How to use Sidechain Compression in Ableton Live

Side-chain compression has become a vital aspect of modern music production in many electronic genres. It can create that classic pumping effect used in tracks like Daft Punk’s One More Time and Eric Prydz in the track Call on Me.

Newer plugins and new techniques have allowed producers to utilise this technique to get louder and cleaner mixes and masters and push the boundaries in sound design. 

In this article we will be showing how you can create that classic side chain compression effect using Ableton Live 12 and we will also show off some advanced techniques used in professional mixing to help give your music that edge or glue you are looking for. 

The goal of side chain compression is to help separate two instruments in the mixing process. Usually this would be between two instruments that clash based on their frequency content but it can also be applied to other combinations of instruments too depending on the situation. 

Sidechain compression is where we control the volume of one instrument based on the volume of another instrument. For example we can lower the volume of our bass guitar track when our kick drum plays, then when the kick drum stops playing the volume of the bass guitar is brought back up. 

This creates a great clean mix between the two instruments as only one instrument is playing at a time. It can have other benefits too later in the song creation process. 

But for now let’s talk about how we do this in Ableton Live 10/11/12. 

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The playback options will define how our synthesiser plays through our audio file. Here are the 5 options below and what they do:

1. Add a compressor plugin

Start by loading a compressor plugin onto your bass track. Making sure the compressor is in peak mode.
You want to always place the compressor plugin on the track you want to duck out of the way.
(We will also be using the left View mode of compressor here but you can use any view mode.)

2. Enable Sidechain

Click on the small triangle in the top left of the compressor plugin and enable the side chain button. In the drop down below labelled Audio From pick your Kick drum channel labelled Post Mixer.

If you are using Drum Rack you will need to select your drum rack channel and then in the drop down below select your individual kick drum sound. For both of these I would advise choosing Post Mixer for now. Like Below.

3. Threshold Control

If done correctly you should see the meter under the Thresh option bouncing up and down relative to your kick drum. 

By bringing down the Threshold fader you should start to see the GR (Gain Reduction) meter moving too and you should be able to hear the bass lowering in volume when the kick drum plays. 

4. Other Settings

Make sure your Attack time is set to 1ms and Ratio of 4.00:1, most of the other controls we can leave for now, except the Release time.

5. Release Time

Now let’s set the Release time, this will depend on the length of your kick drum. The most important part of setting the release is making sure that the GR meter returns back to 0 before the next kick drum hits.

If the Gain reduction doesn’t return to 0db try lowering the release time. However release times of 20ms or under may create bad distortion so just be careful.

If you can’t get your gain reduction to return back to 0 you may need to pick a shorter kick drum or decrease the length of your kick drum sample.

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