Sidechaining help

[Shane Collins]

Hi guys,

Im having a bit of boder when side chaining, like pads especially, how can i do this without making it sound so obvious, when i do it i really notice taping or pulsing sounding effects

[Danny J Lewis]

Usually Shane the effect is deliberately obvious - that's the whole point of the technique. The only time i can think of where it's not supposed to be obvious is when you are trying to help a kick and bassline sit together better..

To make it less obvious you can always reduce the ratio - this is the 'depth' of the ducking.. but this will also be dependent on how your threshold is set..

[Mikki Funk]

Danny's right mate. I find the best way to achieve a good sidechain pumping effect -without use of a preset- is to first set the compressor with very extreme settings, then back it off to achieve a less drastic ducking effect. So start by setting the Attack and Release to 0 Ms, the threshold almost all the way down, the 'knee' all the way up (so Hard Knee as opposed to Soft), Make Up Gain around +4 dB and Ratio around 3:1.

Then bring the threshold up till it starts to sound less extreme. Do the same with the Ratio to decrease how much it ducks by. Then play about with attack and release so the ducking effect is 'timed right' - this part need to be quite precise, it wont sound quite right if the attack and release are wrong.

Maybe I or Danny might do a simple vid showing this sometime (when I have the software to film my screen haha)

[RAYMOND021]

That's ok providing you don't want any of the lf in the program material - however, a more common way to use a filter with a compressor is to filter the sidechain input only













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