DMG Essence

[Hermetech Mastering]

Looks amazing, will wait a couple of weeks for reports to come in, and then buy it.

http://dmgaudio.com/products_essence.php

[djscorb]

Hi all!

Dave and the other geniuses at DMG Audio have indeed just launched "Essence"; a ridiculously powerful and flexible split band dynamics / de-essing processor.

DMG Audio : VST/AU EQ, Compression & Dynamic Processing



With too many features to mention here it has been painstakingly tweaked to offer unrivalled transparency and selectivity for dynamic frequency control in mastering as well as mixing and post production.

It can split the frequency of the signal with an array of filter types and with slopes up to 192dB. It can operate in M/S or L/R modes in minimum or linear phase and can also be set to process the full bandwidth in parallel should you wish!

It offers a vast amount of control with it's choice of detection types, linked or unlinked channel operation, upwards and downwards compression (per channel!!!), smoothing options, lookahead, oversampling and includes a comprehensive internal mixer and audition modes so you can hear exactly what's going on at any point within it's processing architecture.

There are a range of fantastically useful presets that really help to show off what Essence can achieve and that represent useful starting points for different processing strategies.

Bob Katz was involved with the development and has contributed a wonderful bank of presets too!

It has simple and advanced panels so you can simply select a preset and tweak a minimum of knobs for fast results or, if you are a tweaker, there is plenty of advanced stuff to get stuck into as well!

Cheers

Scorb

[aMUSEd]

I do not avoid plugins

but I do deny them my essence

[valhallasound]

My friend (and fantastic engineer) Don Gunn was raving about this plugin earlier today. Don says it is the best de-esser he has ever used.

[aMUSEd]

So far every de-esser I have tried has failed to remove the sibilance from the otherwise delightful Ms Nyro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRf7_qa__F8

is this plugin up to the "Gonna take a miracle" challenge?

[djscorb]

If Essence can't then you'll struggle to find anything else that will!

[poshook]

demoing....awesome, very musical, no "ssss" but transients are still there

[Monkberry]

This thing looks badass! Can't wait to demo it. I bought and use Equality daily but just finally downloaded the Equilibrium demo yesterday. Haven't spent enough time with Equilibrium to know if it is crucial to own on top of Equality but I have been looking for a great de-esser. This could be the one.

PS. Good to see somebody on KVR knows who Laura Nyro is.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Looks alot like sonnox surpresser with steeper crossover options. Look forward to trying it!

[djscorb]

I was close to buying Supressor but very glad I held off!

There are some things in Essence that really put other dynamic EQs and De-Essers in the shade.

Right clicking a node on the bottom graph (side-chain EQ or split band) auditions the side-chain or area you are processing which makes tuning in the problem area of a signal ultra fast. The fact that you can use different slopes either side of the split gives unique control that you won't find anywhere else.

The Butterworth filters allow you to control an extremely narrow area from a few hertz to a wide range with either smooth or very steep edges which can be a real life saver in some situations.

The EE Band Pass filter is very similar to the "auto-listen" filter in Equilibrium and lets you process single tones dynamically and can open up to process a wide area as well. Great for reducing feedback and rogue harmonics and tones.

It also works brilliantly as a wideband compressor and when set up in parallel (at a flick of a switch) it can really bring out a lot of extra detail in a full mix.

One thing that I am really excited about is the ability to cause reduction in either mid or side whilst only keying from the side signal.

De-essing and dynamic frequency reduction in mastering presents two problems that a processor of this type needs to solve. The first is selectivity, that is to say, ensuring the processor is only grabbing and affecting the element you want to control. The second is transparency and effectiveness of the reduction itself and the flexibility to apply it where it's needed in a signal.

Often in mastering, a sound or range that is in need of reduction is more exposed in the side signal relative to the rest of the mix. Attempting to isolate the problem in the mid channel or left or right often proves impossible and the processor will be grabbing more signal than just the rogue element you want to control.

Although in other plugins you can often go after such problems in the side signal, you are often limited as to what channel and frequency range you can then apply reduction to once you have that desired selectivity.

This is where Essence really comes into it's own.

When set up for the task it is possible to trigger gain reduction from any frequency area in the sides and use it to trigger reduction in the sides, mid or both. You can have it so that it compresses with a different ratio in either channel, in the same or different frequency range and with different timing constants. You could even choose to expand the mid channel whilst reducing the sides. The combinations and flexibility are staggering and for mastering it really is going to prove an invaluable asset. The price really could be double the extremely reasonably £99 when you look at other processors such as Sonnox Supressor and bx_dynEQ V2.

I know this plugin is going to be in constant use here and it will be a long time before I stop finding new and interesting ways to apply it's features

Cheers

Scorb

[Robmobius]

Anyone knows how it compares to FF-DS?

[Krzysztof Oktalski]

Anyone knows how it compares to FF-DS?

I do, but I'm biased!

We didn't make the claim that it was the world's greatest de-esser without being able to back it up, and we've gone a lot further than software comparisons, some of the worlds top mastering engineers have been shooting this out this month and nobody has been able to beat its results regardless of how expensive and esoteric the solution was (I always knew that smashing singers front teeth in to reduce sibilance was a bad idea, thankfully those days are over).

Of course, if anyone can demonstrate that any other de-esser has any attribute that can better ours, we will endeavour to get you a fix for that bug asap, but we think that highly unlikely as this game is about transparency of EQ and dynamics processing and Dave pretty much wrote the book on those subjects (actually Bob wrote the book, but we're on the cover!).

Thanks to everyone that purchased already, especially the ones in the first hour! Dave and I toasted each and every one of you, until it became apparent that was a very dangerous drinking game. Thankfully the booze ran out after half an hour; your faith is deeply appreciate and the e-mails have been great to read.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Anyone knows how it compares to FF-DS?

I do, but I'm biased!

We didn't make the claim that it was the world's greatest de-esser without being able to back it up, and we've gone a lot further than software comparisons, some of the worlds top mastering engineers have been shooting this out this month and nobody has been able to beat its results regardless of how expensive and esoteric the solution was (I always knew that smashing singers front teeth in to reduce sibilance was a bad idea, thankfully those days are over).

Of course, if anyone can demonstrate that any other de-esser has any attribute that can better ours, we will endeavour to get you a fix for that bug asap, but we think that highly unlikely as this game is about transparency of EQ and dynamics processing and Dave pretty much wrote the book on those subjects (actually Bob wrote the book, but we're on the cover!).

Thanks to everyone that purchased already, especially the ones in the first hour! Dave and I toasted each and every one of you, until it became apparent that was a very dangerous drinking game. Thankfully the booze ran out after half an hour; your faith is deeply appreciate and the e-mails have been great to read.

so you have compared it to the xils lab, and also the Selig DeEsser in reason?

Really, this much better than the sonnox surpressor? I can't wait to do a head to head....

From the detailed description above, it sounds *exactly* like the surpresser, except for one thing, i don't think that does mid side which is a big difference, but i haven't updated it in ages.

Also, can yours listen "outside" internal sidechain area?

i.e everything BUT what you are compressing?

[Robmobius]

Anyone knows how it compares to FF-DS?

I do, but I'm biased!

We didn't make the claim that it was the world's greatest de-esser without being able to back it up, and we've gone a lot further than software comparisons, some of the worlds top mastering engineers have been shooting this out this month and nobody has been able to beat its results regardless of how expensive and esoteric the solution was (I always knew that smashing singers front teeth in to reduce sibilance was a bad idea, thankfully those days are over).

Of course, if anyone can demonstrate that any other de-esser has any attribute that can better ours, we will endeavour to get you a fix for that bug asap, but we think that highly unlikely as this game is about transparency of EQ and dynamics processing and Dave pretty much wrote the book on those subjects (actually Bob wrote the book, but we're on the cover!).

Thanks to everyone that purchased already, especially the ones in the first hour! Dave and I toasted each and every one of you, until it became apparent that was a very dangerous drinking game. Thankfully the booze ran out after half an hour; your faith is deeply appreciate and the e-mails have been great to read.

Cheers for the input...

I'll be doing a lot of work with my band. And I produce a lot of sibilance when I sing (or shout I should say). So, I'll try the demo.

Ta',

R.

[djscorb]

...

Really, this much better than the sonnox surpressor? I can't wait to do a head to head....

From the detailed description above, it sounds *exactly* like the surpresser, except for one thing, i don't think that does mid side which is a big difference, but i haven't updated it in ages.

Also, can yours listen "outside" internal sidechain area?

i.e everything BUT what you are compressing?

Hi Theo

You can audition the side chain eq, split, the passband, the input and also the difference signal (the part of the signal being affected by processing) at a touch of a button. This is far more flexible than Supressor due to giving you access to a full set of the controls for each channel (simply hit the "Both" button in the menu bar and then you can alter the channels' controls independently).

Cheers

Scorb