Side chain compression can also mean the same thing as parallel compression to some, mostly older, engineers.
I thought that parallel compression was mixing a heavily compressed signal with the original signal (and that it's also called New York compression). Did the meaning of side-chain compression change?
A side chain is just a parallel signal path. A compressor's detector circuit is one kind of parallel signal path, a bus with duplicate signal is another kind of parallel path.
I don't see a side chain as a parallel signal path. It is an alternate input to the detector. Parallel compression to my mind is one or more compressors in parallel, including, in some cases, a null compressor in the original track to compensate for propagation delays through the compressed paths
The detector path is the side chain, an internal parallel signal path. The access to it is typically called the side chain insert which allows you to insert a processor on the side chain.
The detector is not in the signal path that makes it to the output. After the input, the signal is split and sent to both the detector path and the amplifier that does the gain reduction.Its not an internal parallel signal path. The detector controls the gain reduction of the compressor. Without the sidechain, the detector gets its input from the signal being compressed. In sidechain mode, the detector gets its signal from another source. There is nothing parallel about it. The detector is used either way, in the same way. Its just the source that changes
Its not an internal parallel signal path. The detector controls the gain reduction of the compressor. Without the sidechain, the detector gets its input from the signal being compressed. In sidechain mode, the detector gets its signal from another source. There is nothing parallel about it. The detector is used either way, in the same way. Its just the source that changes
Internally, there are two parallel paths.
Yes, but they end at the VCA, not at the output, which is what I would define as parallel paths. If the signal came into the device and was split two ways and converged at the output, then that would be a parallel signal path. However, one fork of the split doesn't make it to the output, it only controls the attenuation of the main signal.