D-essing plug-ins. Are there any avaiable?

[Chris R]

Are they any freeware or shareware d-essing plug-ins for Cool Edit Pro? I tried searching in Google and came up empty. I'm not even sure if this is the correct way to spell d-esser.

I was attempting today to rip the somewhat rare U.K. version of the first self titled "Slow Children" album to the computer to create a CD-R with. (That is the American alt. pop band from the early 1980s with Pal Shazar and Stephen Hague, not the 90s metal band.) Several of the songs including one of my favourites "Brazilian Magazines" has bad sibilance. I don't think using noise reduction, or hiss reduction (which I would never do in the first place) will help this.

I thought of using my Canadian pressing of the LP, but the two albums are different. There is only 9 songs in common between the two albums. The U.K. has two songs not on the U.S. version, and the U.S. version contains "Spring In Fialta" not found on the U.K. version. The cover is completely different as well.

I am aware that ABKCO used some d-essing software to remove some sibilance on a couple of Rolling Stones tracks during their remastering last year of the Decca/London catalogue. So there must be something out there. Hopefully I don't have to spend $200 on some high end, pro software.

Thanks. :)
________

Mike

[Grant]

There is a de-esser in Cool Edit. It's in the compressor. Use one of the presets as a starting point, as the presets are usually heavy-handed.

[Chris R]

Grant, I am using v 1.2.

Where exactly is this option?

Thanks.

[Grant]

Strange! I thought I just posted this.

Anyway, look under Transform/Amplitude/Dynamics Processor. This is the compressor.

[Chris R]

Thanks Grant. I tried De-Esser (Medium), De-Esser (Hard S), and De-Esser (Hard). None of them worked. De-Esser (Hard) also removed most of the high end. :rolleyes: Oh well. Back to the drawing board.

[Grant]

Originally posted by miike
Thanks Grant. I tried De-Esser (Medium), De-Esser (Hard S), and De-Esser (Hard). None of them worked. De-Esser (Hard) also removed most of the high end. :rolleyes: Oh well. Back to the drawing board.

No. Presets should only be used as a starting point! You have to actually play with the settings to see what will work. There is no easy way out! You have to do some work.

One more thing, de-essers DO change the tonality of your music. That's whay they are so hard to configure. What I do, if I use a de-esser at all, is ti highlight the offending sibliant and zap it with the de-esser. That way, only the problem area is treated and the toneality of the file is not changed. The spot fixed is so short that it won't be very noticable.