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In this video (part 1 of 3 focusing on Sidechaining) Dubspot instructor and Ableton Live expert Steve Nalepa shows how to use the Compressor-Sidechain audio effect in Ableton Live. Put simply, Sidechain Compression allows “different elements of your songs to essentially dance together.” Professor Nalepa starts by creating a simple dubstep drum pattern (kick and snare), adds a couple of synths which overpowered the drums, basically drowning the kick and snare. To remedy this imbalance, Nalepa select the synth tracks and grouped them together, and worked on the tracks/elements individually, reducing volume and adding effects. The popular effect has been used by a number of unique electronic and dance music producers from Daft Punk and Justice to newer artists like Baths and Nosaj Thing extraordinary results. Was this helpful to you? Do you have questions? Leave us a comment below!
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Ableton Live Tutorial: Sidechain Compression 1/3 – Nosaj Thing
- 9/28/2010
Great start with two of my fav artists in que in the project. Digging your delivery of the info — with any tutorial it can be difficult to communicate creatively without being boring!
Good job —
p.s. what screen capture app do you use?
- 9/28/2010
thanks! wait for next parts
- 9/28/2010
Dubspot tutorials setting the standard real high! Like how yall reference the Nosaj track as an example.
- 9/28/2010
[...] explains Dynamic Range, or the ratio between the loudest and the quietest sounds. As he states in part 1, Sidechain Compression simply allows “different elements of your songs to essentially dance [...]
- 9/28/2010
[...] Ableton Live Tutorial: Sidechain Compression 1/3: Examples & Setup [...]
- 9/28/2010
is there a part 2 and 3 ??????????????
- 9/28/2010
[...] On a MIDI track you will place a Simpler, in this instance we load it up with an acoustic piano preset. It doesn’t matter what sound you choose, you won’t be hearing it in the mix anyway. The key is to choose a sound that has a quick attack and a relatively short release. A slowly ramping in pad sound for example wouldn’t be helpful, as you want the level of the sound to be at full volume as soon as it is triggered. You next place an Arpeggiator MIDI Effect in front of the Simpler. Create a one bar MIDI Clip and draw in a one bar long note. Again, since you won’t be hearing the sound, it doesn’t matter what note you pick, something in the middle range works well like C3. Turn off the track so you don’t hear it in the mix. Next, on the track where you are receiving the live vocals (or the other sound you wish to gate), drop the built-in Audio Effect: Gate. Gate is normally used to only allow an audio signal to pass through if it is above a certain threshold. If it is below that threshold, the track will be silent. This can be useful when working with drums or vocals, when there is not supposed to be any noise you don’t want to pick up background sound like a computer fan, etc. The Gate is one of three built-in Ableton Live effects that incorporate Sidechaining. (For a more detailed look at Sidechaining, check out our previous series of videos on it here.) [...]
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