It’s extremely useful for creative effects, creating space, and getting the right pumping sound, because you have full control over when your audio ducks, and when it comes back to full volume. You can change the attack and release settings, but it’s not the same and using envelopes for this is far better in our eyes. This is something that can’t be done in a compressor. However, sidechain plugins do have some benefits over using compression.įor instance, with sidechain plugins you can completely control the shape of your volume automation envelope. They both essentially create the same effect, and whether you use a compressor to apply sidechain, or a sidechain plugin doesn’t really matter. One acts as an automatic fader, and the other squashes your audio signal together. What’s The Difference Between Sidechain Compression & Sidechain Plugins? You can use sidechain compression for a pumping effect, to duck instruments out of the way, or on dynamic resonance suppression plugins/multiband compressors, to duck certain ranges of problem the spectrum that are clashing. If you have instruments that are clashing with each other, you can use sidechain to duck one slightly out of the way, creating space for the other.

Sidechain compression is an extremely useful effect to have for mixing.

Volume automation – creating the sidechain effect without compression, often using a sidechain plugin.

Creating space in specific frequency ranges – using multiband/dynamic resonance suppressors to sidechain problem frequencies.

Snare & entire mix – gives a short pocket of space for the Snare to cut through.

Vocals and Reverb – providing more clarity for the Vocals.

Vocals and Instruments – ducking the instrumentation out of the vocals creating more space.

Pumping effect – for EDM, RnB, Hip Hop & other genres.

Kick & Bass – ducking the bass out of the way of the kick to create low end space.

Here are some examples of where you can use sidechain compression in a mix:

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