From the course: Audio Foundations: Compression and Dynamic Processing

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Get in the Mix: De-essing a vocal track

Get in the Mix: De-essing a vocal track

From the course: Audio Foundations: Compression and Dynamic Processing

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Get in the Mix: De-essing a vocal track

We now know that de-essing is frequency specific compression. Let's put a de-esser to work on a vocal track. Take a listen to this vocal passage, paying particular attention to the ess sounds. >> Tonight I feel asleep at the wheel. I woke up just in time with chills darting down my spine. >> Because these ess sounds will likely get a bit crispy as we add some top end EQ to the mix, especially on the words asleep, chills, and spine, we can use a de-esser to tame that sibilance. I like to use my de-essers before applying compression in EQ. So I can get the bad stuff out of the way before it hits my other processors. Now listen again as I activate the de-esser. >> Tonight I feel asleep at the wheel. I woke up just in time with chills darting down my spine. >> It's subtle, but effective. Using a high frequency only de-esser, all I'm doing here is just taking a bit of the edge off those particularly sibilant words. Many de-essers allow you to preview the side chain signal and tune the…

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