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Preamp for vocals. Need de-esser and parametric eq. On a budget.

A

AlexanderB

Feb 25, 2007
4,204
2,183
Sweden
#1
Looking for a dedicated preamp / channel strip for vocals. The female lead singer in the band has aggresive sibilants, so a de-esser is a must. I also need a parametric eq to scoop out some of her high mids / low treble region. Just sweepable will not cut it, I am afraid, as they are generally too wide. Here we need a high Q, deep cut.
(And no, changing mics etc will only get me so far. I have tried a number of dynamics and "stage condensers" combined with various compressors, and need more tools to choose from.)

I intend to use the preamp for both recording and live performance so a rack mount unit would probably be best.
Prefereably below $350.
 
#3
The dbx286s exists, is in your price range, and has most of the features you wan't. I'm not a big fan of the sound of this line of dbx gear in general, I used the 266xs. Maybe this one sounds better and will be more reliable?

The old dbx586 sounds good, but doesn't have a de-esser.

I don't know all the gear out there, but all you are asking for in a hardware unit probably doesn't exist in that price range. A digital board with lots of processing options like the presonus studiolive would do ya nicely if you are willing to rethink the price range and consider a more radical change.
 
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#4
The Symetrix 528E seems to have what you want, I've never used it.

I've also never used a de esser live. If enough cymbals bleed into the vocal mic it's going to do weird things. Without a dedicated sound person it might be more trouble than it's worth. I might use a graphic eq on the mains to notch out the harshest sibilants.
 
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#5
You can use a laptop live also. It doesn't take much of a laptop to run a de-esser and eq

Then pick up a few vst's
Free VST Plugins: The Best VST De-Esser Effects...

It easy to add other things like compression vst.

Waves has a buy-one get another VST for a $1 going on now. Nice plugins.

Digital mixers also have a lot of this stuff built in to their OS (which is likely Linux)
 
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#6
Thank you for the detailed replies - much appreciated.
I have realized I had sort of a brain fart - both my tc electronic C300 (compressor) and tc electronic M-ONE XL have dedicated patches for de-essing!

I will give them a try tonight and see how it turns out. The C300 is discontinued and sought after, it seems. They rarely if ever pop up second hand. The M-ONE XL is still available new, and cheaper than most preamps. As I think the pres in my Soundcraft mixer are OK, getting a second M-ONE is probably the easiest way out, if the de-essing patch is acceptable.
 
#7
So, for posterity:

Both the above units contain de-esser functionality. The C300 has two different programs for de-essing.
One did not do much for the vocal track I tried it on, but the other worked surprisingly well. The controls affect threshold, ratio, attack and release. Frequency and q cannot be adjusted, but I felt no need to do so.

In M-ONE XL, there are the above adjustments + high resolution frequency selection as well.

Both machines work well, in a smooth, unobtrusive way, just like the other functions they do. If anything, I was slightly preferring the C300 for my test. And the de-essing function also worked well to pull back that harsh, ear piercing high mid that I thought I needed a parametric eq for!
This little test was more successful than I had hoped!
 
#8
If de-essing is that much of a concern there are also mic technique and placement considerations that should be considered. As a bonus, these things are free and require no additional space in your rack! Poke around online for a ton of resources on this.

I had a particularly sibilant vocalist in my studio a while back and de-essing just made her tracks sound lispy because of how sibilant she was. Backing her off the mic a bit and positioning it to be slightly off-axis (around 15-degrees or so) easily reduced the sibilance by 25% if not more. You lose a little top end, but based on the needs of the EQ you mentioned this would probably be a good thing. This is just one solution. There are many more. That particular vocalist ended up with tracks that didn't sound lispy, still had some noticeable sibilance, but were definitely usable in the final product.
 

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