You are telling the compressor to turn something down once it goes above a certain level. They listen through plugins that have a Sidechain menu. In the majority of cases, you will want a fast attack under 2ms … But the release time depends on your intention. Again, aim for subtle compression with 1-3dB of gain reduction, and a fast attack and release. It listens to the external audio arriving at the sidechain input, and it reacts based on that incoming audio it is listening to. The key is to practice using it in your own mixes.
The knock might be masked by some of your lower instruments. If I drop the fader down on the second aux, then the signal isn't cancelled as much. You have a threshold, ratio, attack and release times… But there is one key difference. At the moment the compressor is turned off and the bus is muted so we can hear what the parts sound like before side-chain compression is applied. It makes the site extremely unpleasant to use. One of the most famous and recognisable effects in a lot of modern electronic music, this is a great way to achieve a swelling dynamic or make sounds stand out more.
No need to manually ride the fader. For the advanced mixers out there, you can take this one step further. A sidechain is sometimes referred to as a key input or a detector input. You will learn more about release time in the following section outlining the main use cases. So then I'll just have to add a gain plugin afterwards? The side chain filter acts upon the signal used to key the compressor. That's how I've always done it, seems to work. Open the Gain plug and enable Phase Invert s.
Notice the pumping synths in this track, every time the kick drum hits: The basis of this trick is that the synths duck when the kick drum hits, and slowly come back up in volume. Step 2: Add the compressor to the channel that you want to compress more on this later. They would load up a compressor on the channel that was playing the music but sidechain it to the. In all cases the side-chain inputs are analysed for level using an envelope follower, then compared with the Threshold setting to determine whether to apply the effect and how much. And I guess the ceiling is 0dbfs by default? The bits of your song in between the peaks will remain quiet by comparison.
The thing to remember is that bass notes tend to sustain while kick hits come and go quickly. Once again, play with the Threshold. Only question though since you use Pro Tools. How is it used in music and mixing? Why not try layering multiple synths and sounds together and grouping the outputs to a bus, with the side-chain compressor inserted on it. Don't get discouraged if someone doesn't quite like your sound.
Once you grasp the basics of sidechaining and these 5 techniques, you can produce mixes that have more space, energy, rhythm, and separation. Play around with the compressor settings until you get the sidechain you want. If you really need to just compress one band of frequencies, then you need to use a multiband compressor. If you are doing this on an individual channel, you can be more aggressive. Set the output of original track to an unused bus.
However, in most mixes you can never eliminate all masking between the kick and bass. In this example, I want to compress the bass guitar when the kick drum hits. Five of Logic 's dynamics-processing plug-ins have side-chain inputs: Compressor, Expander, Noise Gate, Silver Compressor, and Silver Gate. Sidechain the vocal, start with a ratio of 2:1 and adjust the threshold until you see 1-2dB of gain reduction. Some effect processes require two separate input signals to operate at all, among them vocoding and ring modulation. And I guess the ceiling is 0dbfs by default? Sometimes you want sounds to blend and run together, but often you want separate things to sound separate. It seems strange that the compressor plug-in allows sidechaining but the limiting plug-in doesn't.
So then I'll just have to add a gain plugin afterwards? Feel free to apply by sending us a modmail with your name, a short introduction, and a link to a portfolio where we can review your art. I'm sure this must be covered somewhere, but I can't find specifics in the manual or previous posts here. You can also use Depending on the feel of the track, you might need to double or half that figure. A limiter usually has a release, threshold, and ceiling. That is exactly why it has been created, to save time and bring the quieter and louder parts closer to each other in an automated way.