![]() This isn’t the only way to use a sidechain to make way for the human voice. If you set your release long enough, the background music will stay down between words and phrases, automatically making way for extended narration. This way, whenever a voice enters the scene, the music is brought down, hard. But, instead of the compressor reacting to fluctuations in the music, you’ll use the sidechain input to force the compressor to react to your dialogue tracks instead. Just strap a compressor across your music track, and set it with a fairly low threshold, high ratio, a fast attack and a long release time. Using a sidechain in this way is pretty simple. ![]() Today, most engineers mixing films and pre-recorded TV shows are likely to use volume automation to ride music levels, but sidechaining can still be handy, especially in live broadcast or event situations where music must make way for commentary. In the beginning, one of the most common uses of a sidechain was a pragmatic one: Automatically reducing the level of music to make room for the human voice. Today we’ll explore a few of its most common and potent applications. Sidechaining is a technique that can be used like a scalpel or a paintbrush, a hammer or a piece of fine-grain sandpaper. And today, a good DAW will allow you to add a sidechain input to almost any compressor, regardless of how simple its layout might be. But by the early 2000s, companies like dbx, Alesis and FMR had started to offer sidechain inputs on even their most affordable units. ![]() There was a time, decades ago, when many compressors lacked this function. For those who are unfamiliar with it, this is the process of using the output of one track to control the action of a compressor on a completely different track. (Even though it can take a while, sometimes years, to hear these variables well and to develop good instincts about tweaking them.)īut one of the last things that new engineers tend to explore when it comes to compression is sidechaining. You’re probably already familiar with basic controls like your threshold, which allows you to set the point at which a compressor “kicks in”, and your ratio, which allows you to adjust the amount of compression you’ll get.Įarly on into their training, most new engineers will also understand the concepts behind controls like attack, release and knee, which essentially adjust how swiftly your compressor reacts to signals that approach the threshold. If you read SonicScoop, chances are you already know a thing or two about compressors. For a video version of this story on sidechain compression, click here.
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