Side chain compressor tips

[Gswitz]

This is inspired by the fact that I hadn't learned anything new in a long while and just this week bumped into a new idea from the Neve hardware. So I thought I'd make a list of reasons to use the side chain and how to use it to achieve certain FX.

1. Ducking bass to hear kick-- Feed the Kick drum into the side chain on a compressor on the bass to suppress the bass when the kick hits. You can make a copy of the kick track and nudge it slightly early for this purpose if you like.

2. Ducking vocal verb when singer is singing. Compress the reverb for the vocals with the vocals on the side-chain so that when the singer stops singing the reverb comes up in the mix but the reverb doesn't muddy the words.

3. De-Esser... send only the high frequencies (1500+) to the compressor side-chain so that it compresses S sounds but doesn't compress non-high-frequency content.

4. For compressing the mix, high pass above 300 or 350 and send that to the compressor side-chain so the compressor isn't constantly triggered by bass content.

5. Trigger the fast attach compression on never heard content. For example, drag in a drum track, loop it and send it only to the side chain of a pad to create a rhythmic pulsing.

6. ** this is new to me ** send the compressed output of the compressor to the sidechain on the same compressor to create a smoother compressed signal. This is good for cases where you want subtle compression. Some Neve compressors have this is a choice.

7. Mixing in the original track with the compressed track (NY Style compression). 

I'm sure there are some I'm not thinking of. Probably obvious stuff. But this should be enough to get the thread started.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Gswitz

[Xoo]

I don't think you can do (6) in CbB (to prevent feedback) - feel free to tell me I'm wrong and show me how 🙂

[Gswitz]

Interesting, Kevin. You're right it seems. You have to loop it back in through your interface to do the trick.

I achieved it by sending the output of the compressor to a looped back channel and then the input of that channel to the sidechain. This did the trick.

Curious that it isn't allowed easily but it's easy enough to work around if you really want it.

I can do it with my hardware compressor too. It just never occurred to me as an option. Makes sense to use some EQ on the signal too to highpass it if you feel like it.