De-essing like the pros

[Chris SweetParticipant]

How's it done? I often end up with really unnatural sounding s's and t's and f's (probably poor mic technique is a factor.) so what can be done? De-essers tend to make things sound a little weird too. (Maybe user error?) I listen to pop productions like Taylor Swift and the s's are perfectly tucked in while still heavily compressed.

[Anders IsbergParticipant]

Great idea for a topic Chris! The concept of De-essing is simple enough, but it's really hard to do it well so that the vocals doesn't sound overly processed and un-natural.

[Mark MooreParticipant]

Yes, great topic. Lots of really good de-essing plug ins out there. But I still use surgical volume automation on lead vocals. Takes a bit of time, but it keeps the lisps and Sylvester phthhs out of your up front vocal track.
On the backgrounds I'll run the Waves or Nomad Factory De-Esser.

[Chris SweetParticipant]

That's probably the way to go mcmoore but it sure is time consuming!

[Mark MooreParticipant]

Indeed it is, Chris. Sometimes takes longer than tuning but I've found it far more effective than trying to control those esses and plosives with a single plug in.
It's hard to throw a net on all of a performance without something poking out.
Mark.

[Chris SweetParticipant]

Not sure which DAW you use but do you typically do the gain automation pre or post compression?

[Mark MooreParticipant]

Kinda both, actually. Because I have two compressors usually on the lead vocal, I'll put on a Waves CLA 1176 then write my automation. After that, I'll install a CLA LA2A and go back and tweak just in case the 2nd compressor is pulling the esses back up too much.
I work in Sonar and use ProTools mostly for file transfers.

[Musa HendersonParticipant]

Question for mcmoore is your vocal ride a fader ride or clip gain?

I've always done fader rides but recently found clip gain (or a trim plugin) better as i get more consistency with gentle compression. It takes forever though as I have to automate the compressors input as well.

Then i find tickling a deesser after this is really nice before moving on to another processor.

[Mark MooreParticipant]

Hey Musa,
Technically it would be a fader ride. I draw them using volume automation tools on the offending blobs between compressors.
When you use clip gain automation are you splitting the clip, decreasing clip gain and then cross fading each ess and plosive?
That would be a lot of work.
Yikes.

[TobiKeymaster]

Have you tried Fabfilter's De-esser? It's pretty clever... though I'd agree sometimes going in and automating by hand is the only way to go.

[Mark MooreParticipant]

Hey Toby.
I haven't tried the Fabfilter De-Esser yet, though I've heard it's quite cool.
Another technique I like using particularly on lead vocals is reducing the gain of the esses, plosives and breath blobs in Melodyne while I'm tuning my vocal comp. Everything is right there and I can hear in real time how it sounds before exporting that vocal file to my session. Then if need be and can further automate.
More than one way to skin an ess.

[Chris SweetParticipant]

I picked up the fabfilter d-s a few months ago. Holy smokes that thing works well. Problem solved.

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