Free Tonmann DeEsser VST plugin

Update: I just finished the work on version 1.2, which I now offer as a free download below.
This version brings an all new “decent” GUI, kindly created by DeLaMancha (www.delamancha.co.uk), the de-normal and multicore-problems are (hopefully) fixed. Also a few other internal improvements are addressed in this release.

A screenshot of the current version (loaded in Sonar):

ss_alles
Here’s a little description taken from the included user manual:

About:

Tonmann DeEsser is a basic high frequency dynamic processor VST plugin, called a DeEsser
because it’s mainly designed to get rid of “stinging” sibilants that may occur on vocals after
compression or adding a high boost.
It may be used with any host software that can load and use VST2.4/32bit-compatible plugins,
tested by the author are Cakewalk Sonar (4, 7), Sony Sound Forge (9) and DirectiXer (2.5).
It should work in 64bit hosts using a “bitbridge”, but this is untested by the author.
User-feedback about compatibility (or not) with other host softwares is welcome and very
appreciated.
The plugin has been carefully designed to suppress any artificial or alienated sound that may arise
under awkward situations with some other (even some hardware) DeEssers.

Features:

• True independent stereo operation, but also runs in mono mode
• Wideband and lowpass reduction modes selectable
• Fully adjustable center frequency and bandwidth of the detection range
• Adjustable detection threshold to retain the “crisp” sound character of a vocal
• Look ahead feature for sibilants with short and sharp attacks
• Adjustable release time
• Wide-ranging adjustable attenuation for being able to use it before or after a compressor, just like you prefer
• “What you remove” listen mode, one actually hears what’s going to be suppressed
• Two level readouts for optical supervision

There’s a small tutorial on YouTube about vocal processing that features my deesser. 🙂

Hint:

At the moment this plugin is Windows-only and still 32bits. If your DAW does not support loading of 32bit-plugins, you may need a wrapper like jBridge or try to find another solution.

Download:

Download most recent version (v1.2, ~ 1.6 MB, 7z archive)

If you experience a problem with this plugin in your host software, please try if the former release works for you:

Download former version (v1.1, ~ 1 MB, rar archive)

79 comments

  1. Hi your plug looks great
    I’ve test the 2 versions.
    i work on cubase 7.5 / win10 and it’s work but when
    i re-open the same project (with the deesser), the sound dissapear on all the tracks and Cubase
    can’t exit normaly

    I hope you could find the solution

    Best regards

    1. Hi Francios,
      sorry to hear that the plugin doesn’t work for you.
      I’m afraid I can’t support you directly, but the current trial version of Cubase do not work on my old machine 🙁
      However, I will ask in the Synthedit-developer mailinglist if there’s a known problem with SE-plugins and Cubase on Windows 10.
      Let’ see…

      best regards,
      Chris

  2. Hi Christian

    Thanks for putting the DeEsser online. I wonder if you could help me with a question…

    I am a total newbie with this, I don’t have any sound engineering experience. All I want to do is apply it to a spoken track (my own) and knock back some of the sibilants so they don’t sound so sharp.

    Could you suggest a standard set of settings that I can use with the plugin? I don’t really have the expertise to adjust it each time, I’m just looking for something that will do a quick cleanup.

    Thanks in advance

    1. Hi William,

      did you check the included PDF-manual yet? There’s some short how-to starting at page 3.
      If you really need a faster solution, select a preset that fits your setup (sex of speaker, type of microphone) and adjust the “ATTEN.”-knob while the audio is running. If the speaker starts to lisp, turn the knob a bit counter-clockwise again.
      When you’ve found a setup that sounds good to your ears, simply save it as a new preset so you can re-use it the next time without having to tune the settings from the scratch again.
      Hope that helps. If not, let me know!
      cheers,
      Chris(tian)

  3. Hi Chris
    I have downloaded the plugin three times but I am not able to open it I dont know why.

    1. Hi Miguel,
      what do you mean by “not able to open it”? Can’t you just unpack the 7zip archive or do you get stuck in how to use it?

      1. Hi!
        At the first glance I enjoy this plugin (Cubase 5 studio, 64 bit, Win7) as I could install the 1.1 version. The extension of “7z” is unknown for me so I could not install the 1.2 version. How can I open this file? (I would use the newer version…)
        Best regards
        András

  4. I have downloaded the Deesser, but it is a 32 bit plugin, so I cannot use it.
    I’m using Windows 10 and Presonus Studio One and it is 64 bits. Do you have the deesser in 64 bits?

  5. Hello! Thank you very much for this. Worked like a charm on Vegas 13, reduced 6dB of high noises without cutting the middle frequencies and killing the vocal line. It`s still clipping, but enough for me to master properly.
    Thanks

  6. Hi i like this plugin alot, is there any email where i can have a private talk? thanks

    1. Hi RJ,
      thanks, that’s nice to hear. May I ask about what you’d like to talk privately?

      1. At a second thought, it was just small things i shouldn’t need to bother you at the first place, sorry. Please just remove my comments if you want. Thanks for your reply.

  7. The de-esser works wonderfully in my old Adobe Audition 1.5 program, but the new Adobe Audition CC won’t recognize it as a plug in, even when I instruct it to search on the file folder where the plug-in is located. Is there something that can be done so I don’t have to use 2 different programs to process my audio?

  8. Hello!
    I have the cubase LE AL 8, when open the program don’t appear the Deesser!

    Where i can find the Deesser in cubase?

    Thanks

    Paulo

  9. Hallo, habe gerade versucht deinen De-Esser in Audacity 2.2.2 (Win10) zu installieren und kriege danach beim öffnen viele Meldungen über nicht gefundene Dateien…

    *
    Fehlermeldung:

    SynthEdit

    Can’t load SE Plugin: Das angegebene Modul wurde nicht gefunden.
    File: C:\…\Audacity\Plug-Ins\TonmannDeEsser\Converters.sem
    *

    und noch ca 15 weitere fehlende sem-Dateien…Wie lässt sich das beheben? Im Installations-Download war nur die dll-Datei und das PDF.

    1. Hallo Manuel,

      ich habe mir Audacity 2.2.2 gerade mal angesehen. Dort werden ca. 50% meiner VST-Plugins nicht mehr richtig geladen, vermutlich ein Fehler in Audacity.
      Ich werde das Problem mal näher untersuchen.

      1. Nachdem ich Audacity 2.2.2 nochmal komplett deinstalliert habe und diesmal beim Installieren die Einstellungen zurückgesetzt habe, läuft es ohne Probleme. Auch die anderen Plugins funktionieren nun wieder.
        Scheint so, als hat AC Probleme damit die eigenen Einstellungen bei einem Versionsupgrade korrekt zu übernehmen?!
        Hier ein Screenshot als Beweis 😉
        Screenshot

        NACHTRAG: Bei vielen VST-Plugins fehlen in der 2.2.2 sämtliche Presets… Ich glaube ich wechsle doch wieder zur 2.0.3. :-/

    1. Hi Donald,
      for me, both links work here. I just tried with Firefox, Chrome and Edge.
      Do you use any browser-addon that removes/suppressed the referer-page? If so, this could be the reason for the download to fail.
      Please temporarly disable this addon/function and the download should work as expected.
      regards,
      Chris

  10. It’s an awesome De-esser. I really love it.
    I have a small issue with the “presets”.
    I save my settings. but each time, I must load the file «fxp», in order to see my presets.
    Do you have something to suggest me, please?

    1. Hi Bill,
      thanks for the praise! 🙂
      For the presets-issue, could you please tell me what sequencer you use?
      TIA
      Chris

      1. At the moment, I have install it on Sound Forge 11.
        Until last week, I used Sony Vegas 13 but I update to Sony Vegas 17.
        In both programs I face this issues. Anyway. Each time I open your plugin, I load the right fxp file.

  11. Hi

    I tried a few times to install the .dll file in Program Files in the VST folder (Steinberg). However, it cannot be found after scan by Cakewalk by Bandlab DAW.

    Message reads… Can’t load SE Plugin. The specified module could not be found. File: C\program files\vstplugins\Tonmann DeEsser\PatchMemory.com

    Any help would be appreciated. I would love to use this plugin.

  12. Hi Chris,

    Thank you so much for your help. There is no need to open Cakewalk by Bandlab as Administrator. The secret is to changing the VST Folder as per Andy_Granhammer suggests. You can fix this issue by changing the write permissions for your VST folder as follows:
    • Use Windows Explorer to browse to your VST Plugins folder.
    • Right-click the folder – ‘Properties’ • Choose ‘Security’ tab.
    • Click ‘Edit’ button (You may need to click a UAC prompt).
    • Select user name “Users”.
    • Tick options Allow ‘Write’ and ‘Modify’.
    • To finish Select ‘OK’ to close the two dialog boxes.

    Plugin works a treat! Thanks again.

    Paul

  13. Hi there.
    I was wondering if I can replace the default settings on Presets, of this awesome tool.
    At the moment, I load an «FXB» with the desired settings, but everytime I open this pluggin, it forgets my settings and I have to load the FXB file or the «FXP» file that I have also create.

    1. Hi Bill,
      I think the handling of the presets is done in the host software, so I believe this it out of the fokus of what I could affect in my code.
      Maybe it’s connected to the problem “Paul Smith” has faced and his work-around also works for you?
      May I ask in which audio-software you use this plugin?

      1. First of all, thanks for the response.

        I use your pluggin on Sound Forge 11.
        Sometimes, I also use it on Sony Vegas 17.

        1. And yes, I try to change the privileges (as Paul Smith says) of the folder… but nothing happens.
          I still can’t change and save the default settings.

          1. I’ve just compiled a version with changed patch-management. Maybe you want to test it? If so, just send me an e-mail to chris -at- tonmann.com.

  14. Hi Chris, the VST plugin looks excellent, but I have a problem using it with my DAW. It doesn’t load into Reason 9.5, I’ve tried to change the write permissions for my VST folder as explained above but nothing still happens. Do you have any ideas?

    Best Regards,

    TC

    1. Hi TC,

      did you ask for help in Reason’s User forum yet? The problem you face sounds like a common problem with old Synthedit-pluings and new(er) DAWs.
      Maybe you are running the 64bit-version of Reason, in that case you maybe need a “bit brigde” like jBridge (see my hint for the link).
      I’m sorry but I have no idea how to help you any further with this issue since I do not have Reason here.

      Best,
      Chris

    1. Hi, I’m sorry I have no idea since I do not know “studio one”.
      Maybe other users can help you in their community forums?

  15. He cant download, and I cant too, when you click the link, another tab is opening, but it closes instantly…

  16. Hi I cannot make ableton live 9 see the plugin. I put the dll into the plugins path as others but this one won’t appear. Do you have a solution?

    1. Hi,
      sorry, I have no clue…
      Maybe it’s the 64/32-bit problem? I’d give a wrapper like jBridge a try.
      HTH

  17. Hi
    Just want to let you know the download on this page should be updated to HTTPS, Because the link is HTTP doesn’t allow you to download it.

    Thank you.

  18. Hey, in Audition wird das Plugin bei mir nicht angezeigt.
    Gibt es da irgend eine lösung?

    1. Hi,
      es könnte evlt. daran liegen dass das Plugin 32Bit ist. Vielleicht hilft da eine “Bitbridge”?
      Es kann aber auch sein, dass Audition gezielt alte SynthEdit-Plugins aussperrt. In dem Fall kann man wahrscheinlich nichts machen.
      Ich kann die leider auch keinen weiteren Support oder ein Update des Plugins anbieten.
      Viel Erfolg!

  19. Version 1.2 works like a champ in WavePad, but I have been unable to get Audacity 2,3,1 or 3.2.4 to recognize it. Other 32 bit vst’s load fine, but not yours. I uninstalled 2.3.1 and reinstalled 3.2.4. Any ideas? Ray

    1. I think Audacity 3.x does not support 32bit plugins any longer. You may have luck in using a bitbridge like jBridge.

    1. Thanks for the praise!
      You can switch between split-band (low pass) or wide-band in the GUI.

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