Sidechaining/Ducking using the Peak Controller
Sidechaining and ducking are techniques that can be used to seperate two elements in a track that clash for frequency space. For example a kick drum and a bassline when played together at the same time, can fight for space within the mix. Sidechaining is a tool that can be used to elminate this clashing of frequencies.
Sidechaining is often added to a tune in the form of a compressor. With FL Studio you can create your own simple sidechain by following these steps.
1. Open up a kick drum and a 3xOsc.
2. Send the kick drum to effects channel 1 and the 3xOsc to effects channel 2. If you don’t know how to add effects to channels then read How to Add Effects in FL Studio.
3. Open up the mixer by pressing F9. On effects channel 1 add an instance of the Fruity Peak Controller. Now set the peak controller to roughly the same settings as in the picture below (make sure that the “mute” button to the bottom right is turned off).
4. In the mixer window go to channel two and right click on the volume slider. In the menu that appears select Link to Controller.
5. In the menu that appears, go to the Internal Controller section and hit the down arrow. Select Peak ctrl (Insert 1) - Peak. That’s it! Now hit play and you should be hearing the 3xOsc duck everytime the Kick drum triggers!
If your want to see the FL Studio .flp then download it here.
To make a sidechaining compressor just put a compressor on mixer channel 2, and link the gain knob to the Fruity Peak Controller. The Peak Controller will duck the gain knob whenever the Kick drum is triggered. This technique can be used with any combination of instruments to create new and unusual sound effects. Enjoy!
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January 29th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
I just stumbled onto your site(found the link over at the fruity loops blog),brilliant stuff on here,only problem is I can’t seem to find a tutorial that explains how the fruity compressor works : (
January 29th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
No problems mate I am in the process of writing a tutorial for the compressor right now! It’s always great to hear from my readers. Feel free to ask me any questions that you may have.
February 3rd, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Hi, tank’s for the tutorial
i’m now looking to do the same thing with sidechain compressor with Fruityloops.
Like Db Audioware but without the peak controller
Any idea
February 3rd, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Glad you asked.
All you need to do is follow the exact same steps as above except when you get to step 4, click on the gain knob of the Fruity Compressor and link it to Fruity Controller.
Adjust the amount of compression to taste and there you have it your very own sidechain compressor!
February 4th, 2008 at 3:37 am
ok, it’s work this way but not with some external Compressor, you can’t link to volume, but i understand the principle now, and with some side chain compressor like the one a talked about work directly.
Thank you
February 4th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Ah so you want to link to a button on an external compressor?
No problem, what you will need to do is read my tutorial
Automating Buttons on VST plugins