De-Sipper vs SpitFish
Modern Build vs Free Legacy Classic

When to Stick With SpitFish

• Your DAW still loads VST2 plugins reliably and SpitFish opens cleanly in your sessions
• You're on an older macOS or Windows machine and the legacy build still runs natively without bridges
• You've used SpitFish for years and you know exactly how to dial it in for your specific voice
• You're working at a casual level where the occasional plugin scan-crash isn't a session-killer
• You value $20 in your wallet over modern-format support

When to Switch to De-Sipper

• You're on a recent Mac (macOS 12 or later, especially Apple Silicon) and SpitFish either won't load or requires bridging that breaks in subtle ways
• You use Pro Tools and need a real AAX de-esser — SpitFish doesn't have one, and you've been opening alternate sessions just to de-ess
• You charge for mixing and can't have a de-esser fail to load in front of a client
• You want code-signed, notarized plugins that don't trigger Gatekeeper warnings or installer permissions weirdness
• You want a developer who can actually email you back if something goes wrong, instead of an abandonware plugin with no support
• You want to bundle De-Sipper with Carbonator, Tonic, On Tap, and Pour in the Complete Bundle for $75 — five modern signed plugins from one developer

The Real Differentiator: Modernity

SpitFish is one of the great free plugins of all time. The problem isn't its sound. The problem is that the world has moved on from how it was built. The plugin was authored when 32-bit VST2 was the standard, when DAWs trusted unsigned plugins by default, when Apple Silicon didn't exist, and when Pro Tools' AAX format hadn't replaced RTAS yet. Every one of those facts has flipped.

If you're producing in 2026 on a recent system, you're increasingly running into walls with SpitFish. macOS 13+ has stricter rules about unsigned binaries. Pro Tools moved entirely to AAX years ago. Apple Silicon makes 32-bit Intel code an emulation layer at best. Some hosts have dropped VST2 support entirely. None of this is SpitFish's fault — it's just the cost of being a free plugin that nobody has updated for over a decade.

De-Sipper isn't trying to be better than SpitFish on a sonic level — that's a coin-flip on individual sources. It's trying to be the plugin that actually loads, in the format your DAW asks for, on the OS you're actually running. $20 is the price of that being someone else's problem.

The Bottom Line

SpitFish is a great free plugin and there's no shame in keeping it on the sessions where it still works. It earned its place and it'll outlast a lot of paid plugins on charm alone.

But if you've already tried installing it on your current setup and run into a 32-bit warning, a missing AAX format, an unsigned-binary block on macOS, or a host that just won't show it in the plugin list — that's the gap De-Sipper fills. $20 one-time, no iLok, no subscription, signed and notarized for current operating systems, with active developer support if anything goes wrong.

Try the demo first. The full plugin is free to download with a periodic mute. Run it next to SpitFish on the same vocal, A/B them, and decide for yourself.