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De-Esser: A special type of compressor that is tuned to be sensitive to sibilant sounds, or sounds with high frequencies such as the sound produced by the letter "s", hence the name de-esser. The need for de-essing arises out of a combination of the presence peak many microphones have in their frequency response to accentuate vocal recording combined with close proximity vocal work and possible added high frequency boost from equalizers and tone controls. While these things often make a vocal track have more "air" and high-end clarity, they can also add enough accentuation to certain consonants (especially the "s") that they become too pronounced. The problem can range from being slightly annoying to being bad enough to cause distortion in the signal path. Many years ago broadcast engineers figured out they could tune compressors to be more sensitive to these frequencies, which in effect produces an automatic volume control that can turn down the audio anytime one of the sibilant sounds occur. In fact, any compressor with a sidechain input can be turned into a de-esser by inserting an EQ and boosting the offending frequencies. Even more flexibility comes from using a multi-band compressor. The de-essing action no longer has to lower the overall signal level. It can just lower the level in the specific range of frequencies specified. Some modern de-essers, however, have very sophisticated circuitry and controls that are optimized for achieving results beyond what would be easy with a simple compressor with an EQ in the sidechain.

D'Appolito	D-Sub	Distribution Amplifier
D/A Converter (DAC)	Da Capo	DAE
Daisy Chain	Damp	Damper
Damping	Damping Factor	DARS
DASH	Dashboard	Digital Audio Tape
Data Bytes	Data Spanning	DAW
dB	DB-25	DB-9
dBFS	dBm	dBu (a.k.a. dBv (lower case v))
dBV (upper case V)	dbx	dbx Type 1
dbx Type 2	Direct Current (DC)	DC-coupled
DCA	DCF	DCO
DC Offset	DDL	DDR
DDS	De-Esser	Decay
Decay Time	Decca Tree	Decibel
Decimation	Decorrelation	Decoupling
Decrescendo	Default	Delamination
Delay	Delay Compensation	Delta Conversion On-Line UPS
Demagnetizer	Demodulation	Descant
Desktop	Destructive Editing	Destructive Recording
Detector	Detent	DFD
DI	Diads	Dialog
Diapason	Diaphragm	Diatonic Scales
Dielectric	Difference Tone	Differential
Diffraction	Diffusion/Diffuser	Digital
Digital Synthesizer	Digital Black	Digital Keyboards Synergy
Dilruba	Diminished Interval	Diminuendo
DIMM	DIN	Din Stereo
DIN Sync	Diode	Dipole
DIP Switch	Direct Box	Direct Connect
Direct Drive	Direct Field	Direct I/O
Direct Out	Direct Radiator	DirectSound
DirectX	Disc-At-Once	Disc Image
Discrete	Discrete	Discrete Surround
Dispersion	Dissolve	Dissonance
Distant-miking	Distortion	Dither
Divergence	Diversity Receiver	Divisi
DJ	Dynamically Linked Library	DLS
DLT	DMA	DME
Dobro	Dog ear	Dolby
Dolby A	Dolby B	Dolby C
Dolby Digital	Dolby E	Dolby HX Pro
Dolby Pro Logic	Dolby S	Dolby SR
Dolby Stereo	Dolby Surround	Dolby Virtual Speaker
Dominant	Dongle	Doppler
DOS	Dot Neck	Double Bar
Double Bussing	Double Conversion On-Line UPS	Double Fast
Double Neck	Double Precision	Double Stopping
Double System Sound	Double Tracking	Double Wide
Doubling	Dovetail	Downsample
Drag and Drop	Drain	Drawbar
Dreadnought	Drive	Driver
Driver	Drop Frame Time Code	Dropout
Drum n' Bass	Dry	DSD™ (Direct Stream Digital™)
Digi System Init	DSL	DSP
Digital Tape Recording System	DTS	DTV
Dual-Layer DVD	Dual Concentric	Dual Core Processor
DualDisc	Dub	Dubbing Session/Dubbing Stage
Dub Plate (Dubplate)	Ducker/Ducking	Duet
Dulciana	Dulcimer	Duophonic
Duple Meter	Duty Cycle	DV
DVD	DVD+R/RW	DVD-A
DVD-R	DVD-RAM	DVD-ROM
DVI	DXi	Dynamic Allocation
Dynamic Automation	Dynamic (Microphone)	Dynamic Range