This Audacity de-esser plugin does work, and is capable of surgical precision, but it’s complicated to operate, (the default settings are wrong IMO)
This Audacity de-esser plugin is simpler & faster, but less precise … Please help with de-sser. - #14 by steve
I will try a few of these plug-ins. I had no idea there were some many.
Thank you,
-Ron
I tested all of these and found that the Low Pass Filter option is still the best for me. What I did was if I run it through LP/Normalize and then compress/normalize I get what I want and without any additional costs.
One problem I ran into was I had to test the plug-ins on my windows box. For some reason, I could not install any of these plugins on my Mac set-up. Which is Mojave 10.14.3 and Audacity 2.3.0. In fact, there wasn’t even plugin directory. I have just reinstalled Audacity after a clean install of Mojave and this was the time I had a need for anything, but the pre-installed effects. Not sure what is happening there.
Best Regards and Thanks!
-Ron
found that the Low Pass Filter option is still the best for me.
At what settings?
In fact, there wasn’t even plugin directory.
It’s hidden.
From a clean desktop, Go (top of screen) > Go To Folder.
Don’t leave out any part of that address. The squiggly line at the front is important.
Koz
Low Pass Filter Effect - Freq = 6300.0 Hz with a roll-off of 24 dB - Subtle, but it SSSSSSeems to work 
Also, There’s that peaky plug-in Directory! Thank you for that. I had not installed a plug-in since I went MAC a few years ago.
Thank you,
-Ron
Thanks.
This is DeCrisper1.
The object was to find the little high-pitched “haystack” that these microphones cause and gently squash it back to where’s it’s supposed to be.
This is a Before. That’s 5KHz to 10KHz haystack or harsh presence boost.
So your filter crashes anything over 6300Hz. That means at 12600, most tones are gone. I need to try that.
Koz
Number One is Audiobook Mastering and no EQ. One has “SS” sounds that will drill wood and fog glass.
Two is the same clip with DeEsser carefully applied and tuned. Someone posted the DeEsser defaults could use work. They’re right.
Three is the same clip with 6300Hz-24dB applied.
Two has a pleasant balance between the SS sounds and the rest of the voice tones.
Three has the same problem DeCrisper1 has. It muffles everything down but leaves the haystack and slightly piercing SS sounds.
Koz
I like the second recording better as well. I have both Macro’s installed now and will play with the DeEsser.ny plugin using the defaults. Thank you for all your help on this. We will desssssstroy this evil SSSSSS and TTTTT!
-Ron
I like the second recording better as well.
I can show you how I did that when I get back to the grown-up computer.
There is a trick to it.
I, too, found the default DeEsser settings didn’t do squat, so on a whim, I Audiobook Mastered the test clip to guarantee technical standards and volume no matter how I started. Then I adjusted DeEsser Threshold more and more sensitive until it started to “grab” the essing. Then, from the clip’s spectrum analysis, I broadened the processed tones or frequencies more to match the ones I knew were causing problems.
Poof. A much tamer, pleasant presentation, and it should be repeatable.
As we go.
Koz
OK. To repeat.
Attached is the Steckler clip mastered according to this…
https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Audiobook_Mastering
…but otherwise clean. It passes ACX Check just fine but has very serious Essing.
Apply DeEsser, Attached.
DeEsser.ny (55.6 KB)
Effect > DeEsser…
At these settings…
Seems to work well.
If you watch the timeline blue waves as the tool works, you can see tiny blobs of wave here and there vanish. Those are the harsh SS sounds in the clip. If you don’t see it, you can Edit > UNDO and then Edit ReDo to see it again and again.
I did a frequency run before and after.
That haystack bump between 5000 and 10000 is Essing.
After DeEssing, it’s gone.
You might think you could just use an Equalization curve to do that, but that doesn’t work. I tried it. That just makes everything dull, muffled and muddy. DeEsser senses when the SS sounds are in excess and otherwise leaves everything alone. So it can turn acoustic ice picks into normal conversation.
Koz
This probably isn’t perfection. Having the tool start looking for trouble at 2500Hz is probably wrong. The Essing tonal boost doesn’t start until around 5000Hz, but again, this seems to work. I may have hit something desirable by accident. 3000Hz is baby screaming on a jet/fingernails on blackboard sound.
Wouldn’t hurt to have a few less of those.
Koz
I will try those setting now that I have the DeESSer plugin install on my MAC. Thank you for that!
-Ron
Well, I finished looking at the settings and I think I like them. I will have to see how it works on a full podcast before I add it to my post audio macro, but so far I like the subtle effect. It is not as harsh as my Low Pass Filter. Below you will find three tests. The first is the raw recording. The only thing I did was to silence the breaks. I would normally do this with a noise gate of about -32 dBish.
The second file is with Just the De-Ess plug-in (Settings: Threshold -25.0 dB Frequencies 2500 to 9559 - Everything else was left default)
The Third file is with my current Post of ( EQ - Normalize - Compress - Normalize) I ran my macro right after the DE-Ess, so it includes that as well. If you want the setting for those plug-ins I can share them with you.
Love to hear your feedback and thank you for taking the time to help a podcaster out.
Best Regards
-Ron
Steve’s De-Esser plugin for Audacity is here … https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/please-help-with-de-sser/48588/14
It still needs compression.
If you can find a multi-band compressor plugin for MAC*, that can de-ess & compress in one pass.
[ * I only speak Windows ]
EQ - Normalize - Compress - Normalize
Do you get anything desirable with the compression step? Really desirable? Compression can cause problems. For one thing, it means you are required to put noise reduction at the beginning of the process instead of at the end. Compression > Noise Reduction can cause noise pumping because Noise Reduction and Compression level shifting are fighting each other.
You mentioned Noise Gate. That’s another caution tool. It’s rough to get Noise Gate to sound natural and prevent leading and trailing noise tails. Also, it can sound a little weird when periodically, your monolog fades into blackness of space silence.
It sounds particularly weird if you have lots of noise because interword silences and intersentence silences won’t match.
[dead silence] shHELLOshANDshWELCOMEshTOshOURshSHOWsh [dead silence].
A reasonable microphone in a quiet, echo-free room goes a very long way to reducing your post production processing list.
I produced a voice test with a small, stand-alone sound recorder in a quiet room. I can pass ACX Audiobook Standards with just the three mastering tools.
Koz
I know this is an old post, but my answer might help people navigating here in search for DeEsser plugin support. My answers to Rontro809’s questions:
I know this thread is OOOOOOOLD, but I’d like to resurrect it. I’ve never had great luck with this De_Esser (though I did hit upon some settings that worked for MOST character voices in an Audiobook.)
The one shown above gave me a wicked lisp that I don’t actually speak with in real life.
“Thith ith a thtory about a thtoat and a wathp.” (This is a story about a stoat and a wasp.)
A couple years ago I wound up with:
-20
1.0
747 - 22050
10
5.0
… which seems to do better, though for female characters there’th thtill a little bit of a lithp, if you’re not careful.
I’m guessing the tool is fine if you apply it as tuned to a voice type, but if you’re swapping back and forth between 16-40 different characters ranging from bass to soprano, it’s a little less predictable. I’d love to find a good, modest, one-size-fits-all setting.
Where are the instruction videos? I have not yet found them.
Where did you look? Videos are typically found on Youtube.
Since thalueng’s post there is the new & improved desibilator plugin.
Also good free ToneBoosters DeEssers have since been released …
Free (v3) ToneBooster's plugins {64-bit PC & Mac}
[ BTW IMO AirWindows DeBess is not worth the effort of download ].