Your ways of Sidechaining Bass and Kick without compression

D

Dafwill

New member
So I've been working on a deep house track and just can't get over the fact that the bass just doesn't sound as good when the kick is hitting,it's losing its punch yet when i hear other tracks (like oliver heldens,Dusky) the bass isn't being sacrificed for the kick. I looked somethings up and Heldens says he doesn't compress his bass, just uses camelphat and massive. It got me thinking how does he make his kick and bass work so good together then? I don't wanna pick between my bass and kick which gets to sound better. What are your ways to sidechain kick and bass without sacrificing the bass and know any ways to do it without compression? Appreciate the replies thanks again. Cheers
 
If it's an 808, you dont have to compress necessarily. Just mess with the envelopes and amps. If it's a synth, i add just a lil bit of compression for it to tighten up with the bass drums. Usually when you sidechain, your bassline should lower just when the kick hits, thats what gives the sensation of the punch. Maybe you are not nailing the compression of the kick itself. Maybe the release? or else the ratio...
 
What is the driving force of the bottom end? I'd play around with EQing the bass or kick to give the effect of punch in the track.
The objective it to create space for both to sit together in the mix.
 
don't want to use compression for sidechain? change it with volume automation. Works just as well.
 
Ddream said:
don't want to use compression for sidechain? change it with volume automation. Works just as well.
Click to expand...

Yep, this is what a lot of people do - kind of faking what compression does with volume envelopes. It's the same thing in the end though...
 
By bass do you mean as in bassline synth or do you mean your subs?
A simple idea that works surprisingly well--
Duplicate your kick track, and turn one off. The one that's turned off pitch up +24 or +36dB, and use this track for the side-chain. That way the sidechain is only a split second long and let's the kick transient through without sacrificing the energy in the bass.

If you're talking about your sub.. just do a sidechain like you normally would, but layer your kick with a sub that's Lowpass cut at 90hz-120hz
 
Remember that sidechained compression for kick + bass isn't the only method, you can get a long way with learning proper kick + bass EQ mixing.

Also, some plugins allow you to do multiband sidechaining, so you can sidechain the sub frequencies and therefore not create any obvious pumping. Either that or you can split the bass into 2 frequency bands - one for the sub and one for the rest, and only sidechain the subbass. The reason why some basses may sound hardhitting yet balanced with the kick may be because the subbass is ducking with some very nice finetuning so it's very smooth, while the "musical part of the spectrum" isn't ducking, and therefore can sound really punchy.

Lastly, a method that David Guetta uses is instead of regular sidechain, he uses a volume envelope plugin on both the kick and bass that repeats, and by that makes a perfect crossfade from the kick to the bass.
 
why not shorten the tail of your kick and play with the threshold. If you don't want your bass to sound like it's ducking, be more lenient with the threshold. The pumping sound is only good for pads and rhythmic chords anyway, IMO.

Also the release will keep your transients intact if you time it right.
 
Last edited:
MilDlrDime said:
By bass do you mean as in bassline synth or do you mean your subs?
A simple idea that works surprisingly well--
Duplicate your kick track, and turn one off. The one that's turned off pitch up +24 or +36dB, and use this track for the side-chain. That way the sidechain is only a split second long and let's the kick transient through without sacrificing the energy in the bass.

If you're talking about your sub.. just do a sidechain like you normally would, but layer your kick with a sub that's Lowpass cut at 90hz-120hz
Click to expand...

I'm mostly talking about the baseline synth more so for deep house but can use advice for sub aswell. Appreciate all the replies guys
 
steffeeh said:
Remember that sidechained compression for kick + bass isn't the only method, you can get a long way with learning proper kick + bass EQ mixing.

Also, some plugins allow you to do multiband sidechaining, so you can sidechain the sub frequencies and therefore not create any obvious pumping. Either that or you can split the bass into 2 frequency bands - one for the sub and one for the rest, and only sidechain the subbass. The reason why some basses may sound hardhitting yet balanced with the kick may be because the subbass is ducking with some very nice finetuning so it's very smooth, while the "musical part of the spectrum" isn't ducking, and therefore can sound really punchy.

Lastly, a method that David Guetta uses is instead of regular sidechain, he uses a volume envelope plugin on both the kick and bass that repeats, and by that makes a perfect crossfade from the kick to the bass.
Click to expand...

By volume envelope do you mean linking the volume of the bass to the kick and making the volume of the bass go down every time the kick hits as mentioned above or something different?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top