De-Esser

This is based on the De-Esser found in the flagship iLive console. It emulates the classic Auto-Threshold circuit commonly found on high end De-Essers. It produces a constant sibilance (Ess) reduction at any signal level resulting in a more natural De-Essing process than Threshold based De-Essing where sibilance is reduced at high level and not at low level.

The De-Esser features an adjustable frequency for the “Ess”, and a listen button to allow monitoring of the sibilant region on the PAFL bus. The response is adjustable to allow the user to choose between slow to fast to suit vocal programme. The amount of reduction applied to the sibilant region is also user configurable. An LED bar is used to provide visual feedback of the amount of reduction applied to the sibilant region. A readout of the frequency control is provided to the side of the frequency rotary.

There are two independent channels for left and right. A link control is provided to match the controls of the right channel to those of the left channel.

Listen - A momentary switch used to monitor the ‘ess’ band (to which the gain reduction will be applied). This allows the user to ensure the frequency control is set to an appropriate position. The Listen button is independent of the “Link” configuration so that even when Link is set, the left Listen monitors the left channel and the right Listen monitors the right channel. The left/right Listen buttons cannot be used simultaneously.

Frequency - Adjusts the lower boundary of the region thought to contain sibilance. This will typically be around the 6kHz range. The user will adjust the value to capture the “ess” heard on the channel. The frequency is adjustable from 3kHz to 8kHz. Like many advanced De-Essers this is not a simple notch filter. Typically you need to set the frequency slightly lower than the centre frequency of the ‘ess’.

Reduction - Provides control over the gain reduction applied to the selected frequency band. At “Min”, the De-Esser will not attenuate the band. At “Max” the De-Esser will attenuate the band by up to 24dB.

Response - Adjusts the speed with which the De-esser responds to the presence of ess/sibilance. Medium setting corresponds to the speed found on the iLive platform. Fast setting is much faster, and Slow is roughly half the response time of iLive. To avoid slight artifacts in vocal programme try using the Slow or Medium settings.

Link - Forces the left and right De-esser channels to be matched. If the two channels have different, non-zero settings and the link control is activated, the right channel settings will be set to match those of the left channel. If the link control is then de-activated, the right channel will then restore the settings it had before the link was initially activated.