De-esser before Compressor?

pmikep wrote on 11/1/2015, 9:59 AM

I suppose this is more of an audio question, but since I do de-essing in MEP, a question: I watched some YouTube videos about using de-essers and the consensus is that one should use a de-esser first on voice and then a compressor. So I've been doing it wrong in MEP because I use MEP's Compressor feature in the "audio cleanup" of my voice track and then I use a de-esser plug-in on that voice channel in Mastering.

There is no way I see to use a plug-in de-esser from the time line audio cleanup feature. I could use the de-esser on the voice channel in the Master suite and compress on the combined track. But then that compresses everything. (Music, atmosphere, etc.) Is there a way to de-ess and then compress on only the voice channel in the Master Suite? I haven't looked at the built in wave editor yet. Does it support plug-ins for de-essing?

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 11/1/2015, 11:13 AM

You can do what you want -

Apply the De-esser plug-in to the voice channel.

Open the Mixer (M key) and click the FX button for the track the voice is on, select the Compressor, set it and apply.

HTH

John EB

browj2 wrote on 11/1/2015, 11:31 AM

Which version of MEP are you using 2015 or 2016, and basic or Plus or Premium? You indicated that you have tried 2016 but did you purchase it?

There is a problem with 2016 Plus/Premium. The plugin slots in the Mixer have disappeared. The manual shows them, but they are gone from the Mixer.

@John EB, please confirm.

Here are the images from 2016 Premium first, 2015 Premium second:

Another alternative is to use Music Editor 3 to edit externally. To restrict it to a track and a range, there are some tricks. ME3 comes with MEP Plus and Premium as the default external editor. Let us know if you want to know more about ME3.

johnebaker wrote on 11/1/2015, 2:09 PM

@ John CB

. . . . The plugin slots in the Mixer have disappeared. The manual shows them, but they are gone from the Mixer.. . . .

Confirmed - I think the maual has not been updated in this area - the Mastering Suite in MEP 2016 has had a complete redesign and looks nothing like the old one as shown in the manual.

To access the plugins from the Mixer click the appropriate FX button (track or master) to open the Mastering Suite, select the + button bottom left - the plugins are now available.

I now have the MDynamics Equalizer plugin working - once the path is set in program settings.

I vaguely remember seeing somewhere that MEP 2016 came with an 'All new Mastering Suite'

John EB

pmikep wrote on 11/1/2015, 2:25 PM

Hi John and John:

Yes, I was referring to MEP 2016 Plus. Long story about getting a refund, but plan to repurchase when a sale comes by again.

I had mentioned in passing somehere here in the forum (or perhaps I was going to and never did) that the old triangles for adding plug-ins in the old Master Mixer were gone from MEP 2016. It took me a while to find the new way to add plug-ins.

Thanks for the instructions on how I can de-Ess before Compress. I know about ME3, but as I said before, I haven't seen it support plug-ins. It's more like Audacity.

Hi

@ John CB

. . . . The plugin slots in the Mixer have disappeared. The manual shows them, but they are gone from the Mixer.. . . .

Confirmed - I think the maual has not been updated in this area - the Mastering Suite in MEP 2016 has had a complete redesign and looks nothing like the old one as shown in the manual.

johnebaker wrote on 11/1/2015, 2:37 PM

@ pmikep

. . . . It took me a while to find the new way to add plug-ins. . . . .

Me as well - does not help that the manual is incorrect on how to use plugins with the new Mastering Suite interface - my previous post has been modified accordingly.

John EB

browj2 wrote on 11/8/2015, 10:55 AM

My problem was that I had not added the path to the VST's, so nothing happened when I clicked on the +.

The new Mixer FX feature is certainly quite a change. I first saw this new interface in the trial of Audio & Music Lab 2016 Premium. Now it is in MusicMaker and I expect that it will also be in MusicStudio, Samplitude MusicStudio, and then in the next version of Samplitude Pro X, which should generate a lot of noise on the Pro forum. It takes a bit of getting used to, but I think that it is better than just having 2 plugin slots plus the other builtin tools. Everything is now shown together.

What has not yet been modified is Music Editor 3, the external editor that comes with Movie Edit Pro Plus/Premium and MusicMaker Premium. This will probably come in the next version to make it look more like the new Audio & Music Lab with the new user interface.