Transcripts
1. Introduction: Wait, wait, wait. Let's fix it. You hear the
difference? Hi there. I'm Harry from music
Magic Entertainment. Welcome to four ways to
side chain the right way. We sound means creativity
and precision. Today, you're stepping
into a Sonic workshop that transforms ordinary
tracks into dynamic, pulsating masterpieces. With the power of side
chain compression, you can carve out
space at moment and create a groove that
feels almost alive. In this class, we are diving into four distinct
side chain techniques, each unlocking a new
dimension of clarity, punch, and rhythm
in your production. Whether you are seasoned
producer or just starting out, this class is designed
to ignite your passion for music production and
expand your creative toolkit. Let's get started on the
path to mixing mastery, where every beat, every node, and every moment is
perfectly in sec. I'll meet you in the class.
2. Sidechain Explained: Hey, there. It's Harry from
Music Magic Entertainment. Welcome to a quick guide
on audio side chain, a neat trick used in music production to help
different sounds work together. Before that, I would actually
recommend you to check out my two courses on
EQ and compression. That way, you can have
a clear understanding of how compression works. And later, you can make some precise decisions
in your mix. Okay. So imagine you
have two sounds, and one is heavy kick
drum that keeps the beat, and the other is a
smooth bass line that fills out your truck. Sometimes the piece can get
in the way of the kick drum, making the beat feel crowded. So side chain is a technique that helps clear up that space. Let's see how it works
in simple terms. A compressor is a tool that can lower the volume of a sound
when it gets tooled out. With side chain, we use
a special setup where the compressor isn't just listening to the
sound it controls, it also listen to under the signal, usually
the kick drum. When the kick drum
hits, the compressor quickly lowers the
volume of the pace short drop in volume
makes a kick drum stand out more and gives the music
a cool, pulsing fiddle. It's just like, you
know, conversation at a party when one
person, in this case, the kick drum starts
talking, another person, the bass quietly pauses so you can focus on
what's being said. Then the bass comes back and when the kick has
finished its sentence. This back and forth process makes sure everyone is clearly. In many modern music styles, especially in electronic
dance music and, you know, a lot of hip hop tracks, this effect creates a
dynamic pumping sound that gives the track energy and not just about making
the beat louder. It's also about creating a space where each
sound can shine by allowing the kick drum to lead the rest of the
sound scan free, making the oral mix cleaner
and more interesting. Let's actually see four ways you can side chain
the right way.
3. Technique 1: Using Stock Compressor: All right. Let's see
the first way of how we can actually side chain the two
different instruments. Oh, here we have bass
and a Trump loop. Let's first listen to the rack, and then we can actually go
along, make some changes. Yeah, as you can see, the piece is actually dominating the kick drum and
the snare, as well. So to make the clash
or to get the kick and the snare to pop it just sound like it's cluttering,
we use side chain. So the first way is by
using a fruity bitter. I want to do that, first, we have assign these
two instruments to the mixer by opening the channel rack
and selecting both and pressing Control L. So the two instruments
are assigned. So here we are
actually side changing the drum loop to the base. So what it means is we just want the base to duck whenever
the kick or the snare hits. So first, actually
take the drum loop, select the drum loop and and select side chain to this
track so that you can actually see a wire going
through this mixer of the base. And then what we can do is
open up the base mixer. Over here, we want to
choose fruitlimter. So as you can see over here, this is a fruit limiter. We already have a
class on compression. If you haven't checked it out, you can check it
out on my profile. Here, you actually find a side
shing setting right here. All you have to do is right
click and select drum loop. So what actually it is doing
is it's actually taking the information of the Tram
loop to the fruity demter. Let's see how this sounds. Okay, there is no side
chaining going on right now. So this is because we haven't adjusted the parameters
yet. So do so. First, we have to
focus on the threshold because this is where we just want to paste to get side
chained with a drum loop. So let's select the threshold and set the parameters
accordingly, a little bit of ratio as well. Then you can actually find
drum loop making pockets on the pase. As you
can see right here. You can actually adjust the
da and produces also. Mm. So this way, you
can actually hear the drums quite more
clearly than before. And this actually gives the whole instrument
a good clean mix. So if you want to
hear the side chain, all you have to do is
just go to the mixer, and then you have
to disables and that way you just only listen
to the piece. That's it. So what you're
listening right now is only the side chain piece. So if you want to listen
to the Drumbo bassware, all you have to
do is just select the drum loop and wrap
it with the master. So this is before? This is after Mmm. In the next lesson, we'll learn the second way of how we
can side change the right.
4. Technique 2: Using a Controller: Okay, so let's find
out the second way of how you can actually
side chain the right way. Earlier, we used fruity limiter to side chain both
the instruments. But now we use a
different approach. In this approach, you have to
find the source instrument, which is drum loop or here. This is the source.
So we just want this source to target
this instrument. What I mean by that is we just want drum loop
to get side changed, and the pase should be dug
when the frequencies get hit. So in this case, let's
go to the source track and add a plugin
called peak control. And after that,
what you have to do is go to the target audio track, and as you can see, there's a volume knob over here, Rlged and click on
Link to Controller. Here, you actually get a lot of different
options to choose from. All you have to do is just
go to the Internal Control, open it up and choose
the P control peak. Because as you can see, there's fruity P Controller drum loop. So under that section, we had to click P Control Peak. Why? Because we
are only targeting the peak frequencies of the
drum loop to get trigger. And then choose the
mapping formula to invert it because we just don't want the frequencies to
get increase, right? We just want the
opposite to duck. That's the reason
why we have choosed Inverted and just click Accept. After that, this
knob is actually linked to the fruity
peak controller. So when you actually
play right now, you can see the volume knob is actually moving up and down, depending upon the audio
signal of the thrum. So what you can do is first, you have to set the pace right. We'll just set it up
when it touches zero DP. So Jess, we just don't want to clip
furthermore in the mix. Later, we have to add the
volume knob accordingly. Right now, it's 100%. We'll set it up to,
you know, 30 33, 35%. And now most of
the work is done. Let's check how it sounds like. The volume is getting ducked when the drum loop
actually is siting. If you want more compression
or more ducking to happen, more side chain to happen, all you have to do is just
increase the tension. I just tucks more. Decay is attack and release
for this knob As you can see, it's actually having much
more attack and rutase. That's the reason
why it's very fast. And when I actually
do the opposite, you can see it's very slow. I'll keep it right here. So as you can listen to
the audio track, the drum loop is actually getting side chain
with the passe. It's very clean
to actually hear. So if you want to hear
the side chain passe, all you have to do is just
click on the mute button over here so that the drum loop gets muted and only
the passe plays. So this is another way of
side chaining the right way. We'll find the third
way in the next lesson.
5. Technique 3: Using an EQ: See the third way to side
chain the right way. So the third way is actually pretty
similar to the second. But in this approach,
we specifically isolate a different frequency
range using an EQ and side chain on top of that. Let's
see how this works. So as we already discussed in the second way that
we have to select the target and open up a
plug in call B Controller. There you have it.
And then earlier, what we have done is test right clicking the volume knob and actually linking
to the controller. So right now, we actually
are using another approach, which is going to target audio track and then
opening up an EQ, which is a fruity
parametric EQ to. So what we want to do in this track specifically
is that we just want the base
frequencies to get triggered where
the drum loop plays. So we'll just starg only
the base frequencies up to, you know, low bits. And as you can see, right, I'm actually
mowing this pan, and I also can control this pan by using this
knob right over here. So what we should
do is just click the span and select
Link to controller. And now it's just the same
approach as the previous one. All you have to do is
just go and select the P control Peak under
the Trum loop section, and then same inward to
setting and click Accept. So it's pretty much the same. Actually, just go to TruMoop and select Fruity P Controller.
And there you have it. We actually have the
setup ready And now, when I play, So what's happening is
we actually didn't set up the base volume tension
decay knobs right here. So first, we have to
set up the parameters. Let's go and make the
base setting to 50%. Let's try to make
the peak amount 60%, and let's leave the tension
as itse and decay as itse and we'll just figure out just the parameters after
listening to this track. Mm hmm. As you can
see, only this band, where it actually has
y hertz to up to, you know, find hertz
is getting ducked out every moment the drum
loop is actually hitting. So over here, we
just specifically targeting certain
frequency range, and we're side honing on
the top of that layer. So this comes very handy, not only with the drum
loop and the basses, but with the vocals and
the instrumental as well. Let's hear it once
again, and if there are any other settings to tweak, we'll just do it right away. Mm hmm. Mm. Mm. Yeah, I guess it's perfect. So this is how you actually
side chain the drum loop and the pass using the third way
to side chain the right way. We'll learn the fourth
way in the next lesson.
6. Technique 4: Using Automation: Last but not the
least, let's see the last way to side
chain the right way. So the brick is
basically so simple. First, you have to
assign the two tracks, and then you have
to go to the mixer. And there, what you
have to do is just, you know, right click and
create automation clip. And after that, you can see that we have an
automation clip for base, and what you're automating
is just the volume of it. So after that, what you have
to do is double click on the drum loop and click Load
sample file right here. So just copy this
path by Control C, and then double click the
Pase volume automation. And here, as you can see,
there's wrench file, go to the wrench file and
click Analyze Audio File. And then pase a copied path. And as you can see,
there's the first file, L you can actually
sort it by time and choose the top one because that's the recent project
you're working on, right? Which is the Tram loop
and then click Open. Now what happened is you
have analyzed this file and it created an
automation file for the volume for the base. Yeah, so it's just the same as drum loops volume right here, but it's actually not aligned. To align it, what you
can do is you can arrange the range to ten and try to bring the automation lock to the grid as
same as the drum loop. So what you can do is just
hold control and use time. I just place it exactly below
where the drum lope is. All right. You can get rid
of the tail right here. Yeah. So right now,
as you can see, both the track and the volume automation
of the base is aligned. And then the next
step is that go to the wrench icon again and
click flip poetically. So now, as you can see, um, it has been flipped vertically. So what you're actually doing is that whenever the drum hits, the bass is actually
reducing its volume. So we're actually side
chaining it by analyzing the audio file of a drum loop and flipping it. Let's
see how that sounds. Yeah, that's way to
do much compression. What we can do is
double click it again and click on the Ren icon. And select scale levels. That way, you can actually
scale, how much do you want? So offset makes the entire
thing go up and down. I multiply is actually stretching to different
automation points right here. And Center is actually
making some smooth curves. So I guess I'll
actually stay right here because I just don't want heavy
compression to happen. Yeah, so I'll just say
here and click on except. It's no, as you can see. As you can see, right, I mean, it's a cleanest mix after the side chain that we
have date it right here. You were saying pace automation.
7. Conclusion: And that's a wrap on four ways to side
chain the right way. I hope these techniques have
given you the tools and inspiration to approach
your mixes with confidence. To master any technique, it's all about practice. So start experimenting with the techniques that we
have discussed along the way of this class and
apply in your own mixes. Also, don't be afraid to get
more creative while mixing. Whether you are making IDM, hip hop or cinematic music, side shining will give you the tracks that
professional polish. Thanks for joining
me. We'll meet in the next class
until then, peace.
Music Magic Entertainment, FL Studio, Music Production, Engineering
