De-Essers - Squashing Sibilance [Recording Vocals Pt 7]

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De-Essers - Squashing Sibilance Recording Vocals
Pt 7

• http//homerecordinghome.com/de-essers-squashing-s
  ibilance/

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De-essers are a great time saver and perform a
vital function in the world of vocals. You know
by now that S's are overly loud at specific
frequencies. No surprise there. It happens all
the time in conversation, but when you put vocals
to music, it's especially bad.
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Squashing Suspicious Sibilance
If you want to kill a few hours, you can use
volume automation data to decrease the volume of
S's, every time they appear in a vocal track.
This is a time consuming. Most of us don't have
this much time on our hands, but remember, you
can do it. There are times when it could come in
handy.
Image Eric Bégin via Compfight
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De-Essers
As you see, a de-esser is just a very rapid
compressor with a narrow target. There are many
choices, but they all function in much the same
way as the process that was just described. The
difference is that it is all in a single
unit. The only antidote to this is to know your
de-esser well by fiddling with it ad nauseam.
Then, when you do use it in a mix, listen to the
vocals a few times to hear that it solved all the
sibilance issues.
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• A few other common issues with de-essing
• You de-ess too much. If you apply the de-esser
  to broadly, you'll end up affecting other
  syllables.
• Ratio too high. Either of these is pretty
  obvious, since it creates kind of a pumpy effect,
  where the S is too quiet. 

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Sweet, Sweet S's
The ultimate goal of de-essing is that it's not
noticed at all. The S's fall in line with the
other sounds, and there is no overt evidence of
de-essing.
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De-Essers - Squashing Sibilance Recording Vocals
Pt 7

• http//homerecordinghome.com/de-essers-squashing-s
  ibilance/