Sidechain compression

  • Thread starter Thread starter frank1985
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frank1985

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Is it possible to have many instances of side-chain comp running at the same time?

For example: Overhead duck for snare; overhead duck for kick; electric guitar duck for snare, kick etc.

Or is it just a matter of choosing one element of the mix to take centre stage?
 
You can certainly do this.
There are two ways that spring to mind.

One is to bus all your 'centre stage' tracks to one aux track, then send that combination to your compressor's key input.

Anything in that bus will duck the overheads.

The other way is to set up several compressors on the overhead track and have kick trigger one, snare triggers another etc.

Same thing, two ways.
 
thanks for the reply mate, I think I'll have a go at the latter option. I'm basically looking to clean up my drums to make room for my electric guitar in the mix.
 
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Depending on the DAW you can have as many s/c compression as you have busses and even then of course you can sub group multiple elements and duck it by group..also don't forget to use a specific frequency s/c compressors to turn down some of those offending clashing freqs of guitar vs drums...
 
Another question; what kind of gain reduction should I be aiming for when ducking the OH for the kick and snare?

mixgeneral said:
Depending on the DAW you can have as many s/c compression as you have busses and even then of course you can sub group multiple elements and duck it by group..also don't forget to use a specific frequency s/c compressors to turn down some of those offending clashing freqs of guitar vs drums...
Click to expand...

Could you please elaborate on the last bit about compressing specific frequencies? How would I go about doing this in FL Studio?
 
Sorry for late response. Now I am not sure about FL studio per say. Im sure there a re multiple tutorials on that, but the idea is to have a compressor on an instrument you are trying to reduce in volume and a send on what's controlling the reduction. So If you need OH to duck when kick and snare is hitting, you would put compressor on OH and sends on kick and snare. The amount of reduction varies I would start -3dB and add to taste. Also attack and release will play a major role. Im sorry im not very familiar with FL studio
 
Steenamaroo said:
You can certainly do this.
There are two ways that spring to mind.

One is to bus all your 'centre stage' tracks to one aux track, then send that combination to your compressor's key input.

Anything in that bus will duck the overheads.

The other way is to set up several compressors on the overhead track and have kick trigger one, snare triggers another etc.

Same thing, two ways.
Click to expand...

I tried your first method today, worked a treat. I was using the oldschool eq hole to get a "voice" for each track, and loosing a heap of feel and detail at the same time. With this method on the center of the soundfield, i got better deffinition of each track without loosing anyware near the detail, my overheads and bass guitar now are much clearer in the mix, THANKS HEAPS.
 
Thanks, been lurking a while, too much good info here not to get involved.
 
Just don't be a stranger.

Soon there will be more people from OZ than the US!
 
No worries about that, ive finnished tracking our album and starting to get into some serious mixing, all the levels are good, no track over -5 Db none under -30 Db, starting to build the stereo feild, thats where the side chain comp started, but i have many, many more questions, and hopefully a few answers too.
 
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