Make Your Own Low Tech De-Esser
From WikiRecording
The Acoustic De-Esser
Many singers have very pronounced "essss" sounds in their voices. As engineers, we then have to deal with these distracting sounds and figure out ways to tame or eliminate them.
There are pieces of hardware called "de-essers" that are usually a narrow band notch-type EQ/filter linked to a compressor so that when the offending frequency is "heard" by the compressor's detector circuit the compressor lowers the level of the voice. One can also attach an EQ to the side-chain of a compressor and make it act as a de-esser.
The Pencil Method
Before these hardware devices some brilliant engineer thought to deal with this acoustically. He taped a pencil to the microphone body, in front of the diaphragm.
The pencil acts as a diffusor, splitting the forceful airflow from the singer’s mouth. It sounds more natural and is often un-noticed, whereas hardware units can sometimes do more harm than good.
The pencil is usually orientated vertically in front of , almost straddling the microphone’s diaphragm.
The DAW Method
With the advent of digital recording it has become commonplace to use volume automation to tame sibilant frequencies in vocal recordings. Sibilant waveforms tend to be obvious to the trained eye, having a characteristic attack envelope not unlike a triangle wave. An experienced assistant engineer could be expected to 'de-ess' a lead vocal track by hand in approximately 1 hour.
