We much liked the first version so it took a few plays to get in the groove with this one.

Yep, it does induce more foot tapping. And we like it!

Regarding the much discussed sibilance we don't use Melodyne (received a free copy from Izotope but have never opened it) however we do have a de-esser that is part of Nectar and also another one from Waves. It seems to me that simply using a de-esser would be simpler than whatever you are doing with Melodyne since they are designed specifically to eliminate sibilance. But not being familiar with Melodyne I may be wrong. FWIW!!!

J&B