DeEsser removes or reduces harsh “ess” and “shh” sounds quickly and easily – for vocals, narration, podcasts and more.

Inspired by the vintage gear used for precision de-essing and high-frequency limiting, DeEsser is more important than ever as recordings boost high frequencies for intelligibility in narration, audiobooks, vocals and podcasts. Its gentle action can also reduce amp sim harshness, tame cymbals in drum loops and sweeten digital synthesizers. Choose the highpass sidechain mode for the widest range or the bandpass mode to zero in on problem frequencies, set the amount with the Threshold control as confirmed by the Attenuation meter, and select Split mode for maximum ess rejection or the gentler Wideband mode without a crossover.

Features

• Preview what is removed to home in on ess and shh sounds
• Frequency range from 2 to 16 kHz
• Split or wideband mode
• Highpass or bandpass filter for the sidechain
• Fast, efficient user interface
• Presets for male and female voice as well as full mixes

Technical details

• Operating systems: Windows, macOS
• Plug-in formats: VST3, Audio Unit (macOS only), AAX
• Architecture: 64 bit
• Licensing: licence key, machine-bound or USB flash drive (via Waves Central)

System requirements

• macOS 14 Sonoma, 15 Sequoia, 26 Tahoe or 27 Golden Gate (Apple silicon or Intel)
• Windows 10 64-bit (version 22H2) or Windows 11 (Intel or AMD, x64)
• 16 GB RAM
• 30 GB free disk space on the system drive

The licence is registered with the manufacturer at https://www.waves.com/downloads/central. You will receive your serial number and the download link by e-mail immediately after purchase.