EQing Vocal Instead of Using a De-esser | Adding Thickness + Clearing all Nasty esses

If you want to reduce sibilance on a vocal track, the most direct way to go is to open a de-esser plugin. Such plugins combine EQ and dynamics processing to zap sibilance—which typically resides in the 5kHz to 10kHz range—when it occurs. But, there’s more than one way to deal with those pesky “esses,” as you'll see in this excerpt from Start to Finish: Jimmy Douglass - Episode 12 - Mixing Part 2. In it, Jimmy de-esses the vocal track of singer Jared Evan by using an EQ plugin. Surprisingly, his most consequential adjustment is in the midrange, below the typical sibilance area. Read on to find out how he did it. Read more: About Jimmy Douglass: Jimmy Douglass (also known as The Senator) is an American four-time Grammy-winning recording engineer and record producer, whose prolific career has spanned more than four decades. During the 1980s, Douglass continued to hone his engineering skills while also taking on the ro