De-esser plugins are for vocals, right? Well not necessarily. In this article, we explore alternative applications for de-essers that extend beyond vocals. From taming shrill violin notes and controlling drum overheads to eliminating guitar squeaks and enhancing whole mixes during the mastering process.
Reducing Guitar Squeaks
Considering that like esses, guitar string squeaks are distracting high frequency artefacts it stands to reason that a dresser might be a good tool to tame them. In much the same way as esses in a vocal, they can often go unnoticed but once you tune in to them they can be infuriating.
A difference between a typical ess and a guitar string squeak is that squeaks have less of a noise element to them and so tend to concentrate their energy in a narrower part of the spectrum. They are often comparatively low compared to an ess, around 3KHz is common. In my experience the smarter dressers, which outperform conventional deessers on vocals can be less predictable in these atypical applications. For example if using FabFilter’s Pro-DS use the All Round mode rather than the more sophisticated Single Vocal mode. I’ve had greater success using Avid’s Channel Strip plugin with a very tight filter in the side chain than I have using a more sophisticated deesser. If you have a dynamic performance expect to be automating the threshold though as one setting probably won’t fit all.
Taming Shrill Violin Notes
Like some singers, some instruments get harsh in certain registers. The instrument I find needs this treatment most regularly is solo violin. This isn’t a case where static EQ really helps, the timbre of a violin changes too much for a static setting to work but a dynamic equaliser, which responds to the amplitude of the signal works much better.
For these tasks I tend to use a Dynamic EQ these days but I used to regularly use a de-esser for the same task. The difference between the two is what gets cut when the dynamic element of the process is triggered by too much energy in the area you wish to affect. With a dynamic equaliser you can set up a cut at the right frequency and by default the detector or side chain of the plugin will be sensitive to that same area of the spectrum. A wide band de-esser is just a compressor with a narrow filter in the side chain. When you’ve tuned that to the shrillness you wish to control, when it occurs the entire signal gets attenuated. This might sound too crude but on typical material it usually works well. Using an HF only mode can work better but the important thing is that what gets responded to (i.e. when the attenuation happens) is more important than the details of the attenuation itself.
BVs and Reverb
Esses are part of a vocal and the idea with a dresser isn’t to remove them, it’s to tame excessive esses which can be distracting. They are frequently made worse by the combination of bright microphones, frequently used very close up. This combined with EQ and particularly compression can make what was a balanced vocal go off-kilter. However hitting it too hard with a de-esser can cause a lispyness in the vocal. One strategy which can be helpful is to make sure that the esses aren’t being reinforced somewhere else. Two places to look are your reverb and your backing vocals.
Backing vocal are there to support a lead vocal. As such they can tolerate more de-essing than the lead. Indeed experienced backing vocalists often naturally lay off the consonants when singing for just this reason. You can hit your BVs harder with a de-esser than you can the lead and by doing so, reduce the total amount of energy in the esses.
A second place you can reduce the energy in an ess without having to de-ess the lead vocal is in the reverb send. A big burst of high frequency ess going into a bright reverb will create a big ‘tish’ of reverb. If that’s not what you want, rather than darkening the reverb, why not place a de-esser in front of it? That way you can keep the energy of the less where you want it, on the dry lead vocal where it can keep its contribution towards the intelligibility of the words rather than in big clouds of reverb, however pretty they sound!
Controlling Drum Overheads
In a recording situation the ‘internal balance’ of a drummer really matters. Beyond the ability to keep time the first thing I notice with less experienced drummers is a tendency to go too heavy on the cymbals and not heavy enough on the drums. “hit the drums, tickle the cymbals please…”
If the timbre of the cymbals gets out of proportion, particularly if they start to get nasal then a well-placed de-esser can help. If your de-esser doesn’t offer control over attack and release times then listen out for chatter on the release as release times tend to be comparatively fast.
Enhancing Whole Mixes in Mastering
In a similar way to the previous Drum Overheads example, using a little de-essing can be a useful problem-solver when mastering. De-esser plugins are not limited to individual audio sources but can also be employed on the entire mix if there is a suitable sibilant element which needs addressing. A good example of this nod towards the use of de-essing in Mastering can be found in the inclusion of a de-esser in Plugin Alliance’s excellent bx_masterdesk.
Do you ever call on a de-esser for applications other than vocals? Share your examples in the comments.
Photos by cottonbro studio, cottonbro studio