Wanted to get some input on what might be going on to achieve this effect in this song. Starting at around 1:20 these chords start to swell in. I know you can achieve this effect with a certain attack/decay combo on the synth of the chords but i’ve heard that this could just be the drums or a bunch of sounds sidechained to the chords to give it that delayed feel. Some input would be awesome, thanks!
If you know about sidechaining, you’re pretty much there tbh. The actual process itself depends on the daw/vst/compressor you’re using but for example in ableton you’d want to set up a sample with a sharp transient (usually people use a kick drum) and program the midi however you want it to effect the synth. put the compressor on the synth, set it to sidechain, set the input for the sidechain as the track where the kick drum is playing, and tweak the attack/release to your liking.
For the effect of the sidechain when there are no kicks its just a ghost kick or you could manually manipulate it with a volume automation or something (I don’t think volume is the right thing it’s something else just can’t remember.)
mute it
I recommend using a muted hi hat track (typically in the same pattern as the kick) for this though. Its much easier to dial in the attack and release on something short and clicky compared to setting it with a typically much longer waveform of a kick drum.
yeah the sidechain is triggered by a signal only routed to the send or you could do the opposite using a gate
word, appreciate the responses everyone. i’ll try it out tonight.
arguably the smartest way to make incredibly fast for insanely long clean sidechain curves is just to use volume automation like volume shaper. In fl you can use fl’s daw automation to just sidechain everything in a bus.
every time the kick hits turn whatever synth down and then back up againafter the kick leaves