The easiest way to explain sidechaning is to actually hear it, however if you require an explanation, it is basically used to "duck" certain sounds (bass-lines for example) in order to have other sounds more defined (kick for example).
And since the signal it sends out has been reduced to a click, the receiving compressor also has full-on control over the gain reduction envelope.This tutorial will show you how to sidechain using FL Studio. Because you now can just send anything to mixer track 1 and it will trigger all sidechain enabled plugins linked to it after being transformed into a click. You can now set that first mixer track up as a sidechain for anything that needs some well timed gain reduction. You now have, for all intents and purposes, a click distilled from your original drum that always plays with your drum sound. The reason you need a second plugin for this because you can’t make up the gain reduction from the first one before the gate section- the gain is post-dynamics. Turn the release all the way down, don’t worry – you’re not actually hearing the signal, then pull the threshold up so it gets rid of any tail that the drum might have had. That signal then goes into the 2nd Fruity Limiter, where you use the gate section. You will end up with a very peaky signal that visibly resembles a mirrored exponential graph.
Use the Gain knob to drive the signal up to 0dB. Then, go into the compressor tab of the first one, set attack to be roughly 40 ms, release to be roughly 50 ms, ratio to be 10:1 or higher and pull down the threshold until it clamps down a respectable 30dB of gain reduction. You will not need the limiter function for this. In the ‘limit’ tab of both Limiters, take down the attack and release to 0. Make sure the first mixer track does not go to the master. If it’s the first track that is your sidechain signal and you send it anywhere, it’s always going to be at the top of the list of inputs in the receiving dynamics plugin. What you will need is a set of two Fruity Limiters on the first mixer track in your session, for convenience reasons. The beauty of it that once it’s set up it works in just 2 clicks like the first method, but it also incorporates the more refined control that the second method offers. What if there was a way to sidechain compress with which you could have your cake and eat it too? A project-wide solution that could combine the pros of these methods with effectively zero downsides? I’ve come up with one, and I use it in my day-to-day work all the time. Sidenote: PPQ is the resolution at which DAWs process automation data. The major downside however is that once again have to manage the MIDI of both signals, envelope and drum sound. This gives you even more control over what’s happening, but it is also limited in speed by the PPQ you’re working at since an Envelope Controller counts as internal automation. So it ends up taking more time.Ī third method is to just not use a compressor at all and rather steer the ducking from a dedicated envelope (like Envelope Controller) linked to a gain plugin (Fruity Balance). This comes at the cost of having to manage the MIDI going to your sidechain trigger channel in addition to the MIDI of your original drum sound and making sure they line up correctly.