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Mixing Vocals 101: How to Mix Vocals Perfectly
by Ilan Adar, NoiseWorks CEO 15.08.2023
Table of Contents
GainAim 2.0
Enshape
The Dynamic Bundle.
For instruments, vocals,
mixing and mastering
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5 Steps to Build Your Own De-Esser
There are a lot of different de-essers out there, but to be honest, they aren’t always necessary if you understand your DAW.
You need to know how to use an EQ and a compressor with sidechain, and how to route a track to your compressor’s sidechain input.
- Duplicate your vocal track and rename it (e.g., “Vocal De-esser”).
- Add an EQ to your track and use two bands: one with a low-pass filter and the other with a high-pass filter.
- Adjust these filters to focus on the sibilants you want to reduce, then mute this track. Your EQ settings might look something like this.
- Next, load a compressor with sidechain onto your original vocal track and choose the duplicated vocal track as the sidechain input.
- After adjusting the threshold, ratio, and release, you’ve constructed your own de-esser. I recommend using a slow release and a fast attack, as this approach tends to be more subtle. However, be cautious: if you set the threshold too low or the ratio too high, your vocals might start to lisp. 😉
With De-esser
Without De-esser