The third use of sidechaining is to create cool ducking effects. This can create exciting grooves that might have been difficult to achieve in other ways. The result is that your sound will duck in volume without any of your listeners knowing why. And the best part is that because sidechaining depends on the signal and not perceived volume, you can silence the cowbell track and only use sidechaining for the rhythms themselves.

Using a short drum sample, like a cowbell everything needs more cowbell, you can make your original sound duck according to your cowbell rhythm. Because sidechaining is dependent on the output signal from another track, you can use this to your advantage. Another great use of sidechaining is for creating fascinating rhythms and grooves. In that case, a quick and easy way to achieve this is by using a sidechain. There are also other times when you want a particular sound or effect to get heard in a mix. Producers often use sidechaining to make their kick pop through in their mix, rather than get buried from their deep basslines. The most obvious reason is, of course, for straight-up mixing purposes, as previously mentioned. While many mainly use the effect to enhance their kick and bass relationship, there are many other areas where you can apply sidechaining. Sidechaining is an essential music production technique that every producer needs in their toolbox. You can also use it with effects like reverb or delay. Furthermore, sidechaining can also be used as an effect or to create or enhance the rhythm.

And most importantly - without sidechaining, your kick can lose a lot of its impact. Because the lower frequencies are having a constant battle for space in the mix, not using sidechain can cause rough phasing issues and muddiness. Most commonly used for the kick and bass, the sidechaining technique is used to lower the volume of the bass every time a kick drum hits.

In other words: apply sidechain to your sound, choose another it should react to, and the volume lowers when your desired sound plays. While it’s mostly used to make your kick pop in your track, it’s often used on other instruments and effects as well, for both rhythmic and creative purposes. Sidechaining is a prevalent technique responsible for the ducking basslines and sounds you hear in your favorite house, techno, and - tracks in pretty much every genre out there.īut how do you sidechain in Ableton, and what exactly is sidechaining? You have most likely encountered sidechaining while listening to your favorite music.

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