De-essing

De-essing originated in 1939 at Warner Bros. for film soundtracks. In the 1960s, Ortofon used treble limiting in vinyl cutting. The 1970s saw the first dedicated units like the Orban 516EC. The dbx 902, released in 1980, became a studio standard and shaped modern designs. ==Causes of excess sibilance==

Excess sibilance can be caused by compression, microphone choice and technique, and even simply the way a person's mouth anatomy is shaped. Ess sound frequencies can be irritating to the ear, especially with earbuds or headphones, and interfere with an otherwise modulated and pleasant audio stream. ==Process==

De-essing is a dynamic audio editing process, only working when the level of the signal in the sibilant range (the ess sound) exceeds a set threshold. De-essing temporarily reduces the level of high-frequency content in the signal when a sibilant ess sound is present. • Apply an equalization filter to quiet the determined frequency band by −4 dB to −11 dB during ess-frequency time events. The rise and fall time of the filter should be fast (less than 10 ms) in order to clip the sibilance-specific instances only. ==See also==