Ring Mod Sidechain

[valankar]

Hi all,

Recently I learned about ring mod sidechain, mentioned in these videos:

Decided to do a deeper dive into it in these videos in case anyone interested:

Enjoy.

[Paralytik]

Wow, this is pretty insane. I've never heard about this technique before.

[valankar]

It really has been a game-changer for me. Previously kicks might cause over 0db peaks with normal sidechaining, but with ring mod sidechaining those can peak at -4, -5 db. And it actually doesn't sound bad.

It definitely changes the way I mix though, as previously I would lower those kicks, or apply clipping, etc. So you really need to listen a lot more closely and not rely too much on metering (maybe for the better).

[orthodox]

Having seen that, I just thought of another technique that I can implement with compressors I have. The idea is to ring-modulate the kick with itself or "square" it in order to get uni-polar "rectified" signal and then use it to ring-mod the ducking target.

[selig]

Still the cleanest non distorting side chain I've come up with is cross fader. If the goal is to not raise the peak level while also not distorting the waveform in any way, it's the most accurate/surgical (and foolproof) way to accomplish this.