SUMMERY:

Okay, I want to show you a cool tutorial on Sidechain Compression. If you don't already know what a compressor does, in a nut shell it makes quieter signals louder and louder signals quieter. It controls the dynamic range of an instrument or could be used for more extreme effects.

Sidechain Compression is a technique of having a signal go through a compressor and having another signal trigger the compression.

Why do we do this? Well, sometimes we don't want to have compression running on a track all the time. We just want to compress a track every time something else is being played like when a kick drum is being played at the same time as a snare. Sometimes it works to have one clamp down on the other to keep our headroom in tack. Or have a kick drum clamp down on a bass guitar.

So for this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to compress a bass guitar with the kick triggering the compressor.

It's really simple and only takes a couple of minutes to setup.



First, open up a compressor on your a bass guitar track. Next setup a send on your kick track and name it something like Sidechain.



Next open back up your compressor and look for the Key Logo like this



Open up the menu and choose Sidechain or whatever you called your bus send.



Now look for a second key logo with the words Side-Chain next to it. Click it so it's highlighted.



That's it. Simple as that. Now your kick track is triggering the compressor on your bass guitar track clamping down on it everytime the kick drum is being played. So, all you have to do now is adjust the compressor settings to your liking. This is just a very basic way of using Sidechain Compression. It's really handy in leaving you headroom for the rest of your mix.

In later tutorials on Sidechain Compression I will show you how to use it as a "Look Ahead" on vocal tracks and a few other useful techniques on the matter.

Have fun!


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