De-essing is a process used in audio engineering that reduces or eliminates unwanted sounds from vocal tracks due to S, F, X, SH, and soft C sounds being too loud or harsh.
The general rule of thumb is that the sibilance in a vocal track should roughly be at the same level as the music behind it. If the music is softer, then it’s ok to turn down or reduce the level of sibilance in a vocal track.
Sibilance refers to the high-frequency components of certain vocal sounds, especially “s” and “sh”. Sibilance lives in the 5 to 10 kHz frequency range and can cause problems if over-emphasized in a recording.
– sweetwater
Why Should You De-ess Vocal Tracks?
By reducing or eliminating loud “s” sounds in your tracks your music will sound much better because it will be easier on the ears of the listener, thus creating a better experience overall.
Similar to using a pop filter that reduces popping sounds caused by fast-moving air on the microphone from p and b sounds, a de-esser is a post-production technique to remove the unwanted “s” sounds which can be harsh on the ears of the listener.
What Are Common Mistakes While De-essing?
One common mistake that music producers make when de-essing vocal tracks are to use a method of De-essing known as “Hard De-essing.” This method will reduce the overall volume of the track too much making it sound unnatural or thin.
Another mistake music producers may make is to only reduce the “s” sounds in their vocal track without using another more complicated process called Spectral De-essing which uses EQ frequencies to target certain problem frequency ranges.
However, using the Spectral De-essing technique on your vocal tracks can leave you with unwanted results because it might cut out important mid-range frequency content that was not part of the problem you were trying to resolve in the first place.
It’s important to remember that when de-essing start subtle to try to keep the original tone of vocals intact. Sometimes comprises may have to be made to reduce the harshness of the S, F, X, SH, and soft C sounds while keeping the vocals sounding natural.
What Is Spectral De-essing?
Spectral de-essing is a music production technique that uses EQ frequencies to target certain problem frequency ranges. But there are also other methods like using multi-band compression and equalization (EQ) on your track.
The Spectral de-essing technique can resolve specific problems in music tracks that can’t be resolved if you were only using the hard De-essing method.
What Is Hard De-essing?
Hard de-essing or Threshold De-essing reduces or eliminates unwanted sounds from vocal tracks due to “s” sounds being too loud by lowering the overall volume of the track drastically.
This music production technique works by taking both the music track and vocals into consideration when trying to reduce or eliminate loud “s” sounds in your music tracks.
What Is The Best De-esser Plugin?
A de-esser plugin can be an important tool to have for music production as it will make eliminating those harsh sounds quicker and easier.
I recommend using one of these music production plugins because they all can do a great job of reducing or eliminating harsh “s” sounds in your music track that may be causing problems for you during music production.
Summary
In music production, De-essing can be used as an effective tool that will allow music producers to reduce or eliminate loud S, F, X, SH, and soft C sounds from their music tracks that may distract listeners from enjoying a music track.
There are so many different methods of using De-essing in music production but one of the most popular methods are used is Hard De-essing which reduces or eliminates unwanted sounds by lowering the overall volume of a music track drastically.
Although this method works, it can sound very unnatural and therefore music producers should also consider other ways to reduce those annoying loud vocal “s” sounds such as Spectral De-essing which uses EQ frequencies to target certain problem frequency ranges.
In conclusion, there are several music production plugins out there that can help you reduce or eliminate loud “s” sounds from music tracks at any given time during music production.
I recommend using one of the music production plugins mentioned within this article because they all can do a great job of reducing or eliminating loud “s” sounds in your music track to make it sound natural again.