I recently purchased the DeEsser plugin - it’s doing a strange thing - I have it assigned on the first 16 channels - when I do each channel passes signal to all channels - If I disable it the behavior goes away - I assume this is not the way it is supposed to work. It’s on FX 4 - which I don’t think makes a difference - does it?
Hello,
open the fx slot, where you have put the DeEsser on. Tap on the “Back Panel”. Do you have it as a “Mix → Return” or “Insert”?
While it is not impossible to use it as “Mix → Return” (by unassigning the single channels from Main LR and only using the fx return to Main LR for the audio to pass through), normally you use it as an insert on a specified single channel or on a group.
Audio passing the DeEsser is intended to REPLACE the original audio, not to supplement it like a reverb, for example. If you mix the audio that goes through that fx engine with the audio that bypasses it (dry/wet), you will get phase problems / comb filtering issues.
Correct routing would look like this, for example:
You unassign the first 16 channels from the “Main LR” mix and create a separate group (e.g., Grp1Vox; if you use panning on the individual channels, it must be a stereo group) to which you assign these 16 channels. The output of this “Grp1Vox” then goes back to “Main LR.”
Insert the DeEsser (in your case, “FX Unit 4”) into this group, and the channels 1-16 assigned to the group will then go THROUGH the DeEsser to the Main LR.
However, it remains to be seen whether you can achieve a good compromise setting for all types of sibilance (male, female).
I use DynEQ on the SQ on the Vox group because it allows me to filter problem frequencies more granularly.
I hope I guessed what you wanted to achieve…
Best regards,
HP
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I was using the individual channels to get kids, male and female settings - it makes sense to send it to a group and then DeEss the group globally - but as you surmised the compromise between the different inputs wasn’t acceptable to me.
I can’t image a scenario where a single de-esser would work effectively on a buss with 16 different vocal sources. There is going to be way too much variance between the vocals for it to be effective and there aren’t enough “bands” in the de-esser to catch them all.
It will be effective at catching the 2 frequencies it is assigned to, but the various vocals will have sibilance on a lot more than just those two frequencies. That “other” sibilance won’t be reduced at all. De-essers are really designed to be put on a single source and then “dialed in” to that particular sources sibilance area.
That being said, if you have the dynamic EQ plugin, you could potentially use it on a buss with several vocals at once. I would start out by setting the EQ bands to something like 4.5khz, 6.5khz, 8.5khz and 10.5khz (with as narrow a q as possible) and then adjust to suit the situation. Something like that would be pretty effective at reducing most sibilance, but will sound better than if you simply cut those frequencies out completely using a regular EQ (not dynamic EQ).
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Is there a Dynamic EQ Plug for the SQ7?
Yes, you can find it where you probably bought your De-Esser.