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Questions and Answers
What is a de-esser? The more proper name for this effect ought to be an anti-sibilancer but that is too much of a mouthful. What it does is get rid of the annoying sssss’ and other vocal artifacts of the same nature that are sometimes prevalent during vocal performances. It’s actually a combination of two effects, side-chain compression and equalization. Before we discuss how a de-esser works, what the heck is a side-chain compressor. Some compressors have side chain operation that allow it to lower the volume of one track based on the dynamic qualities of another track. A ducking compressor is used in radio production by lowering the bed music when the announcer starts speaking. In music production, de-essing is the most prevalent use of side-chain compression. In order to de-ess a track, you must first copy the original track and use a low-cut filter on it to accentuate the higher frequencies. You may have to boost the higher frequencies as well to isolate the essses. This track will trigger the compressor to act on the original track. Send this track to the compressor using the side-chain channel input. The original vocal track is sent to the regular input of the compressor. When the compressor senses the higher volume of the accentuated sibilance, it lowers the volume on the original track during the duration of the offending sssss’.
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