De Esser Vst

De-esser plugins are an important part of any pro vocal chain.

TL;DW: DeEss is the best de-essing solution there is. A go-to utility plugin. Now it can be told: I’m just back from PatreCon! I’ll have more of that (probably just on my website and youtube, as it won’t be a product release) but let’s just say: what I’m doing with Airwindows has powerful motives. May 03, 2021 Top Free De-Esser VST Plugins, Final Thoughts DeEss By Airwindows Kicking off this list is Airwindows’ DeEss, which some consider one of the best free options available, but for some reason is a bit of a hidden gem. Much like the rest of the VST bundle, the ERA De-Esser Pro is a no-nonsense plugin with a beautiful interface that delivers great results. The plugin also provides a good visual aid with presets and A/B comparison that is a handy feature.

They help reduce the effect of one of the most frustrating issues in vocal recording.

With such a specialized effect, it can be hard to know where to start.

How do de-essers work, and what do they actually do? When should you use a de-esser, and how do you use it?

In this article I’ll go through everything you need to know about de-essers to mix better sounding vocals.

De Esser Vst4free

Let’s get started.

What is a de-esser?

A de-esser is a form of compressor that acts only on the specific frequency range where sibilance occurs in the human voice. De-esser plugins are used in mixing to control sibilance so that loud and bright vocals can sit upfront in the mix without these harsh artifacts taking over.

If that sounds complicated, all it means is that de-essers help even out the harshest parts of a vocal recording.

What is sibilance?

Sibilance is the grating, unnatural sound that can sometimes occur during recording when a vocalist sings words including the letter S.

The ‘S’ sound naturally contains a lot of energy in the frequency range where your ears are the most sensitive.

The extra intensity in this area helps your brain tell words apart, but aggressive sibilance can sound distracting on a recording.

Why use a de-esser?

Vocal microphones are designed to capture all the subtle details in the human voice.

Best De-esser Vst

To do it well, they need to be sensitive enough to record a wide range of frequencies.

The airy upper high end they capture helps create a sense of realism and intimacy. During the mix you might even bring out these qualities with EQ and compression for an even more powerful, larger than life sound.

But with all this emphasis on the high frequencies, the issues created by sibilance get even worse.

Even if you might not have noticed it while you recorded your vocals, sibilance can creep up in your mix.

De-essers are how you reduce it. They work in a similar way to compressor plugins, but instead of reducing the gain by looking at the entire signal, their gain reduction only takes effect when the most sibilant frequencies kick in.

The 8 best de-esser plugins for a better vocal mix

With all that explained, here are my top picks for the best de-esser plugins on the market today.

1. Fabfilter Pro-DS

Fabfilter makes some of the most advanced digital mixing tools you can find. Their de-esser plugin is no exception.

With gain reduction and filter technology from the award winning Pro-C and Pro-Q plugins, Pro-DS combines powerful signal processing with a a comfortable, easy to understand interface.

2. Waves Sibilance

Waves Sibilance is an evolution of the popular plugin makers’ de-essing tools that uses “Organic Resynthesis” technology.

Sibilance promises to help you find and reduce sibilance faster and easier than ever.

Waves’ traditional Renaissance De-esser is also a great option for standard de-essing duties.

3. Digitalfishphones SPITFISH

There’s no shortage of advanced de-esser tools out there, but sometimes you need a solution that won’t break the bank.

That’s where Digitalfishphone’s excellent freeware SPITFISH de-esser comes in.

This super easy to use de-esser is a great place to start for anyone who wants to experiment with de-essing without paying for a new plugin.

4. HOFA IQ-Series DeEsser

This acclaimed de-esser plugin let’s you dive deep into your vocal tracks to get your de-essing just right.

With four different modes, HOFA IQ-Series DeEsser can handle any situation that calls for de-essing.

5. Sonnox Oxford SuprEsser V3

Sonnox Oxford SuprEsser V3 gives you extremely detailed control over the sibilance in your vocal tracks.

With auto-levelling features to control how much processing gets applied to signals with different dynamics, SuprEsser V3 takes de-essing to the next level.

6. Your DAW’s built-in De-esser

Today’s DAW packages come with robust and effective plugins built-in.

Fancy third party plugins can be nice, but they’re not strictly essential for mixing

In most cases a skilled engineer can create a perfectly good mix using only these native plugins.

De-essing is so common that most flagship DAWs come with a perfectly usable de-essing solution built-in.

It might be smart to try your DAW’s standard de-esser before you look elsewhere.

7. Brainworx SPL De-esser

Brainworx SPL De-esser faithfully models a classic hardware de-esser from German manufacturer SPL.

If you’re looking for a simple to use de-esser with the sound quality of analog hardware, this one is worth a try.

8. Accusonus Era De-Esser Pro

Accusonus Era De-Esser Pro is another de-esser that focuses on getting results fast with easy to understand controls.

The waveform display and simple three parameter layout will help you get your sibilance reigned in quickly.

How to use a de-esser

Now that you have an idea of some of the options out there for plugin de-essers, you might be wondering how to actually use them in your workflow.

Luckily de-essers are some of the easiest plugin types to use.

Not all de-essers work the same way, but here are the basics when it comes to using them to decrease sibilance.

Insert your de-esser plugin after any compression, EQ or saturation you’ve used on your vocal track.
Decrease the threshold until you start to hear the effect of the gain reduction.
Adjust the frequency range so the de-esser is only triggering on the sibilant sounds
Choose any other parameters to dial in the fine-grain control of your de-essing.

Get rid of sibilance

De-essers are very common in vocal production. Even the most flattering microphone can have issues with sibilance sometimes.

But with modern plugins, harsh ‘S’ sounds won’t sink your mix completely. A good de-esser can reduce the effect of sibilance enough to push your vocal upfront in the mix where it belongs.

If you’ve made it through this article you’ll have a solid grasp on how de-essers work and some ideas for how to use them in your mix.

TL;DW: DeEss is the best de-essing solution there is. A go-to utility plugin.

Now it can be told: I’m just back from PatreCon! I’ll have more of that (probably just on my website and youtube, as it won’t be a product release) but let’s just say: what I’m doing with Airwindows has powerful motives. I want to give people the ability to do their music and production, I want to give both the popular and unpopular tools so you can express yourself regardless of your resources or whether you’re niche or mainstream or WHATEVER. It’s important enough to me that I don’t care what it costs me, and I mean to do it right: it’s the right thing, for the right reasons, with the right determination, and I’m setting it up (with the open source) so it can’t be taken away. You’ll be able to have stability in your production life, and pick out stuff you can count on that won’t go wrong on you, letting you have control of your musical world. In a very real sense you own that (heck, you own the source code).

De Esser Vst Free

Turns out, I chose well when I chose Patreon for handling this, my life work. To some people you could paint me in a nice (perhaps over-nice, hard to credit) light by saying ‘oh, Chris is kind of like Jack Conte the founder and CEO of Patreon’. It tells a story though it also implies I’m set up for some kind of epic success story and sounds like hype.

But for you guys, you kinda know about ME and not necessarily Patreon: you do that because I ask you to, but you maybe don’t know Jack about Jack, or why it would matter. You want plugins, and you’ve got to know how I am because I keep making them for you. However, I went to Patrecon (big gamble, wrecked my finances real good) because I wanted to hear what Jack Conte talks about in private, get a sense of what Patreon’s really like, maybe even talk to him and see if he hears me, gets what I’m about. It could have been a mistake for me: I could’ve gone and found they didn’t really care, just wanted my fees and were watching to see if I became big enough to get behind.

It wasn’t a mistake, it was one of the most brilliant ideas I ever had, and I ran with it by doing some of the most terrifying stuff I’ve ever done. I told Sam and Jack (Sam Yam is the OTHER co-founder) about how I got to go see my Dad before he died thanks to still running Airwindows. And I doubled down and thought out some ideas about what Patreon means in practice, and I went and pitched those same guys on these ideas, knowing that I am just a broke 50-year-old with no health care and no credentials for counseling Silicon Valley founders. Turns out I saw Jack’s keynote… his PRIVATE keynote, the one where he asked people not to record it this time because he was going to get extra real… and he was already leaning towards the direction I saw. And I took him further along that path.

They got it. Seriously, they got it.

I can’t tell you everything (and none of it involves me no longer needing you; nobody’s offering to make me a silicon valley guy nor was I asking to be one: that is NOT what this is about and I wasn’t asking Jack for money or even promo) but what I can tell you is, turns out Jack Conte is a guy like ME, and that means very specific things. And what he’s doing with Patreon in general is very akin to what I’m doing with Airwindows, and he is every bit as brave as I am. I believe it’s gonna work, and that it matters: it matters hugely. I’m going to do everything I can to help Jack after what I privately heard at PatreCon, and if you’re a musician or producer also on Patreon I want to help you, too, ‘cos we’re very much all in this together.

Okay. DeEss.

If you need the best DeEsser, and especially if you know how to use them, this is the one you want: full stop. It’s the best one, it’s simple and quick to use and now it’s entirely free. It’s MIT license open source, so now everybody can ‘steal’ it. There’s a guy making GUI skinning tech for plugins, and he has the code for it: you’ll be able to use it and make whatever GUI skin you want on it, pay the (GUI) guy to sell that, or GPL it and use his (and my) tech free.

The Airwindows DeEss works by tracking slew rates, not by filtering and frequencies. It keeps a string of recent slew rates, and if it sees high slews that keep going back and forth (flipping direction) that’s how it triggers. It doesn’t trigger on things like square wave or sawtooth waves, because those aren’t going back and forth fast enough to be an ess. It’s purely mechanical: the trigger for DeEss happens instantly and way more powerfully on real esses, making it extremely easy to set. It’s not fiddly, just crank up the effect so you can plainly hear where it hits and use that (don’t overtrigger, for the bad esses you’ll get a HUGE powerful trigger even when everything else is totally clear of de-essing)

Then you use the ducking control and the treble rolloff to tailor the kind of esses you do want. The tone thing lets you have darker esses that are still very audible, and the ducking control means you can retain the original sound but duck it as much as you like. It should be possible to template it: since it triggers so powerfully on real esses, if you’ve got a working setting it should always work. De-essing is now a solved problem, for good. Use good taste (avoid ‘lisping’ effects) and de-essing is easy.

I already mentioned Patreon, so I think we’re good. I use that to live. I hope you like DeEss :)