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XQP 531 De-Esser
De-Esser for 500 Series, FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING
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Fake Price...................................
$475.00
Real Price...............
$419.00
Status: Usually Ships Same or Next Business Day |
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XQP 531 Optical De-esser Description
The XQP 531 Optical De-esser provides smooth, non-destructive deessing in the convenient VPR format. Dual VACTROL optoisolators insure consistent optical gain reduction when sibilance is present. The 531’s sidechain utilizes a high pass filter with three selectable corner frequencies (rather than a narrow bandpass filter), so sibilance occurring at different frequency points can be effectively reduced. The 531 is built with high-quality Analog Devices opamps in the signal path.
The filter in the sidechain is a high-pass design, switchable to three cutoff frequencies. A HPF, rather than a band-pass, allows any sibilant above the chosen frequency to be reduced.
It is our intention to build a smooth, simple, musical device instead of one that is fiddly to operate and difficult to achieve a good sound.
Based on the Dane Optical De-esser #31 originally manufactured in the 1990's, now available in the API 500 form!
Read the DATA SHEET
Read the USER MANUAL
The XQP 531 has a 10 year manufacturer's warranty against defects, and is a member of the API VPR Alliance.
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XQP 531 De-Esser Review / See All ZenPro Audio Reviews Here: Review Page
In the days of cutting and editing and using plug-ins in a DAW, if somebody releases a hardware 500 series de-esser it had better be good. Lucky for us all, that is the case with Dane Tate's XQP 531 opto de-esser. Talk about easy to use! Take a look and you see you can change the sensitivity of the sidechain for quiet sources (x10 switch), you can select 3 corner frequencies labeled X/Y/Z (3k, 5k and 7kHz respectively) and then dial in how much de-essing you need. I like boxes like that, they do a job well and don't require you to spend a lot of time getting it right. The fact that this box uses a corner frequency (rather than narrow peaking) also is a great choice when dialing it in and finding the trouble range on a vocal track.
Most de-essers use a small bell shaped band boosted into the sidechain to find sibilance issues, and the 531 is in a different class in that it's a shelf that begins from the frequency you select...assuring you that all of those frequencies are being controlled in times of trouble! I have found it to be very quick in deciding not only which of the 3 frequency choices sound best on a given source, but finding that right amount to dial in and forget it. I know a lot of this stuff can be done in the computer, but I've found some of the plugins to be pretty quirky too as they also use narrow bell boosts. Also, I find the 531 to be very fast in release, which seems to be key in its efforts to deliver a natural sound that doesn't cut into the rest of the track too much.
Conclusion: Not much to say other than this box sounds good, is easy to dial in, and mainly stays out of the way when used reasonably. For people cutting a lot of dialog or processing ess-y singers the 531 is a dream to use and listen to as it tends to do its job without softening up neighboring non-sibilant sounds much if at all.
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