Have you had better results with another de-esser?

 

I think because of the original post.

 

The initial post was originally completely different. Have you read it or have you just gotten around to it now? Unfortunately you can no longer see the initial post.

He asked about 10 different de-essers and compared them and asked which one is "the best" or better than the other.

My food comparison was meant as a metaver that everyone has different tastes!

 

Herznote, will you please let it go or move on. You have not added anything relevant to the topic. Instead, you criticized my word choice and made crazy food analogies. If you have never tried Sonible's Smart:de-esser, then there's nothing to say, is there? Side note, I did not ask anyone to compare Sonible's De-Esser to 10 others. I simply listed others that might be worthy of comparison. YIKES!!! What's with people?

 

You're funny, you ask questions that no one can answer, you're then referred to them and change the thread ;) I also told you that I use the fabfilter de-esser and am happy with it! So your statement is not correct my friend.

 

I'll do everyone, especially myself, a favor and close this thread. It was meant to evoke relevant responses pertaining to Sonible's smart:de-ess. Let's pretend this thread never existed. I need to eat some chicken soup and put ice on my head after wasting my afternoon responding/defending my thread wording. OHHHH~

 

Oxford SuprEsser or Fabfilter Pro-DS. The IK one is ok, TR5 De Esser.

 

Not friends. ;-(

 

Plus Weiss Deess, Analog Obsession one (don't remember name), airwindows deharshers..., HOFA deesser, manual automation on gain for Ssss, Tchh, shh.... Manual RX spectral selection and Gain..... Kirchoff dyn eq option.... Eiosis (extra) soothe, crave transient eq or spliteq
Ton of options

 

EQ it first a bit if too much then Deess using FABFILTER PRO-DS works for me for as long as I can remember. I have tested SONIBLE SMARTDEESS few times, nothing really stands out other than it's using a more advanced spectral processing.

The starting point more or less works, but the additional shaping controls can help tailor the De-essing to taste but it can still feel limited sometimes. The suppression algo also isn't that good at this moment IMO. You see, Deessing can be a strange process sometimes the user isn't really aiming for perfect or accuracy but rather something that can make the track more bearable to the ears, slightly taming the harshness without really affecting the vocal tone at all. I think SmartDeess is nowhere near there just yet. Add the not so efficient use of screen real-estate for the GUI with all the controls and small numbers spread all over the place, bottom, corner, top, some even on the meter on the left, it's just annoying. I love ProDS for its simpler GUI with all the options intuitively designed and placed.

Sound quality wise, both ProDS and SmartDeess have lookahead function but to my ears it felt like ProDS is more natural sounding without any audible distortion especially when Oversampling enabled. There's some unpleasant artifact created by the SmartDeess that I dont really like, it's obvious with high Shaping amount. It feels unnatural.

Another good Deeser that I know and used before is the EIOSIS E2DEESSER which combines static EQs with dynamic EQ. Different workflow but you can get the most natural sounding vocal Deessing with it, that if you like to spend time with Deessing, I'm not, so PRO-DS win.

 

Last edited: Jan 25, 2024

I always end up back at FF Pro-DS. Some people complain it makes some instruments sound like Plastic, whatever that actually means. If you want something simple but still flexible, the lowly old Waves DeEsser is not bad. There is a De-Esser also included in those Nuro plugins, but I haven't had reason to really test it. It has very few adjustable parameters. Another simple one is Antares AVOX Sybil and it sounds ok to me, but I almost always use de-Esser for non-vocal sibilance. Fabfilter is my go-to.

 

Because the question was originally a different one. Something like, "compared to plugin v, w, x, y, z and the plugins you use, is smart:De-ess good, better, the best or a de-esser?" The question contained a lot more words and other equally imprecise questions, but no reference to what (qualities) the question was even referring to or what the OP considered good.

It's a shame to close the thread just because someone points out that a more precisely formulated question makes it easier to answer.

 

I usually use de-essers in serial. I prefer to have more instances than only one which works a lot. I tried a lot of de-essers. My first de-esser in the chain is usually the standard one from waves. I really like this one even though it's nothing special.
After some compression I usually will throw in the Pro-DS which is also very nice (most of the time wideband, but I also use splitband).

For special needs I use 'Essence' from DMG which is amazing. I also use Essence sometimes as the de-esser on the 2bus for harsh transient sounds for example. The 902 from Lindell sounds very smooth to my ears and like it as well. I tried smartdeess a couple of times, but it didn't offer me sth special tbh. A couple of times I also cut the esses and just trimmed them. Depends on your needs and time. Another way to de-ess is using the Kirchhoff eq in dynamic mode.

I use Soothe a lot, but I don't use it much as a de-esser.

Really like lasagne btw

 

How do you avoid the SHHH type effect you get when you remove the SSS from voice? It seems when you de-emphasise 'SS' it leaves behind a more Shhh kinda sound that feels more noisy and granular. Whats the secret to de-essing?

 

That's some basic logical education shit over there!

Guys, just imagine: you ask your friend to go to a local depot store and buy you a chair, a simple chair. He describes chairs that he sees with words "well uh, this one is good, this one is bad, and this one is clearly the best". What information did you get out of it? None, except for your friends taste, which may or may not be relevant to yours own.

People have DESCRIPTIONS for telling all kinds of things to each other. Like RED chair, or chair with X legs, made out of some kind of material, etc..

Personally I see the only practical way to formulate this question:

Please name your favorite de-essers for specific goals, like different voices, different instruments; describe what differs good de-esser from a bad one, is it some kind of function or a wide variety of settings; is there a way to avoid de-esser usage at all... and so on and so forth

 

For better precision i use a dynamic eq and set spots manually. When in hurry or testing, FF-DS default setting works fine for me.
What I don't like about these smart things is that; they work on prediction not precision. They are trained robots and very limited analytically.
There is always a chance of unwanted artifacts.
Smart stuff for not so-smart people. If you know things, should do it yourself.