Ive heard the term "Sidechain" used before and I have a little grasp on what it might be...?
If someone would like to explain or demonstrate how this works or how it can be used to improve tracks in a way, that would be extremely helpful! ~Thanks
Ive heard the term "Sidechain" used before and I have a little grasp on what it might be...?
If someone would like to explain or demonstrate how this works or how it can be used to improve tracks in a way, that would be extremely helpful! ~Thanks
Comments (9)
Sidechain is when you lower the volume of the whole track each time the kick plays to make it sound more punchier, you can do this by splitting the kick sound and putting one end to the sidechain input (compressor or gravity) and then put the drums and sidechained sound on a seperate mixer
okay, so exactly how would I do this? I see that you have to connect the kick (which I have it connected to Gravity's Sidechain input) but after I connected it, nothing is playing.. :/
Well, here’s a simpler but more time consuming way.
Step 1. Take a merger and link it to the StereoOutput
Step 2. Take a Centroid (or whatever your main mixer happens to be) and plug it into the Merger.
Step 3. Take your drum machine and put that into the Merger too.
Step 4. Automate the Centroid’s level down every time the kick hits
Yay congrats
I am pretty sure my way is simpler
Here's how you do it. Connect kick to splitter and connect the splitter to gravity sidechain input, then connect your song to the input of the gravity, then the gravity output and drum kit goes in a separate mixer and then output
More appropriate to the help board.
Automating levels has nothing to do with side-chaining, even if the final effect is very similar. Side-chain refers to the -method- used to achieve the effect. When using a compressor, you're controlling the gain of the signal on the main input based on the level of the signal on the side-chain input. If you don't hear any changes in the output level, make sure that the signal on the side-chain input is loud enough (monitor it and watch the level meter), and that the threshold of your compressor is low enough to "catch" its peaks. Finally, side-chaining isn't limited to just reducing the level of the whole track when the kick hits. You can affect any individual signal, like only the bass, or you can use other signals than the kick on the side-chain input. You don't even have to affect the gain of a whole signal. With the Quantum multi-band compressor you could affect only the low frequencies of a bass when a kick hits, preserving its top end. Also, there are other devices with side-chain input like the Gate, Autofilter and Waveshaper. The concept is always the same: those devices will affect the input signal based on the level of the side-chain input signal. You can get really creative.
Edit: Unfortunately, Quantum isn't side-chain enabled, but you could achieve the same effect by using a Bandsplitter to separate an input signal in different frequency bands, using the side-chain enabled Gravity compressor to affect the dynamics of one of the bands, then finally use a Merger to reconstruct your signal.
thank you both! I got it figured out and I will play around with it a little more.