Quick Sidechain Compression Question

[alexvont12]

In sidechain compression, which part of the compressor is being ducked? Is it the threshold or ratio? I couldn't find it anywhere, people seem to just say "sidechain kick to compressor, adjust attack/release".
I'm trying to do it by hand in Fl w/ a peak controller... I got sick of just ducking the volume.

[illtabulous]

I dont think I get the question, but no part of the compressor is being "ducked." The amplitude of whatever is fed into the compressor is. Now, with sidechain compression the input for the compressor is being fed by another channel lets say a kick. So the kick will be providing the input for the compressor and the amplitude of lets say a pad on the channel with the compressor will be ducked based on the amplitude of the kick, the threshold, ratio, attack and release on the compressor. I don't know what the peak controller is in Fl as I use Ableton but are you saying that your automating the amplitude manually so your achieving the same effect as sidechain compression?

[eldoogle]

The volume from a source ducks the sound with the compressor. So once it's sidechained, mess with the threshhold until you hear changes. Also the ratio can be tweaked and the attack usually fast. Release is up to you, it'd probably be short on drums but for creative uses like a pumping effect in electro uses a long release.

I don't think knee has much importance as the other parameters.

[alexvont12]

I dont think I get the question, but no part of the compressor is being "ducked." The amplitude of whatever is fed into the compressor is. Now, with sidechain compression the input for the compressor is being fed by another channel lets say a kick. So the kick will be providing the input for the compressor and the amplitude of lets say a pad on the channel with the compressor will be ducked based on the amplitude of the kick, the threshold, ratio, attack and release on the compressor. I don't know what the peak controller is in Fl as I use Ableton but are you saying that your automating the amplitude manually so your achieving the same effect as sidechain compression?

Well the peak controller is on the kick channel, and it detects when the kick is "peaking" and then controls a parameter you have assigned accordingly. I want to assign it to one of the parameters (threshold/ratio/gain) in the compressor I have on my bass channel, so that the amplitude of the bass will "duck". I know you don't assign it to the gain, because that only ducks the volume.
What I'm asking is do I assign the peak controller to the ratio (so when the kick hits, the bass will be more compressed) or the threshold (so when the kick hits, it will compress more of the bass).
If that makes sense

[tragiclifestories]

The limiter on newer versions of FL has a built in sidechain. Here's how it works:

-Route the audio from your kick/sidechain source to the channel with your bass. Turn the little volume knob there down to zero.
-Stick a Fruity limiter over the bass.
-In the limiter screen, click on COMP to turn it into compressor mode. A few more controls will appear - the important one is a digital counter, which will start off set to three dashes or something like that (---). Click and drag that up to 1. (What this does is cycle through all the signals routed to that channel with a volume of zero - so in theory you can have a bunch of limiters all ducking from different sound sources. You only have 1, though, so...)
-Pull the Ceiling knob right down, and put the threshold right up. The effect will probably be far too extreme to begin with, but fiddle with the controls as you wish.

That's a bit vague from memory (am miles away from my actual PC with FL on it), but it's the easiest way to do ducking these days.

If for some reason you insist on using the peak controller, I'd put it on the ratio, and whack the threshold right down; This seems to be how actual sidechains work from the meagre experiments I can conduct from here, but I might be wrong. I doubt it makes a huge difference either way, and neither are substantially better or worse than sticking it on the volume fader (which I used to do...)

[Ldizzy]

someone here needs to learn the very basics of compression...

threshold and ratio will both dictate how the volume of the track that is affected by the compressor will be modified...

a compressor, theoretically, simply lowers the volume of a track... its just a volume knob...

and no part of a compressor gets ducked..

the sidechained signal simply gets its volume affected by the compressor... but the info that tells the compressor how to change the volume doesnt lie in the compressed sound itself.. but in another sound... so another sound causes the compressed sound to be compressed... hope it is simple...

uve been served a How to just above dope shit..

as for ratio and threshold... they indeed are two different thing.. as threshold values dictate to the compressor Which part of the sound will be affected (which area of the envelope if u want to think in images).. whereas ratio tells the compressor by how much it should compress whatever part...

[RandoRando]

I used to wonder the same exact thing. PeoPle who aren't on FL. won't understand. Simply put, forget using the pk cntrlrer for SC compression. You would modulating the threshhold though. It would be a pain to set up correctly though. So just FLs limiter that has sidechain built-in. I'm on ableton now though.

[didi]

I used to wonder the same exact thing. PeoPle who aren't on FL. won't understand. Simply put, forget using the pk cntrlrer for SC compression. You would modulating the threshhold though. It would be a pain to set up correctly though. So just FLs limiter that has sidechain built-in. I'm on ableton now though.

This basically, fl's fruity limiter(set to compression mode) > peak controller connected to bog standard compressor, if you're trying to sidechain a kick to a bass imo.

[tragiclifestories]

Indeed. The peak controller is awesome, and I haven't seen many things like it on other software (apart from the Buzz peer machines ) but this is not its allotted task in life any longer.

[GhostMutt]

I don't use fruity but what is the alternative to 'compression mode' in it's limiter?

[alexvont12]

I don't use fruity but what is the alternative to 'compression mode' in it's limiter?

It's not a different mode, there's just a panel for limiting and a panel for compression.

[tragiclifestories]

I don't use fruity but what is the alternative to 'compression mode' in it's limiter?

The default is 'limiter mode', which is just a simple hard limiter with a ceiling/threshold, pre-gain and attack/release controls. No post-gain, which is a bit annoying.