To the upper right of the compressors is a section with Body, Presence and Air controls – as you would expect, this is an EQ section, but not a normal parametric or fixed EQ. Note each compressor has a “Mute” button which shuts off its output signal so you can use all three, any two or any one compressor.

Well, not exactly as I’ll describe later. The signal flow is from left to right, first through the input section just described, and next into the dynamics section which consists of three compressors that are “wired” in parallel – the signal out of the input section goes directly into all three compressors. Likely the singers that Joe works with don’t need much de-essing! I found this simple de-esser to work well on some tracks, but others I tested needed more complex dynamic EQ or dedicated de-essing. The A mode creates a signal reduction in the 6.4 kHz range for male vocals while the B mode pushes the control range up to about 7.6 kHz for female singers. It includes an input section with an Level control, a High Pass Filter (with corner frequencies from 20 Hz to 250 Hz and a slope of 12 dB/octave), and a De-Esser with an “amount” control and a “type” switch for A and B modes.

And as we shall see, it’s best to use it for that application and not as a processing chain for instruments or on a main bus.

Joe Chiccareli Vocal Strip (JCV) is a processing chain intended for processing vocals. The results are a fascinating processor strip based on what Joe has used with many professional artists. Those wonderful Italians from Modena have been busy again, this time working at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood (near where I was born!) with one of the most famous and successful engineers in Hollywood, Joe Chiccareli. IK Multimedia T-RackS 5 Joe Chiccareli Vocal Strip

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