Disappearing tracks after de-essing!

[Dr.D]

I’ve got a weird problem: Every time I apply the spitfish or lisp de-esser I have have installed to a track. EVERYTHING but the sibilants vanishes! I’m left with a track of the hisses! What is happening to my tracks? Has anyone got any ideas? I’m new to both Audacity and these devices…so any help would be great, and thank you!

[kozikowski]

Our DeEsser doesn’t have this, but some programs have a selector:

[X] Remove Essing
[_] Remove Everything else.

The second choice lets you see if you’re removing some of the valuable voice by accident.

Our Noise Reduction tool has a setting like that.

Koz

[Dr.D]

Thanks, mate! Mine has nothing specifically so labeled, but perhaps one of the settings is acting in this way. I’ll be back on it tomorrow!

[kozikowski]

There’s another possibility, too. DeEssers are difficult to setup and use. I thought ours was a ghost or rumor until I found how to use it with our published audiobook mastering system. Suddenly, boop, it gracefully removed all the harsh SS sounds in my presentation, just like it says on the tin.

I’m a fan.

The latest recommendation from ACX has you not using home condenser microphones because of the piercing, harsh, gritty sibilance effects they create.

Koz

[Engineerer]

I’m having the same problem the original poster had, when trying to use Spitfish. Even using a recommended pre-built xml file to establish the settings, all I can get is a useless track showing what was taken out, rather than what should still remain, and I cannot find any option that will allow me to reverse that effect.
And, I do not understand the reference to “Our DeEsser” by kozikowski; does Audacity have some sort of built-in de-esser? If so, where can I find it?
Long story short – I’ve started a new thread, under the “Making Music” section, for a 2020 update on best de-essers, divided into price categories (free; less than $100; less than $200). It should be approved by a moderator, and available as a public thread, fairly soon. I would greatly appreciate any guidance, from those with experience in this particular area.

[steve]

I’m having the same problem the original poster had, when trying to use Spitfish.

You have been sent a reply here: 2020 UPDATE - BEST DE-ESSER PLUG-INS

I do not understand the reference to “Our DeEsser” by kozikowski

I’d guess he’s referring to the “Nyquist plug-in” de-esser by Paul Licamelli: Updated De-Clicker and new De-esser for speech

I’ve started a new thread, under the “Making Music” section, for a 2020 update on best de-essers, divided into price categories (free; less than $100; less than $200)

Please be aware that because this is a very busy forum, it gets targeted by spammers. Topics like “Best … for under $100” tend to attract a lot of spam.
For the benefit of all users, we have a blanket policy of “No Advertising”.
If that topic attracts too much attention from spammers, it will be removed.
Any posts to that topic that are considered to be “advertising”, will be removed.

[kozikowski]

I do not understand the reference to “Our DeEsser” by kozikowski

This is one of them by Paul L.

Updated De-Clicker and new De-esser for speech

Here are the latest improvements to the plug-in I am developing for filtering out of wet mouth noises and clicks from my narrations. I also present a de-esser using similar methods that fell out as a by-product. De-Clicker is designed for filtering of natural but undesirable noises that take a few milliseconds to decay, not for repairing spikey damage to a digitized signal. I did not intend this for music or vinyl repair, but I would like to hear whether it has unexpected other uses. The def…

There’s another. Looking.

This is Steve’s.

Please help with de-sser.

Here’s a plug-in that I’ve put together based on the above description. I’ve only done basic testing, and don’t have a good selection of sibilant speech recordings to test with, but from limited tests it seems to work reasonably, though a bit fiddly to set up. Previewing the “Residual” (the “S’s”) helps, as does checking the frequency response in Plot Spectrum. I’ve commented just about everything so that you can see what it’s doing and how, so hopefully it will be a useful starting point for…

I think Steve’s was an experiment and I’m not sure how much of a finished product it is.

If needed, I use Paul L’s DeEsser after audiobook Mastering at these settings.

The plugin is level dependent, so unless you get insanely lucky, you have to do something to your voice track to put it into the DeEsser range. I Master a voice track first and then apply the DeEsser if needed. ACX has loudness requirements, so the RMS (Loudness) setting effect of Mastering is perfect.

As near as I can tell, Paul L did that way to keep the action of the tool above background noise.

Koz (not a developer)