Vocal De-essing - When nothing seems to work! 

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I almost never use a de-esser in a vocal. What my experience taught me the most important things for de-essing a performance are: 1 - mic positioning - positioning the mic slightly above the mouth pointing down at the chest (similar to a shotgun positioning in location recording). This actually makes all the difference. 2 - volume automation - I actually go in and decrease the volume of every S by hand, with an automation curve, adjusting -6 / -10 / -14 db depending on the word. I can usually do it in a couple of passes. The Ss are very easy to identify visually. 3 - fabfilter pro Q3 - I use a dynamic band on the frequencies that sound/look like they’re popping up. . If none of this works, then and only then will i use a dedicated de-esser on a vocal. . On the other hand i use de-essers all the time for cymbals, violins, shakers and other potentially harsh instruments. Whatever works for you is a valid solution! All that matters is that it sounds good.

Great video. Thanks for showing so many de-essers. What a difference the right plugin makes.

Love the shootout and the inside-out T-shirt!

Thank you for making these videos :)

Lovin this walk through all of the different options out there

I'm digging that track!

Best de-esser I’ve found, and it is a relative pita, is to create volume automation points for every sibilant and pull them all down to zero. They are very, very easy to find visually. Then, while playing the track, I’ll bring them all up and find a general level, where they’re still present but controlled. I can then adjust as needed for individual cases.

Nice shootout of these De-essers, be sure to tryout Eiosis's Deesser. My current favorite. Fab filters Pro DS is really good too. But to your point of of using other tools, I really find dynamic EQ really helps a lot too, also Soothe is a great tool for this.

My go-to de-esser is the Weiss Deess from Softube. If it's really bad, I'll kinda do what Bulletproofzest mentioned but I bring down the clip gain for each S or plosive. I basically set it by ear, then once I've gone through the entire vocal I'll listen back a few times and fine tune as needed. It's a pain, but you only do it once.

I'm not sure why, but my first thought was to boost the low end on the voice, or generate some lower harmonic content to offset the esses.

I sometimes print mixes off of consoles and occasionally i find that the the mix is great but i've over looked de/essing. One awesome fix I discovered is that you can tame a vocal after bouncing a mix by using a mid/side eq, by finding the issue fq's in the 'mid' (containing the majority of the vocal fq's), you cut them appropriately and then do the opposite and boost the same fq's for the 'side', helping the lost but wanted fq's from the mid cut, return enough. More of a mastering option I guess but I thought it was a cool approach to a vocal in a mix.

Get a DBX 520 500 Series De-esser. Cheap, easy to use and kills any plugin in my opinion.

I normally always tend to edit all s, zz, sch and tsch - sounds manually ( I am German haha)... because I always struggle more or less with plugins... but in times I go with plugs I use two instances of FabFilter's Deesser...one for the s-sounds (which in general works for t- and z-sounds) and the other for the sch or tsch/ch sounds... which is way deeper and wider in the frequency spectrum... but as I said in the beginning... EDIT :) And you can control completely individual the amunt with every sibilant. Just my 2 cents :)

I’d be curious if you’ve tried the DBX 520?? They’re more readily available and easier to find in good shape! Thanks

Why not just turn down the esses? Instead of losing time dialing in and trying out plug-ins, outboard gear etc, working on automating the esses will take 5-10 minutes, and you won't screw up the sound of the vocals in any way. The result is really natural once you get used to it. It's not fun but it's the best way I found so far

Hey Ryan! Your site is giving me the multitracks to "Bazooka Joe", not "Montana"

Whoo hoo!

He’s simply too close to the mic, sibilance frequencies don’t travel over distance and this track has a the singer right in your ear, he’s not part of the band hat close, he’s a stalker in your ear, the organ is also way too forward imv

Sibilance issues? Lauten FC-357. Solved.

Hardware desser …makes life easier

The sibilance of the vocal is nothing compared to how pitchy it is. Melo that thing!

You're pushing your diaphragm too much you need to relax