Sidechaining or Ducking

Discussion in 'Mixing and Mastering' started by Auen Fred, Jul 26, 2024.

?

Sidechaining or Ducking

  1. sidechaining

    29.2%
  2. ducking

    16.7%
  3. you an idiot ,sidechaining is ducking .

    54.2%
  1. Auen Fred

    Auen Fred Producer

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    Sidechaining or Ducking ?
    what do you prefer ?
    ...and what duck u are using ?
    [​IMG]
     
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  3. Sinus Well

    Sinus Well Audiosexual

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    You are an idiot. Ducking is sidechaining, but sidechaining is not ducking! :bleh:
     
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  4. mk_96

    mk_96 Audiosexual

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    Gonna go with sidechaining since it's the broader term here, kinda like choosing between ice cream and vanilla ice cream. Also i have bad experiences with ducks, they always try to bite me, fuck ducks.
     
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  5. Lois Lane

    Lois Lane Audiosexual

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    When a chain from the side is coming at my head, my father taught me how to duck.
     
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  6. Auen Fred

    Auen Fred Producer

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    when to use dm duck/volumeshaper/gatekeeper , when trackspacer and when sc comp ?
    just a matter of taste ?....or workflow'wise ?
    besides bass , what do you guys duck ?
     
  7. Stevie Dude

    Stevie Dude Audiosexual

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    shaperboxing. I throw Shaperbox 3 on everything these days. Lazy af
     
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  8. Baxter

    Baxter Audiosexual

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    Ah, it's a damn trick question. :) You can side-chain a gate, and then it becomes a jumping ostrich.
     
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  9. Lad Impala

    Lad Impala Rock Star

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    When you duck all the frequencies is a way more noticeable effect.
    if your ducking specific frequencies, like trackspacer or soothe, is gonna feel more transparent.

    that's the difference, and it is a matter of taste and genre.
     
  10. Auen Fred

    Auen Fred Producer

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    info overkill and not my genrepool and im not a engineer(apparently) but found a interesting post some readers or user maybe find interesting

    where to use sidechain gate instead of sidechain compression

    https://www.reddit.com/r/audioengin...e_to_use_sidechain_gate_instead_of_sidechain/

    I love sidechain gating and use it way more than sidechain compression!

    A lot of the ideas have already been mentioned, but ways I use them:


    • triggering white or pink noise for a snare hit is a good one, have used that in the past


    • also triggering a pure sine wave tuned to the pitch of the kick drum to add more bottom end


    • using it to "tighten up" parts rhythmically. Usually this will involve not having the gate close all the way (to -100dB or whatever) but instead reduce to -3 to -6dB, or sometimes more. Examples: -- tightening between instruments (kick and bass, guitars and drums, etc) -- tightening up doubled vocal parts. If vocal parts are a tiny bit staggered rhythmically, using sidechain gating like this can help to make them feel "tightened up." Just sidechain from the most rhythmically consistent track and reduce -3 to -6 dB


    • Giving something like hi-hats or OHs more "feel" if they're flat or mechanical (I use often on drum machine HHs). Set the gate closed at around -3 and then sidechain from the snare drum (short attack and adjust release to taste) to make the part more dynamic and punch with the snare.


    • Adding transients that cut through. One example: I felt the bass part was a bit weak. Bussed it to a parallel channel, pitch-shifted up an octave, added saturation and hi-shelf boost, and then sidechain gated so signal only triggered the transient (1ms attack time, very short hold time ~20 or 30ms, decay adjusted as short as possible while still sounding natural). Bring this channel up subtly under the original.


    • I recently used it to get one string part to imitate the envelope of a pad. String part had long held chords, pad part had some rests in between, gave the gate a very long decay time and triggered from the pad part so the strings would decay with the pad.


    • EDIT: Duh, gated reverb.

    I tend to use sidechain compression when I want to clear one thing out of the way of another (ex. sidechain compress bass to make room for the kick). I tend to use sidechain gate when I want things playing at the same time / louder at the same time (above examples).

     
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  11. Auen Fred

    Auen Fred Producer

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    i only used sc compression (prefered with Sly-Fi Deflector) or track spacer to duck bass under a kick . pulling the feckn kick out .
     
  12. Sayan B

    Sayan B Kapellmeister

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    I call it Soothe-ing.
     
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  13. clone

    clone Audiosexual

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    Yup. A compressor like Pro-C2 can even illustrate easily the difference between a plugin reacting to it's own Internal Sidechain and External Sidechain control. There are reverb plugins with parameters for ducking using their own internal sidechains.

    You can even use a "ducking" plugin (an enveloper) like Kickstart triggered by an external sidechain. Or some other processor that may be reacting to a sidechain signal with no gain reduction or shaping at all.

    it's like slang. :suicide:
     
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  14. thembonesthere

    thembonesthere Noisemaker

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    I'm sideducking and chain smoking.

    Why the duckface?

    Long as it good only you decide.
     
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  15. Demloc

    Demloc Platinum Record

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    I usually duck the bass but soothe the synths/strings/vocals. Using a compresor for sidechain ducking is like ducking but with less intuitive/visual controls IMO.

    Duck (deviant machines) for ducking (obviusly :yes:)
    Soothe2 for soothing :rofl:
    I rarely use a comp for these task nowadays.
     
  16. Midge F

    Midge F Rock Star

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    Duckchaining.
     
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  17. thembonesthere

    thembonesthere Noisemaker

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    I been sidechain Soothe2, very lovely.
     
  18. scrappy

    scrappy Platinum Record

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    Location:
    bowels of the skullery at the court of king boris
    When there's a knock at the door :knock: I always wonder:
    :wtf:
    Is it a man with a bill?
    or
    Is it a duck with a hat on...
    wearing shoes?
    (tumbleweed rolls across vista)
    I'll get me coat.
    :shalom:

    (ducking is one aspect of sidechaining, but sidechaining allows for other processing possibilities too).
     
  19. Smeghead

    Smeghead Producer

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    I just set the threshold control, duck-chaining and side-fking is too advanced for me
     
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  20. shinyzen

    shinyzen Rock Star

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    Real musicians & producers need neither. If you select the right sounds to begin with, and are careful to have zero overlapping elements in your arrangement you are good to go. Do you think Mozart needed sIdEchAiNinG. No. Man up and become a real musician. All these dang kids and their ducks and sidechains, learn how to write music on paper.
     
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  21. Auen Fred

    Auen Fred Producer

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    ulx account take over or must be that english humor everyone is talkin about

    ---
    main reason i made theese thread was do get informed about what ppl duck besides duck bass under a kick .
    what i get from this thread is nowadays ppl prefer for sake of fast and easy workflow ducking before sc ....questions now for me now what material they talkin bout ,isnt there a difference between just volume automation ducking and let a compressor duck a bass besides feckn pumping ....aaand dont i just have to trigger a devius duck with a sc anyways ?

    other quesstions arise : eg do they duck a pad under a high hat:mad: ?what do thwy sooth ,a vocal or melody under a snare ? can i duck stuff under a whole break ?

    another thing i get from this thread i i believe (because now lad impalas grammar confuses me this day as non native tongue :mad:) is ,-duck/sc for foundational stuff ,trackspcr/sooth for melodic stuff .?!
     
    Last edited: Aug 18, 2024
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