If you are using for example u-he's SATIN then perhaps utilizing one the noise reduction systems emulated inside it is good/working well in the context of how you have the virtual tape and machine settings setup or even if you are a tape machine user that is taking advantage of the emulations of the noise reduction systems to get the most from your tape (Which makes SATIN very useful and invaluable as such systems are not cheap to say the least), However having said all that if one is using that much on a master? Well something has more than likely gone pretty wrong somewhere back down the line and ought to be tracked down and eliminated as it simply is compromising your work

If you we're/are meaning De-Essing processors then I would still say that something has gone wrong somewhere else and instead of trying to "fix" it at such a late stage is again completely compromising to your work. It is nothing more than a compressor with a heavily equalized key input/side-chain feeding the detector, Simply because you have seen a few people using it on a master or on the master out on a mixdown does not mean you have to do the same. However by all means try it and hear for yourself, Trial and error is the best way of learning and gaining experience

If it is either being used for a specific effect for "artistic" reasons then ignore anything and everyone and do whatever the hell you want to do, That again can be alot of fun and helps one gain experience along with a better understanding of what various processors are capable of doing along with their shortcomings/what they can not do too, Which is all of value. Knowledge is power and the only way to gain it is through experience

All the best, Same to all

 

Old discussion, but I figured I’d update it with a better answer for today’s world. I put izotope RX spectral de-noise on every master as the very last plugin. It does nothing to the track, only the noise.

and before anyone tries to @ME about “LoSiNg QuAlItY” just save it, cuz you’re wrong. Every single one of my masters post-denoise nulls out with the pre-denoise version minus, you guessed it, the noise.

the days of it being cool to have that analog hiss all over your mix are long gone. RX works very well and too easily to justify not cleaning up your masters. Now-a-days people want that crystal clear sound.

 

i'm rather puzzled as to why you wouldnt put a denoiser first in the chain on the separate recorded tracks that would need it. any EQ's, compressors, delay's and reverbs could/would amplify the noise. although most of us would probably use a noise gate since most of the time any noise would be masked by the instruments themselves like with a guitar with distortion.

yeah i'm pretty sure that's just plain not true. plenty of music genres that still want that raw sound.

but then again, seeing how this is your first reply and it being to a very old topic i'm guessing you're just a troll and using a throwaway