Hi
BSS DPR 901 II

Oh, and I forgot. What would be the going price for two channels of DBX 902 with a two unit - one rack space power supply used?

There really isn't a good dedicated de-esser being made that I know of. The dbx 902 is good and popular, but prices are all over the place. I find that mic choice/placement, mic pre choice, pop filter choice/placement, and eq can fix about 90% and the other 10% can be addressed by a parametric and comp using the sidechain. Having a singer with the talent that also knows how to sing into a mic is always the best answer.

The de-esser in my Focusrite Red-7 while not perfect is very useable, and I get some very good specific results using my TC DBmax as well as my Eventide DSP4500 or DSP7000.

I am using the single-channel version of the dbx 902 called the dbx263A...works great!

Does the 263a have balanced or unbalanced I/O's

The 263 has unbalanced I/Os. Considering that they are cheap and do the job, why not get a couple ?? If the unbalanced I/O is a problem, it can be solved. There are some +4/-10 - level - switch - boxes out there aswell.

A studio here in Stockholm (Polar studios, the quite well-known former Abba-studio) have a couple of modified 902´s. I think the mod is that they operate on a higher voltage than originally, and is supposed to reduce the s-sounds very nicely.

I like the DBX 902s. I see them in every studio. They work well on bass too. However, I find automation works best if it's just a few Hs Ss, or T's. I'll do the breaths to. Not all the way out, but knocked down. Then a 3:1 45ms in 4500ms out and its all even(most of the time)...but it takes time...

-BH

I've heard times when the 902s sounded like the audio equivalent of a machete. Not as bad a an Orban but no where near as nice as the BSS. :p:

I know this isn't what your looking for, but for DAW users, I think the Waves Renaissance Deesser is really good. It's incredibly configurable.

I do voice overs and spoken word with a Rode NTK, which is so sibilant I have ALL of the de-essers in hardware and software. The SPL does the best by far... by far the best of the bunch, followed by DBX263a and Sound Forge's multidynamics plugin. Waves Renaisance De-esser is pretty decent too.
SG