External vs Internal Sidechaining – How to Make the Most of Sidechaining For Your Logic Projects

 

Trying to achieve space and clarity in our mixes. That’s always the challenge, isn’t it?

Sure, we have EQs and Compressors. Reverbs and delays. But sometimes it feels like none of these are ever enough.

No matter how much we bend and stretch our tracks or add ambiance, our mixes can still feel a bit congested.

Thankfully, there are other ways to introduce space in a mix. And a great option is to use Sidechaining.

The classic argument for Sidechaining is the old kick drum vs bass situation. The kick drum is short and punchy, while our bass tracks tend to sustain and obscure the kick.

It’s a tough case because both the kick and bass live in the low end. They both need power and room to breath. How they heck do we get these 2 to hang together in harmony??

That’s where sidechaining comes in.

But sidechaining isn’t only reserved for instruments that are competing for space. We call that external sidechaining. But we can also use an internal sidechain to focus on a specific element of the track we’re working on.

For example: a drum loop. The kick is slamming, but we want to compress the snare in the loop. What’s one to do?

By using the Logic Compressor’s internal sidechain, no biggie. We can hone our processing in on just the snare.

The opportunities for sidechaining can expand far beyond creating space. We can even use sidechaining for creativity as well.

So today let’s explore the world of Sidechaining. In today’s video, I demonstrate the difference between internal and external uses. And in both cases, your mixes win 🙂