Tutorials

[DJ Meckanizm]

Sidechaining: A Brief Introduction and Tutorial

1) What is sidechaining?

Sidechaining is a method of using the peak volume of an instrument (usually a kick drum) to control the volume of another instrument (usually a synth pad or lead). That's it! Fairly simple concept, no?

2) What is it used for?

Sidechaining is used frequently in Trance music. It can be used to either accent the kick drums or in a more complex fashion be used to turn single sustained notes into a bass line.

3) What does it sound like?

The result of successfully sidechaining produces a 'boom wah' effect in your music. The sidechained instrument drops out of the song when the kick hits (boom), and then fades back in (wah) as the kick volume fades.

4) How do I do it?

Ok, so this is where the meat of the tutorial lies. If you follow the following steps correctly, you will be well on your way to sidechaining awesomeness. It takes a lot of fiddling to get it right, so don't be discouraged if it doesn't work out well the first time - you'll get better with practice!
Note: I'm running FL Studio 9. Don't freak out if your interface looks different.

4.1) Set Up

Boot up FL Studio and open File>New from template>Minimal>Basic. You should have a screen that looks like this.

4.2) Instrument Selection and Patterns

Open up the instrument you would like to sidechain and load it into the step sequencer, in the second slot. We'll use the generic kick drum for now, so don't bother changing that one. Next, make sure that your chosen sound is routed to FX track 2. Make sure that the kick drum is likewise routed to FX track 1.

Make sure that when you play the synth, the channel volume is displayed in insert 2, and when you play the drum, the channel volume is displayed in insert 1.

Next we are going to draw the patterns for the kick and the synth. Place 4 kicks, one on each beat, and then open up the piano roll for the synth by Right click>Piano roll. Now would also be a good time to change our BPM to 120 or so (unless you're a hardstyle kind of dude XD).

In the piano roll draw one note that lasts four beats. In the mixer, on insert 1, choose Fruity Peak Controller in the drop down menu. Look at your step sequencer volume knobs and make sure that they are about equal.

[DJ Meckanizm]

4.3) The Peak Controller

Open the peak controller, and press the play button. Make sure the mute box on the peak controller is unchecked if you plan on having the kick drum being used for the sidechain audible in your final mix. You will notice that when the kick drum hits, the 'P' meter jumps up and then falls back down slowly. This is the peak meter display, and it measures the peak volume of the instrument it is assigned to and generates a visual depiction of it's amplitude.

The peak amplitude of the drums is what will be used to drive the sidechain effect. Now here is where the shortcut comes into play. Usually, the sidechain is done with a compressor, but I am not going that in depth here - that's why this is the shortcut tutorial! Using a compressor produces a slightly better sound, however. Instead of a compressor, we're going to use the insert volume in it's place...ooooOOOOOOOOoooooo shortcut.

4.4) Hooking this Bad Boy Up

OK, we're almost there. Next up we are going to link the insert 2 volume slider to the peak controller by Right Click>Link to controller...

When the window pops up, there are a few things to do. First we are going to click on the Internal controller box and select Peak ctrl (Insert 1) - Peak, And under the Mapping formula box, select Inverted.

What did we just do? We just linked the volume of insert 2 to the inverse of the peak level output by the kick drum. To put it simply, we just told FL to make the synth volume go down when the kick volume goes up. Why did we link the insert volume in the Mixer and not the volume nob in the Step Sequencer? The insert in the Mixer takes the input volume of the instrument from the Step Sequencer and routes it through itself before sending it to the Master Output channel of the Mixer. This allows us to raise and lower the volume of the instrument being sidechained independent of the actual output volume. Once again, put simply, this allows us to raise and lower the volume of the overall sidechain effect.

4.4) Polishing the Mirror

Once all of this is done, you should notice the 'boom wah' effect I first mentioned. If so, great! Your first sidechain! Sit back and have a beer. If not, well, it's time for fine tuning. There are a few knobs on the peak controller that will be your friend at this point: Base Level, Volume, Tension, and Decay (Decay...sorry 'bout the yellow).

Base LevelControls how much base level volume is added to the peak level independent of the kick drum hitting or not. Think of the peak level being how high you can jump. Increasing the base level is like standing a platform and jumping up and down: you can reach higher in the air, but you never come all the way back to the ground.It's default setting is 0 % added base level

Volume controls the additional amplification of the input signal. It doesn't make the instrument louder - it just amplifies the signal being sent to the peak controller. If your bass drum is too quiet to drive the sidechain but the volume on the Step Sequencer is all the way up, try turning up the volume knob. Its default setting is 0 % amplification.

Tension controls how tight the peak meter follows the input signal. A tension raised all the way to maximum will make the meter fly up and down wildly with the kick, whereas a tension of minimum will hardly move the meter around at all. Remember, the peak level is controlling the sidechain effect, so you want that meter moving! Its default setting is 0 % tension.

Decay (Decay) controls the rate at which the peak level generated by the kick drum fades back down to zero. A maximum decay time will result in your synth pad being drowned out completely, as the peak level will not fade fast enough to allow the synth to fade back in. A minimum decay time, on the other hand, will make the synth fade back in so fast that it will sound like it is clicking. This is the most crucial part of the interface, because the decay time will drastically change the sound of our sidechain effect.

Fool around with all of the settings and get familiar with what they do. There is no better way to learn than practice! So get out there and start sidechaining!

5) Further Application

Now that you have the basics of sidechaining down, there are some finer points of application. If you notice, both your kick for sidechaining and your synth are on the same Pattern. To have the synth play without the sidechain effect, simply move your piano roll notes onto another Pattern in the Playlist. Don't want the drums you are using to drive the sidechain to play at all? Go back to the peak controller and make sure that the mute box is checked again. Muting the drums in the Step Sequencer will turn off the sidechain effect completely, and we don't want that!

5.1) A Note on Compressors

Like I mentioned earlier, the proper method for this technique utilizes a compressor, and is referred to as 'sidechain compression'. It has the exact same effect, but it is done without direct volume manipulation. Compressive sidechaining is a little more in-depth, and would take a bit longer to explain. A basic knowledge of compression in general is needed as well, and I would like to include that in the tutorial. That all being said, compressive sidechaining needs a tutorial of its own, which I will consider undertaking at a later date.

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Questions? Comments? Lost completely? Feel free to PM me. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Please Rep this tutorial if it helped ya! I put alot of effort into it.

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Be sure to check out my other tutorials!

[tripsy]

wkd tut mate,but noticd what u said towards the botom about it being abit more in depth,1st off follow the steps you had there before you put ur peak controller to the kick fx and just right click on the fx chanel that you want to sidechain your kick to then choose option sidechain to this channel with right click,once you've ativated the sidechain from there open the fx channel that ur sidechaining to and insert a fl limiter,u should notice that the limiter can also be used as a compressor,click the option comp towards the bottom of the limiters gui,this will now show controls for compression there is also a box that you can now activate by scrollng up with your mouse over this box.This box is your sidecain function simply scroll up over the box until it finds you a channel chances are for 1st sidechaine only one chanel will appear,from there right click and choose what ur sidechaing from, fl will now take notice that the sidechain is now fully active,simply arrange ur ratio and threshold options and you will instanly notice a sudden change in the instruments performance once a kickdrum is playin,then simply tune up with eq for a rich tone i should mention by this point you should or prob would of noticed that the gain on the comp may need adjustin to compensate what was lost when you alterd your ratio and thresh,tweak until ur happy with the pumping effect ur looking for,hope this makes it a little easyer for all ;)

[tonnydo]

nice tutorial . thank . i try it

[Lucasarti]

woww! very nicee m8 ! thx for this.

[djlilpip]

thanks a lot!!