To Sidechain or not to sidechain (For hip hop, Trap, rnb)?

Discussion in 'Mixing and Mastering' started by Brendan, Nov 16, 2020.

  1. Brendan

    Brendan Kapellmeister

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    Came across a lot of different opinions on this over the years and I was wondering what everyone's viewpoint is here.

    Typically, to get a pumping effect you'd side chain the kick and the 808 so the frequencies will duck. But for a lot of hip hop music this can negate the initial effect of the 808 and taming could be a bad thing.

    I used to use fruity limiter to side chain the 808 until discovering dynamic EQ and using third party plugs such as fabfilter pro Q. Sometimes I don't side chain and the kick and bass mesh well.

    I learned after watching one of my favorite producers, Illangelo, that he somehow mixes his bass using Fabfilter pro G by side chaining but I'm unsure on how to approach this? I know in FL it's the wrench icon and processing, stereo side chain but I'm unsure of how to approach the mixing from there if anyone could help with that.

    So Overall, is side chaining necessary or does it depend on the genre, and how do you guys approach it?
     
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  3. Smoove Grooves

    Smoove Grooves Audiosexual

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    Just remember we also use sidechain comp triggered by kick to duck musical elements too.
    Just saying.
    Plus, I think it's also useful to remember that with modern genres we don't always want to include the lows of our mix in the overall compression of the track.
    Hence multiband compression, with the lows left out.
     
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