De-Essing

Philip


And plosives (pop shields don't always help) ... I realize this is covered a good bit ... but it is still problematic.  So please chime in your thoughts.
 
Guilty as charged:
My vox is worSt.  (Children and females don't seem to Ess as much ... I may be wrong)
Shure dynamic mics ... to a lessor extent than condenSorS
Shure condensor Headsets (and/or everyone's?)
Condensor mics: U87s, AKG414s, etc. redeem little
Electret mics ... almost as bad as headsets
RME ff400 phantom powered pre-amps,
To a lessor extent, Avalon and Neve Portico pre-amps.
Extremely high end (32kHz) high-shelf boosts
8 to 9 kHz siblants per se (and their harmonics)
 
Some current solutions:
 
1) I think some of you try to de-ess early in the signal change as plugins don't always help.
 
2) Plugins oft set side-chain (shunt) compressor threshold of -30 dcbls!?! (@ 8.8kHz narrow Q) (Voxformer allows this!).
 
3) EQing down the high treble (>20kHz?) on the pre or post equalizer(s)
 
4) 'Pre-Side-chain compression (Avalon 737) ... which strips some vox tone and dynamics.

Plugins often don't work well because they can't hear the rest of the production. For example an Ess might be just fine at higher level if it happens at the same time as a cymbal crash but need to be reduced by a greater amount when it happens at some point in the song where there are no other loud sounds in that range. If the plugin reduces based on level alone it might not reduce enough on some and in other spots give the singer a lisp. So after the recording is made the best way to fix them is to use the clip gain envelope and adjust each one to the correct level. This is a lot of work in some cases but worth it for perfect results.

Prevention is another issue. Finding the right mic can help or even moving the mic slightly off axis or back some so the singer is not directly in front of the element.   Having the mic above the singer kinda pointed down at them can help. Pop filters only help on low frequency pops and do little to reduce esses. If the performer has a serious problem like whistle through a tooth gap, a tiny bit of bubble gum in the gap might be needed.

Try a multimband compressor with an EQ in the sidechain.

Set the other bands to not compress, only have the high band activated.

Stick Voxengon span on to identify where the offending frequencies live

Accentuate this freq in the EQ so the compressor has more to work on.

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Or, Split all your ssssssss clips either side of the sssssssss

Put a clip gain envelope on to reduce the sssss - or even an EQ
 
 
 
Ssss's can b ereally problematic when you got harmony/backing vox singing the same trhing, especially if/when the timing fo them isn't spot on.
 
You get a cacade of s - s - s - s - s at the end of the word.

In this case, it's usually best to only get the lead vox to actually sing the s at the end of the word.

So in the case of "I've got piles" only the lead vox vox sings 'piles', everyone else sings 'pile'

You'll like some of my songs.....