Thank you! I've been trying to learn how to do this for a while now, and your video is the most straightforward and clearest resource I've found. Nice work!
Thanks Jake. Out of the dozen or so vids I looked at, yours makes the most sense to me. Now, that I've done it, it's not so bad, but I'll have to go back and re-do some of older mixes (again). Cheers.
Oh man the pre fader bus and the no out put settings made my day. Nobody is talking about it in other channels. Glad I found your channel. Definitely subscribing 🙏🏽
very solid video. really helped me understand sidechaining and some unexpected compressor info. also the music is giving me some heavy The Warriors vibe I love it!
Jake, I just found your channel. And I've been trying to wrap my head around side chain for a long time, and you made is so easy to understand, and giving some compression start points Is so great. I feel this topic is not really expressed enough , because your demo was night and day on the kick/bass . great job and thanks.
thank you for this - you got right to the point and showed us how to get it done! I didn't waste 30 min. of my time only to not really find anything at all. Finally a great tutorial!
WOW, just followed this tutorial and copied most of the compressor settings for a Techno tune I've been making. Instantly my kick is coming through so much more and not driving my master levels right up! Just one question, why do you send the kick to a bus first, then select the bus from the sidechain option in the compressor? I usually just select the main kick channel to directly trigger the compressor. Thanks :)
im all late to the party but thanks for this clear video on how to use side chain! I was always so confused about it but I tried it and it sounds great! now Is sidechaining something to do to other tracks? or is it primarily for kick n bass?
What happens if you set the sidechain trigger as a pre-fade input instead of sending to the aux/mix bus? Can you pick pre-fader for the input (channel) trigger, or is it a post-fader trigger at that point?
I want it the other way round, it's for bad bass players: when the kick hits, then the bass must sound. When the kick does not hit, then the bass must be silent. How do you do that?
Great video, Jake! Question: I noticed you didn't click on the 'side chain' button at the top right of the compressor. What would be the difference with having that selected vs output (as you have it in this video)? Thanks
That's true, I didn't really go over the options that Logic offers when you click the "side chain" button, but when you do click that button it gives you more control over the sidechain detection, including different highpass/lowpass EQ filters that allow you to fine-tune the frequency range of the sidechain detection. So for example if you wanted the sidechain trigger to be focused only on the deep low-end of the kick, you could adjust the filter so that the bass ducks whenever that specific frequency range pokes through. I believe the default setting compresses your track based on the full frequency range of the trigger (if you make no adjustments to the sidechain menu).
this was by far very good use of tutorials especially for logic ! quick question , for the side chain kick , how do I select the "pre fader" section ? if it doesn't let me chose any of em. I know it has to do with something in settings but im completely lost :/
Make sure you've already set up a bus in the "send" region of your channel strip, once you've done that you should be able to click where it says "Bus 1" (or whatever number bus it is) and select "post pan", "post fader", or "pre fader" from the dropdown menu. Hope that helps, thanks!
@@jakethomsonaudio okay I think that’s where I was lost , do you have an insta I can dm you on ? cause on my screen those options are disabled for me . It lets me choose the bus but still isn’t enabled. how do I do the send region ?
Thanks. I have a quick question. Do I have to convert sidechain source midi to audio in order to side chain? I've seen some tutorials that say side chaining doesn't work with a midi source.
As long as your midi source is actually creating an audio signal (such as a midi note playing a kick sample) you can use a midi track as the input source for the side chain; and if you route it into a non-output aux track as I did in this video it will act as a side chain trigger at a consistent level without being sent to the main outs.
Hi man. I decided to try this and made a new project with only two tracks, a lead instrument and a kick. Once i get to exactly 3:13 in the video, where you're gonna chose Pre-fader, i fail. Nothing happens when i click the little arrows to get the dropdown menu. It doesn't let me click it. Any advice? Still, great tutorial.
Hi there! So the reason I sent the kick to the "Kick Bus" with a pre-fader send (instead of post-fader) is that no matter how much I decide to change the volume of the kick later in the mix, the pre-fader send routes a consistent level to the "Kick Bus" that won't be affected by any volume fader adjustments in the original kick track. And because the "Kick Bus" is only acting as a trigger for the compressor's sidechain function, we will turn off its output so that we're not hearing the audio from the bus (think of it as a muted copy-and-paste of the kick track, simply acting as a sidechain trigger). Sorry if my response was long-winded, let me know if that makes sense! Thanks for the question! :)
@@jakethomsonaudio perfect! thank you for such thorough explanation, i completely understand it now. keep posting! wishing you much success and great abundance 🌌
Gotcha, so since the aux track is only acting as a trigger for the side chain, just make sure when you bounce the bass track (or whatever is being compressed by the trigger) that the side chain compression is working. I believe if you solo both the bass track and the kick aux track, once you bounce that it should retain the compression. Besides that there’s no reason to bounce the aux track on its own because it’s set to “no output”. Hope that helps, thanks!
Thank you! I've been trying to learn how to do this for a while now, and your video is the most straightforward and clearest resource I've found. Nice work!
Best side chain tutorial I've seen on RUclips.
really appreciate you listing out the knob values for your compressor, subtle but makes it a lot easier to follow/start out!
Hands down best explanation on this technique that I’ve found.
Thanks Jake. Out of the dozen or so vids I looked at, yours makes the most sense to me. Now, that I've done it, it's not so bad, but I'll have to go back and re-do some of older mixes (again). Cheers.
Thank you for the clear cut video on Sidechain for Kick and Bass. Nice diagrams and explanations. Thank you!
8:38 that look you do to the camera speaks for itself! The happiness of an audio engineer expressed in a look! Hahaha
really clear and straightforward explanation - thanks
Awesome, I have watched many videos on this subject and yours was by far the best. I wish I found this clip sooner. Thanks. You have a new subscriber.
FANTASTIC tight, simple tutorial. Put this on my latest track and it totally brought the bass to life! Thank you :-)
Gold info. great tutorial bro thank you. All the way from Trinidad.
Very Helpful video! good job man!:)
Brilliant tutorial mate. Thank you
Thanks for this awesome tutorial
Oh man the pre fader bus and the no out put settings made my day. Nobody is talking about it in other channels. Glad I found your channel. Definitely subscribing 🙏🏽
Is there a difference with running the side chain directly to the kick track versus a kick bus?
Great stuff man thank you!
very solid video. really helped me understand sidechaining and some unexpected compressor info. also the music is giving me some heavy The Warriors vibe I love it!
Jake, I just found your channel. And I've been trying to wrap my head around side chain for a long time, and you made is so easy to understand, and giving some compression start points Is so great. I feel this topic is not really expressed enough , because your demo was night and day on the kick/bass . great job and thanks.
thank you for this - you got right to the point and showed us how to get it done! I didn't waste 30 min. of my time only to not really find anything at all. Finally a great tutorial!
I really appreciate it!! I try not to waste anyone’s time 😂
@@jakethomsonaudio sure thing! Good vid.
Thank you for this video. My name is Jake Stone and I subscribed to your channel. I appreciate your videos a lot.
great video, really helpful!!!
This was so helpful in 2024!
Thanks man ! :)
WOW, just followed this tutorial and copied most of the compressor settings for a Techno tune I've been making. Instantly my kick is coming through so much more and not driving my master levels right up! Just one question, why do you send the kick to a bus first, then select the bus from the sidechain option in the compressor? I usually just select the main kick channel to directly trigger the compressor. Thanks :)
I just clicked subscribe when you were on 999. I feel epic. Thanks for the tutorial bro!
my output on the kick is gray and not blue. I can't change the pre\post fader settings. anyone know what options i need to change?
you have to hold the button down for a bit
THanks heaps mate 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
very helpful! thanx
im all late to the party but thanks for this clear video on how to use side chain! I was always so confused about it but I tried it and it sounds great! now Is sidechaining something to do to other tracks? or is it primarily for kick n bass?
J!! Dude...You R The 1!! Thanks Man!🤓😎👏🖖🤙✌
Dope Vid Bro Thx
Very clear and concise, thanks!
Why are there other video that say to send the comp on the bass to a buss and use the sidechain button on the comp
What if you have a bigger project, having too many compressor plugin just for side chaining is not gonna eat up too much of cpu?
What happens if you set the sidechain trigger as a pre-fade input instead of sending to the aux/mix bus? Can you pick pre-fader for the input (channel) trigger, or is it a post-fader trigger at that point?
Very nice video! But when i follow your tutorial my bass gets so low i cant hear it in the chorus. But in the verses it is very loud.
Such an awesome tutorial, helped me so much, thank you! Liked and subbed!
Thank you! 😊
this is the right way to do it.
now I understand how this works...thanks man
Great to hear Geno, thanks for watching!!
Dude preciate!
But what is the harm in doing post fader? If the kick is not present in the mix then there’s no need to duck the bass
👍🏻👏🏻💪🏻 Very interesting. Never heard of it. I‘ll try to apply this to my newest song.
I want it the other way round, it's for bad bass players: when the kick hits, then the bass must sound. When the kick does not hit, then the bass must be silent.
How do you do that?
Is this always entirely separate from EQ ? Thanks , I'm just using the eq pocket thing but not entirely sure.
Thanks a lot! :)
fantastic!!!!!!!!!!
Great video, Jake! Question: I noticed you didn't click on the 'side chain' button at the top right of the compressor. What would be the difference with having that selected vs output (as you have it in this video)? Thanks
That's true, I didn't really go over the options that Logic offers when you click the "side chain" button, but when you do click that button it gives you more control over the sidechain detection, including different highpass/lowpass EQ filters that allow you to fine-tune the frequency range of the sidechain detection. So for example if you wanted the sidechain trigger to be focused only on the deep low-end of the kick, you could adjust the filter so that the bass ducks whenever that specific frequency range pokes through. I believe the default setting compresses your track based on the full frequency range of the trigger (if you make no adjustments to the sidechain menu).
damn this really helped me a lot. I've been doing it wrong this whole time (well, not as efficient as this lol). TYSM~✨
this was by far very good use of tutorials especially for logic ! quick question , for the side chain kick , how do I select the "pre fader" section ? if it doesn't let me chose any of em. I know it has to do with something in settings but im completely lost :/
Make sure you've already set up a bus in the "send" region of your channel strip, once you've done that you should be able to click where it says "Bus 1" (or whatever number bus it is) and select "post pan", "post fader", or "pre fader" from the dropdown menu. Hope that helps, thanks!
@@jakethomsonaudio okay I think that’s where I was lost , do you have an insta I can dm you on ? cause on my screen those options are disabled for me . It lets me choose the bus but still isn’t enabled. how do I do the send region ?
Thanks. I have a quick question. Do I have to convert sidechain source midi to audio in order to side chain? I've seen some tutorials that say side chaining doesn't work with a midi source.
As long as your midi source is actually creating an audio signal (such as a midi note playing a kick sample) you can use a midi track as the input source for the side chain; and if you route it into a non-output aux track as I did in this video it will act as a side chain trigger at a consistent level without being sent to the main outs.
@@jakethomsonaudio Thanks a lot.
not sure if you are still working on this track but im watchin this video in 1.5X speed and its such a banger at that tempo!
Thanks! I kinda put this track on the back burner but I’ll take your suggestion and throw some varispeed on it!! 😂
@@jakethomsonaudio hell yeah! also great video its helped me big time!
Hi man. I decided to try this and made a new project with only two tracks, a lead instrument and a kick. Once i get to exactly 3:13 in the video, where you're gonna chose Pre-fader, i fail. Nothing happens when i click the little arrows to get the dropdown menu. It doesn't let me click it. Any advice?
Still, great tutorial.
you have to hold the button down for a bit
thanks :)
nice vid
How do you record you screen?
I have a 2012 Mac Pro ...
Go to quicktime player> file> New screen recording.
...so just do the opposite to allow a more present bass guitar when the toms are playing the 'indian groove?'
question, what is the benefit of doing pre-fader vs post fader when sending to bus? thank you!
Hi there! So the reason I sent the kick to the "Kick Bus" with a pre-fader send (instead of post-fader) is that no matter how much I decide to change the volume of the kick later in the mix, the pre-fader send routes a consistent level to the "Kick Bus" that won't be affected by any volume fader adjustments in the original kick track. And because the "Kick Bus" is only acting as a trigger for the compressor's sidechain function, we will turn off its output so that we're not hearing the audio from the bus (think of it as a muted copy-and-paste of the kick track, simply acting as a sidechain trigger). Sorry if my response was long-winded, let me know if that makes sense! Thanks for the question! :)
@@jakethomsonaudio perfect! thank you for such thorough explanation, i completely understand it now. keep posting! wishing you much success and great abundance 🌌
So glad to hear it! I’ll definitely be making more vids, thanks for watching! 🙏
thank you
this dont work for me the bass gets louder when i compress it pls help
So when I bounce to mix, what do I do with the AUX track? Sorry if this is a really basic stupid question.
When you say “bounce to mix”, do you mean when bouncing individual tracks to mix down in another project?
@@jakethomsonaudio once I am happy with the arrangement, I bounce and replace all tracks so everything is audio. But there is no aux track to bounce,?
Gotcha, so since the aux track is only acting as a trigger for the side chain, just make sure when you bounce the bass track (or whatever is being compressed by the trigger) that the side chain compression is working. I believe if you solo both the bass track and the kick aux track, once you bounce that it should retain the compression. Besides that there’s no reason to bounce the aux track on its own because it’s set to “no output”. Hope that helps, thanks!
@@jakethomsonaudio Great, that works. Thanks so much
so many clicks it takes, but logic UI looks cool
🐐🐐
Hahaha "Sound engineers hate this one simple trick" Ah yes Facebook copywriting ads I miss those times thanks for the video :)
honestly you have been a great help to me, i am from kenya in africa i really appreciate everything
Bruh. Thanks.
doesn't work in low latency mode
Most plugins are disabled in low latency mode.
👊🏿👊🏿👊🏿
😀👍