Sonible Pure:DeEss — Another Absolute Home Run by Sonible

# Sonible pure:deess Review — The One-Button De-Esser That Actually Works

Category: Plugin Reviews | Tags: vocals, de-esser, mixing, sonible, AI plugins

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About Sonible

[Sonible](https://www.sonible.com) is an Austrian audio software company known for building AI-powered mixing tools that do the heavy lifting without burying you in controls. Their pure: series is designed specifically for creators who want professional results fast — no deep technical knowledge required. The lineup includes pure:comp, pure:verb, pure:EQ, pure:limit, pure:unmask, and the subject of this review, pure:deess.

If you want the full picture on their plugin catalogue, head over to [sonible.com](https://www.sonible.com).

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What Is pure:deess?

[pure:deess](https://www.sonible.com/puredeess/) is an AI-powered de-esser built for vocals and speech. Rather than just ducking a fixed frequency band when a signal crosses a threshold — which is how most de-essers work — pure:deess builds a voiceprint of the specific voice it's processing. It then identifies individual sibilant phonemes (S, Z, Sh, Ch, T) and processes each one toward a target spectrum for that voice.

In plain terms: it listens to your actual singer, learns what their sibilance sounds like, and fixes it in a way that sounds natural rather than clamped.

Three controls. That's it:

• Suppression — the main dial. Controls how much de-essing is applied
• Color — Soft, Balanced, or Sharp. Defines the target character of the sibilants
• Shaping — controls how strongly the Color setting is applied spectrally

Available in VST, VST3, AU, and AAX. Works on Mac and Windows.

Price: €29 / $29 (regular €49 / $49) — [grab it at sonible.com](https://www.sonible.com/puredeess/)

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The Review

*Note: Sonible provided an evaluation copy for this review. It didn't change my take.*

I'll keep this short because the plugin doesn't need a long review. Here's the headline: it's the best de-esser I've used, and I've already reviewed their previous one (smart:deess) with the same verdict.

The Test

I tested pure:deess against two other options — the stock Logic de-esser and Sibilin by Waves — on an isolated vocal track with a lot of harsh sibilance throughout. Not a cherry-picked sample. A real track with a real problem.

Workflow for each:

• Sibilin by Waves — loaded a bright pop preset, adjusted from there. Reduced the harshness noticeably but the worst sounds were still audible in the mix.
• Logic stock de-esser — more manual control available, but pushing it hard enough to really tame the sibilance started pulling clarity out of the vocal.
• pure:deess — dropped it on the channel strip, hit Analyze, adjusted the Suppression knob. Done.

With pure:deess cranked up, the harshness was completely gone. Dialing it back slightly — still gone. Clarity fully intact. In the full mix, the difference was the most obvious: the sounds that were still poking through with the other two simply weren't there.

Why It Wins

The other de-essers are essentially frequency-dependent volume controls. They detect a level spike in a frequency range and turn it down. That works, but it's blunt — it treats every sibilant the same regardless of the voice.

pure:deess processes the shape of each sibilant event individually, targeting it toward the voiceprint it built for that specific singer. The result sounds like the vocal was just recorded without the harshness. Not like something was clamped over it.

Who It's For

If you're spending time manually chopping waveforms and drawing volume automation to control sibilance — stop. This handles it faster and sounds better.

If you're a home studio recorder mixing your own vocals, this is exactly the kind of plugin that gets out of your way and lets you focus on the song.

Verdict

At €29 there's no debate. One button, one knob, done.

Rating: 5/5

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Try It Free

Sonible offers a 30-day free trial of pure:deess — no commitment required.

👉 [Try pure:deess free at sonible.com](https://www.sonible.com/puredeess/)

While you're there, the full pure:bundle (all 6 plugins) is worth a look if you want AI-powered compression, reverb, EQ, limiting, and dynamic EQ in the same simple format.

👉 [Explore the pure:bundle](https://www.sonible.com/purebundle/)

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*Disclosure: Sonible provided an evaluation copy of pure:deess for this review. Clever Dood Productions maintains editorial independence — if it's not worth your money, we'll say so.*