What is "ess"

What is ess? Why do I want to de-ess?

Sibilance, if your SSS's are really prominent and harsh a de-esser works good.

Yeah, I've tried this thing before, the setting to "de-ess" but never noticed much difference.

I think it varies--many people simply don't need de-essing. For those who do need it, however, it's a nice thing to have. It has never done anything noticeable for me.

In swedish it's the semi-phonetic version of the note Eb.

De-essing does in this context, however, not make sense.

Unless you have really harsh sounding "ess's", or a cheap mic that really exaggerates the the top end of the EQ, you don't really need it.

In swedish it's the semi-phonetic version of the note Eb. De-essing does in this context, however, not make sense.

Lol...Bty, did anybody notice that Duke's thing says "banned". I wonder if they booted him?

Yeah I see that - last post was this afternoon sometimes... I wonder if he will return in a new userid? Maybe his IP is banned though.

Why was he banned though? I thought it was the other people who were the real troublemakers (although his anti-gay thing was getting mighty stale)

A de-esser is a compressor with an eq in the sidechain.

A compressor takes loud parts and turns them down in volume, compressing the dynamic range.

A sidechain tells the compressor what to pay attention to. You can use an EQ (which can turn up or down different frequencies) in the sidechain to have the compressor focus on a particular frequency, in this case by using a bandpass filter (a filter that cuts above and below the center frequency you choose) typically around 2khz to 10khz (where the sibilance or SSS sound lies), so that sibilance triggers the compressor thereby lowering the volume and getting rid of that overly sibilant sound.

Caution is advised though, as too much de-essing will result in a singer that sounds like they have a lisp.