Description
Using Side-Chaining to Duck Reverbs on Vocals is a video tutorial that explains how to duck effects using the vocal track as a trigger.
Ducking is the term we give to the process that entails one sound or event being used to attenuate (lower in gain/volume) of another sound. The common processor used for ducking is a compressor.
Ducking
Ducking has been around since the advent of broadcasting. Traditionally ducking is used to manage the volume between the broadcaster and the background music. I am sure you have heard this effect before. Every time the broadcaster speaks the background music lowers in volume.
The most important effect used in music production is reverb. We use reverb more than any other effect and when it comes to vocal treatment we love to splash it all over the place because we believe that the more reverb we apply the more natural space we create for the vocals to sit in. This is where the problems creep in. In today’s high track count mixes reverb shows up across multiple sounds and as you already know effects sum just like audio. The more instances of reverb we use the more we eat into the headroom and dull the mix. It is easy to get your mixes to exhibit that horrible ‘wash’ effect whereby too many instances of reverb start to conflict with each other and smear frequencies. We end up losing clarity for the sake of a big reverb sound. This tends to happen more on vocal channels than anywhere else because we instinctively go for the reverb effect when processing vocals. BUT there is an Old School technique that can help to alleviate this problem and maintain vocal clarity even with such high reverb use.
Side-chain
We use a compressor on the reverb channel (auxiliary) and activate the side-chain. We then send the vocal line to the side-chain. The vocal acts as the trigger. We set the compressor to compress the effect but not to gain compensate too heavily as this negates the whole ducking process. Every time the vocals start to play the reverb is attenuated or ducked and when the pauses in the vocals appear the reverb jumps back up in gain and we can hear it.
You can take this process a step further and use the side-chain filtering on the compressor to turn it into a frequency conscious trigger. In other words, we can actually select a frequency range of the vocals to trigger the ducking process.
In the Using Side-Chaining to Duck Reverbs on Vocals video, I show you how to first clean the vocal take by using corrective techniques. I follow this with a detailed journey into the workings of a compressor and specifically how to structure its side-chain for ducking processes. Finally, I show you how to effectively duck a reverb effect using the vocals as the trigger for the side-chain of the compressor on the effects channel.
Plugins used in the video:
Topics covered in the video:
- How to clean vocal channels using band-pass equalisation
- Ducking reverbs using the s/c of a compressor
- Side-chain compression on effects and how to set it up
- Filtering for optimum clarity and cleanliness
- Peak versus RMS selection for the compressor mode
- Bleeding reverbs and how to control them
If you found this tutorial helpful then give these a try:
What is an equaliser and how does it work
Linear Phase Eq versus Minimum Phase Eq
Side-chaining vocals against the mix
Ducking any Frequency using Middle and Side
Using Expansion – the power of Side-chaining
Compression – What is it and how do you use it
The 4 Modes of Compression and Expansion
Noise Gates – Side-chaining Tricks
Studio and Multi Effects Masterclass
The 4 Modes of Compression and Expansion
