Side chain compression in Pro tools
I met a professional mixer on gearslutz once on a live chat some time ago and asked him if he worked with stems (merged tracks e.g all drums in on sep stereo track) in a final mix, he said he didn’t like working with them because of the extensive side chaining work he does with all his tracks.
I was a bit unsure of what he meant but in the simplest terms he went on to explain how you could send a level from a track via a buss to the compressor of another track that you wanted ducked.
Man! Like a light bulb! I knew how to do it theoretically but never saw or importantly heard this effect in a real world application.
Listen to the snippet below and listen to the effect of the vocals “pushing” down the volume of the keyboard sound it is set against.
Sacrifice.mp3
It makes more sense now to employ this method instead of trying to eq or volume ride everything into or out of existence.
Great stuff!
The Pro tools Side Chain Method
In this example a send is created within the vox channel and routed via bus 8 to the input of the compressor on the track below it.
The bussed output on the vox channel is set to 0db and the pre fade “P” button is clicked on to maximize it’s level.
The input of the compressor’s key (top-left) is now set to receive from bus 8 and importantly the highlighted blue key on the compressor should be activated. (top-right). The compressor is now listening to the external source.
Initially by tweaking the threshold settings within the compressor you should now be able to hear the side chain effect.
Voila!
The above graphic should be self explanatory, if you get stuck just flick me a mail and I’ll elaborate a little.
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Typically associated with the Blues and Roots movement and acoustic in nature Mike De Velta's intoxicating compositions and performances are constantly on the move. A rich showcase of modern folk,blues and a hint of the eastern expressed through the shimmering and delightful tones of lap slide, ukulele and acoustic guitars.