Sidechaining in Drum and Bass Explained

[@jagwagofficial]

This technique is so easy but so effective!! thanks so much man!

[@webdev_am]

bro huge thanks for this amazing tutorials

[@novie160]

I like this type of 'short tutorials'.

[@artfxdnb]

Yeah me too, they are fun to make and take less time for me as well. More will be coming soon!

[@riccardorosiello4093]

WE!! Like this type of short tutorial! Very nice lesson of sidechain

[@nickskywalker2568]

Great insight! Another good tips that can prevent clicking is to use the track delay of your sidechain channels to trigger the sidechain before the drum hits, that way you can make use longer attack time in your compressor. It is good also to emphasize kick punch when you have full bar length subs.

[@freshlybakeddnb5330]

Jesus christ this properly works! Never had so much clarity from a mix down! An epic tool every new dnb producer needs to be doing... Cheers ArtFX!!!

[@shubhrasinha268]

This is what I've been doing lately - use the sidechain input filter to cut out all the low frequency content of the kick, essentially you are just letting the click of the kick trigger the compressor. Do the same to the snare signal as well on another compressor. Use two compressors (as per previous step) - one for kick SC and other for snare SC - and tweak to taste. In Ableton (11 at the time of this comment), volumeshapers don't work very well unless you spend time to manually compensate for plugin latency, so alternatively I use Duck by Devious Machines (on bass tracks specifically) which has an audio-based trigger for volumeshaper and therefore is not plagued by latency issues. You can see the length of the SC signal on the grid and tweak the curve to be super tight and then use the crossover knob to split the frequency content into low and high bands. Then you set low frequency band ducking amount to close to 100% and set the high band to 60 or 70% depending upon the bass sound. This has given me a lot of control over the low end, tight af!

[@rsl4rl]

Big up from Russia. Your English pronunciation is pretty clear and understandable. That helps to find out more interesting things about music production and train my English listening skills. Thanks!

[@marceloribeirosimoes8959]

Great tutorial. I suggest you try a agreat oscilloscope called. Psyscope (it's free). It will be a lot improve the to your explanations, seeing the kick and the bass clashing and this being solved... Thank you again...

[@MULTIMAN-MUSIC]

Big fun of FX23 products, own them all… Psyscope pro is awesome and PSYLAB is perfect for a clean kick and bass phase relationship… the new psyphaz also brings an extreme level of control.

[@marceloribeirosimoes8959]

@@MULTIMAN-MUSIC Cool! I'll give it (Psylab) a try... ...I'm happy with the Pro version of Psyscope working with SubNinja, too... ...I'm back after just a look at PsyLab... WOW!!!!!!!!

[@MULTIMAN-MUSIC]

@@marceloribeirosimoes8959 Glad it helped!! At first the interface is daunting but once you get the grip is just fantastic.

[@Cazzabt3434]

This really has been a turning point for my production

[@lilsonic7938]

You should gate your vocals for better sound clarity of the feedback of the instruments

[@sramirez1906]

Good, clear info. Thanks.

[@sramirez1906]

I would love a video dedicated to a good drum and bass snare shuffle like you have in this track.

[@ammondnb]

Massive one thanks so much!

[@IEMedia]

I’ve been side chaining from the main kick and snare and had no idea about this. Thank you so much dude, It makes sense and you explained it very well.

[@francobuzzetti9424]

this is something i've been wanting to try but i really didn't know how to , thank you!

[@wakegary]

My man Art back with another killer vid. Thanks for doing these, rudeboy. Thanks for the discord too... I've learned so much there and I've received really crucial feedback.

[@artfxdnb]

You're welcome my friend!

[@mitch150]

So either no sidechain at all or a super super short sidechain to where you can't even really tell there is any sidechain. NOICE Thanks for the video man :)

[@housemachine509]

Dope Arty

[@squidcatbass]

This was amazing! Thank you for sharing your sidechain technique. Wrote a song after watching and I was pleasantly surprised by how much it helped tighten things up.

[@doomking6668]

Your the best dude ever u explain things in the perfect way and speed

[@zachricemusic]

I just use a drum rack with a second chain for kick and snare with an "External Instrument". That external instrument sends MIDI to Gatekeeper by Polyverse, which handles ducking for me. No clicks at all, and much more accurate.

[@karimayoubi74]

Great video. Thank you.

[@insidedub4931]

I normaly dont leave Comments below YT Videos, but i want to thank you for this one. It was so well and understandable explained. Really useable and no bullshitting. Thank you very much. You have got a new sub. The track itself is also bombing.

[@xXAvalon95Xx]

THis was a real moment of revelation for me, Great vid as always, bigup!

[@RealMultipleOrganism]

Top stuff mate tysm

[@Numocron]

This is such an awesome Drum & Bass tutorial right here man I love it. Big up ARTFX.

[@jyro5924]

yo wtf you doing here boi

[@DiBBs277]

Good clear explanation of side chain compression. Subbed.

[@jamesdonaghy6758]

WOW! Love your tutorials ;)

[@MikeDeanOfficials]

Excellent! Thank you

[@ИгорьИванченко-ю3э]

cool man ! I will implement this in my production very much, thank you, my friend!

[@Metacriticz]

Your the best explainer bro

[@Younghead]

Well done, as you have learnt that there are different ways to sort out different problems, as with different frequencies and different genres. It’s all about the end result that you are after...💯😎

[@djruslanmazaev]

beautiful tarck bro

[@frequencyconflict]

Goddamn magic, man!

[@DimaSkill]

Cool tutorial mate, big thanks!

[@medik7493]

Nice, will start to use this from now on. Great tutorial

[@SYNDRXM]

Full supp for this

[@anthonyreid8046]

Love your work Always inspires me

[@technocoh]

understood nothing but the track is dope!!! 😄😄🤗🤗

[@apoplexiamusic]

Great tutorial! Cool tip about the live 8 compressor preset (makes me regret buying Volume Shaper). The track sounds incredible!

[@MechanicalVein]

This track sounds absolutely killer! Loving it. Do you have a name for it yet, so I can keep an eye out for it when it drops?

[@artfxdnb]

Not yet, but just keep an eye on my channel I guess lol

[@MikeDeanOfficials]

It’s called Sidechain

[@pywiktheplasmid]

Great tut mate!

[@jangrzymaa5240]

Big up! brilliant work mate

[@Bboy17BD]

Great vid man! love the tune aswell man drums are sick

[@brettpiggott2664]

Thankyou, ArtFX!

[@bunf1re]

Sick video!

[@InIMoeK]

People chains ;) Very good explanation! Thanks!

[@joshuameachum1064]

Have you tried to use the glue compressor with this technique?

[@anonzo1860]

Do you have a video for how to create the best sub bass for d&b?

[@sebastiaanbosker1199]

But if you have a short sidechain trigger and a short release, the bass or sub will still interfere with the kick (or snare) right? Or are the low frequencies in a kick and snare sitting at the beginning of the sample? How do I know what my release time on the trigger must be so that the kick and snare won't interfere with the basses?

[@artfxdnb]

This all depends on the length of the kick/snare and how much it interferes with the rest of the track. By keeping the trigger short, you can use the release to dial in the right length.

[@sebastiaanbosker1199]

@@artfxdnb Sorry but I don't really get it. If I have a kick sample that is f.e. 100ms, my release time of the bass also needs to be 100ms right? If my release time is shorter, it interferes with the last part of the kick sample. Or is the trick to blend the kick and bass together till it sounds good? What is really the advantage of the short sidechain trigger? (Sorry if im noob)

[@artfxdnb]

@@sebastiaanbosker1199 Well you just answered it yourself, it needs to sound good and that should always be the main focus. Most of the time you don't need to remove the bass completely during the entire duration of the kick since a lot of kicks will decay in volume over time. Also, more often than not the actual clashing part is not the tail of the kick, but the transient failing to punch through the bass, and thus it's much shorter than the kick itself. Often just sidechaining the bass for the duration of the transient can already clean a track up enough, and if you then play with the phase of the kick, you can align it so the tail of the kick is aligned with the sub and thus not clash as much. The reason why a short trigger is important, is because the length of the trigger determines the shortest possible sidechain you can do, if you trigger is 20ms, you will never be able to do a shorter sidechain than that. If your trigger is 1ms, and you need a sidechain of let's say 10ms, you could raise the release on the compressor to 9-10ms and it should work pretty well. The best however is to actually create a trigger with the length you need, so if you have a 10ms long kick transient (which is clashing the most with the bass), make your trigger about 9-10ms long with full sustain and almost no release (the release will add a little extra time so that's why I would say maybe try a little shorter than what you need). You should now have a trigger sound that is the same length as the transient in the kick. Now sidechain using that and the sidechain will act like a short 10ms 'hold' basically, ducking everything away, and then you can use the release to dial in how long it takes for the sidechain to reset after the sidechain trigger was finished. This then allows you to blend the tail of the kick with the bass coming after it.

[@sebastiaanbosker1199]

@@artfxdnb Wow. I understand it. Thanks a lot for the explanation!! :)

[@MULTIMAN-MUSIC]

@@sebastiaanbosker1199I think is more important to understand phase, if you carefully make your kick and bass from scratch, using the same fundamental helps avoiding phase cancellation. But always trust your ears.

[@cookahbetsy]

Great video!!

[@ARCASIAUK]

Excellent video 🔥🔥

[@rikcasado9356]

what do you think about using volume shaper or chain shaper? just ducking volume instead of using compression?

[@Towly263]

Cool stuff!

[@Nossi131]

this one help a lot thank you sir ;)

[@primordia8133]

Awesome cheers 👍🏻

[@flrmusic3473]

just thank

[@juiceytee]

Even tho I use Reason mainly, this was v. fkn informative 🙌🏽

[@xVILOx]

Nice choon

[@alois_deadround]

Really cool stuff man ! I would love to see a tutorial of how to make the kind of bass of 'DUMDUM' from The Upbeats & Emperor ! :)

[@shaunvardy4626]

your the fukin man! thank very mucho for this one!

[@medicisounds1384]

what sound do you use as a SC trigger

[@MULTIMAN-MUSIC]

Either the full kick or a short kick, first transient.

[@monogramadikt5971]

great tutorial, very clear instructions. you have a skill for teaching, have you considered working in other daws such as reason, logic etc to expand your subscriber base ? i think you could double your your views and subscribers quite easily by creating key content for topics like this in other daws that dont have as much good guided tutorials as more commonly used daws such as ableton.

[@artfxdnb]

I am an Ableton user, so no I won't make tutorials for other DAWs, there are already plenty of other people doing that.

[@crishimdnb]

Hey bro great video as always! i got a petition, can you make a video or tutorial explaining the benefits of using a send/returns to a Premaster Channel (in your case) and that channel is then send to the Master Channel, thanks again!

[@cotsudnb]

I'm a little advanced, but you've helped me solve my constant problem with the mix of kic and bass. Thank you very much.

[@x2dk22]

is there an advantage to layering your drums like this? is it just so you can look at it better? i usually do it with a drum rack, you can still individually eq and edit each sample. this just seems odd to me.

[@artfxdnb]

When layering drums one of the most important thing is phase alignment, you can't visually see the phase alignment when working in MIDI unless you use some tool like an oscilloscope. When you work in audio you can visually see the phase of the drum samples and thus aligning them properly would not require any extra tools.

[@x2dk22]

@@artfxdnb thank you!

[@hydrozyk]

Will LFO tool work the same for sub?

[@onaucc9899]

So you use an 808 as Sub? I always thought DnB would use pure sinewave sraight from the synth.

[@lisotunali3807]

anything works as a sub in dnb, be creative! organic subs ftw

[@mitch150]

It dosn't have to be a pure sinewave :p Especially when making heavier DnB it will sound weird and less powerful if the sub is just a clean sinewave. Generally you're gonna want the sub to kina distorted. Also an 808 is just a distorted sine wave anyways. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (with a pitch envelope gliding down of course)

[@dspt9803]

you can just make a reese and apply a very deep low pass filter

[@dspt9803]

and also split the sub and bass frequencies so you have more freedom in terms of sidechaining but i dont know if splitting the frequencies i s any good so correct me if im wrong

[@benishark]

Hi where can i share my halftime track with you, which you may attent in yout next live/video? :)

[@tod6245]

Cool))) Thx ARTFX ))) Nice)))

[@key9en]

Thanks man ^_^

[@eliaskofler1601]

what type of compressor can i use in cubase with this compressor functions?

[@artfxdnb]

Any compressor that has a sidechain input.

[@RuukuTube]

I can't for the life of me get Side Chaining to work. I just mixdown the Bass and the Drums separately, bring them back into the mix; then manually cut & fade the WAV files. It's long, but it's the same thing. I have eFX Gate and Compressor, but can't seem to link or sidechain individual tracks in the software I use. (Magix Music Maker and Samplitude) :(

[@timshady7099]

I dont have a live 8 license :(

[@tompasev]

Do you DJ ? Greatings from Prague :D

[@pogchamp7983]

ART WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME?!

[@artfxdnb]

Only if you call me senpai...

[@flashhh_dnbdnb2716]

so first off that is shaping up to be a monster of a track! and secondly then 2 basses you got going on in there, how did you go about creating them..?

[@onikore]

no phase allignement with kix, kix with snares))). same like in all tutos about sidechain u don't tell it probably because u dunno it, all comps used in sidechain way leave tails those tail goes on ya kick an snare phase an mood it, in simply track u don't hear so much, in more complex yes. on big sound is so evident. better way is volume shaper an midi triggering.

[@artfxdnb]

I have no clue what you just said, your sentences made not much sense, sorry. Sidechaining and volume shaping are two ways to achieve a similar thing and they are both good, pick what you prefer.

[@onikore]

@@artfxdnb when u layering kicks u must allign its phase, same if u have a kick u must allign kick and snare phase if the hit at the same time. if ya use a compressor in sidechain it doesn't kill to infinite, so the shaped area is dirty, it leaves a tail, all compressors do it. if ya have so many sounds hit on kick and snare u will have so many tails of other sounds that ruin the attack / needed part of kick snare, so creates mood, so after u often need to rework kick and snare with other stuff. try to resample some stuff u sidechain with a compressor u will see that tail, there isn't a way to kill to infinite with a compressor. sidechaining with volume shaper in midi trigger or example with utility curve shaping kill to infinite, so no, they aren't both good. for better results of sidechaining u need something kills to infinite. that why exist tools like volume shaper, lfo tool and simils. i often see tutos like yours nobody tell normal sidechaing with a compressor leave tails, i think cause simply people dunno this fact.

[@artfxdnb]

@@onikore That sounds like you don't know how to setup a compressor correctly, a compressor can duck away to infinity as long as you set it up correctly and use the right compressor for the job. Edit: And the signal feeding into the compressor matters a lot as well.

[@onikore]

@@artfxdnb set a compressor in way that don't leave any tail c'mon i want see it)))) take a full sustained bass and try to do it.

[@artfxdnb]

@@onikore I already do that quite often, I don't need to do it to prove my point, it works as long as you set it up correctly.

[@lisotunali3807]

Why on earth would you use the SC Trigger channel, when your kick and snare have different release times? Also what is the point of removing nearly all the sub from the kicks and then sidechain your sub so hard? you leave no impact this way.

[@artfxdnb]

Because you don't need to have the bass cut out for the entire duration of the kick/snare, only for the duration of the actual transient. Also you don't remove all sub from the kick, there is still plenty of sub in it, you remove just as much as you need to make the mix sound right. It's never going to be the exact same approach too, every track and sound is different, I am merely showing one way to do it.

[@lisotunali3807]

@@artfxdnb I had never thought about sidechaining merely for transients. that is an interesting idea!

[@lisotunali3807]

lately i've been into duckless mixing. (trying to get your kick, snare and sub to sound blended well without any sidechaining. i do this by removing all low end from the kick and giving the sub an attack so that it mimics the low end of the kick, then compressing them together. but keeping a very short sidechain for the transient is interesting, thx dud!

[@int3533]

A sub and snare playing together will still give you unnecessary peaks though. You want to sidechain to avoid crazy peaks so your bus limiters behave appropriately. In other words you do what is needed.

[@shotophop1929]

I wanna marry you

[@gravity00x]

almost all of this advice is outdated and wrong in 2022

[@artfxdnb]

That's a big claim, nothing is wrong with what I stated in the video. Also wether or not it is outdated depends on how you do sidechain, you'll be surprised how many people still prefer a compressor over LFOTool or Volumeshaper, and there is also nothing wrong with that. All it does it decrease the volume and however you do that is up to you, doesn't mean the other ways are outdated or wrong.