Tight Low End - Sidechain Compression with Superior Drummer?

[Bluestrat]

Hey everyone, I've been lurking for a bit and am enjoying the wealth of information this forum has to offer. I've been working on a hard rock/metal song and I'm pretty happy with the overall mix, however I'm really trying to get the low end nice and punchy without being overwhelming. Right now, the mix is great on certain systems but tends to be too thumpy (kick drum) on higher end systems with subwoofers and what not.

I was thinking of how I could space things out a little better in the lower frequencies, and I really like the way the drums are sounding (all midi programmed in protools and sequenced in Superior 2.0) but I want to possibly side chain them with my Clean DI bass track. How would I go about that? Is the only way to bounce them into protools then do it with the kick? Or can I somehow bus the kick out of Superior into protools?

Thanks in advance for your help and any tips would be appreciated! Sorry if the questions are noobish.

 

[timislegend]

you would want to side chain a noise gate on bass guitar to the kick drum...

the only issue with this is: if the bass guitar performance doesn't match the kick drum signature... you will not here the bass guitar for the sufficient parts.

this is best achieved with a hardware expander.

 

[Bluestrat]

I do have two bass tracks though: One clean DI track that handles the low end and one distorted track that is more mid heavy. I figure this way I can have the low end (clean bass track) duck out of the way a little when the kick drum hits.

 

[timislegend]

it sounds as though you wish to "duck" by way of side chain compression?

this is a similar method by which is applied in the same manner.

would you like to keep the two bass guitar tracks separate?

you could create a stem of the two bass guitar tracks:

- patch compressor from the side chain to the bass guitar stem.
- send the kick drum to the bass guitar stem.
- use threshold to navigate the intensity of the "ducking" effect.

the issue with this is... alloying low frequency information (like the kick drum) instantiate an instrument (like the bass guitar) will result in a loss of upper aural harmonic distortion.

bass guitar is intended to contrast the kick drum (across the frequency spectrum) unless you are trying to achieve and affected sound.


maybe if you gave me an example of this being used in a performance... it would allow me to assist you more without incorporating my subjective opinion.