Massey Plugins Massey De-Esser

After downloading the great demo of the Massey De-Esser from their website, installation was a breeze and I was able to use the plug-in in Pro Tools within minutes.  Across the board, there isn’t anything to complicated about this plug-in, but it can really do a ton of things for you.  The interface is a bit more complicated than some of the other Massey plug-ins, but that isn’t saying it is hard at all as most Massey plug-ins are incredibly easy to use.  The Massey De-Esser gives you parameters for reduction, frequency, dry/wet, and a series of filtering options.  It also has two meters that will show you the overall output and the reduction.  This is definitely one of the best de-esser out there that I have seen in terms of what you can do with it.  Unless you are unfamiliar with de-essers in general, a manual isn’t necessary.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

While the Massey De-Esser will take up a bit more processing power than most of the other plug-ins in Massey’s great line of software, since de-esser aren’t usually used as often as the others, this isn’t too much of a problem.  At most I have used two of these at a time and had no problem doing so, but most of the time I only have one up.  I run the Massey De-Esser on a Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM.  I use the plug-in in Pro Tools LE 7.4 and have also used it on a Pro Tools HD system.  While it largely depends on the machine and configuration that you running it with, you shouldn’t have too much trouble running the Massey De-Esser.

OVERALL OPINION

I only first used the Massey De-Esser a few months ago and I wish that I had started to use it earlier because it really is one of the best de-esser that I have used.  It is quite easy to use while still maintaing versatility and a lot of options.  I’ve only used this plug-in for vocals, but I could imagine it coming in handy on other things if you wanted to get creative.  Even if you don’t think you would use a de-esser often enough to warrant purchasing this, at least do yourself a favor and download the great demo that they have available as I know you will be hooked on it and Massey’s other great plugs!