Side-chaining debate.

[AlexJ]

Ok so i know a few people are pretty attached to their side-chaining and the methods for achieving a decent mix because. Im curious what method you use, why you use it and have you tried other methods or tools and what was your 2c.

Ive recently made a couple of tracks where i've run all side-chaining elusively from a couple of return tracks in Ableton. In my mind my mixes sound a little cleaner because of it (obviously less instances of the same side chains on channels means i'm less likely to tweek things individually muddying the mix a little), its also less taxing on my CPU which is a bonus.

Im commonly running a side chain from a kick and snare (and sometimes hats if they sit relatively in the middle of the stereo field for whatever reason- but only light) and do find having my side-chain auFX rack (generally a couple compressors and an eq) across 5-15 channels cumbersome at times. However occasionally i do feel the need to chain certain channels differently but as mentioned above the overall result isn't always better because of it. Now this could easily be because i don't have a significant amount of mix experience. who knows. 

Although i have a number of compressors i primarily use the good old Ableton one because its side-chaining is simple AF and its load is relatively low on CPU (especially since sometimes there is 40 odd compressors running). However given the opportunity to now side-chain using a return track i feel like i might employ a couple of others that give me the warmth/pump/snap feel that i'm after if it means i only have to have a couple compressors total running for the entirety of my side-chaining.

What method do you guys use? Thoughts on using return tracks? I feel like im pretty liberal for my return tracks with any given project generally running 6-9+ running various reverbs,delay,sidechains,washes etc

/walloftext

[LabRat]

Sometimes I run a buss channel other times I just have it on individual tracks - depends how I feel. 

Also depending how I feel, I'll use a compressor or lfo tool. Sometimes using the lfo tool makes it a bit cleaner for me when it comes to compression. If I'm working on some bass stuff I'll use a compressor because I want the kick and sub to be clean. Otherwise on the 4x4 stuff I'll just use the lfo tool

[AlexJ]

Yeah I've found the lfo tool isn't great for interesting tempos or busy mixes

[LabRat]

It can be. Just depends what you're trying to achieve really

[NitroMonkey]

Side-chaining really depends on the style of music you're producing and weather you want the kick to punch through, the melody, the vocals or whatever. It is extremely useful in today's market because most music is produced "wall to wall" compression where as music up to the early 90s compression was rarely used and there was a lot of "head room" left through out the track, as was common practice back then.

That being said, I use side-chain compression in almost all of my production. I also use multi-band EQ compression for complex melodies and vocals, giving the compression a very smooth and natural sounding mix.

How I do it though in ableton is with in my layout. Bass, Synths, Melody, Percussion, FX are all grouped and the compression is placed for the whole group unless there is something I want to isolate from that group I'd have it separate. Most people restrict their compression due to lack of RAM or CPU, but I don't have that problem running an i7 7th gen with 32GB of OC RAM and SSD in RAID 0.

I do have to say something from a stand point of mastering though, having a track come across your desk that has minimal to no side-chain compression makes mastering the track a whole lot easier