Welcome back to Audio Basics! I’m very happy that everyone enjoyed the last episode “How to Use a Compressor.” I was going to go into the different types of compressors today, but I thought this one might be a little more helpful!
What does sidechaining do?
This is a question I got from Chris Kurts!
Sidechain compression definitely mystifies a lot of us but it’s a great tool! I use Sidechain expansion all the time (watch the video above to learn more about this)
Sidechain compression is actually pretty simple once you get the grasp of it. If you haven’t watched the “How to use a compressor” video, please watch that first. It lays out the basics of what the controls do. It’s a lot less confusing than the controls make it out to be.
How a compressor works:
Once the signal gets passed a certain threshold the compressor turns things down. It’s a very fast volume knob. The ratio controls how far down it gets turned, and the attack and release controls control how fast it’s turned down and turned back up again.
All side chain compression does, is it changes the source that the threshold works from. That is it! In this case, we’re using other tracks for a source for that threshold.
Watch the video above to learn more and see examples of sidechain compression.
I’m excited to announce my new course: Producing Prog Metal with Glenn Fricker
I take things a step further than I do on YouTube and give you a more in-depth look into how I produce a prog metal track.
In this 3 hour course, I share my acquired knowledge of over 20 years of experience recording & producing Metal and teach you all the techniques (and why I use them) you need to achieve the sound you’re after.
What you’ll learn in this 3 hour course:
✅ Mic placement (Drums, Bass Cabs & Guitar Cabs)
✅ Editing Drums (Without losing the human performance)
✅ How to Mix Powerful Metal Drums
✅ How To Achieve Skull Crushing Guitar & Bass Tones
✅ Create mood and feeling in your mix with special effects
Check out Producing Prog Metal
As you can probably tell from my YouTube channel, I’m very passionate about music! I share my knowledge and experience so I can help the next generation of mixers, engineers and producers create music that doesn’t sound like it was made by robots.
Let’s keep the human in music! Sure, we can replace everything with drum samples, auto tuned vocals and quantize everything, but why? To create something that sounds horrible? To create something that sounds generic?
INCLUDED in this course:
✅ My final mix for reference
✅ All of the multitracks for the song
✅ All of My Reaper mix presets
✅ Edited & Unedited drums (so you can practice)
✅ DI Tracks for guitar reamping
✅ 3 hours of video tutorials
Join me, and learn how to produce a killer Prog Metal track!
