Is a de-esser necessary for mixing vocals?

[James Perrett]

If I'm being exacting about it I use a tricky arrangement of filters and reverse polarities to sort out the phase anomalies and overhangs arising from the filters.

I'd guess that you do something similar to some speaker designers who invert the polarity of the tweeter. At the crossover point the phase of both signals is shifted by approximately 90 degrees (in opposite directions) so reversing the polarity means that both are in phase at the crossover point.

[Hugh Robjohns]

He's using THREE mics. You'd think they could have got a decent recording from one of them!

Amusing... but probably unfair. I suspect the headset radio mic is being used for the lecture-theatre PA, and the lavalier radio mic for the video recording. The lectern mic is probably unused... but it sounds to me like that chap has an unfortunate tooth-whistle which is always going to be very hard to resolve at the console!

H

[Mike Stranks]

Most DAWs come with a de-esser in their armoury. Tell us a bit about where you're wanting to host this de-esser and we may find you already have it!

I use Mixcraft 7 pro edition. I believe it does not have a De Esser, but I could be wrong.

So do I! The 'bundled' de-esser is called Lisp x64... I tend to use Spitfish more though...

[manhattan]

I would like to know:

Where do I download a good free de-esser;

if a de-esser plugin is necessary for mixing vocals;

if it's possible to remove the sibilance with just an EQ;

and what's the difference between a de-esser and an EQ.

Thank you all in advance.

There are no good free de-essers. Most de-essers that come in DAW's aren't that good. Most de-esser's actually aren't that good for vocals.

A de-esser is not necessary for mixing vocals, it's more the lazy way to do it.

Some of these guys have some good ways to use de-essers creatively for other things, which is quite frankly what they seem better for.

The best way to de-ess is simply to edit the waveform, and do sharp narrow q drops in volume on the waveform during sibilant moments. This is a more transparent way to do it.

If you stack vocals it is a bit painstaking, but if you don't, then it's really the only way to do it.

One of the better de-essers I found was the Massey De-Esser.