Other sidechaining tips

[spacef]

Often in tutorial about sidechaining, and naturally, people would use the kick as a sidechain signal. I post the trick below because i've used it successfully over the years, but noticed that most people don't manage to get the effect they want because they tend to use the kicks as explained in most tutorials, which is not always the best to do.

Depending on the length/dynamics of your kick, you may end up yourself tweaking the compressor and not finding the effect you are looking for, because the kick is too short and doesn't sidechain as you would like. I have easier results using toms or cymbals because they have long length and more consistent dynamics. It doesn't always work, but the point is that it is often easier to use a completely different sound for your sidechaine signal, a sound that matches the length and effect you want to get (and why not a special synth sound where adsr allows to have the exact length you need).
I generally have a drum sound in battery or other drum players (or a sample repeating itself in an audio track), that I send to scope through a dedicated asio output.
Then you get this signal back into the mixer using the feature of that mixer, or functions of the compressor if it allows this.

Personally, I find that cymbals are easy to use, you can cut the end, add fade in/out, normalize, as you need and very quickly, so it is my favorite sidechain source signal. A synth is good too but i confess it is already too far of my habits, but it could be a very good idea as even a small and bad sounding synth can produce the relevant signals. And as you don't need to hear this signal, it is something to try.

Have fun !

[iSiStOy]

Indeed! Thanks spacef.

[RP_001]

great! Definately worth a try, thanks