Sidechaining Options

[fly*]

Okies...

I've been asked to do a post on sidechaining on another forum so I thought I would just put up the post here as well.....

Again, I'm not the guru on this and zooloo pretty much taught me all I know on the subject (so if you are lurking around pls feel free to comment )....

Basically the idea of sidechaining is to attenuate the volume (accentuate the gain level) of one sound once it is triggered by another sound....this is used all the time in radio and it is called ducking....basically what happens is when the music is playing all is dandy and once the DJ talks the level drops or ducks under his voice...when he stops, the music level goes back to normal....this is all handled by sidechaning compressors together....

Heres how you do it....

Firstly you are going to need a compressor that handles sidechaining....luckily for the Logic/ProTools users this is pretty much a standard feature, for us lesser mortals we need to scour the net...there are some available though to be honest I have no clue where to find them, try www.kvr-vst.com...

Anyways, basically you first put a key input on the channel you want to trigger the attenuation....so in this case it will be the kick, then you put the compressor on the channel you want attenuated, the bass or disco riff.....once you have this up it gets a little easier....firstly on the bass/disco riff channel you want to enable the key input on the compressor...this will normally be a button marked key....once this is applied the compressor is linked to the kick channel....

Loop the section with the kick and the bass playing...on the bass compressor, start pulling down your threshold level until it is hitting the kicks peak (depending on the compressor will depend on how you see this...some you will directly see the key input, others you will only see once the threshold level has been crossed)....if you have keyed the input right, the more you pull the threshold down past the key input level the more the bass is compressed at that point....so basically the kick will come in, and the bass will all but disappear but as soon as the kick is gone the bass screams back in with a vengeance.... 8) ala Call on me - Thomas Bangalter (or that thief Eric Prydz)

Now you can still customise how this ducking or breathing effect reacts to the key input (kick) by varying the amount of attack and release on the bass compressor...faster attack will obviously mean the bass comes in a lot quicker once the kick has gone and a faster or slower release will similarly affect the the tail of the bass....a slower attack with a faster release is normally desirable for that pumping effect but it does vary from track to track according the the key input and the sound being ducked....

Sidechaining is a wonderful way of getting the most out of your kick and bass in the track....basically what you are doing is giving all the power to one particular sound at that point and then shifting it across to another....why is this important ??? mainly cos low end on low end sound generally don't like mixing with each other and take up a lot of energy consequently stealing other energy from other sounds and squashing them....rather spread it out and get an even distribution and let them all play nice together...

Oh and you an do this with EQ as well but that's a whole new ball game....

Hope this helps and if I have got anything wrong please feel free to post...

Oh and there have been extensive discussion on MIO....

Heres some of the threads that may help you...

Some excellent sidechain info

Getting that sound - Call on Me

Sidechain compressor pumping effect...

[paul_b]

Hi Everyone,
im a lame newbie at production. so remeber when u all started out and go easy on me.
Im basically just making remixs of my fav old disco tracks, using directx fx's in sound forge to filter a sound, making new basic basslines in the matrix of fruity loops, and putting the whole thing togather in acid pro 4. yes basic i know.

however, im now stuck, i could never achieve that sound that all the big house mixes have, and after investigation have narowed it down to this ducking effect your all raving about.

so for basic remixer like me, is there a way to do this in the programs i just mentioned.
i dont know anything about cubase or portools, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much

cheers
Paul

ps: if anyone lives in dubai and wants to make a few bucks doing a few quick basic lessons, feel free to msg me.