Kick Drum - Sidechaining

[jedkleb]

Hey all,
Sorry to start a new thread, but i'm stuck on SideChaining. Is it possible without Ableton Suite? I have built a really good sounding high end kick, but am having trouble with the low end. Is it best to use a sub tone? (note) and try to sidechain it with the kick note ( by using spectrum in ableton ) , or would it just be better to eq,fx,and compress a bassy kick sample and layer it?
Thanks,
J

[Nephew]

I'm not following what you're trying to do, but from what I'm gathering there's no need to sidechain anything if you're just layering kicks

[padi_04]

^this

[jedkleb]

alright.. badly worded.

Im having trouble with the lower end part of the kick. The way I design kicks, there is one high kick, layered with a lower kick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23n1FhuHdkc (this kick is amazing)
Issues:
1) When i construct the lower end, it always seems longer than the punchy high kick which its being layered under.
2) Want that same bass, sub feel, but only matching with the punch. (And when you limit a sample, it is just not the same.)
3) This is where i would think sidechaining something to match the kick would be the right move, but to be honest im not really sure how without suite. And what would i sidechain to it?
J

[tigerstyle]

try messing with your A/D/S/R settings on the sampler/drum machine that is running your low-end kick sample. sustain and release should solve ur problem w/ #1

[ctrld]

basic: layer multiple drums over each other, a part for the low end, a part for the high end (punch). EQ them to shape the sound - good EQing is much more important than sidechain compression.

sidechaining works like this: you assign a compressor to a track other than the drum and use the drum as a control input - so when the drum hits, the track with the compressor on it sorta "makes room" for the drum (there are TONS of tutorials on that, just google). the downside of this is that your track will very soon start to "pump", which is the reason why so many releases sound like shit; it's way better to conserve overall dynamics by giving each sound its own spot in the frequency spectrum. don't get me wrong - you CAN compress, but don't EVER overdo it.

with dubstep, it's good to control the subbass volume using an LFO. not the cutoff frequency of a lowpass filter (doesn't do shit on sub frequencies) - the VOLUME. most basic: set it to 1/4th so it only gets loud on the 2 and 4 or your 4/4 count. it's a similar effect to the one you get using sidechain compression, but it will sound much cleaner.

also remember that the beef in a dubstep bassline comes from the higher end and overtones. keep that separate from the sub (as with drums, layering is key) and you're set.