What is Sidechaining?

Everyone who’s into producing electronic dance music should be familiar with the concept of sidechaining - or sidechain compression - where an audio signal is used as a trigger for an effect on a second audio signal. Typically, its applied on pads or basslines. We’re ducking the bass or the pad whenever we’re playing a kick sample.

In Ableton Live we can do the following:

1. Create 2 audio tracks
2. Place a kick sample on the first track
3. Place a bass pattern on the second track
4. Drag an instance of compressor onto the second track
5. Click the "open up“ arrow an select "sidechain“
6. Select the audio track of your kick as input from the dropdown menu below „audio from“
7. Change "ratio“ (up) and "threshold“ (down) to apply the effect on your audio

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