Question Regarding Sidechaining in Dance Music

[AB69]

What are some other sidechain methods besides a ghost side chain?

Right now I have my bass sidechained to my ghost sidechain kick.

I've read that it may not always be ideal to have everything sidechained to only 1 sidechain. I am wondering what else could I side chain my effects/audio/midi to?

Do I sidechain all my reverb tails from FX, leads, pads, etc. ALL to the ghost side chain kick as well along with my bass, or would I side chain those things to something else?

Mainly focusing on trance and techno. I know in trance you generally sidechain to the kick, and I know techno there is a lot of reverb on everything, but I mean it can't ALL be sidechained to ONE ghost side chain right? What else is there?

Appreciate the help.

[Aiynzahev]

Personally I think it's all about contrast. If everything is side-chained then nothing is side-chained. As in you'll get an overall pumping which will be nausea inducing, but it won't have the powerful effect that side-chaining is so useful for.

Side chaining is a way to emphasize the power of something. So with a kick for example, side-chaining the reverbs and echoes to the kick will result in a kick that is squashing all the ambient decay can result in a sound similar to just smashing the limiter, where again, the kick squashes everything.

Another problem is side-chaining destroys the initial attack. We need the attack to form an understanding of the sound. In other words most, maybe even all the information that tells us what a percussive type of sound is (this is a piano, this is a pluck) comes from the initial transients. So if you want some sounds to remain defined (and I'd argue that you usually do) then leave them be and they will cut through the mix better.

You can of course have the plucks feed the side-chain of their own reverb tails, that again ends up sounding like they are uber compressed, but it can be cool sometimes. One example where it's used for creative effects is when you have some spare chord progressions done with a pluck and a long reverb decay. The plucks duck the reverb and the side-chaing effect is set up so that the reverb slowly swells to it's maximum just before the next pluck/chord hits. This can also be done by simply bouncing the reverb and creating the audio fade-ins as you with. Linear curves or exponential.

So as I said, IMO side-chaining is best when used on a few select elements. Sometimes it's good to use it here and there in the timeline, automating it at certain key moments only. Fade it out during the break/drop whatever, the portion of time where the is no kick or beat.

The other thing I'd say is side-chaining often used a shortcut to getting things to sit in the mix. But selecting sounds that work in the context of the mix without side-chaining can give you a mix that sounds more vivid, alive, cleaner.

No hard and fast rules here, just stuff to try out and experiment with. I find it's best to master every technique by experimenting, and leave nothing to guess work.

[valerian_777]

I use LFO Tool for that. Much better to control. Ghost sidechain channel was 5 years ago.

Of course you can do it still the old-school way but ducking via volumeshapes like with Xfer LFO Tool or Cableguys Volumeshaper make much more sense imo. Try it out then you'll see.

[ZenPunkHippy]

Check out this video tutorial about using side chain compression with vocals and reverb ... might give you a few ideas for making your mixes more interesting. Obviously the technique is not limited to vocals

Also check out the other videos on the same channel, he has a whole series about compression that's really good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PAW9kAVZvc

[pzi]

Check out this video tutorial about using side chain compression with vocals and reverb ... might give you a few ideas for making your mixes more interesting. Obviously the technique is not limited to vocals

Also check out the other videos on the same channel, he has a whole series about compression that's really good.

superb! thanks for the link

[XorXisT]

I use LFO Tool for that. Much better to control. Ghost sidechain channel was 5 years ago.

Of course you can do it still the old-school way but ducking via volumeshapes like with Xfer LFO Tool or Cableguys Volumeshaper make much more sense imo. Try it out then you'll see.

If the OP don't want to spend a dime, TAL Filter 2 can do it for free.

No routing, Mac & PC, x86 & x64, $0.00.

[Ninja_Edit]

You get a more natural sound if you don't have the reverb duck.

[DJ Warmonger]

You get a more natural sound if you don't have the reverb duck.

You get more natural sound if you know what you're doing And that's right because there is no way someone would duck reverb in real-world arrangement.
However, this is just the way to get big trance clap with huge reverb used for special effect.

Use multiband sidechain compression to duck the sounds that normally would be masked by kick anyway. I use Ableton Multiband Dynamics to split signal into three and duck the middle bass the most, the lower and upper only a bit. That naturally translates to melody and pads which are higher and don't need to be ducked anyway, but some subtle pumping with low settings adds to overall track dynamics.