Make that bus the key or sidechain input on a compressor that is on the lead guitar track. As soon as the vocal comes in, it will trigger the compressor on the guitar track and duck the guitar by an amount you set with the threshold. Before the days of de-essing plugins which are now incredibly handy, you could make a de-esser by sidechaining an EQ to a compressor. Sibilance is really noticeable somewhere between 4 and 7 kHz, but you can also use a de-esser or a makeshift, sidechained one to tame some of the harshness of a vocal track.
Sometimes setting a de-esser somewhere between 1 and 2 kHz can mellow out a harsh voice. If you find your vocals buried under a mountain of instruments, you might try sidechain compression to solve the problem. For example, you might put a compressor on the guitars and keyboards, using the lead vocal track as the sidechain input. Every time the lead vocals play, the keyboards and guitars will duck into the mix, leaving space for the vocal.
If you feel as though your kick drum is a little anemic, giving it a boost with a sine wave is a common technique. You start by setting up a sine wave generator on a new track. If so, you may want to try using sidechaining. Sidechaining is a production technique used in a wide variety of music genres where an effect is activated by an audio track. The alternative source is set to a threshold, which when exceeded activates the effect.
While at a ratio of , the sound will be reduced by 1. Therefore, the higher the ratio, the harder the compressor will work. Using the attack parameter on your compression, allows you to determine how quickly the compressor engages. While the Release parameter will determine how quickly it shuts off. The Knee determines the onset of your compression. Using a low knee on instruments like drums and guitar generally sounds better.
While a higher knee placed on vocals can make your voice sound smoother and more natural. Furthermore, using a multiband compressor can isolate multiple frequencies and compress them, while leaving other frequencies alone. Sidechain compression differs slightly from compression. Working to control the level of a particular sound, relative to other sounds within your mix.
For example, the compression level of your bass track may be controlled by the volume of your kick drum. So, when your kick drum sounds, your bass becomes more compressed. Therefore, both sounds can keep cutting through the mix. And allowing the kicks to dominate the mix without clashing with the sound of the bass.
Therefore, providing a pulsating, and rhythmic dynamic to the sound. Since the introduction of sidechaining, Dialogue Ducking has been one of the most common uses of the technique.
Automatically reducing the volume of music to make way for vocals. Vocals are consistently the main focus of every song.
Sidechain compression is a method of using a dynamic range compressor to manage the variance in amplitude of an instrument or recording track, like usual, except this time it's being triggered by a different instrument or track. Let me say that in normal people terms and for beginners, check out our What is a Studio Compressor? When we normally use a compressor we apply it to a track on the multitrack mixer; set the threshold, attack, and release; and then let it be triggered by the amplitude of the track it's placed on.
It's a self-contained, intelligent volume control so you don't have to ride the fader on the mixer. In the case of sidechaining compression, we want it to compress the track it's applied to, but we want to trigger it when a different sound surpasses the threshold.
We are making the compressor take its directions from a different track. See the image below for a diagram on how it works. There's a big reason we do this. In the majority of cases it's about gaining clarity in the mix.
If it's not making sense yet, it will in a second. I want to list out a few uses for sidechaining compression so you can start to get an idea why we do this in the first place:. These are a few examples of why and when we'd use this method. For instance, maybe we have a rich, lush reverb ringing out behind the vocals, but it's getting in the way of and reducing the clarity and intelligibility of the vocals.
So in this way we can basically direct the compressor to reduce the volume of the reverb itself when the vocal track starts playing. This way, we can regain clarity automatically without managing it manually on an automation track to dip the volume. We also have some great tips on how to use reverb masterfully, if you're interested.
So obviously this is mainly about making sure the sound that should be getting most of the attention can be heard by the listener with the most clarity possible. It's about making sure other tracks aren't getting in the way. Clarity is the main benefit. This doesn't only apply to vocals and vocal compression. Obviously, if we have a mic on a studio audience, we don't want their cheering and clapping to be too loud when the host is trying to talk. But what about trying to find the perfect balance between a kick drum and a bass line?
It's not that we want the listener to focus on the kick. It's just that you can't really make both of those instruments out at the same time since they share the same frequency range. So in this case we'll slightly reduce the volume of the bass when the kick drum occurs. Here's some more tips for mixing bass and kick if you need help in that area. Some producers in specific genres, like EDM, use sidechain compression to make the music "pump," meaning the bass will breath in and out since the kick drum is usually "four to the floor" on the quarter notes.
They can use a slower attack and release to make the energy of the song as a whole increase and decrease rapidly, locked into the groove. Despite these kind of niche applications, the main benefit is bringing clarity to a mix. You may have used all of your tools and tricks, especially equalization, panning, volume balancing, and normal compression but still have a problem. You've found a new tool to use and it's likely the solution.
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