
and this is pretty cool as it does the manual bit with a trick I didn't know and the automatic way is an approach I've not used with EQ triggering Comp via pin connectors/side chaining:
[BBvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGPJ1Uiyqz0[/BBvideo]
I was impressed with the bit about visually IDing the likely ess spots.

Are you using that setting - can't remember what it's called - that converts the waveform into colours depending upon frequency? I didn't think that was going to useful but it is very good for identifying exactly where the trouble spots are - both for de-essing but also random other sounds - pops, clicks etc. that you might want to be working on. Worth a try!

[rayc]

Are you using that setting - can't remember what it's called - that converts the waveform into colours depending upon frequency? I didn't think that was going to useful but it is very good for identifying exactly where the trouble spots are - both for de-essing but also random other sounds - pops, clicks etc. that you might want to be working on. Worth a try!

I haven't applied nay of iit yet. No new vocals to work on. I didn't know about the colour thing - COOL - I'll look into it. PHANGU.