Hi guys,

I recently finished a track but I've a dought. A lot of people say that sidechain is essential, however, If I insert sidechain on my track it sounds really bad. Without sidechain is much better, because the chorus of the track is not a linear-one. It is plucked, something like : " - - - - - - - " and not linear as " ----------------" .

Am I correct? Should we use sidechain depending the situations, right?

You have to side-chain everything with a 20:1 ratio and at least 18dB gain reduction. If you dont... well forget it, really no one will even listen to your music, especially if they can see from the soundcloud waveform that its not side-chained.

If it sounds good, it is good.

Only rule someone doing audio should live by.

Hum... and imagine, after my track explodes, I've some 3 pads at the same time, should I sidechain the main one or should I sidechain all of them?

Make a bus channel and route all your pads there

Rob

rob_lee, the thing is, in FL studio if I link all of those 3 pads, the other individual ones (Pad1, Pad2, Pad2) in "Mixer" will disappear. It will clear those individual ones and It will create that 3pad linked

It's like: "Do I have to use Autotune because everyone does?"

No, if it sounds better without, then it sounds good.

If you need to sidechain the pads, I would take them in a group and sidechain the whole group.

But what bothers me is that no one asks WHAT you want to sidechain - and with what FX? Compressor, gate, filter??

Thanks for the coments.

I want to sidechain the chorus, after the track explodes.

To take them in a group and sidechain it, should I clone those 3 pads individually and link them all in a new channel?

People say a lot of stupid stuff. FWIW I never sidechained anything in my life ...

The track explodes? Should I call the police??

Set your mixer up like this:



Then enable send from "Pad 1/Pad 2/Pad 3" to "Sidechain".

I only recently started using FL10 so i haven't figured out the routings etc but my partner is a power user and she would be able to show you this in a moment. I should have asked what host you were using to further explain. I use Studio One Pro and Cubase 6 and that's the way i do it in seconds there... hmm i will have to look further at FL10 and it's workings at some point.

Cheers

Rob

In seriousness though I really dislike side-chaining effects and the over use of side-chaining has ruined many a good tune imo. Don't feel obligated to practice everything people say when it comes to music because one size cannot possibly fit all.

The only thing I do side-chain is the effects and I might do light side-chaining on the bass. But this is always for mixing and not for effect.

I also think obvious side-chain pumping is

1. A short-cut to make up for a lack of interest in the music itself
2. Is going to sound really dated eventually

I don't think it's essential at all, in fact I think it's getting a little overdone and cliched now. I have some people send me tracks to master that are so heavily side-chain and pumping, it literally makes me nauseous. Sort of how really out of phase things do.

Like anything there's a time and a place for it, just don't overdo it if you do decide to use it.

Thanks for the answers.

If any1 is interested to know how the track is (somethin' like avicii+pryda) and if u are able to give me an opinion, it would be awesome, just pm me. I dont want to share my work in public, for now