Side chain, Deesser

[Phil O]

Phil O, I'm not quite understanding how that would really be effective. Wouldn't it just high-notch cut every time your signal got loud?

Well, no. The filter is used to just send the esses to the side-chain. What you want to do is filter out everthing EXCEPT the esses on the duplicate track and sent that to the compressor's side chain.

Phil

[Prime Mover]

Ahhh, got it now. Not a bad solution. Question is, what sounds better: compressed esses or EQ reshaped esses?

I guess with your method there's less/no chance of lisping. However, I've always felt that part of the unwanted aesthetic of harsh esses was that they're overly bright, not just too loud. I dunno, is there a way of side-chaining a filter with the original signal to also shape the esses? That would be nifty.

Chalk thiks up for one of the reasons I'd like to see a scripting language implemented into a DAW. You could just write a script inside a VI to translate a sidechain signal boost into a filter cut, or something.

[Tim]

Ahhh, got it now. Not a bad solution. Question is, what sounds better: compressed esses or EQ reshaped esses?

Given that esses are usually isolated, in other words, there's no pitch at the same time, turning down volume, and turning down high end is pretty much the same thing.
I usually use volume automation, unless they're all over the place and I don't have time to manually catch them... then I'll use the UAD Precision De-Esser.

[Phil O]

I dunno, is there a way of side-chaining a filter with the original signal to also shape the esses? That would be nifty.

Sure, there's no need to do one or the other. You can always do both. I'm not a big fan of de-essers myself, but the OP was asking for info on them so I didn't bring up other techniques.

I'm with Tim on this one. I have to deal with ess problems so infrequently, that I usually prefer to use volume automation. A de-esser is really just a time saver IMO.

Phil

[cbergm7210]

If you have the Nomad plugs, I find their De-Esser to be very tweakable and usable.