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S1E19 – Delay with Sidechain Compression

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Home/Podcast/S1E19 – Delay with Sidechain Compression

Here’s a cool trick to get extra clarity out of your delays.

Send the audio insert to a delay insert, apply sidechain compression on this delay insert whenever the audio insert plays.

An audio example is provided in this episode!

Compression Mixing Sidechain Compression

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Transcript

S1E19 – Delay with Sidechain Compression

  1. Hey, this is Gratuitous. Welcome to Music Production Made Simple, the show that
  2. focuses on best practices about music production, which is based on FL Studio.
  3. If you're wanting to become the best producer you can be, subscribe and listen
  4. weekly. You can also check out my courses, which teach you the principles and basics
  5. of music production, they'll get you up and running quickly.
  6. In addition, I also have books on Amazon and tons of music on Spotify.
  7. Always feel free to hit me up at Hi at it'sgratuitous.com.
  8. So let's get into the episode.
  9. Hey, what's up, everybody? Gratuitous here.
  10. Welcome to episode number 19. We are gonna be talking about using side chain
  11. compression on your delay. It's a really really powerful trick.
  12. I'm gonna share with you an actual real example where I've actually done this trick
  13. on a track which I've released commercially.
  14. It's called Fighting for Time.
  15. It's on my beat tapes by Gratuitous Volume 7.
  16. Again, for those of you who don't know, I actually create beat tapes.
  17. They're totally free to download.
  18. you can access them on like Spotify and stuff like that too.
  19. Or if you want an actual direct download that you can download onto your phone or
  20. whatever, you guys can just go to gratuitousbeats.com and all of my music is there
  21. for free. Okay. So in that actual track, how I set it up is you have
  22. an insert, okay. In this case, it's just a guitar.
  23. And then what you do is you route that insert to another insert.
  24. Okay, so now it becomes like a send.
  25. And you would set up the delay on the send, and then you also set up a sidechain
  26. compressor on this send as well, and you set it up so that the input from the actual
  27. dry guitar reduces the volume of that delay.
  28. Okay. I'll break that down for you a little bit when we actually get into that.
  29. I just want to give you guys a little update on what I've been doing, where I've
  30. been and stuff like that. So I previously talked to you about maybe doing some local
  31. lessons where I live. so I actually went for the little meeting.
  32. I kind of talked it through, and it seems interesting in a sense of you know, yeah,
  33. maybe depending on where I lived.
  34. Like, so I kind of live in like a little bit of a smaller town.
  35. Like, don't get me wrong, there's quite a few people, but it's not like you know,
  36. I'm in Canada, so you guys have probably heard of like Vancouver before, Vancouver's
  37. pretty big here, or somewhere like like Toronto, you know, somewhere like that.
  38. So if I live somewhere there, you know, maybe it would be more worth my time because
  39. I you know, maybe I'd be able to grow a little bit faster and reach out and kind of
  40. grow. But in my opinion, it just felt like it wasn't worth my time, just like you
  41. know, currently where I live, my online business doing these courses and stuff.
  42. I just feel that my time is a lot more valuable there in a sense of you know, time
  43. to reward in a sense of you know financial dollar value.
  44. in addition to that, you know, I kind of had to set up like you know, I had to get
  45. like insurance and stuff, you know, if I was going to be teaching at their facility
  46. and teaching a student and stuff like that.
  47. so yeah, you know, I just kind of felt it was it, I just felt like it was too much
  48. effort, and doing these courses you know, is benefiting me as well as benefiting
  49. more students all at once. So it's kind of a win-win for everybody.
  50. in addition to that laptop stuff I was talking to you about.
  51. So I'm actually not going to be purchasing a laptop now because if I was gonna
  52. pursue that, you know, I was I was kind of getting prepared for it.
  53. But I learned a lot with the laptop stuff that you know, if I ever do need a laptop,
  54. if I start traveling more, I know what to look for.
  55. again, there are these websites which share how powerful a CPU is in comparison
  56. to other CPUs. So using those websites is really really great because you can
  57. compare the laptop you're gonna purchase, the CPU, you know, the performance of it
  58. in comparison to other ones. Again, with music production, it's all CPU-based,
  59. right? Like, we can't offload our processing to like a video card, like other
  60. industries. So that's why a CPU, like a powerful CPU.
  61. Again, image align tells us the single thread performance is the most important on
  62. the CPU. Okay.. One final thing I'll talk about with my little studio setup here
  63. with my courses and stuff like that
  64. So all along I've been telling you about like kind of new equipment I was acquiring
  65. so I can get really really high quality courses.
  66. So with all my equipment, I'm actually super impressed with the quality.
  67. Currently, I'm editing that 10 steps to become an FL Studio Pro.
  68. It's going really really good.
  69. I'm about halfway through with the editing right now, and yeah, I'm really impressed
  70. with just the quality of you know the audio.
  71. Again, I got like the boom microphone and the actual camera with the autofocus.
  72. Like I looked really really clear in it with the green screen.
  73. So you know, that was my first course approaching it with that stuff, and I was
  74. really really impressed. Now, what I wanted to talk about was I was ordering to like
  75. so when I purchased this new camera, it's a Sony A6400, so it's a really awesome
  76. camera. And with these, you know, mirrorless cameras, you can change out the lenses.
  77. So I actually purchased three different lenses, and you know, I was gonna return two
  78. of them. I just wanted to keep one of them, so I purchased three so I can kind of
  79. get a you know comparison as I was recording these courses.
  80. So, you know, I did some test runs, and Amazon, you know, they kept struggling with
  81. this one lens. it went back and forth like a couple times, like you know, I'd I'd
  82. order it, it was not being shipped at that date, and then you know it it ended up
  83. not even coming. I actually had to cancel the order and then order through like a
  84. different vendor. So, what I'm trying to say is with these cameras, you can be
  85. purchasing different lenses, okay.
  86. There's something called like a prime lens, as well as you can get lenses that give
  87. you the zoom, and typically, for the price to value ratio, you're gonna get a better
  88. quality picture with a prime lens, and so what that means is that the lens doesn't
  89. allow you to zoom, okay. So, for example, if we talk about let's say a 22 millimeter
  90. like lens or whatever, that means that it's a fixed you know lens, so you can't zoom
  91. or anything like that. So the reason why I purchased the three different lenses was
  92. because they're different, I guess focal lengths, so different zoom, right?
  93. And so I purchased like a 22 millimeter with this A6400, and that was it was too
  94. wide. So, in other words, it was even picking up outside of my green screen, and it
  95. was just like okay, well, that's too wide, and then I had a 35 millimeter, and it
  96. was just like it was way too zoomed.
  97. I actually had to put my camera really far away.
  98. So, to repeat that one was a 22 millimeter, way too wide, one was a 35 millimeter,
  99. way too zoomed, and the 30 millimeter was a pretty happy medium between that, and
  100. that's what I currently kept. So that lens finally came.
  101. I tried it out, and you know, I'm happy with it, okay.
  102. Just to kind of fill you in on that stuff because you know, with the industry now
  103. with YouTube, if you're gonna be you know getting cameras, lenses and stuff like
  104. that, it's important to know this stuff because you can make a you know a wise
  105. purchasing decision. Okay, so let's get into actually effle studio here.
  106. This track is called Fighting for Time.
  107. Over the years, I've just found that sometimes it bugs me when you play a sound and
  108. it has delay, and that delay overlaps your notes.
  109. So, in other words, you can kind of start muddying up your track, or you sometimes
  110. just can't even hear the other notes clearly.
  111. I kind of find that really annoying.
  112. in my beginning years, you know, I really didn't mind it.
  113. If we talk about like Nexus 2, so Nexus 2 was a plugin I used a lot in my early
  114. years. Later on, I kind of learned more about like their licensing program, you
  115. know, with their e-licenser USB dongle.
  116. if you lose that thing, you lose Nexus 2.
  117. And I kind of didn't like that licensing system.
  118. So in my later years, I started to avoid it.
  119. The reason why I'm bringing up Nexus 2 is because I used it a lot when I first
  120. started, and they have a reverb and a delay effects.
  121. And in addition to those effects, they also have a low cut and a high cut knob.
  122. So when you have a delay, it's really beneficial for you to usually roll off like
  123. the high end and a little bit of like the low end or whatever.
  124. And this just cleans up the sound so that it doesn't fight with the original signal.
  125. So you can get more delay out of that sound.
  126. So in other words, you can play the delay a little bit louder without it fighting
  127. with the original signal. However, the delay is still overlapping on the notes.
  128. Now, if you you know open up your own delay on your own mixer insert and use a
  129. sidechain compression, you're gonna be able to get nice audible, you know, notes or
  130. vocals. So you know, you know, just anything to do with audio, right?
  131. So you're gonna get a nice clean signal, and then when that signal stops playing,
  132. the delay comes in. Okay, so let's just listen to the guitar melody here, okay?
  133. And I'm gonna do a couple things as we're listening to this sound, okay.
  134. So, what I'm gonna be doing is I'm gonna be turning off and on the delay, just so
  135. you can hear, you know, the power behind the delay and how you know much more fuller
  136. it makes the actual guitar sound.
  137. The next thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna turn off and on the sidechain compression.
  138. So with the sidechain compression on, whenever the original guitar plays, the
  139. original guitar sounds, you know, you can hear every single note with perfect
  140. clarity, and then when it stops playing, the delay comes in to kind of fill up in
  141. those empty spots. It's a really powerful sound, okay.
  142. The next thing I'm gonna do is on the delay, I'm gonna you know, way over process
  143. that delay. So our repeats, I'm gonna increase those by a lot.
  144. The volume, I'll increase it by a lot.
  145. And again, what you're gonna discover on this delay is. that these notes are gonna
  146. overlap, and it's going to make it hard to make out the original notes
  147. It's gonna kind of overlap and fight for that.
  148. Again, you could be using like low cuts and high cuts to kind of clean that up.
  149. But again, the problem here is you are not able to reduce the volume of this
  150. delay, so the notes are still overlapping and getting it in the way of the original
  151. signal. So again, I am going to turn off and on the delay.
  152. We're gonna turn off and on the side chain compression, and then we're also going to
  153. make the delay really aggressive.
  154. And I'm also gonna share with you with that side chain compression off and on, how
  155. powerful it can be, and you know, it can make your melody sound awesome.
  156. Okay, so here's the melody. This is exactly how I have had it processed in the song.
  157. Okay, so we have the guitar, it has its delay, has the side chain compression going
  158. on, and then I'm gonna turn off and on the delay to start
  159. with. So with the
  160. delay
  161. off.
  162. So with the delay, it's more full, more emotional.
  163. I'm gonna turn off the side chain compression and listen for those notes
  164. overlap.
  165. With the side chain compression on, it's really
  166. subtle. So I'm gonna go to the delay, and we're gonna increase it by
  167. a lot, okay? So here we go. Here's the
  168. delay. So it sounds beautiful, but in
  169. terms of the mix, this is. gonna you know muddy upper mix, kind of get in the way of
  170. our original notes So now I'm gonna enable the side chain
  171. compression. We can hear the original notes very
  172. clear. And when the notes stop playing, the other notes kind of fill
  173. in with the delay
  174. off. Okay, now with it
  175. enabled. Okay, so now as you can hear,
  176. the delay was way too overprocessed.
  177. But with the delay even being overprocessed, with the side chain compression, we
  178. were able to hear those notes nice and clear, and when the notes stopped playing,
  179. the delay came in. Now, this is super powerful because you're able to mix your music
  180. with more effects, but also with more clarity.
  181. Okay. So how you set this up is I'm just gonna walk you through it.
  182. You know, I I know you you know we can't see a video or anything, but you just have
  183. to listen, and you can try this inside of FL Studio, okay?
  184. Or whatever music program you use.
  185. So I have my guitar and I route it to an insert.
  186. Let's just say six, okay. And on that actual guitar, you know, I'll gonna process it
  187. however I want with an EQ compression, and I'm gonna get that guitar sounding
  188. however I want. Now, what I'm gonna do is I'm going to route that guitar to another
  189. insert. So in FL Studio, if you just click on the actual insert, and then you just
  190. click on the arrow to another insert.
  191. So, for example, if I'm on six, click on six, then go to seven at the very very
  192. bottom, click the arrow and simply just left click it.
  193. Okay, so you still want it to be able to route to other sounds.
  194. Now, on seven, what you want to do is you want to open up a delay, okay?
  195. So, in the case of FL Studio., they've recently come out with a delay or fruity
  196. delay three It's a super awesome delay, and you just want to set up your delay
  197. however you want. In this case, you can have your level.
  198. So in other words, that's like kind of your the amount of repeats.
  199. You can set that, you know, however you want.
  200. You it can be intense, okay. Now after the delay, and it's really important that
  201. it's after the delay, okay, because the order you put your plugins does matter
  202. because it's to do with signal flow.
  203. And then after the delay is where your side chain compressor goes, okay.
  204. Now, because when we are on insert six and we left clicked to insert seven, we have
  205. now routed six to seven. Now seven is gonna see six as a key to
  206. trigger our compressor so that whenever six plays, it's gonna reduce the volume of
  207. seven, which is where our actual delay is.
  208. Okay, so on seven, I just used a fruity limiter, okay.
  209. And on the fruity limiter near the bottom, it has a limiter and a compressor
  210. section. So I clicked compressor, I put the threshold pretty low, and I put the
  211. ratio quite high, and my attack is very, very fast.
  212. My release is about medium. And if you right-click in the side chain box, you should
  213. see whatever audio you have on six.
  214. In my case, it's called upper guitar because that's what insert six mixer is.
  215. Okay. So just a quick walkthrough of that again.
  216. Okay, so in the case of a guitar, I'm gonna route it to six.
  217. I'm gonna process it however I want.
  218. I'm gonna left click the arrow on insert seven.
  219. o Okaykay,. That means that we have now routed six to go to seven.
  220. On seven now, I'm going to go and open up a delay plugin.
  221. Now, sorry, I missed the step.
  222. You want to make sure that the dry is all the way to zero and the wet is at 100%..
  223. Okay And then after the delay, you're gonna open up a fruity limiter or any type of
  224. compressor that has a side chain compression feature.
  225. for you know, because sometimes you can have a compressor, but sometimes they don't
  226. give you the option for an external input.
  227. But the fruity limiter does, okay.
  228. So again, after the delay, you're gonna open up a fruity limiter, you're gonna go to
  229. the compressor section, you are going to go to the sidechain box, simply just
  230. right-click it, and you're gonna see your option for in my case the guitar, okay?
  231. And we'll listen to that one more time.
  232. So no delay. Okay, so with the
  233. actual delay. Okay, so right now on the
  234. delay, I have it too
  235. aggressive.
  236. Now, without my side chain
  237. compression. So you can just hear that
  238. the delay is kind of fighting the original melody a little bit.
  239. Like it still sounds good, don't get me wrong, but I'm gonna enable a side chain
  240. compression now. And that delay just
  241. kind of fills in the background, okay.
  242. So let's just check out the track in case you guys haven't heard it before, and
  243. we'll just let it play until a bit of like the chorus, okay?
  244. So here we
  245. go.
  246. Okay, we will work our way into the verse, and I'm gonna turn off and on the delay
  247. and you hear that stuff
  248. again. Delay
  249. off. Okay, you know it's not as
  250. full.
  251. Okay, now without the side chain
  252. compression.
  253. We're gonna work our way back into the
  254. chorus.
  255. Okay, so it might be a little bit hard for you to hear it, but what you're listening
  256. for is just the delay fighting with the original guitar signal.
  257. And by setting it up this way, you're able to get the original signal sounding nice
  258. and clear so that only when the original signal plays, it just reduces the volume of
  259. the delay. And then when it stops playing, the volume will come back in.
  260. And you can adjust your release time to adjust how fast or how slow
  261. this delay comes back. If your release is too fast, it's gonna make that delay kind
  262. of pump in a little bit weird.
  263. If it's a little bit longer, you may not be able to get that delay to be audible.
  264. Okay, so you kind of want like a happy medium.
  265. So I hope you guys learned something in this.
  266. Thought it was a good example.
  267. So again, the track is called Fighting for Time.
  268. It's on my beat tapes by Gratuitous volume seven.
  269. Totally free to download, just come to gratuitousbeats.com.
  270. I'll leave all the links in the resource section below.
  271. stay tuned for my new course called 10 steps to become an FL Studio Pro.
  272. I'm halfway done the editing, and like I'm saying, it's turning out really, really
  273. good. I'm able to talk to you with like the camera with the green screen.
  274. I look super super clear. me actually writing on this WACOM tablet.
  275. So again, how I'm breaking down this course is I broke it down to 10 steps.
  276. Okay. I just kind of thought about what are like the 10 most crucial steps that we
  277. as beatmakers go through when we go from the beginning to an end of a beat.
  278. For example, like when it comes to making the beat, when it comes to mixing the
  279. beat, mastering the beat, you know, the sounds, and in each one of these sections.
  280. So I've actually broken it down to 10 sections, which is why I've called it 10 steps
  281. to become an FL Studio Pro. So in each section, at the very very beginning of the
  282. section, I create a video where we actually do writing.
  283. Okay, so because I have this Waccom tablet, I'm able to write on the screen.
  284. And we first talk about what are we going to cover in this section?
  285. And I feel it's a really, really cool and engaging way to teach.
  286. and again, it's my first time approaching it.
  287. I'm really, really happy with the results.
  288. So stay tuned to that. I will definitely let you guys know when I release it.
  289. It's actually going really, really good.
  290. Okay. So I hope you guys learned a lot with this delay stuff.
  291. Try it out. If you have questions, always feel free to reach out.
  292. And I'll talk to you guys in the next episode.
  293. Thanks for checking out the episode.
  294. If you had any questions, visit it's gratuitous.com/slash podcast, select an episode
  295. and submit your question at the bottom of the page to the contact form.
  296. If you'd like to take my FL Studio courses, see my current studio and podcasting
  297. gear, read my books, or are interested in lessons.
  298. Visit the link it's gratuitous.com/slash learning.
  299. That page will redirect you to more info and resources.
  300. I hope the best with your productions.
  301. I'm gratuitous, and I'll see you in the next episode.
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