Until e²deesser, I had stopped using de-essers and started using breakpoint automation moves to turn down the S and other annoying noises. That was because all other de-essers, while reducing the S sounds also compromised the overall sound of the vocal at the same time--either they roll-off the high frequencies, are too hard to set reliable or compress extremely or do all of the above!

I tried e²on a problem male lead vocal track in Pro Tools 12. I liked the simple, two main parameters: Sensitivity and Amount. With the Auto control fully CCW, the Sensitivity control works like the attack time of a compressor/limiter to set how fast e² grabs the S. The Amount control dials in how much de-essing you'd like. And that is about it unless you'd like to shape the S sound with the Auto and Smooth sibilant controls.

Eiosis e2deesser Main Controls

Auto adjusts the frequency response of the sibilants; it sounds like a low pass filter on just the sibilants--increasing Auto adds more sibilant frequency points. Some singers have several different S and fricatives that would require more than one, single-frequency de-esser in the vocal processing chain!

The Smooth control saturates the detected S; it mellows out its harshness! The Eiosis' e²deesser finishes with switchable wide-band EQ controls and sibilants' EQ monitored and visually represented on a transport-synched, color-coded spectrogram display. Its horizontal centerline represents the center frequencies of either the bell shaped or the corner frequencies of the shelving filters.

For eliminating even the most severe sibilant problems, get the Eiosis e²deesser; it sells for $99 downloadable and requires an iLok 2 dongle to run.