Canadian Musician November / December 2019 | Page 31

DIGITAL MUSIC
David Abravanel is a digital marketer with a knack for data, content/community sorcerer, creative
technology obsessive, and synth junkie. He freelances in marketing/strategy/content, specializing
in creative and emerging technologies. Current clients include Sensel, Sound Radix, Ableton, and
K-Devices. For more information, visit www.dhla.me.
By David Abravanel
Sidechain Compression
Common & Uncommon Uses
Part 2
Beyond Compression
Thus far, we’ve looked at sidechaning only through the lens of com-
pression, but programs like Ableton Live include sidechain sections
in other devices, too – namely Gate, Multiband Dynamics, and Auto
Filter in Live.
A brief primer on gating: it’s like a flipped limiter. Instead of mak-
ing loud sounds quieter, it makes quiet sounds quieter.
In Live 10, for example, the Gate device (Ex. 1) attenuates every
signal below a threshold. The attenuation level is set with the “Floor”
control, with “-inf DB” being a true gate. (Otherwise, what we have is
technically an expander, but we won’t tell if you won’t). A basic way
to think about sidechain gating is: the affected sound only plays
when the trigger sound does.
Say we’ve got a basic techno loop with a lush pad going through
a delay (like Echo, the new delay in Live 10). It’s nice, but it could
be more animated.
If we put a sidechained gate between the pad and delay, we get
instant dub techno rhythms! In this case, placement is key – gating
the sound gives it a nice animation while keeping the echo intact
leaves the track feeling filled in.
What’s more, it’s not hard to make anything fall in line using a
sidechained gate.
It’s Gonna Get Weird
So far, we’ve looked at a number of ways in which you can use
sidechaining for relatively “normal” effects and mix fixes. But like
anything to do with audio, there’s a more experimental side that
also deserves your attention.
Going back several years, Eventide’s Omnipressor (1972) is re-
membered for inventing look-ahead in compression by delaying
the compressed signal from the sidechain, but also introduced the
thoroughly weird “dynamic reverser” mode. Inverting a compressed
signal on the sidechain, it resulted in something that changes a
drum kit into percussion gasping for breath.
The possibilities with sidechaining in DAWs, sequencers, or pro-
duction software like Live 10 are truly infinite. When playing around
with these concepts for this article, I had sidechains coming from
tracks that had been sidechained themselves, loops of sidechaining
that traverse multiple parts, sidechains on filters, compression, and
gating, and some truly weird backwards sucking noises (and I don’t
know where they came from).
The point is, it’s all about trying out new sounds and building
on them. This is particularly helpful when you have no particular
sound in mind – when you’re looking to bring a set of sounds to
life and have them play off of one another. There’s really nothing to
stop you from mapping any signal to any parameter.
From its humble beginnings as a fix for Hollywood sound recordings
to its current ubiquity across dance music and hip-hop, sidechaining
is quite a versatile tool.
This article was adapted from David’s post on the Able-
ton Blog. Check it out along with a ton of helpful tutorials,
artist interviews, videos, and other content at:
www.ableton.com/en/blog/.
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 31