Maybe the de-clicker program I shared some weeks ago could serve as a de-esser too with other settings. Make the block size very long (like 250ms) and limit the frequences to perhaps 4 to 10kHz. And 6 bands may be more than needed for good results in that octave and a half.
Did any of you try this before I thought to do it?
My concept of “essing” is a sound channel defect where instead of a real-life, natural “S” sound, the sound channel switches to something else (usually crashing overload, but not always). In my opinion, you can go a long way to solving the problem with a Noise Reduction-like tool. Collect enough “fake” S sounds as profile and tell noise reduction to suppress them in the rest of the show. The hard part will be substituting a natural S sound in the holes. It’s possible once the crashing S sound is suppressed, the original S sound will remain, although it’s also possible that the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause are real…
What do we use as Essing Damage samples? If you have it together enough to create samples, that process may be reverse-engineered to provide a solution.
Koz