🚀 go-pugleaf

On Jul 24, 3:45 pm, Robert Orban <donotre...@spamblock.com> wrote:
> In article <f6j94q$9d...@panix2.panix.com>, klu...@panix.com says...
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> > <muzicia...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >>What's the typical way to use de-essing - do you go through the file
> >>and painstakingly cherry-pick the problem spots or should you be able
> >>to treat the entire file at once?
>
> >In the analogue world, we normally use it on the whole track.
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> >>Is a de-esser more than just an EQ tweak? I discovered that Nero 6
> >>wave editor has a de-esser but it seems to take the sparkle off the
> >>overall file if I just apply it globally. I assume that there are
> >>better de-essers.
>
> >So, don't use so much.  The de-esser is a compressor, with an equalizer
> >in the sidechain.  Only a narrow range of frequencies go to the
> >compressor control, and only those frequencies cause the compressor to
> >squash.  So it squashes only when that narrow band is found.
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> >If it's taking some "sparkle" off, change the tuning.  Make the filter
> >Q narrower and move it up and down.  Set the compressor threshold higher.
> >Listen to the music and switch the thing in and out of bypass so you
> >can hear what it's doing.
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> >>Any such thing as a de-esser plugin for Cakewalk Home Studio?
>
> >I don't know, but you should be able to make one with a compressor
> >and a parametric equalizer, just like we do in the analogue world.
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> It actually takes *two* compressors and a highly selective bandpass or
> highpass filter, which a parametric EQ may or may not have. A good de-
> esser looks at the ratio between the broadband level and high frequency
> level and adjusts the ratio as necessary to prevent the high frequency
> level from sticking out from the broadband level. The problem with the
> parametric EQ/single-compressor technique is that the de-essing action is
> highly level-dependent.
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> The Orban 516EC and its successors use the "ratio" method, as do the dbx
> de-essers, which were introduced later. The Orban de-essers use a
> broadband level detector to modulate the threshold of a feedback
> compressor with a frequency-dependent sidechain, while the dbx de-essers
> use two decilinear RMS detectors, one of which is fed by a bandpass
> filter, to compute the ratio, which is simply a subtraction in the log
> domain.
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> The esses can be reduced by at least two methods. The Orban units use very
> quick wideband compression, which I find to be essentially artifact-free
> if the designer has chosen appropriate attack and release times, which
> tend to be *much* faster than commonly used for normal vocal compression.
> (The release time of the 536 is about 30 ms.) By "artifact-free," I mean
> that there is no audible gain pumping or other dynamic instability.
>
> The dbx units allow you to use either broadband GR or lowpass filtering.
> For voice-only tracks, I strongly prefer the wideband technique, which
> does not color the esses. Lowpass filtering can be useful if one is trying
> to rescue a mix in which the vocal has not been correctly de-essed, but I
> don't know of any "set it and forget it" technique for de-essing a mix.
>
> I use an Orban 536 de-esser in my standard vocal recording chain after all
> EQ and compression. I find that I *never* have to adjust it. There is a
> certain "natural" ratio between voiced sounds and esses that everyone
> knows because everyone has heard natural speech all of his/her life. A
> good de-esser should maintain that balance, automatically adapting to
> microphones, EQ, compression, and different singers The only exceptions I
> know of are pathological cases where the sibilance is in the form of a
> narrowband whistle instead of the much more common broadband highpass
> filtered noise. These cases should ideally be fixed in tracking, even if
> it requires a little temporary dental work, as another poster suggested.
>
> Bob Orban

Valley made the model 815 DSP de-esser that was something like a gated
EQ. It did subtractive EQing at a particular frequency when the
threshold was exceeded by the signal, rather than acting as a
compressor on the entire signal. An interesting and novel approach...