"Keying" with a compressor?

[Blackwood]

I'm not sure if this shouldn't have been posted in the Alesis users forum seeing as I'm talking about a 3630 compressor but here goes anyway...

I record using an MD8 and I was wondering how to use my 3630 in conjunction with the MD8 to "key" a less-than-perfect bass track to the drum track.

Do I need extra gear to do this and, if so, what do I need? I know sonusman would tell me to go and re-record the track until I'm happy with it but it may be beyond my ability at the moment! I've tried it about 50 times so far

The main problem is that I'm not a bass player but I need to get a bunch of songs recorded fairly quickly so we kind of need to make do with what we can do ourselves. Any help most appreciated.

 

[skybolt6]

Okay, I'm not familiar with your particular compressor, but here's what I do with my dbx:

You need to either have a free track or to have the bass on channel 1 or 2 (with an insert.)

Run the Track out of the kick drum to the side chain input of the compressor. This overrides the detection circuit in the compressor, causing the gain reduction of the compressor to be "keyed" by the kick. Run from the insert of the bass track into and out of the main in and out of the compressor. If your bass is not on 1 or 2 then you need to run the track out of the bass track into the comp and run the output of the comp to a free track. I usually set my compressor (which has a gate) to only let the signal through when the kick drum kicks. I hope this helps. I wish I knew more about yor compressor.

Matt

 

[Blackwood]

Thanks Matt. Actually that was exactly the info I was looking for. Even in the manual for the 3630 it talks about "keying" but it doesn't tell you how to do it!
What you've described should work the same with my compressor.

Ben.