SONAR Production Tips – Building A ProChannel De-esser

Introduction

SONAR X3’s modular ProChannel allows users to take advantage of all the different aspects of a real mixing console. One great way of improving your vocal production is by using De-Essers to reduce the sibilant frequencies between 5-7kHz. The human mouth acts like a filter for words and sometimes certain words for certain singers can produce unwanted hissing sounds that get in the way of mixing. You can build your own De-Esser within the ProChannel by using the following steps.

 

  • Add two new busses to your Bus Section within the Console View. Name the first one “Main Track” and the other “Duplicate”.
  • On your vocal add a send and route it to the Duplicate Bus.
  • Route the output of the vocal track to your Main Track.
  • Add your default ProChannel compressor to “Duplicate” Bus. Right click on it and hover over “Replace Module” with the PC4k S-Type Compressor.
  • Make sure to turn on the side-chain capabilities for this Compressor.
  • On “Duplicate” bus route the output to the available side-chain of the compressor.
  • Engage the Quad-Curve EQ and boost whichever frequencies you feel are getting in the way of the quality of the vocal track. You can be drastic or not so drastic with your EQ depending on what you want.

Make sure that your ProChannel is activated on both tracks and then you’ll start to see how the Compressor reacts to any boosted frequencies in the Duplicate Bus.

Check out more on The Cakewalk Blog:

10 REASONS YOU WILL LOVE THE SONAR X SERIES

DEVELOPER NOTES – SONAR X3 QUADCURVE EQ (UI ENHANCEMENT)

DAW BEST PRACTICES: 11 EASY TIPS FOR PROJECT ORGANIZATION