Sidechain Compression (Ducking) in Reaper - Tutorial

[@ErickMcNerney]

Finally an explanation of how to do side-chain compression that made sense to me! But maybe that's because it's the first time I actually searched for a reaper specific explanation. I've never really needed it, but now I'm kind of wanting to experiment with it. Thank you for making this understandable to side-chain newbies!

[@willhelliwell]

The number of times I've come back to this video... thanks so much for sharing! Just solved a major problem I had of one mic bleeding into the other on the podcast.

[@EtalonBeats]

You can hide rewire, dx, recently used and other categories in the fx browser if you right click on all plugins and uncheck the ones you dont use in the "show in left pane list". this way you can save some space and eye fatigue. BTW sidechaining works best when you use a sidechain track which is muted, it is only for control signal, because if you use the kick as the control signal you have less control over the attack and release knob in the compressor, one easy way is to duplicate the kick track, then replace the sound with something shorter

[@vegardyrnes1793]

Good one. tnx :-)

[@Cordial_Lump]

I have a new version of Reaper, but I was able to piece out how to replicate the legendary sidechain with the new UI. Much appreciated

[@cedarcompher5006]

Great video- very clear and concise. Thanks!

[@eyesofobsidian]

Making it clear and easy, which can be hard to come by with such tutorials. Thank you!

[@ivwebmedia9689]

sidechain compression is useful for lots of things. thanks for this tutorial, i'm new to reaper! powerful stuff

[@FreedomfamilyOKC]

Best vid on this out there! thank you.

[@Gallanitte]

Really good quality video and explanation man! Thanks. I'm subscribing!

[@ReapertvUk]

Dee Lanee thanks and great to have you as part of the community 🤟

[@MerlinsMelody]

You are a born teacher my friend. Thank you soo much

[@FALLENOUTOFTIME]

Can you demonstrate with fab filer pro c2 or c1 ? would be amazing

[@TwoWayAnalog]

Great explanation and lovely Welsh accent!

[@ReapertvUk]

Thank you very much :0)

[@AlanPostScript]

Thanks. This was super helpful, but I noticed the red dB bar (next to Output) didn't display any signal until I selected one of the presets which then reverted the Detector Input to Main Input L+R. I'm not complaining about the sound, but it didn't do what your video did.

[@larryjones3436]

This is a fantastic tutorial

[@xw254]

It's so useful for me~ thank for your sharing

[@slangking1]

Would you also have a compressor on the bass track that wasn't fed s/c from the kick ? - I mean to just generally bring out your bass without ducking and would that go before or after the s/c fed reacomp in the bass track fx chain ?...

[@williammangus5526]

Wow this was awesome. Any vids on parallel compression?

[@xw254]

you can put I/O in a new track , and use same compression at FX, I think it's how that work (And sorry my English is so poor, but I still hope can help you)

[@djdentonyo]

Thanks for the guidance here! well done sir

[@scatsman84]

Thank you for this informative video! Appreciate it!

[@shakazula7]

Great tutorial, and this reaper theme is awesome !!! Thanks

[@stephanweber7961]

Sorry to ask if you already mentioned in a previous video, but what Theme are you using?

[@el-adcohen8201]

Hey, what skin are you using, it's easy on the eyes. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@Vagen_d]

Yea its pretty fantastic. I would like to know this also.

[@julesnominal1804]

i think i have the latest reaper, but my question is, the compressor you use needs to have a sidechain featured, right? I don't think i've found the sidechain button in reaper if there is one.

[@EricFaries]

Are you able to do this with a noise gate? And can you have it so it's being controlled by a midi track, or does it have to be an actual audio sound being sent? Thanks for the video~

[@vanhaze2000]

Excellent Paul, thanks !

[@ReapertvUk]

Cheers Rob; hope you had a good Xmas and NY :0)

[@grxyrxse666]

I got a problem and hopefully someone can help me. See, when I do some kick midi patterns and then apply the sidechain this way, the signal from the channel I am sidechaining is coming out from the channel I got the pattern on (it is also a midi pattern, an 808), I don't know why but I can't work with sidechain if that happens because of course it is not working and besides that, the times the pattern is not playing in the mix, it's replaced by the kick triggering its midi notes

[@christianpaeznegron]

is there a way to sidechain the compressor so that it stops working when the sidechain gets engaged?, im trying to turn up the snare in an overhead mic so I need the compresor to stop working when the snare´s sidechain gets engaged

[@Howaudioworks]

Excellent video, thank you. Wondering how much of that is necessary if the arrangement is good :-)

[@ReapertvUk]

As with most of the topics covered in mixing, I think it really comes down to the music, the effect that you want to create and the style you're trying to convey. For me, I prefer EQ cuts / boosts to allow the bass and kick to separate, but in EDM, this method is much more popular. :0)

[@kcat80]

problem is that it introduces harmonics on the channel ducking out at the fundamental frequency of the kick. I don't want that. for instance, I have a kick with a lot of upper harmonic content , I have a percussive loop on another track which is fighting for the same dynamic range. solution, sidechain so that the kick ducks out the percussive loop, great, but the percussive loop is now getting a lot of lower mid which I don't want.

[@EDR260]

Is it possible to do this with external plug ins like NI Solid Dynamics for instance ?

[@akoustixx]

Hi Paul thanks for the vid! I'm having problems sending my Vocal Bus to my Mix Buss to help duck the music for vocals, i can get sidechaining to work like in your vid but not Buss to Buss, is there a reason for this? Cheers Billy

[@Atezian]

what is 3/4 referring to in this case

[@DannyLyriCa]

Thank you for this Video !

[@mksounds]

I want to do the following: make a sidechain with a Delay with a voice but it dos not work. Y put the voice in charge of the sidechain to make room for the Delay to play when the voice is not sounding. I put the sends on the voice to the Delay. It is going to have 4 channels. The Voice is going to be in chanels 3 and 4, The Desice input is Aux 1_2. The comp treshold is at-30. The ratio is at 10:1. . It is time to go for the Delay, I use a generic one. I press play and it plays the voice but with no effects. I put a copy of the voice on to the Delay track. It works fine, but it is veri tiny. It dos not do what I expected,I watched a couple of videos and it dos just wath I said. It does not work. Help?

[@patrickdawe9885]

Thank you

[@rij2392]

i encountered a problem with this , once I routed that bass to the kick --- solo the kick and play i could now hear bass aswell with the kick which at some part of my track isnt convenient cos i play kick only at some point which now sounds like its playing kick and bass .. idk what has happened

[@hendrix5757]

By the sound of it, that's because you may have routed the bass to the kick track when it's supposed to be the other way around, with the exception being that in the video, the kick track was dragged to the compressor instead of the bass master.

[@germangamerpros]

I copied everything But everytime I send my Kick (MIDI) to the Bass (also MIDI) where a kick should sound, it now plays notes from the bass..lol I have no clue how to fix this please help

[@memoreve6058]

Cool technique are there any other common applications for this technique?

[@ReapertvUk]

There are lots of uses for side chaining. Great if you want to route only certain tracks to a reverb or delay to ensure they are all using the same effect / timing is one common example.

[@prodignour318]

when i do this, exactly the same as setup, even if i set the threshold all the way down, the compressor ( red line that comes down ) is never affected. this is frying my brain

[@AlanPostScript]

Just did the same thing. When I selected one of the presets (Kick drum, almost any) THEN the signal displayed in the red dB bar BUT it reverted the Detection Input to Main Input L+R when he said it should be Auxiliary L+R.

[@CallingAllFreaks]

Yes, Auxiliary L+R is what y'all need... after routing the kick's 1/2 output to the bass or whatever's 3/4 input (the channels Auxiliary L+R reads). Also did you try raising the ratio all the way to the right and thresh all the way down to see if it was actually working or not? If it's not working you did not follow the instructions fully somewhere. FYI the presets are for compressing things to make them generally louder or punchier overall, not quieter when the kick plays... Completely separate thing the presets do. If you do get it working I also recommend messing with the Release and Pre-comp too.

[@jonathancolombera1518]

is there a way to do it with waves compressors ?

[@mod3l]

that's my question as well.... not just with waves but with any compressor. all of the tutorials here use the Reaper native plugin which is well equipped for this.... but otherwise? if i wanna use something else? anyone plz? :)

[@JuanMotta]

hi, i also want to know if is possible external side-chain.

[@mod3l]

apparently not. you can sidechain waves plugins in pro-tools only. you have loads of alternatives tho... :)

[@JuanMotta]

thanks you for your answer!!!

[@dreymorneau]

Yes you can do it with waves plugins! I came from protools so I was confused as there was no "Key Input" section, but instead you do the same steps as in this video but you have to go into the I/O section of the plugin, the button usually sais "2/4 in 2 out" right beside "Param" button. Just have to make sure the correct Aux input channels are enabled. so if you have your send set up like he does in the video at 2:15, you have to make sure Aux inputs 3/L and 4/R are enabled. Im Using R-Comp btw but I'm assuming it is the same for any thirdparty compressor. Hope this made sense!

[@blankidfan]

Where can I get this layout and theme?? Love the vids they're very helpful!

[@ReapertvUk]

Commala 5 on these vids :0)

[@stephanweber7961]

@@chrisbistrishki ty !

[@MustafaBerkeGureltol]

The tutorial is really good, but the song sounds really bad with the sidechain compression :D

[@bishalbarman1160]

It's not that good for EDM 😅

[@Kainan2]

This has no purposeful application in Rock or Metal, only dancing "music"

[@lipoma.official]

Easy and simple! Thanks!