SIBILANT DEES
28 August 2014
The recently announced XILS DeeS, a de-esser plug-in for Windows and iOS, has now become available to purchase.
Sibilance has been the bane of sound engineers since recording began. It can be caused by compression, microphone choice and technique, or simply a vocalist’s mouth. Generally speaking, sibilance lies anywhere between 2-10kHz, depending on the individual. Unfortunately, any technique used for de-essing your recording can inevitably cause audio artefacts. Which is exactly where XILS DeeS, the latest plug-in from XILS-lab, comes into play.
To use DeeS, all you do is tweak the ‘Detection Freq.’ knob and apply ‘Reduction’ as needed. Detection can be applied quickly, combining with proprietary ‘Plosive ‘detection to result in natural voices.
The software is more than just a de-esser, with its clearly labelled dual signal path with Solo buttons as well as associated sound sculpting controls for each channel — Voice EQ (colour coded in green) and Sibilant EQ (colour coded in orange). Additionally, there is a realtime frequency graph, showing four frequency bands sharing that same colour coding for instant correlation.
Unlike traditional de-essing tools, DeeS does not result in unwanted, unnatural-sounding filter sweeping effects, users can get creative with almost endless possibilities for altering, adapting, or applying polish to voices with those two independent EQ’ing paths (with analogue-style, zero-delay feedback filters). You can also use the software to create different effects other sounds, for example, transform drum sounds (by EQ’ing hi-hats or cymbals, for example) or even slap bass (by EQ’ing the more metallic-sounding element of such sounds).
XILS DeeS is available to purchase as a straightforward serial number-protected plug-in for €89.00 EUR (or $125 AUD) from the XILS-lab web store here: http://www.xils-lab.com/
The software can be directly downloaded as a 32- and 64-bit-compatible effects plug-in for Mac (AAX, AU, RTAS, and VST) and Windows (AAX, RTAS, and VST) from here: http://www.xils-lab.com/
Excerpts from Press Release
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