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Hello. Newly registered, but not new to producing or to reading this forum. I've used sidechaining with Ableton's compressor for a while now, and I've also experimented with the sidechain function on Ableton's autofilter. Now I have read on here many times people saying how producers forget that you can sidechain anything and that the practice isn't limited to compression. Is there a way to sidechain with the EQ8 (besides manually drawing the automation, of course)?

In my latest song, I have a moog bass hitting an F3 on 1 and 3, and every few measures, I've got a huge long 808 hitting on 1. When they hit at the same time, it sounds extremely muddy, and I wanted the moog bass to get softer when the 808 hits, so I set up a sidechain compressor.

But then I thought it would be so much cooler if I sidechained it to a high pass EQ8 at 200 Hz, because the rhythm felt kinda fucked with the strong compression on the moog on beat 1. I set this up manually, automating the EQ8 to only be active when the 808 hits. But I figured it would be nice to make a thread about it so I (and that read this) could know for the future if there is a better way to sidechain with the EQ8. Also, I am aware that this maybe could have worked with the autofilter, but I work with EQ8 more than autofilter and EQ8 is more versatile, so I'm sure I might want to sidechain many things in the future that autofilter can't do.

Just frequency split the signal you want at 200 hz then put a sidechain compressor on the band of 200 and below

I don't think you can sidechain an eq8. You can sidechain a gate and many other effects, but the autofilter is probably your best bet. But be sure you understand the effects different sidechain can create. I'm not saying you don't understand, but it should be clear, especially if you are new to effects like I was 8 months ago.

Compression is useful for managing headroom and creating preceived volume effects.
Filtering is useful for altering frequencies by removing weight or air, and useful for transitioning and building.
Gating is useful for completely removing sounds and smoothly bringing them back in, or the opposite where it can allow a sound to be heard and smoothly remove it.

Alternatively, you can adjust clip volume envelopes so only the beginning/end/whatever is softer/louder

Frequency Splitting is not done in EQ8 in Ableton, the processing method doesn't work for that. You'll need to use Multiband Dynamics. There are 3 bands whose frequencies you can move to set the ranges you want. Make an instrument rack with 3 of them and each one should only have 1 of the 3 bands allowing signal through. Now you have 3 little instrument rack chains letting the same signal through so you can put any effects you want on any of those chains. So yes, then you could put a compressor on the bottom chain.

ahhh very true yes thank you. you can sidechain in the multiband dynamics GUI itself

^ this, but you can use a gate instead of a compressor if you don't want to compress one specific band.

You can sidechain anything to anything in Reaper. #swag

Reading this kinda makes me glad I chose to stick with FL Studio. I find it strange that one of the most popular DAWs used by what seems to be every popular EDM producer hasn't made sidechaining more diverse.

Personally I only ever learned how to sidechain using autofilter in Ableton so the only suggestion I can give is one that's been given. Split up the frequencies and just sidechain the channel that is setup for the 200hz and below range.