Sidechaning confusion.

[Gps]

After watching musicbears vid tutorial multiple times, I am still quite confused.

Lets start by the things I do get.
Why to side chain, and what it will accomplish.

You want to damp one instrument when another one plays.

This is however also the part were I get lost.

Maybe because the video does not start from scratch ?

How do I start ?
Clone two existing tracks, and use the clones to sidechain the originals or ?

[brandystarbrite]

Which sidechaining tutorial is it Gps?
Linky please?

[Gps]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntzWiufjkko

I already use the fx mixer like another vid of musicbear explains, so every instrument has its own channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuT_Ok6o5Dc

And part 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNicvZuZGDk

[brandystarbrite]

One simple good case of side chaining is, say for eg. You have a track called Popcorn.
And you have a Synth melody.
And a drum kick sound.
When the synth melody plays, the drum sound overpowers, or drowns out the synth melody.

So to solve this, if sidechained properly.
The sidechaining in this case, actually lowers the drum sound frequency, whenever the synth melody plays.

Or you can create a ducking sound effect with it.

I have been re-learning and experimenting with sidechaining, last week.
I still have lots to learn about.

[Gps]

Yes but the part confusing me is that there is a sidechain triple oscillator and a side chain kick.

Are those copies of the "normal" kick and triple oscillator?

[musikbear]

oh no sorry, that just shows that you can use -any- instrument, not just percussion, like a kickdrum, but also experiment with stuff in other instruments. So just a demo.

[Gps]

Cool, now I get it.

[farawayinspace]

I'm not sure if this is helpful, but I found this distinction important when reading/watching tutorials:
- sidechain "ducking" as used in most dubstep, is not so much a tool but an artistic effect to create that sucky/mini-crescendo sound of e.g., a saw-wave rising after a prominent kick hit. This type of sound is easy to impliment with Peak Controller on the FX Mixer.
- sidechain compression, as I've read in forums, is best when its not necessarly noticeable. It is useful to prioritize one sound (sidechain) over another, especially to deal with "muddy" sounds, when everything is just indiscernable blah, especially in the 150 - 500 Hz region. Somehow, with SC compression, the resulting mix is more pleasing to me than with the Peak Controller/ducking technique, I guess because a compressor with its attack/knee/release/ratio/threshold is more versatile than just the volume ducking of Peak Controller. For example, a high ratio and moderate attack on a SC compressor can allow the transient of a low-priority sound (the sound to be compressed) to still pierce through the mix, so the human ear still perceives it, even though its body remains low and background to the high-priority Sidechain sound.

I've only been able to impliment SC compression in Carla with the calf-plugins.

[Gps]

I ones tried to install carla, it is in the openSUSE repositories, but it did not work in lmms. ( I did not see Carla in lmms )
I hope this will work better when its no longer beta.

Interesting read though. Mixing / mastering is my weakest spot at the moment.

[musikbear]

one very simple way to make 'ducking' thats not been mentioned, is to simply bind any dial to a lfo :p -It could be VOL or any other dial, that has influence. It does not have to be through a compressor