sidechaining???

[cliff richard]

i hear people talking alot about sidechaining, so im guessing that it must be quite a useful tool. i was wondering if someone could please tell me what it is, and give me an example of what i would use it for?

cheers

 

[TexRoadkill]

Most gates, compressors, limiters and some EQ's have a sidechain. It essentially works like a trigger. Whenever the sidechain receives a signal it activates the device.

You can use it to 'duck' a signal. For instance the kick could trigger a compressor on the bass so that the bass is turned down when the kick is hitting.

You could duck a reverb or delay track whenever the main dry track is playing.

You could use an undersnare mic to trigger a gate so that it opens the top snare mic or a room mic when the snare is struck. That way you don't have the high hat triggering the gate.

There are lots of weird uses when you think about it.

 

[Massive Master]

One of the most popular uses is similar to what you'd hear on a radio commercial - The voiceover is used as a signal to the sidechain compressor on the music bed. When the announcer speaks, it triggers the compressor on the music (ducking, as stated).

A lot of engineers will sidechain heavy rhythm guitar tracks in a similar fasion - when the vocalist is going, the guitars get pushed down just a dB or two, then come back up to normal when there's no vocal part.

 

[cliff richard]

thanks for the help folks, much appreciated.

 

[Samplecraze]

Another nice little trick is to have a hi hat pattern sidechained into a gate and thagate is used on a pad sound. The hi hat opens and closes the gate and you get that funky 'chop' effect on the pad sound.
A great tool and so many uses.