Cubase Pro 12 - Sidechain Newbie Needs Advice

Cubase
1

Cubase Pro 12 (will upgrade to 14 by January)
OS: Windows

I’ve watched videos by Selim and Dom and others on the subject, so I get the general purpose of it. But applying it is still confusing to me, and so have not done any so far.

So here are the instruments/tracks that I guess would benefit. Overall, I still can’t seem to pull off a good lows and mid-lows. But that’s not all of it.

I don’t know which of the competing tracks to side chain. So I’d welcome advice on which should do what.

I only use VSTi, mostly but not exclusively NI instruments, no recording of analog instruments or vocals.

– HIGH END:

Lead guitar as the main melody, some more rapid phrasing, but overall, sustained notes that can span a bar or two.

vs.

Violins, such as ostinatos but sometimes mirroring or responding to the lead melody. Usually spanning two octaves, the lower somewhat quieter.

– MID RANGE:

Horns and/or synths/pads, piano/keys, sometimes two-octaves stacked

vs.

Violas and similar – can also be two-octaves stacked.

– LOW END:

Celli, Bass/es, lower end synths/pads.

vs.

Drums, Percussion

Obviously it all depends on each composition and arrangement, genre, etc. And/but my main learning goal is to un-muddy what tends to happen on almost every project:

I often start a composition as a more delicate, quieter way slowly building up to a crescendo, then down again and ending in a “triumphant” outro type thing.

The more I add and/or increase velocities and/or instruments, that’s where the mud starts regardless of panning – the nice separation of instruments in the quieter parts degrades. Good transients get drowned out, etc.

And I tend to constantly let the project get too hot, even when I pull everything back down.

Such issues are no unique to me, they are common mixing stumbling blocks.

But I’m getting tired of this messing up all the work I put into creating fairly decent arrangements and melodic structures.

Thanks.

2

Without knowing what you currently do, I suggest my mixing practices…
I wouldn’t worry about side-chaining.
“Mud” is in the low-mids (200-800-ish), so a small cut there in the drums/bass may help.
High pass as much as possible, even cymbals - Simon Phillips Drums, for example, has a cymbal with a prominent hum at 200 Hz.
Instead of increasing levels of tracks that are too quiet, try reducing levels of all the other tracks.
Sometimes mixing in mono is easier.
Listen to your mixes on different speakers.
Don’t spend too much time mixing - you’ll get ear-fatigue. Take a break now and again.
Practice makes perfect! (It’s a cliché because it’s true.)

1 Like
3

Hello,

As Googly_Smytye suggests, for this kind of task try with careful eq. As you tell you are newbie, if you try to handle it with side chain (side chain and compressors I guess?) I guarantee you will be very soon very lost. Selim and Dom use side chain for specific tasks only but even they will use eq for that what you want to achieve. In some instruments sometimes it is very useful dynamic eq, what is actually a compressor for a specific frequency range and additionally, sometimes this can benefit of side chaining, but again, I suggest you learn to use normal eq first. Later, when you feel the need for other techniques, you will know it.

4

Your main goal is to have a tighter low / low mid end, right? EQing is a solid starting point alongside panning and level as @Googly_Smythe and @Knopf already suggested.
A practical approach:
You can load two competing signals into an EQ in Cubase to compare them freqencywise (Spectral Comparison EQ, sounds fancy :wink:
Open the channel settings (e) on the first track and load the competing track by clicking the drop down menu (brown field in the picture below).

image
image581×490 41 KB

Now you can see both frequency spectrums and switch between them while adjusting the EQ. Try to get a feeling which frequencies carry the signature sound of the instrument. Rule of thumb: better to do everything in context, avoid solo if it ain´t necessary.

Back to sidechaining: After tweaking the EQ of these two competing tracks try to do the same in Frequency 2 via sidechaining. Now that you know what you are lookiing for use the same tracks, same frequencies but this time with the built-in sidechaining function in Frequency 2. Aim: tame the problematic frequency of track No1 if it gets in the way of track No2. Leave it be when both reside in their own frequency realm. That´s the basic idea behind sidechaining an EQ. In other words, it´s not a static EQ anymore. Now it´s a dynamic EQ with compression involved.

There a loads of other cases when sidechainig comes in quite handy. But this is a good starting point.

1 Like
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@Googly_Smythe @Knopf @Reco29 - Thanks for your input. I’ll implement the suggestions as best I can.