Most old-school de-essers are, at root, frequency-selective compressors, and in fact you can use any compressor with a side-chain filter as a simple de-esser: just equalise the side-chain to focus on the 5kHz area or thereabouts, and the compressor will then duck the level whenever a sibilant comes along. The other approach is to use a plug-in or hardware processor to try to do the same thing automatically. Many mix engineers will tell you that the best way to achieve natural-sounding results is to use automation in your DAW, either to duck the level or adjust the EQ of the vocal track when a sibilant is encountered, or to control how much of it is sent to your reverb and delay at the same points. There are two basic approaches to de-essing at the mix stage. And although this isn't ideal, it's far better to sort it out at the mix than to expect your mastering engineer to somehow control them when he or she has only a stereo bounce to work with. In other words, sooner or later most of us will probably be confronted with a mixing session that contains vocal tracks whose sibilants are too prominent. And no matter how much care one takes with mic placement and choice, there are some singers who just have incredibly sibilant voices. Like any audio problem, sibilance is best dealt with at the recording stage, but that isn't always possible - for instance, with a live show that has been tracked from the front-of-house desk. Pop shields can help control the latter, but do nothing for sibilance: personally, I'm convinced that they make it worse, as does the tendency for many modern mic manufacturers to build a superficially flattering high-frequency lift into their products. However, this benefit often comes at the cost of exaggerated 'ess' and 'tee' sounds, not to mention the risk of popping. In a less-than-ideal space, it's always tempting to try to work microphones very close, in order to minimise the amount of room ambience that is picked up. Pro DS doesn't need the hidden 'expert' controls of other plug-ins in the Fabfilter range and lets you access everything via this simple, single-page interface.īehind Fabfilter's elegant interface lurks an advanced algorithm that is claimed to offer the most natural de-essing yet.Īsk any mastering engineer which faults they encounter over and over again in amateur or project-studio mixes, and excessive vocal sibilance is likely to be near the top of the list.