Expander side chain

[AlecBeretz]

I watched a youtube video recently:

DIY * WAVES VOCAL RIDER * _ Tutorial *_ Logic 9 Pro (How To make your own vocal Rider) -{Must See!} - YouTube

He's doing automatic fader-riding using the sidechain on an expander... putting the expander on a vocal track and then side chaining it to the instrumental.

but I don't really understand how it works. Could someone explain? part of me feels like this guy is full of shit.

Thanks HR

 

[Emphasis]

It sounds to me like adding an expander on the vocal track, and side chaining it to the instrumental, would work something like this:

-the expander would make the lead vocals louder during the loud parts of the instrumental, and a little bit quieter during the quiet parts of the instrumental. In turn, Giving the whole song wider more dynamic range.

At least that's my basic interpretation of the process. (I could be wrong) Maybe someone with more knowledge can expand on this a little more? ....

If that is what the side chain is doing though, then the process seems pretty legit to me!
Basically you'd be basing your vocal's volume on the dynamic range of the rest of the instruments. which sounds extremely genius! Especially since vocals tend to need a bit more help during loud dynamic parts of a song.

However (from my understanding) vocal rider works a bit different than this:
With vocal rider, you simple set your desired dynamic/fader range.
the plugin basically automates fader on the track for you, to stay within the margins you set.


Both sound like good ways to keep your vox on top of the track (but not necessarily the mix)