Empirical Labs EL-DS - Manual (Page 8)

Example Settings
Vocals
- One of the worlds favorite vocalists, Frank Sinatra, became so good at ” working the
mic”, moving in when he was singing soft and wanted intimate body, moving back when he belted
and needed to get the higher notes out… he became so proficient that I have heard the engineers
used very little or no EQ his voice. He got the sound at the source. As he sang soft, he would
move in a little closer to the mic, giving his voice an intimacy. He would even turn his head quickly
to the side so certain breaths wouldn’t be heard. Modern singers of every style could learn from
what Frank was doing 40 yrs ago. He pronounced his S’s very soft and short. Here are some tips
that may help prevent needing the De-Esser or any radical EQ.
Pick the right mic, the right distance and the right angle for the singer. The most expensive
mic isn’t always the best mic for a person’s voice. U2’s Bono uses a cheap ol Shure SM58, but…
who could complain about his vocal sound? Moving a person a couple inches in and out from the
mic can make all the difference in the world. Putting the mic up above the person’s mouth around
their nose level can warm things up, avoid pops, and make a singer sound less nasal. A distance of
6 – 10 inches from mouth to mike is common. When a mic is aimed down a little towards the
singer’s mouth, you will be aiming it at their body also, where lots of low frequency resonance
occurs. Conversely aiming it up can work, having the singer sing over the top of the mic.
Remember that a leading cause of “nasality” is the lack of sound and air coming from a persons
nose, so by aiming up or being level with the nose, an engineer can often improve the basic quality
of a voice. Remember to remind the singer they can move slightly in on soft intimate parts, working
the microphone ala “The Frank”.
There are some other dynamic equalizers out there that work pretty well, but… hoping to get a
great vocal sound using one “holy grail” setting on a wildly dynamic vocal is dubious in our minds.
On an occasional overly sibilant vocal, use the standard De-ess mode which is level insensitive.
Adjust the frequency for around 2.5 - 6Khz and adjust the threshold till the sibilants start sounding
natural. If lisping starts occurring, raise the frequency or lower the threshold to lower the De-essing.
The De-esser should only be working on the offending fricatives and sibilants.
Often the sibilants only become a problem after eqing. However, one very useful technique is
to add the high frequencies AFTER the DerrEsser to add overall sheen back into the vocals, where
the De-Essing can’t undo the Eqing. Of course, many aggressive engineers EQ before and after the
De-Essing.
If a vocal is kind of “generally harsh” and “ESS-y”, the high frequency limiter can provide a
smoother sound. This limiter is extremely smooth and will sound pretty natural working on just about
every line of an overly bright vocal. Just make sure that a gentle EQing wouldn’t be a better solution.
The HF Limiter can sometimes give an analog tape-like effect; warming the vocal the harder you hit
the DerrEsser with level.
Various Instruments
Elec. guitar
- If there’s just an occasional peaky note, the normal DS mode can tame specific
notes, taking the harsh freqs out surgically. Analog tape was always a big help with vocals and
electric guitars because it clipped all the pointy peaks and saturated when the high frequencies piled
up. Using the DS dynamic HF limiter can get a verrry tape like affect if used judiciously. We have
found it to be verry useful on overly crunchy plucky guitars, and “spitty” vocals alike.
Bandlimiting the top end can tighten up and quiet the hiss of electric guitars, especially “heavy”
ones. Put the DerrEsser in LP Mode and close down the top end to 8 – 10KHz. You will usually find
you don’t miss these frequencies on heavy distorted guitars at all. It lets the cymbals and vocals etc
have more clarity up there.
Plucked Instruments & Acoustic Guitar
– Sometimes you may want to keep the
dynamic range of a plucked instrument but need to smooth out just the hard front edge of the attack.
The DerrEsser’s HF Limiting is perfect here. Adjust the threshold until you have a smoother, more
natural sound - usually 3 - 10 dB of HF attenuation is enough. In addition to your normal monitoring
levels, listen very softly, and very loudly to the adjusted track to make sure it isn't too dull, or still in
need of "softening". Squeaks from hands sliding on strings can often be “fixed” using the De-Ess
mode judiciously. Problems such as these often become more pronounced after compression, but
the DerrEsser can be effective placed before or after the compressor.
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Stereo Operation & 5.1 Surround Use
The user will usually start by matching the controls on two DerrEsser’s for Multi-Buss use.
Since the units are highly calibrated at the factory, matching the front panel controls will yield highly
accurate frequency response between the two channels. However, often one channel has more
annoying high frequency problems than the other, and different settings are appropriate. The same
applies to 5.1 surround treatment.
Cable Facts… and Fiction
CABLES GENERALLY DO NOT MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN SOUND. As long as a cable is
wired properly, shielded properly, and not damaged, no one will be able to hear the difference in a
length of decent cable 40 feet or shorter... regardless of what Munster Cable or anyone tells you!
To our knowledge, no AB/X listening tests have ever found any difference between a short, properly
wired low cost cable, and a premium “audiophile” cable, in low impedance situations. But even
though there are cable companies who have made millions propagating misconceptions (one cable
manufacturer even advertises greater “sincerity”!), some cables are indeed lower impedance, better
shielded, and break-free than others. Mogami is a great price/value in our opinion.
The big “gotcha” is that between patch bays and remote wiring, the accumulative lengths can
exceed 60 ft or more for a professional studio “patch”. These longer lengths can start to show
shortcomings of cables, since the capacitance vs. inductance begins to mount and causes slight
phase shift and high frequency loss, especially in high impedance, low level sources. In fact,
passive” guitars, basses, and microphones are probably your biggest cabling worries.
Speaker cables are generally even less sensitive as long as they are heavy gauge. Stranded
10 – 14 gauge zip cord should handle most anything (for some reason the lower the gauge, the
thicker the wire).
The same applies to the AC power cables. We have seen $150 power cables that are
“tuneable.” This verges on insanity. As long as a $1 six foot AC cable isn’t worn, and is less than 16
gauge, signal processors such as those in a studio will perform just as superbly as with any $150
cable. Do not forget, almost all musical gear has a regulated DC power supply that does an
incredible job at completely isolating whatever flaky AC comes in.
About Empirical Labs
Empirical Labs was founded in 1989 and operated for years as a recording studio in Garfield
NJ. In 1992, Dave Derr, the founder of Empirical Labs Inc, left Eventide after being an engineer on
the design team for the H3000 and DSP4000 Ultra-Harmonizers ™. By 1994, work on a first product,
the Distressor, was underway, and in 1996, the first products were shipped. Gil Griffith came on
board shortly after this, taking Empirical Labs promotions and sales to an international level with his
own company, Wave Distribution. With Gil, a techno-crazy guy with the latest toys, sales jumped
and several employees were added to Empirical to keep up with orders.
We believe there’s always room for a great, fun to use product… a better mousetrap.
Conversely, there’s little room for mediocrity, and so, several Empirical Labs designs were tossed
out early on. If we are lucky, maybe certain parts of the “discarded” product’s circuitry will be used in
later designs. “A FEW GREAT PRODUCTS” has been our guiding dictum.
Empirical Labs takes pride in making customers happy and giving hassle free service.
Someone will always answer the phone here during working hours… we frown upon companies who
waste people’s time with aggravating voice mail, and automated phone “frustration” systems. ELI
makes premium products and believes that our customers should get premium service. We rarely
charge for a failure of a product that was not the result of extreme abuse, even when long out of
warranty. After dealing with so many companies who really don’t seem to care if customers go away
mad, we strive to be a “Good News Company” that leaves it’s customers with a feeling of
satisfaction… AND a desire to do business with us again.
Empirical Labs strives to be an environmentally friendly company. We encourage and give
incentive to its employees to use as little non-replenishable resources as possible. By designing in
serviceability and upgrade ability, we strive to make “non-disposable” products that will still be in use
10,20, even 40 or more years from now. Empirical aggressively recycles, as well as avoids waste,
encouraging suppliers to not send multiple neither copies, nor cover pages on faxes. We try to
reuse paper, packaging, and even parts when possible. We encourage employees to use energy
efficient automobiles, offering cash incentives to buy cars that get over 30mpg. As scary as it is,
global warming may be a real, irreversible phenomena.
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