Do you know VST (Compressor? Limiter?) which do nothing but when you put loud sound which is above 0dB like +6dB it instantly make everything quieter until original sound will be again under 0dB and is very quick so the sound never be above 0dB?
How this effect is called?

I also looking for second very similar effect but this time when you put loud sound everything is quieter and this loud sound stay without changing like for example kick. You put kick and everyhing will be quieter except for this kick.

Benny Bennasi was talking about something like it

1:54

 

That's a limiter.

You could route the kick track to the sidechain of a mixbus compressor, set the attack and release just right to get that pumping effect. Alternatively you could route everything except kick to a bus and compress that with the kick in the sidechain, but i'd go with the first option.

 

I was using stock Ableton Limiter but it doesn't make this effect.
I don't know how to explain. Like granade explodes and everything instantly make quiet and slowly back to normal.
Like you have audio recorder, in the background calm music plays and everything is normal like - 8dB or -12dB and something unexpected happened like you sneeze and then everyhing goes quiet and stabilize after few seconds.
I will look around maybe for example on the net. But it will be hard.

Which vst behaves like this? Maybe I need to set Ableton Limiter to specific settings?

 

Why not just do it with volume automation?

 

Oh, i thought you were talking about two different things.

A limiter will keep things below a specified level, but that volume drop and back up effect on the song is sidechain compression triggered by the kick for sure, so...compressor.

any compressor that can take an external sidechain signal. Live's stock compressor should be able to handle that just fine. Here:

Although the effect in Satisfaction is so heavy that i'm pretty sure the compressor is in the mixbus and not just in the bass track. Same principle but might need some tweaking, specially in timing.

 

to really get the classic radio-dj microphone ducking effect you want, the sidechained compressor has to be set really aggressively. Like infinity symbol on the ratio, and a very fast attack. Some compressors like the NI Solid even have sidechain signal gain controls to clamp down faster. to offset some of the lag from the side chain signal hitting the input of the compressor.

 

I understood what Benny Bennasi said. It was the same thing Michael Brauer told when he started using compressors. When you have a compressor on the 2buss that doesnt have internal sidechain HPF, everytime the kick or the low end appears it will trigger the compressor first than the other elements of the song because of the amount of voltage on the low end, so the rest of the song would go quieter BC of the kick drum will trigger and depending on the attack and release times it will create some sort of pumping effect (slowest attack and fastest release on a ssl comp for example). Some kind of music, like EDM, can benefit from this effect, although most of the times is not a desireble effect, that's why most of modern bus compressors have internal sidechain HPF.

 

Pick a bus compressor for the stereo buss, set the slow attack and don't put any hpf, so only the transients of the kick drum (which i supose be the loudest thing on EDM) will pass without being compressed and the rest of the song will go quieter. The time of the "quieter part" is the release, it will dictate how long the compression effect will be applied. But with slow attacks you preserve the "kick", while the other things will go quieter with the compression

 

Two things I can think of.
First, FabFilter Pro-C. Turn off auto-makeup, put it in "Pumping" mode, Threshold to zero, hardest Knee, highest Ratio, fastest Attack, longest Release, and then crank up the "Mix" value (the one that's down in the gain staging tab) up to 200%. This isn't actually mix, this is the gain reduction multiplier. Yeah, FabFilter aren't a perfect company either.
Anyways, adjust values to your liking, don't forget to change modes and add lookahead.

Second, u-he Presswerk. Same deal as before, auto-makeup off, Threshold at zero, highest Ratio, hardest Knee, fastest Attack, longest Release, and now crank the "Non Lin" knob all the way to the right, you'll see what it does to the transfer curve
As before, add some lookahead (it's achieved here via moving Sidechain Delay to the negative values), see which of the three modes (feedforward, feedback or interactive) serves you best.

 

Last edited: Jan 29, 2023

Yeah. I think those tips gave this sound about Benny Bennasi was talking. I can use now different methods to achieve similar results and test which one work the best for me. Thanks guys

I think it sounds different than just volume automation. It is like pressure of air instead of just lower volume.

Yeah. I think this effect is called ducking.
I found article but is blocked because Patreon or something LOL
https://www.catonoise.com/compressor-limiter-ducking-and-sidechaining-handout/

 

So you wanted a simple ducking?
The best way to do this is:
Create two busses. One soley for kick, clap/snare and hihats, and one for everything else. Put a compressor on the "everything else" bus, activate sidechain on the compressor if needed. Send the kick to the sidechain. Tweak settings till you get what you want. Start with high Ratio, fast Attack and slow Release. Adjust Threshold so the rumbly tail is mostly below it. However your kick should not probably have said tail in it, if it does.
If your track is simple 4-on-the-floor, you can get away with volume modulators like Devious Machines Duck or Polyverse Music Gatekeeper, or any of a thousand other such plugins. Or any of the modulated FabFilter plugins.

 

in Fabfilter Pro-C2 under Special, the preset called 'Pump Me to The Radio NH' is good starting settings. Sidechain Link to your kick, hit the side chain dropdown and click Ext to use the external side chain source and it's very close already. The attack is 0, and the ratio is infinity. Because it is a side chain reacting to a drum transient; you want the compressor clamping down as quickly as possible, and then a realistic recovery time for the compressor to reset before the next transient.
There is already delay because the compressor is reacting to an audio event. You can also do this with a Midi file as your side chain source.

 

Last edited: Jan 29, 2023

For an occasional VST that is too loud I'm simply using Airwindows' "ClipOnly2" on the master output. It's perfect - soft clipper with no controls and it doesn't change the sound unless it passes the 0dB threshold. Also, incredibly light on the CPU.