Best DeEsser Plugin?

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Best DeEsser Plugin?

Post by Recording Engineer » Fri Jul 31, 2015 3:12 pm

So I've made the switch to PT12 Native and loving the AAX and UAD plugins; after being on PT HD3 Accel since 6.9 was new and stopped updating at 7.4. The stock PT7.4 TDM DeEsser worked fine-enough for me, but now the stock PT12 Native one and the two that come in the Waves Diamond are damn-near useless to me. Who has the best one?

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Post by ott0bot » Fri Jul 31, 2015 7:31 pm

I don't think I've found a better one than the Massey De-esser. It does the job, and does it right. Transparent and lots of tweakability without getting too complicated.

I've used 4 of them in serial on a live mix to tame an acoustic guitar that was all over the room mics and you couldn't even hear it, but it was working. Sibilant vocals are a snap.

Plus it's 64 bit AAX, and is super affordable. Also you can demo a nearly full version for as long as you please. Try it out.

http://www.masseyplugins.com/plugins/deesser


Also, if you have UAD, try out theirs. I've heard it is pretty solid too...and with the that you can use it while tracking.

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Post by drumsound » Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:07 pm

I got the T-racks de esser with the group buy last christmas. I like how it de ess in a notch, not just a shelf or full range like the Avid model.

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Post by joninc » Fri Jul 31, 2015 9:31 pm

the waves D-esser and R D-esser work fine for me.

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Fri Jul 31, 2015 9:41 pm

spit fish is a classic but won't run on modern macs. it WILL run on 64 bit PCs if you use j-bridge. a little wonky but it works.

the DMG essence is unbelievably good. i can't recommend it enough. besides regular old de-essing, it'll do pretty much any other dynamic eq task you can think up. i've used it to:

tame hihats/cymbals without touching the snare
reduce snare mud in a mix
reduce kick mud and/or boom in a mix
tame harsh guitars in a mix

i keep saying 'in a mix' because that's how great this thing is...fixing stuff on individual tracks is easy...with this you can grab elements in a mix without messing up anything else.

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Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Sat Aug 01, 2015 6:26 am

The Massey and Waves ones are my go tos.

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Post by blungo2 » Sat Aug 01, 2015 9:33 am

Interesting about that DMG essence. I'll have to check if they have a demo.

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Post by roscoenyc » Sat Aug 01, 2015 3:07 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:spit fish is a classic but won't run on modern macs. it WILL run on 64 bit PCs if you use j-bridge. a little wonky but it works.

the DMG essence is unbelievably good. i can't recommend it enough. besides regular old de-essing, it'll do pretty much any other dynamic eq task you can think up. i've used it to:

tame hihats/cymbals without touching the snare
reduce snare mud in a mix
reduce kick mud and/or boom in a mix
tame harsh guitars in a mix

i keep saying 'in a mix' because that's how great this thing is...fixing stuff on individual tracks is easy...with this you can grab elements in a mix without messing up anything else.
A mastering friend of mine recently hipped me to the DMG Essence. I tried the demo for 10 minutes then purchased it.

I was having some trouble mixing tracks that hadn't been recorded at my studio and to get the vocal going there was no way it was going to work without a de-esser.
The guy who recorded the tracks had the pro tools de-esser on every vocal and it was a real soul sucker.

The DMG is terrific. In addition to what More Space Echo described it also does a great job with finger squeaks on acoustic guitar and you can set it up to tame 'plosives' also. The full version has an amazing batch of pre-sets for starting points on all kinds of stuff.

I hear their EQ is fantastic also.

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Post by blungo2 » Sat Aug 01, 2015 3:24 pm

I didn't realize that i had already demoed essence. When i asked to have my demo license reset, Dave got back to me right away and reset it.

Seems like a really nice guy.

I'm also particularly interested in that mini-eq, forgot the name though.

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Sat Aug 01, 2015 9:00 pm

roscoenyc wrote:I hear their EQ is fantastic also.
it's incredible. i could go on and on, but just try it out, you'll be sending dave more of your money.

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Post by joninc » Sat Aug 01, 2015 10:07 pm

$200 for a d-esser!!
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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Sun Aug 02, 2015 8:13 am

the DMG? they must've raised the price, intro price was like $149. or maybe the exchange rate changed to our disadvantage.

it's worth it though. you can do so much more than regular de-essing with it, in a very transparent fashion.

sorry if i sound like i'm on the payroll. i just think it's great.

another one i like is the brainworx dyn-eq, i don't use it that often, but that thing can be really good at grabbing the occasional ear piercing telecaster note, or some singers can get really pierce-y when they get into a certain range/sing louder, and there'll be a couple notes that are just laser beams...the brainworx can grab just those and nothing else. so can the DMG but the brainworx' interface makes it quicker to set up sometimes.

i think that goes for like $300, but they have sales all the time on plugin alliance, if you keep an eye out you can get it for way less, i think i got it for $99.

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Post by blungo2 » Sun Aug 02, 2015 1:51 pm

Looks like essence is 99 pounds. That's about $155.00 currently according to my scientific calculations.

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Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Aug 13, 2015 5:16 pm

I've had luck with the Waves R-De Esser.

Sometimes also put in before the REVERB...
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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Post by digitaldrummer » Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:46 am

I have had pretty good luck with the Waves Ren De-esser as well and just picked it up the other day for $29.
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