exit wrote on Fri, 30 April 2004 07:30 |
I work in Alsihad every day.
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First off - do we have to use that ridiculous nickname here, I understood that bs is to be restricted to MARSH.
I always use the Waves DeEsser, Renaissance Comp, and Renaissance EQ 4.As others have said here the bar is a lot higher now for digital eq/comp with the introduction of the Sony Oxford plugs and the MDW eq. These may be cleaner than you are used to but I personally would rather have clean and controlable eq and comp and then add my colour (probably necessary for Hip-hop) if desired using plugs like the Inflator, Lo-Fi, Analog channel, DUY Valve/Tape and the Cranesong Phoenix. I don't think it is unfair to Waves to say that those plugs are compromising your vocal chain.
Any bones you wanna throw would be great. I'm all for experimenting but we work on so many songs in a day that I never have time to play and try new things. I figure you are working far higher up the ladder than I but you simply have to make the time to demo the newer plugs, the difference is night and day and you will seriously regret not doing so sooner.
As for the ess problem the Waves De-esser (not Ren) can work acceptably on some singers but this is pretty rare. I was de-essing manually for serious mixes in the fashion other have described but it was time consuming (I still de-pop manually - HPF OXFEQ). Recently I took some time to experiment with a particularly essy vocalist and set up an OXF compressor last in the vocal chain. I used the internal eq to eq the sidechain and finally arrived at a setting that was remarkably transparent. The OXF allows very accurate and responsive control over attack, hold and release times which is the key to avoiding smearing. Also as it is fullband compression you are avoiding unneccesary spliting of the signal as per the Waves De-esser.
Those using the OXF DYN should try the above, it was a revelation for me and has allow me to add acceptable amounts of high end to dull but essy vocals,
cheers,
Ruairi