Ableton Tutorial: De-essing; 3 Methods & What it is

In this video tutorial I tell you what De-essing is, why it's done, and 3 ways of how to do it in Ableton Live & iZotope Ozone.

First, De-essing's aim is to reduce or eliminate the excessive prominence of sibilant consonants, such as "s", "z" and "sh", in recordings of the human voice. What all that jazz means is it's trying to get rid of the harsh sounds in and around h 4 kHz - 10 kHz range of a vocal / dialogue recording.

The harshness can and will vary between person to person, mic to mic, and amp to amp. Luckily there are a number of ways to accomplish De-essing.

There are dedicated plug-ins designed specifically for this process.

However, there are a number of other methods that can be utilized as well. This video tutorial will walk you through 3 methods; 2 of which use native Ableton Live devices and a third the uses iZotope Ozone's dynamic EQ.

Watch the Video Tutorial

Written tutorial below

Written Tutorial

Live's compressor preset "De-Esser".

This is a really good place to start if you are new to the concept. It delicately reduces the "esses" right off the bat. You can also add more attenuation, adjust the frequency target, and of course the compressors threshold to get more or lest of the effect.

ableton-live-de-esser-preset-compressor-free-tutorial
De-Esser preset for Ableton Live's Compressor Device
Using Live's Multiband Compressor

Getting the main ideas from the De-esser preset we can apply those same principles to the Multiband Dynamics compressor. Simply put in the frequency target for the top band and then begin to add compression via the threshold and input volumes.

multiband-dynamics-de-esser-preset-download-
De-Esser preset for Ableton Live's Multiband Dynamics
iZotope's Ozone - Dynamic EQ Module

This is my preferred method. Using the Dymanic EQ in Ozone we can really refine the area of the actual sibilant and only effect the ess-iness. Again the principles are the same as those mentioned above, but here we just have more control and fantastic visual cues to help!!

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De-Essing with iZotope Ozone's Dynamic EQ
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Joshua Casper Online:

[TJ-Thekid]

Hey 👋🏾 thanks for the video this helped me out a lot ❤❤❤❤❤

[stevenjakobi]

literally been trying to figure out a way to do this bc i only have ableton 11 intro (no multiband tool sadly), and your video showed me that there is actually a de-esser built in. didnt see it at all. thanks!

[jodadj]

Great tip with the izotope dynamic EQ, I couldn't get anything else to work. Thanks!!

[antoniovera]

It’s exactly what I’m looking for, I use Live 10

[lewchootrain]

So I know you used the EQ Ozone's dyamic eq feature at the end, but also I've seen videos on ozone's spectral shaper being able to take out things. Which do you prefer and or would you use one over the other in certain situations?

[SeeDMT]

i saw multiband open on the side and realized what an idiot i am thanks!

[AndrewDInSydney]

Hi Joshua, just wondering - is the reason you dont just use normal EQ that you dont want to kill those frequencies all the time - ie. they are necessary components of the vocal sound on other syllables so must be left in when not going crazy during Sss & Zzz etc.?

[Cylume.]

Or as Sean Connery says... "Shally Shellsh Sheashellsh down by the sheashore."

[GLRYBGD]

Thanks for not showing us how to use the Ableton stock De-esser.

[CrazyBlueChris]

I came here to learn about Ableton's De-esser. You basically just said "Ableton has its own de-esser, with these couple of features, " and moved on to the next option. That's not an explanation or tutorial.

[k-rom]

the audio here could use some de essing