Selig DeEsser - other uses (besides vocals)?

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challism
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09 Mar 2015


I remember reading on the old PUF (R.I.P.) that someone was using the Selig DeEsser on his/her acoustic guitar tracks. 

Does anybody have any suggestions of other uses for the fantastic product, other than vocals?  What are some other ways you use this RE?
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pushedbutton
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09 Mar 2015

Well you know that 'Essing' sound that things make, it could be useful for sorting that out.
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challism
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09 Mar 2015


Ya think so?

I'm not sure about any 'Essing' sounds, but I make a lot of 'Effing' sounds.
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mbfrancis
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09 Mar 2015

I asked about this on the old board.  It may have other uses, but it is 100% designed for vocal sibilance AFAIK, and does that extremely well.  It is not a dynamic EQ that dips at a set frequency at a set bandwidth (like the de-esser combinator), so it doesn't work for me on acoustic fret noise, or de-honking a vocal at 2.5k, two use cases I have all the time.
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selig
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09 Mar 2015

It is possible for it to work on fret noise in some cases, but as mbfrancis says it's not a dynamic based device. But since fret noise is similar to sibilance, there are some cases where it will work well for this.

But I should add it was not tested nor were the algorithms tweaked to work for this application. One of the major advantages of our approach is that it works so reliably and precisely on sibilance without any setup or fine tuning. But it's also a disadvantage only in the sense that that is all you can do 100% reliably with this device. 

So the answer in this case is a strong "maybe"!!!
;)
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dvdrtldg
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09 Mar 2015

I like that you can send the sibilance to its own mix channel and process it independently. Obviously great for routine studio use, but also opens lots of possibilities for interesting "niche" effects.

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selig
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09 Mar 2015

dvdrtldg wrote:I like that you can send the sibilance to its own mix channel and process it independently. Obviously great for routine studio use, but also opens lots of possibilities for interesting "niche" effects.
Indeed - by processing the sibilance differently you can do interesting things. The obvious one is adding reverb to the voice but not the sibilance (or adding the sibilance at a much lower level). This can help keep from "splatting" the reverbs with excessive sibilance. Works for delays too, and don't forget to try flangers/phasers both on voice only and on sibilance only!

Distortion can turn sibilance to white noise at extremes, so distorting the voice but not the sibilance (or distorting the sibilance less) can actually help retain intelligibility in distorted vocals.

Finally, the obvious applications: you can brighten the EQ on the voice while not affecting the sibilance in any way when they are processed separately - very handy! You can also compress the voice and the sibilance differently to get the best of both.

I'm sure there are other even more creative applications that haven't occurred to me, so if anyone stumbles upon one please do share!
:)
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gak
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09 Mar 2015

There is a video floating around about using it for electric guitars (waves maybe? ) so it's a doable thing. When I was looking into it the deEssers I tried didn't seem to do the same job.

Edit, here it is. 

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challism
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10 Mar 2015


Thanks for contributing to this thread, everyone.  These are exactly the kinds of ideas I was hoping would be discussed here.
Hey Selig, what about the idea of running the sibilance out thru The Echo's breakout?  I wonder what kind of madness that would cause?  I'm going to try it now.  I'll bet it gets loud and (white) noisy! :)
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challism
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10 Mar 2015


On a Kong drum track, I routed DeEsser's sibilance output to The Echo's breakout input.  Then routed the breakout output in The Echo input.  It's actually a really cool effect... kind of a reverse cymbal trick.  The De-Esser seems like a great tool to cut some of the high pitched snare drum sounds and cymbals/hats from your drum track and reroute them to do some percussive tricks!

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ebop
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10 Mar 2015

This is what I was trying to find out about the De-esser re hats and cymbals, thanks Challism.

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PSoames
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10 Mar 2015

I use it for flute; but then I'm a sloppy and sometimes over-enthusiastic player.

I'm looking forward to the Selig de-spittler until then I'll keep high stocks of Kleenex.

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challism
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10 Mar 2015

And I'm eagerly awaiting the Selig De-Shitter to help me clean up my sloppy guitar playing.  :)
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