Sibilance is the number one issue when it comes to recording things like spoken words and talk shows. The big issue is that you have those "shh" and "ess" sounds that really can kill your ears and sound utterly annoying. To combat that, you use a DeEsser. The Waves DeEsser is awesome and very simple to use. You have a simple slider that you adjust to reduce the amount of sibilance in a mix. There are also some small buttons to adjust the slope and how everything functions. To use this, you simply enable it on your vocal buss and start adjusting. I didn't experience any compatibility issues, so I can't comment on that. I never read the manual, but I don't think it's really necessary for these plugins. It's very easy and simple to use, so no issues there. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Waves plugins have always been some of the most stable plugins I've experienced. They're cross platform compatible, so they'll work with both PCs and Macs. As a Mac user, that's a huge advantage for someone like me. They run in 32 bit mode, but Logic uses a wrapper-like application that runs so you don't interfere with your 64 bit interface. I've tried this on various different buses, and it seems to work on anything with ease. It even works nicely on MIDI, which I found a bit surprising. There are no performance issues at all, and that's a huge plus when working in a DAW filled with all kinds of synths and tracks running tons of plugins. These plugins came with my Mercury package, and I've had that for a few months now. OVERALL OPINION This has saved me many times with spoken word mixes. Battling sibilance can be a total pain, but this plug makes it super simple. It's easy to use and easy to get a good result without much fiddling. For anybody who is having issues with vocals, I highly recommend checking this plugin out. It could potentially save your mix.
The process of installing the Waves Ltd. Renaissance Deesser wasn't hard at all as it only took a matter of minutes. Just follow the basic steps that are usually seen when installing any type of plug-in, as this plug-in is no different. I didn't have any problems at all relating to compatibility or otherwise and was able to learn how to use the plug-in rather quickly as well. The make up of the plug-in is easy to follow as it simply has parameters for frequency, type, mode, range, and threshold. The interface is user friendly as is the case with the entire line of Waves Renaissance plug-ins and I don't think a manual is necessary because of this. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE I've never had any problems with the performance of the Waves Ltd. Renaissance Deesser plug-in. It isn't a plug-in that will take up much processing power at all and for this reason as long as you have a decent system to run it on, I don't think you'll have any problems. I currently have the plug-in running on a Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM. I run the plug-in in Pro Tools LE 7.4 that runs with a Digi 002R audio interface and it runs the plug-in quite well overall. I've never had any lag or latency of any sort with this plug-in and don't expect that I will in the future. OVERALL OPINION The Waves Ltd. Renaissance Deesser is overall a great sounding deesser plug-in. I've used a number of these types of plug-ins in my day and this is up there with the best of them. I got the plug-in in the Renaissance bundle, so I'm not sure if and how much they charge for the plug-in on its own, but I would say it is worth it either way. The Renaissance plug-ins are a great collection, so if you are looking for a number of high quality plug-ins at a great price, definitely check out this bundle as you'll be getting this great deesser in addition.
