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Audio: Any Good "De-Esser" Software?

by James Liberty
16 replies
I need to "de-ess" some audio files that I created in Audacity. Does Audacity have this capability? If not, can anyone recommend some good de-essing software (or an Audacity plugin) for this?
#audio #deesser #good #software
  • Profile picture of the author James Liberty
    Paging Josh Anderson... paging Josh Anderson...
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  • Profile picture of the author jlandells
    Though I've not used it myself, the popular vote seems to go with Spitfish (Google it!). To use it though, you'll need to set Audacity up to work with VST's. You can get more info on this at Audacity VST Enabler

    Hope this helps!

    -John.
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    • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
      James,

      Sibilance is hard to remove without introducing other artifacts into the recording or making it sound "dull". With that said, Spitfish is probably your best free option.

      Sibilance is mostly in the 5-10khz range, so to help reduce it in the first place try recording with the EQ down a bit in that range. Best to use a parametric EQ to pinpoint the most offending frequencies so that you can notch them out. There are good free VST parametric EQ's you can download and plug into Audacity if you use the VST enabler.

      Another option is to put something over the mic that will dampen the upper frequencies a bit - like a thick foam windscreen or cotton sock.
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    • Profile picture of the author Raydal
      Originally Posted by jlandells View Post

      Though I've not used it myself, the popular vote seems to go with Spitfish (Google it!). To use it though, you'll need to set Audacity up to work with VST's. You can get more info on this at Audacity VST Enabler

      Hope this helps!

      -John.
      I installed the VST and spitfish but I don't see these options show up in Audacity.
      Where should you be able to access them?

      I placed spitfish in "C:\Program Files\Audacity\Plug-Ins\VST Bridge" folder.

      -Ray L.,
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      The most powerful and concentrated copywriting training online today bar none! Autoresponder Writing Email SECRETS
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      • Profile picture of the author jlandells
        Hi Ray,

        Yeah, that's the obvious place to put them, however, it's not the RIGHT place to put them...!

        The VST Bridge is based partly on code developed from Steinberg (which is why it's a seperate download) so it expects either to have a parameter set in the OS which tells it where to find VST plugins, or else it expects you to use the defult folder:

        C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins

        Obvious, isn't it???? (NOT!)

        Once you put the 3 dll's in here, they should be available when you next start Audacity. Note though, that you don't get any fancy GUI's in Audacity - just direct access to the parameters!

        Hope this helps!

        -John.
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        • Profile picture of the author Raydal
          Originally Posted by jlandells View Post

          Hi Ray,

          Yeah, that's the obvious place to put them, however, it's not the RIGHT place to put them...!

          The VST Bridge is based partly on code developed from Steinberg (which is why it's a seperate download) so it expects either to have a parameter set in the OS which tells it where to find VST plugins, or else it expects you to use the defult folder:

          Crogram FilesSteinbergVSTPlugins

          Obvious, isn't it???? (NOT!)

          Once you put the 3 dll's in here, they should be available when you next start Audacity. Note though, that you don't get any fancy GUI's in Audacity - just direct access to the parameters!

          Hope this helps!

          -John.
          Who would figure? OK< I did that but I don't see the options under any menu item.
          Where should the options show up? "Generate" "Effect" Analyze"?

          Thanks for your help,

          -Ray L.,
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          The most powerful and concentrated copywriting training online today bar none! Autoresponder Writing Email SECRETS
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          • Profile picture of the author jlandells
            Assuming you have vst-bridge.dll in C:\Program Files\Audacity\Plug-Ins and the 3 VST's in C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins (and that you've re-started Audacity) they should be in the "Effects" menu. (See attached screenshot)

            Note that the menu is alphabetical, so you may have to scroll down, using the small arrow at the bottom.

            Hope this helps!

            -John.
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            • Profile picture of the author Raydal
              Thanks John for all your help but it's still not showing up for and
              have it exactly as you pointed out--I'll go do everything over
              again and see if I get a different results.

              Thanks again!

              -Ray L.,
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              The most powerful and concentrated copywriting training online today bar none! Autoresponder Writing Email SECRETS
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  • Profile picture of the author BrianMcLeod
    Brandon is 100% correct (another audio geek among us, cool!). De-essers by their very function introduce artifacts and alter the balance of the audio. They are essentially EQ at their core.

    Audacity is not really the ideal tool for this but I would try zooming in, marking each SSS, then knock each instance down a few db with a pencil tool (which redraws the audio waveform).

    That will de-emphasize the sibilance without altering the overall timbre or tone of the voice track as you would with a cheap or free de-esser.

    Like anything, with audio there's a degree of finesse involved and practical experience that comes into play in terms of your outcome. The less experience you have with advanced audio editing the less likely that you'll get a satisfactory result without a fair amount of playing around with it.

    Doesn't mean it's not worth doing (it is...) just means that you shouldn't give up just because you can't push a button and have it come out perfect in 10 seconds.

    On the other hand of this equation is whether or not it's faster to just RETRACK it with attention to mic technique and minding your S's.

    Copy a snip of the worst sibilance and let me hear it, James and I'll be able to give you better advice.

    Brian
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    Brian McLeod
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Peters Benn
    I think training your talent to speak a slower and more from the stomach might help a little. Lots of water and pop shield.
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  • Profile picture of the author James Liberty
    Ok, this stuff is way over my head. Maybe I'll just hire someone to do it for me. :p
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  • Profile picture of the author jlandells
    Hey James,

    We got Ray up and running - are you up for giving it one last try?

    -John.
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  • Profile picture of the author James Liberty
    Anyone know if there is a good EQ plugin for Audacity? You know, something that I could adjust before I record? (I'd really hate to go through the hassle of connecting an external soundboard for this).
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    • Profile picture of the author bengro
      I tried the instructions:

      1) installed audacity 1.3.14 (beta) on my 64 bit Win 7 OS
      2) installed the vst-bridge.dll to \Program Files (x86)\Audacity 1.3 Beta (Unicode)\Plug-Ins
      3) installed the spitfish.dll (and other dlls) to C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins

      Launch Audacity and the plug-ins are not loaded.
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      • Profile picture of the author osso
        There is an open source (GPL) de-esser software here: de-ess
        It will compile on Linux/Unix platforms - not sure about Windows.

        It uses Temporal Sibilance Processing which has the advantage that most of the speech file is left untouched (the samples are directly copied from source to destination). Only fricatives that are long enough and loud enough are filtered. The advantage of this approach over traditional approaches is that the clarity of the remaining speech is completely unaffected.
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  • Profile picture of the author stoltingmediagroup
    @ OSSO, The OP (Original Post) was made in 2008.
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