The de-esser in DP24 SD

[Saxomohawh]

Anyone had any success with the de-esser? I have technically got it working but it doesn't cut down my "s-es". I have recorded a track with a lot of s-sounds which I have routed out to effect send and then back to another input with the de-esser activated. I listen to only the recording track. If I turn the depth quite high I can hear it is working, but it doesn't cut down my sibilances much. It mostly kills the sound. I try sweeping the frequency but it doesn't really make any difference at all. Now it only goes up to 4 kHz, so maybe my voice has sibilances higher than that? Any experiences on this?

 

[Mollie]

There's a few experts around here, but I'm not one of them. I haven't used the de-esser much, preferring the compressor or noise reducer. I have found that putting up a mesh in front of the microphone, and standing back a bit helps reduce unwanted noise from my poor singing technique. Not sure if this is a helpful answer for you, but it's how I cope with it.

 

[Saxomohawh]

I have done some further experimenting. Recorded sssssssssssssss i Audicity (free audio software) and made a frequency plot. It shows that there are two peaks for my "s", one at 5240 Hz and one at 6100 Hz. So clearly out of range for the Tascam de-esser. Maybe interesting to know for someone out there.

 

[Iain Churches]

A agree with Mollie, that prevention is better than cure, and always use a pop screen for vocals. I don't usually need to de-ess, but if I did, and the preset did not work to expectations, I would set the equaliser in the vocal channel to a fairly narrow mid Q and say +6dB and sweep across the frequency band to find the frequencies (there may be more than one) at which the artefact is greatly increased. Then take the +4 down to -6 or -10dB. Let your ear be the judge.

Iain

 

[Mollie]

I wish I was technically minded like that, but I'm an old fart and do thing old school. I'm sure there is a lot to be gained by examining frequencies and things like that, and learning to understand it all.
I've had some great results from my dp24, but it's just a cheap recorder, and perhaps not capable of some of the expectations some people have.
keep us up to date with your experiments.