3:05 you got that wrong, shaperbox can work with audio input sidechain, the 3rd version is actually very responsive and you can even filter the sidechain input to be only triggered by the kick transient for exemple
this, and there is also spectral sidechaining, like with trackspacer or soothe. with sub and kick its not always the best because you have limited control and they are only triggered by audio because spectral lol but it sounds super clean and its very very useful for sidechaining content elsewhere on the frequency spectrum, for instance if you had a bass that had a lot of high end that's clashing with your hats but you don't want to change the way either channel sounds. put on trackspacer and sidechain the hats to your bass, then use the low and high cut so that its only sidechaining out the frequencies where the hat shines at... and boom, ridiculously clean and transparent sidechaining at one EQ band of your choice. then just adjust the ratio until it sounds perfect. its becoming my favorite way to sidechain, although once again if we are talking strictly kick and sub, i feel like there isn't enough control for creative sidechaining, or really heavy pumping sidechains. still go to LFOs for that. i feel that sidechain compression is the weakest and least natural method of sidechaining even though you have ADSR i personally never got it to sound as good as with an LFO sidechaining volume
A rare moment where Ableton users, and FL users alike come together to teach better methods. This i can get behind lol. You can use the same technique with it's own dedicated channel by taking whatever kick you're using, cloning it, setting it to a channel thats sidechain only, and running it through FL limiter in compression mode. Same kick, same shape, no issue with clarity.
You are one of only a small handful of producers who makes tutorial videos that are actually easy to follow and employ into workflows. Your success is much deserved, keep doing what you're doing. Absolutely love your work. 🤘👍👌🎹 Oh, and happy 30th!
Producers can't help because YOU can't follow them. They obviously have a following so someone understands them. Realize that SOME people in the comments may be producers with channels too. Complimenting one person doesn't mean you have to insult others simply because you cannot follow them. Good job Alex! All producers, KEEP PUSHING!
@@NobodyImportant-ef3de Sheesh seriously?! I was giving Alex a well deserved compliment and being specific about WHY he deserved it (which is arguably more important feedback than simply stating 'Good job!'). FYI when you give a compliment to someone in a specific profession, it isn't an automatic insult to everyone else in the same profession. Just like I'm certain that when Alex read my comment, he didn't think "Oh crap! He just insulted every other producer". I logically came to this conclusion because he "hearted" the comment (and at time of this reply, 16 others gave it a thumbs up, and I'm willing to bet some of them are producers who didn't feel like they were insulted). I'm well aware there are likely other producers watching this video, and who have successful followings. And when I'm watching/listening to a song by another producer I'm also aware that there are likely to be other amateur (and professional) producers who might also be watching the same video. But if they submit a positive comment about the quality of the production, I'm not such a delicate flower that I would feel insulted just because I didn't produce it. That would be some bullsh*t logic right there.
Your videos are some of the very best producer videos on youtube. No waffle, no bs - all the tips and tricks you present are usable and they all sound good. I wish i would have found you earlier on in my journey. Still, even as someone who has been making music for the last 10 years, i always find at least 4 or 5 amazing tricks in each of your videos that i can use instantly and make my tunes better! Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and for making the entire community just that little bit better!
Happy birthday! Also thank you so so much for such a simple explanation of sidechaining! I've never quite understood any other tutorials explaining the procedure, so this is incredibly helpful!
I commend you enormously for getting straight to the point. I miss the days of RUclips when you didn’t get punched in the face by clickbait every single video you watch. I wanna go back to the good old days from like 2010 to 2013 when I was young and watching RUclips on my mom’s phone. With that aside, great video, Alex!
I agree with everything you have said, I do feel you missed one element and that is the length of the kick drum. This is figured out by calculating a 16th note length and shortening the kick drum accordingly. You can also apply a multi and compressor on the bass as well and dial in the clashing frequency or remove the first harmonic if you are using a synth that allows you to edit in such a way. You would have two copies of the bass line, one being the first 16th with the missing harmonic and the second copy with all the other notes. Try go for a synth like vital or serum where you can also lock the phase of the oscillator as well so it’s uniform. That said, some synths allow you to do a tempo synced 16th envelope as well and many issues can be solved here, making that paragraph a little redundant for 2023.
Believe me, I use FL Studio daily, and it takes me time to choose the instruments that fit well in the song, because choosing a good kick drum and a good bass takes time. This is like dressing up to go to a big party, as you try to match what you wear. In this it is almost the same.
Better idea for sidechaining - separate out your bass channel into two so there's a separate channel for sub bass and every other frequency. Then only sidechain the sub bass channel. You should only sidechain the higher frequencies if you're specifically going for the sucking/pumping sound that that creates. If you're only interested in cleaning up the sub frequencies, then there's no reason at all to touch the higher frequencies.
Happy birthday to the man that inspired me to make music 2 years ago. You were the first music production youtuber that i watched and still do today. I never stop learning from you. Keep doing what you are doing man, you inspired me and countless others.
Fact: If you design and synthesize your own kicks, picking is a matter of modelling. Modelling is actually making music. Of course this might not happen all the time for practical purposes, but if you can are able to, don't pick a kick, craft it.
Also kick and sub can overlap to a certain degree but the phase has to line up or you get moments where you'll get the phase cancellation. You can adjust the phase of sub usually in the synth.
@@SolTransition micro adjustment to pitch will change the phase. There is multiple different phase shifting options for audio samples in every daw as well. Most of the time it is all about sound selection.
@@SolTransition most audio sample can have their phase flipped or "reverse" it may be called depending on the daw. U may also find it labelled as "stereo swap".
@@SolTransition K there are way easier ways to change phases than with pitch or inverting phase. I call adjustments in timing of less than a couple milliseconds microtiming or utiming. Like in ableton for example here are three ways.: 1) use the "simple delay" device @ 100% wet, 0% feedback, and times of less than a couple miliseconds. (for precise sweeping of the time param, map it to a macro knob so you can limit its range to between 0ms and 2ms.). 2) Every track in ableton has those "track delay". I use them in every track, but be wary as they can be quirky. Like one example is you'll want to always remember to switch them back to 'ms' mode when ur done tweaking, or else you risk fucking shit up if project samplerate is ever changed. 3) Just simply zoom way in and drag the midi note sooner or later. If its audio either drag the entire clip in the arrangement, or look down at the bottom where it shows the waveform and the "warp markers" above it. Make sure the clip only has one warp marker, then hold shift and click and drag the warp marker.
Something interesting about sidechain. If your sidechain envelope does an immediate drop in volume without a transition then you will get audio clicks which is technically distortion. If you don't want anything overlapping the transient of the kick or snare then you'll need to have the sidechain start ducking miliseconds before the kick plays.
"Just" putting a lowcut/-shelf on everything but the kick, bass and sometimes snare is the simple (but still absolutely legit) way. I just thought about (but didn't try yet) another option. Route all those instruments through a common bus. On that bus, also add a sidechain compressor which a) only affects the low frequencies, b) has a really long release time, and c) with the sidechain signal being the summed (use a send/return) kick, bass, and perhaps the snare. A dynamic EQ should work too if you have control over the release time. And perhaps a shorter release time would work too. You would just get a stronger pumping effect on that bus, which might just be a creative decision. When you mix it that way, you still have a low end in a long break when the kick and bass are not playing anyway and you don't need to create room for it, but still nothing interferes when they do play. Having or not having that low end during a break, also might be a creative decision. So perhaps also add a simple low cut in that bus and only add the low end at the end of the break to build up towards the drop.
Of course, at the end of the break, you might (or might not) want to bring in the kick or base even before the final drop. But even if you already pulled down the lowcut, the sidechain compressor/dynamic EQ will be there to make sure nothing interferes. But that means all of this doesn't make any sense if you don't leave a little bit of time between pulling down the low cut and bringing back in the kick and bass.
As a self-taught producer that's been doing it since 1997, I had to figure all of this out the hard way. If you're a new producer, pay attention because this will save you years. Before the internet and before youtube, we had to read books and talk to other producers in person to try to figure this stuff out. It sucked.
3:11 this isn't true. You can make shaper box audio or midi trigger on the places where you want it to duck. I personally don't enjoy the sound of ducking with a compressor. Makes things less tight. Depends fully on the speed of the compressor while an lfo is always instant
I wish I knew these simple tips 15 years ago, I had to realize why my low-end was muddy by myself. Btw the sidechain works fine with chords and other elements, with a bit amount you can make your track more bouncy, I learned that from KSHMR.
Thanks for the tips. One more pro tip - try to balance key and the kicker differently. Kicker should not overpower the key. Ideally, their warmth should be similar, but it is not necessary. PS: I was talking about the light in your studio :)
Happy Birthday
No way ! 🎉
3:05 you got that wrong, shaperbox can work with audio input sidechain, the 3rd version is actually very responsive and you can even filter the sidechain input to be only triggered by the kick transient for exemple
yep, or use the midi input mode if you want to manually tell it when to duck
My go to sidechain setup in hertz mode with a midi trigger.
this, and there is also spectral sidechaining, like with trackspacer or soothe. with sub and kick its not always the best because you have limited control and they are only triggered by audio because spectral lol but it sounds super clean and its very very useful for sidechaining content elsewhere on the frequency spectrum, for instance if you had a bass that had a lot of high end that's clashing with your hats but you don't want to change the way either channel sounds. put on trackspacer and sidechain the hats to your bass, then use the low and high cut so that its only sidechaining out the frequencies where the hat shines at... and boom, ridiculously clean and transparent sidechaining at one EQ band of your choice. then just adjust the ratio until it sounds perfect. its becoming my favorite way to sidechain, although once again if we are talking strictly kick and sub, i feel like there isn't enough control for creative sidechaining, or really heavy pumping sidechains. still go to LFOs for that. i feel that sidechain compression is the weakest and least natural method of sidechaining even though you have ADSR i personally never got it to sound as good as with an LFO sidechaining volume
@@TM-pi2rn Agreed, trackspacer is one of my gotos as well.
A rare moment where Ableton users, and FL users alike come together to teach better methods. This i can get behind lol.
You can use the same technique with it's own dedicated channel by taking whatever kick you're using, cloning it, setting it to a channel thats sidechain only, and running it through FL limiter in compression mode. Same kick, same shape, no issue with clarity.
Happy Birthday, Boss! Thanks for making my music 20% better via every video 🎉❤
Thanks😁
how did you calculate 20%?
Happy Birthday, Alex!
Thank you thank you!!
You are one of only a small handful of producers who makes tutorial videos that are actually easy to follow and employ into workflows. Your success is much deserved, keep doing what you're doing. Absolutely love your work. 🤘👍👌🎹 Oh, and happy 30th!
@Alex Rome can you please remake Martin garrix and third id from scratch?😭
Producers can't help because YOU can't follow them. They obviously have a following so someone understands them.
Realize that SOME people in the comments may be producers with channels too. Complimenting one person doesn't mean you have to insult others simply because you cannot follow them.
Good job Alex! All producers, KEEP PUSHING!
@@NobodyImportant-ef3de Sheesh seriously?! I was giving Alex a well deserved compliment and being specific about WHY he deserved it (which is arguably more important feedback than simply stating 'Good job!').
FYI when you give a compliment to someone in a specific profession, it isn't an automatic insult to everyone else in the same profession. Just like I'm certain that when Alex read my comment, he didn't think "Oh crap! He just insulted every other producer". I logically came to this conclusion because he "hearted" the comment (and at time of this reply, 16 others gave it a thumbs up, and I'm willing to bet some of them are producers who didn't feel like they were insulted).
I'm well aware there are likely other producers watching this video, and who have successful followings. And when I'm watching/listening to a song by another producer I'm also aware that there are likely to be other amateur (and professional) producers who might also be watching the same video. But if they submit a positive comment about the quality of the production, I'm not such a delicate flower that I would feel insulted just because I didn't produce it.
That would be some bullsh*t logic right there.
@@MichaelOrbiti wanted to read your comeback buts its long 😢😖
Your videos are some of the very best producer videos on youtube. No waffle, no bs - all the tips and tricks you present are usable and they all sound good. I wish i would have found you earlier on in my journey. Still, even as someone who has been making music for the last 10 years, i always find at least 4 or 5 amazing tricks in each of your videos that i can use instantly and make my tunes better! Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and for making the entire community just that little bit better!
Happy Birthday Alex, thank you for all your lessons!!
Thank you and no prob!
Happy Birthday Brother ❤
Happy birthday bro perfect work! Because this focus to sync the phases of kick and bass its most important for clean tracks! Thank you!
Happy birthday! Also thank you so so much for such a simple explanation of sidechaining! I've never quite understood any other tutorials explaining the procedure, so this is incredibly helpful!
Hi, Alex! Happy birthday🎉
Happy Birthday Man. Thanks for sharing your Light with us.
I commend you enormously for getting straight to the point.
I miss the days of RUclips when you didn’t get punched in the face by clickbait every single video you watch.
I wanna go back to the good old days from like 2010 to 2013 when I was young and watching RUclips on my mom’s phone.
With that aside, great video, Alex!
Happy Birthday! Thanks for the awesome tips as usual. One of my favorite production channels
I agree with everything you have said, I do feel you missed one element and that is the length of the kick drum. This is figured out by calculating a 16th note length and shortening the kick drum accordingly. You can also apply a multi and compressor on the bass as well and dial in the clashing frequency or remove the first harmonic if you are using a synth that allows you to edit in such a way. You would have two copies of the bass line, one being the first 16th with the missing harmonic and the second copy with all the other notes. Try go for a synth like vital or serum where you can also lock the phase of the oscillator as well so it’s uniform.
That said, some synths allow you to do a tempo synced 16th envelope as well and many issues can be solved here, making that paragraph a little redundant for 2023.
Believe me, I use FL Studio daily, and it takes me time to choose the instruments that fit well in the song, because choosing a good kick drum and a good bass takes time.
This is like dressing up to go to a big party, as you try to match what you wear. In this it is almost the same.
Happy Birthday Alex!!
Better idea for sidechaining - separate out your bass channel into two so there's a separate channel for sub bass and every other frequency. Then only sidechain the sub bass channel. You should only sidechain the higher frequencies if you're specifically going for the sucking/pumping sound that that creates. If you're only interested in cleaning up the sub frequencies, then there's no reason at all to touch the higher frequencies.
Dynamic eq side chain and you can do this centred on the kick's fundamental note, or spectral eq like soothe/dseq
Does kickstart 2 work too?
Happy birthday 🎉
Have learned a lot from you Alex
God bless you with more years
happy birthday Alex! tnks for the amazing tips!
Happy Birthday man! Course was well worth full price, anyone on the fence now is the time! You won’t regret it 👏🏻😎👍🏼
Happy Birthday Alex! The cake scene was very sweet.❤
Happy Birthday, Alex! Thanks for your work! :)
Happy B-day! Even that first tip alone is a huge game changer. You give a ton of value!
seen a lot of tutorials but you go straight to the point. really like it, thanks for the advice!
happy birthday alex..appreciate your content
Happy birthday to the man that inspired me to make music 2 years ago. You were the first music production youtuber that i watched and still do today. I never stop learning from you. Keep doing what you are doing man, you inspired me and countless others.
Fact: If you design and synthesize your own kicks, picking is a matter of modelling. Modelling is actually making music.
Of course this might not happen all the time for practical purposes, but if you can are able to, don't pick a kick, craft it.
How's your neck going with those headphones ? I had to swap mine for a pair of higiman arya. The weight was killing me
happy belated! your videos have been super helpful diving into edm for the first time
Loveee your channel!! Happy Birthday!!
Happy Birthday, Alex! I hope it is a very blessed day! Thanks for all you do!
Also kick and sub can overlap to a certain degree but the phase has to line up or you get moments where you'll get the phase cancellation. You can adjust the phase of sub usually in the synth.
Would love a tip where to learn more about this. Maybe a video? Or article or something!
I’ll do my own research for sure
@@SolTransition micro adjustment to pitch will change the phase. There is multiple different phase shifting options for audio samples in every daw as well. Most of the time it is all about sound selection.
@@SolTransition most audio sample can have their phase flipped or "reverse" it may be called depending on the daw. U may also find it labelled as "stereo swap".
@@SolTransition K there are way easier ways to change phases than with pitch or inverting phase. I call adjustments in timing of less than a couple milliseconds microtiming or utiming. Like in ableton for example here are three ways.: 1) use the "simple delay" device @ 100% wet, 0% feedback, and times of less than a couple miliseconds. (for precise sweeping of the time param, map it to a macro knob so you can limit its range to between 0ms and 2ms.). 2) Every track in ableton has those "track delay". I use them in every track, but be wary as they can be quirky. Like one example is you'll want to always remember to switch them back to 'ms' mode when ur done tweaking, or else you risk fucking shit up if project samplerate is ever changed. 3) Just simply zoom way in and drag the midi note sooner or later. If its audio either drag the entire clip in the arrangement, or look down at the bottom where it shows the waveform and the "warp markers" above it. Make sure the clip only has one warp marker, then hold shift and click and drag the warp marker.
Happy birthday🎉 Alex!
Happy birthday!!!!!! You're really charistatic and lovely. Wish you the best
Wish you a very Happy Birthday Alex 🎉🎂🎸
Definitely just found my new favorite channel on music production!!!
Thanks for sharing this!
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Happy B-day, Alex. July birthdays are the best! 😉
This was soooo good!!!! Happy birthday man🎂
You said "if it doesn't work then it's to do with the previous steps" but you didn't mention about phasing which also effects balancing and mixing
Happy birthday Alex!!
Happy Birthday!!
Something interesting about sidechain. If your sidechain envelope does an immediate drop in volume without a transition then you will get audio clicks which is technically distortion. If you don't want anything overlapping the transient of the kick or snare then you'll need to have the sidechain start ducking miliseconds before the kick plays.
And this is done with the sidechain compressor's "lookahead" function, correct?
Thanks for all the amazing information and a late happy birthday!
Happy Birthday!
Finally understood side chaning. Thank you!
Happy birthday man! You’re a legend!
Happy Birthday and thank you for this your clear explanation!
Happy birthday boss 🎉🎈
Thank you for all the support you've been given from the start ❤️🤗
Thank you
Happy birthday brotha!
Thanks 😁
Happy birthday man!
Thank you 😊
HBD bro wish get lucky along the year, in addition looking forward for your own EDM song. Can't wait🤘
Great content as always. Happy Birthday and keep kicking ass!
Happy Birthday, Alex! 🎉🎆🎇🏆
Wow this really helps! Can't wait to apply this to my upcoming beats!
And happy b-day bro!
The quality of the last two videos you've released has brought me back to this channel! Keep up the good work! Love the direction you are going!
omg me too. makes me want to fire up my Logic
Happy birthday Alex 🎉🎉
Happy birthday buddy! Your videos are great! Keep them coming :)
Happy birthday!!! You helped me (and so many other people) so much with music! I hope you had an amazing birthday!♥🎊
phase timing is a big factor too, sometimes u dont even need sidechain if the phase sits just right
Have a happy birthday Alex! 🎉🎉
Happy Birthday!!! May God bless you and your family!
happy b day man, thanks for alot inspiration , cheers
I love chain compression to really clean it up since a lot my music uses ducking.
Happy bday bro!
Happy birthday Alex~~~
🥳🥳🥳~~~
Happy Birthday bro!
"Just" putting a lowcut/-shelf on everything but the kick, bass and sometimes snare is the simple (but still absolutely legit) way.
I just thought about (but didn't try yet) another option. Route all those instruments through a common bus. On that bus, also add a sidechain compressor which a) only affects the low frequencies, b) has a really long release time, and c) with the sidechain signal being the summed (use a send/return) kick, bass, and perhaps the snare. A dynamic EQ should work too if you have control over the release time. And perhaps a shorter release time would work too. You would just get a stronger pumping effect on that bus, which might just be a creative decision.
When you mix it that way, you still have a low end in a long break when the kick and bass are not playing anyway and you don't need to create room for it, but still nothing interferes when they do play. Having or not having that low end during a break, also might be a creative decision. So perhaps also add a simple low cut in that bus and only add the low end at the end of the break to build up towards the drop.
Of course, at the end of the break, you might (or might not) want to bring in the kick or base even before the final drop. But even if you already pulled down the lowcut, the sidechain compressor/dynamic EQ will be there to make sure nothing interferes. But that means all of this doesn't make any sense if you don't leave a little bit of time between pulling down the low cut and bringing back in the kick and bass.
Happy Birthday bro!! You’ve taught me everything I know 🙌🏽
Notification gang! Cant wait to see this video!
Happy birthday ❤ thank you for quality videos
As a self-taught producer that's been doing it since 1997, I had to figure all of this out the hard way. If you're a new producer, pay attention because this will save you years. Before the internet and before youtube, we had to read books and talk to other producers in person to try to figure this stuff out. It sucked.
Happy birthday Alex
Congratulations on three cool decades. Beso wishes for many more, Sie7e.
HBD BRO🎉🎉
Happy Birthday!
Thnks for your knowledge!
HBD, bro! 🎉🥳Have an awesome day. Thank you for your contribution to the community 🙏🏾
You got it!
3:11 this isn't true. You can make shaper box audio or midi trigger on the places where you want it to duck. I personally don't enjoy the sound of ducking with a compressor. Makes things less tight. Depends fully on the speed of the compressor while an lfo is always instant
I never thought of EQ-ing out sub frequencies from non-bass instruments. Instead, if I can't hear the bass, I just make it louder. Same with the kick.
Happy Birthday Sir. Thank you for all the tutorials. Wishing You Success and happiness in your life. 😇
@Alex Happy Birthday!! What headphones do you use and recommend for producing music?
Happy birthday! Thank you for what you are doing!
Happy Birthday Alex! Thank you for the amazing content you upload everytime!
Happy birthday king! Thank you for everything you're doing for us!
Very useful! Iv'e been wondering about this for so long!
Happy BDay Champ Many More To Come With Plenty Blessings 🍰🎂✝️👐🏻🙌🏼🙏🏻✌🏻
Happy birthday bro 🎉🎉
Yooooo happy birthday 🎉🎉🎉🥳
Brooooo! Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday dude🎂,thanks for sharing your valuable knowledge to us🎉❤
I wish I knew these simple tips 15 years ago, I had to realize why my low-end was muddy by myself. Btw the sidechain works fine with chords and other elements, with a bit amount you can make your track more bouncy, I learned that from KSHMR.
Just what I needed….great timing Alex ….Happy Birthday 🎂🍾
Happy birthday hero, long life to make more videos
Happy Birthday!!!!!🎉🎊🎂🎈
Happy birthday brother love from India 🇮🇳 ❤❤❤
one of the best tutorial out there .. clean basics, balance and dynamics
Happy birthday Alex! It's actually my birthday tomorrow too! 🎂
Thanks for the tips. One more pro tip - try to balance key and the kicker differently. Kicker should not overpower the key. Ideally, their warmth should be similar, but it is not necessary. PS: I was talking about the light in your studio :)
Happy birthday 🎁🎂🎈 fantastic tips 😊
Thank you. Happy birthday 🎉