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-- A quick tip for side-chaining in FL

A quick tip for side-chaining in FL

Ok, assuming here that you know how to sidechain in FL, if not there is a tutorial at the top of the forum I think.
So I was making a song, and it had a sidechained bassline, but one problem I was having was that when I wanted to stop the kick, but not the bassline, the bass then went really loud and distorted as it wasn't being sidechained by the kick, and sounded more like a loud pad.
So I was messing around, and found a pretty nifty way around this:

1. Assign a phaser to the same FX channel as the kick (but have the phaser muted)

2. Set the feedback to 1.0000 (bottom left knob, turn it all the way to the right)

3. Create an automation click by right clicking the mute button beside the phaser (make sure it is off initially)

4. Place this in your track where you want the kick to not play (depends on how many bars you want it to last for)

5. The bass should now act as if the kick was there, even if is not playing

Not sure how it works, but it does! If anyone doesn't understand my shitty walkthrough then pm me and I'll maybe have a better go or send a few example files.

cheers,
Ricky

Yooo Ricky...I normally just create another kick and have it muted the whole time and sidechain all my elements to that kick instead. It's a lot easier because you're always getting that sidechained sound without ever having to worry about it stopping. Or you can just put in the volume automation yourself and not have to worry about that either ;P But that phaser trick seems kind of interesting haha.

The reason that works is because the phaser basically adds the inverse of the kick to the track, cancelling the whole kick out.

Personally, though, I prefer hitting the "mute" button on the bottom right of the Peak Controller.

Threadstarter - that is not a sidechain. If you want to create a bass ducking effect then you can do it an even easier (and more appropriate) way by sticking a fruity compressor at the end of the signal chain on the channel for the bassline. Leave the output gain alone (otherwise you will colour the output signal) and set the compression ratio as desired. Right click the threshold rotary and select 'Edit Event' as shown below:



Select the pencil tool. Keep snap to grid on 'Line' for the meantime. Now draw in the automation so that on every 1/4 beat (when the kick lands) the threshold ducks down. It should look like this:



Depending on the attack transient and the length of the kick drum you may want to change to the paintbrush tool and paint a more specific bass ducking effect tailored to the exact sound of the kick drum. For instance, If the kick drum has a very long bassy tail you may want to try something like:



However, you can achieve this type of effect by lengthening the compressor release time. Thats really what you are supposed to do, but I would advise graphing it first, so you get an idea of what the release can do. You can also shape the compression attack in the same way so that the bass ducking effect shapes around the kick drum sound. This will vary depending on the kick drum you use, as they all have different lengths, transients and frequency spreads. The whole effect will also vary depending on the tempo of the project so if you change the BPM after doing this, you really need to redo the automation or it wont fit exactly.

To simulate an actual sidechain you need to do a trick using Link to controller and automate the sidechain manually by graphing it or using one of the preset waveshapes to determine the output signal of another effect. This is a pain in the arse, but its the only way I can find to simulate a sidechain in FL Studio at this point in time.

quote:

Originally posted by Derivative Threadstarter - that is not a sidechain. If you want to create a bass ducking effect then you can do it an even easier (and more appropriate) way by sticking a fruity compressor at the end of the signal chain on the channel for the bassline. Leave the output gain alone (otherwise you will colour the output signal) and set the compression ratio as desired. Right click the threshold rotary and select 'Edit Event' as shown below:

Actually, what Ricky's doing is closer to sidechaining than what you're doing, IMO. The best description I've heard for a compressor is holding the gain knob while a song plays and tweaking it down for peaks. It's just that with a computer controlling the gain reduction, this process tends to be more precise.

When sidechaining, the compressor that is receiving the kick's signal is the hand on the bassline's gain knob. The compressor reacts to the kick's peaks and tweaks the gain knob down on the bassline instead. This is almost exactly what peak controller does in the FLStudio Macgyver sidechain. The difference is that whereas a sidechain compressor only triggers above certain amplitues on the kick channel, the peak controller is always triggered by the kick. Like having the threshhold spun all the way down to negative infinity. This can be circumvented however, by putting a noise gate before your peak controller. The ratio is fairly well approximated by the amt knob and the tns knob, and the decay knob is something of an analogue to the attack and release knobs.

Your method has two problems. First, the gain reduction on the bassline isn't even related to the peaks of the kick drum. The "hand on the gain knob" is a midi track. Second, the hand isn't even on the gain knob, it's on the threshhold knob for a compressor.

Your first problem can be solved by using a peak controller on the kick track to control the threshhold of the compressor on the bassline track. But this still leaves us with your "hand" on the wrong knob.

Don't get me wrong, your method (slightly altered by yours truly) leaves us with a bassline gain that is controlled by the peaks of the kick track, and even has a volume below which the bassline's gain is unaffected. The problem is this: the threshhold is more related to the bassline's volume than the kick's volume. If the threshhold is on the kick, the compressor will always trigger for the same kick drum peaks. If it is on the bassline, however, it will trigger differently for the same kick volume if the volume on the bassline differs.

So you might as well go with the tried and tested method, since it works pretty well.

heh I just wanted to open a thread about the same subject today.

anyway, instead of a phaser you could just click on the mute button as someone said, or even better - if you want to play with the kick's volume (fade it out and stuff) you could assign a pan-o-matic AFTER the peak controller, and play with the volume of the kick through it.

quote:

Originally posted by thoughtlessjex Actually, what Ricky's doing is closer to sidechaining than what you're doing, IMO. The best description I've heard for a compressor is holding the gain knob while a song plays and tweaking it down for peaks. It's just that with a computer controlling the gain reduction, this process tends to be more precise.

Oh sorry, I should have made it clearer than I did. The method I described isn't a sidechain nor is it meant to be. It is just a quick, easy way of bass ducking. To set up something like a side chain you have to use a link to controller trick. Even then its not automatic or hands free though.

If you automate the controller, won't it automate the sidechain as well?

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