Share your side-chain set-ups and tips

ecou

For the curious

Toneboosters Compressor in Auria. Notice the side chain top right. 😎

Toneboosters Compressor n Cubasis. No side chain 😩

Audio damage pump house in Cubasis. Notice the pattern of 1-2-3-2 pink square on the grid to the left. See the middle graph the audio being ducked to the pattern 1-2-3-2.

sigma79

Drambo sequencer module.

NeuM

Another production technique I've never managed to figure out or use successfully, so I just work around it.

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michael_m

Never really used it much with the exception of getting bass drum and low toms to cut through any bass register instruments in a mix. More often than not though, I’ll notch the bass first to see if that helps, as I’d far rather slice out some room in a mix than duck the volume.

Another thing I’ll do quite often is automate the cutoff of a filter to compensate for anything being brought into a mix that has an overlap with something else.

cokomairena

Use an envelope not a compressor. Like flux mini, or drawing automation

hghon

@dendy said:
sidechaining is interesting when used as ceeative tool... for example put compressor to pad, set attack/decay of compresor cose to zero and feed it's sidechain from hihats track.. turn volume on hihats to zero so you don't hear them they are just sidechainin pad... add delay to the taste after compressor, play with hihat amp attack/decay - you can get very interesting rhytmical patterns on pad...

Adding to @dendy here, sometimes I create a channel with a sine wave for rhythmic side-chain that’s always muted and I use it to lay out the ducking patterns. Controlling the amp envelope on the sine wave drastically changes the results as well.

Figure out why you want side-chaining first. As a production tool ie for rhythm and groove? Or as a mixing technique to solve frequency clash problems?

sigma79

@sigma79 said:
Drambo sequencer module.

I didnt need this ( with multiout )

but works if the regular Drambo sequencer is used.

You can use the module sequencer ( or reg sequencer if multiput ) to gate an envelope to maybe an EQ.

Export midi from drums.

Subtract midi. Shift midi back.

Or just use the envelope 16 bar without midi.

Bob

All interesting viewpoints here, nice!
For sidechain release settings (which I had issues with in the past) there are timetable charts per notelength and tempo. But now I prefer to look at the gain reduction to hit zero again when I want the compressor to start working again on time.
Sidechaining needs a fast attack, but with subs this can cause clicks (best to solo that track to hear it). Some compressors deal with this better than others, but setting a slightly slower attack can fix these common clicks in sub lows.
When much dynamics need some taming and ducking, I use serial compression. The first comp to level things out, followed by the side-chain comp.
I like to side-chain hihats group to the main kick at times, but in this case I prefer Flux mini 2 with lower mix settings while optionally adding a reverb before Flux. However I’m not able to set up Flux to initiate at the start of each kick, instead it just follows the tempo as on every 4th. Even when using the side-chain option, one shot or re-trigger and midi enabled (cubasis). So if anyone can help with this, that would be awesome. Honestly, I love Flux in general ❤️ It is pretty insane…
Using fab filter pr Q dynamic side-chain options is a good and visual tool that I use to get a tad better control over clashing frequencies. I use this mostly within groups m/s.
My main comp for ducking things is fabs pro C and for more serial work I like racking Mixbox.
I would love to understand smoov and schlap in more detail, they seem to sit in more unique territory.
Ducking apps like Pumphouse imo are not really side-chaining options unless the patterns exactly match the source for side-chaining. But they are great at what they do for sure.
Fabs Pro mb can setup a band for side-chaining to another specific band like toms or lower freq kicks and subs. It has more comp options as expand for ex.
So many apps for a kind of same purpose make my head spin at times but they all are worth exploring.

cokomairena

@Bob said:
All interesting viewpoints here, nice!
For sidechain release settings (which I had issues with in the past) there are timetable charts per notelength and tempo. But now I prefer to look at the gain reduction to hit zero again when I want the compressor to start working again on time.

Another advantage of using flux mini, the timing is in tempo, not time