The Art of Ducking.pdf

Hi Everyone

 

I have done a simple and easy to follow tutorial on ducking titled 'The Art of Ducking' (.pdf)

 

Many of you already know how to do this, but l posted it to give a helping hand to some of the novice producers feeling overwhelmed in the wonderful world of mixing.

 

Have Fun

 

Sven

The_Art_of_Ducking.pdf

Thanks, looks incredibly well made document. I haven't red it yet, but i have good time at office at the moment - so i give it a try .

hi route, how did you go ? hope it was easy to follow.

 

all the best

 

 

 

sven

 

ps: any feedback would be helpful.

Yeah, content was really well made and easy to follow. I'm familiar with the technique, but i'm sure that even first timers have no problems tofollw that. Well done!.

Thanx alot kittygroove it helped

Thanks!!!

 

 

Excellent, great job, thanks!

I already knew the technique still, thanks for taking the time to do this.

Thanks, great job for beginners and excellent reminder for non professionals like me

It was my pleasure

 

Sorry I just read these posts!

 

Best

 

Sven

I also already knew this but I have to award you for making such an easy to follow and well written tutorial!

I am glad that it is easy to read and follow

 

Best

 

Sven...I really have to post more ASAP!

Thank you - this is a technique I've only just found out about (so behind I know). This manual makes it very easy to apply and also explains what it's doing.

Many thanks again.

Just starting out. Your tute is invaluable!

Cheers for the tutorial.

great upload... cheers mate!

Just stumbled across this. Thanks for sharing. Heard of Ducking but mostly in the form of "Helms Alee watch the boom" sort of thing.

Thanks for this, was really well written and most importantly I got it to work!

Thanks for refreshing my memory

hey all

 

i knew the technique, though i used to select in the compressor side chain input, the kick audio channel instead of a bus ... this way you don't have to create a bus (is it somehow better to create a bus and send it to the side chain compressor input ?? )

 

 

my other question is :

 

what if i want to use a compressor on the bass ( to sculpt its sound so it fits better in the mix, add some decay, or lower the level of the loud notes ....etc) and still want to use the ducking method described in the .pdf with the kick ...

 

right now, what i do is first insert a compressor on the bass channel to sculpt the sound

and then insert another compressor after the first one for the ducking trick ...

 

am i doing correctly or is there a cleaner way to do this ?

Thank you so much for that great tutorial. I can see a much improved clarity by side-chaining the drums as you have shown. There is much I have to learn, but already this tip has Un-Muddied some of my projects.

Thanks again

Great PDF. Use this technique alot already but makes for good reading. I usually, on the bus you send your kick to change the output to 'no output' then the bus is purely for the sidechain process and doesn't affect your mix but the signal although inaudible still affects the compressor.

Sweet, thanks for taking the time. It's very helpful!

Thanks, kittygroove - looks really straight forward

I'm getting better with ducking but this is definitely a better way to learn it. Cheers buddy.

I've got a question..

 

First off, nice PDF. It's all very clear.

 

I was wondering why you would bother to send the kick signal through a bus to activate the compressor if you could just choose the kick directly as side-chain?

I was wondering why you would bother to send the kick signal through a bus to activate the compressor if you could just choose the kick directly as side-chain?

 

Because his example uses a software instrument. Those don't appear as a direct side-chain input option like audio channels do.

 

J.

Oh maybe to answer my own question..

 

Is it because you're working with MIDI?

I most of the time work with audio, so I just would use the kick directly as side chain

This is a great tutorial. I realize this is an 8 year old thread but I thought I'd toss out some kudos anyway. It's exactly how I would have done it. Unfortunately, that method doesn't seem to work in Logic Pro X with Summing Stack Tracks. It seems you now have to use the Gate and select the "Duck" mode.

 

For instance, the project I was working on had two Summing Track Stacks—one with all of the background music and sound effects and one with the voice over tracks. It was a movie trailer, so in order to get the mix right, I needed just a bit of ducking on all the background effects so the VO cut through well. I tried using a compressor with the bus for the VO Track Stack for the side chain. It did not work. I have no idea why. It should have. Every other DAW I've ever worked with would have done it fine. But, in Logic Pro X, no joy.

 

However, I set up the Gate on the Background Track Stack (no extra bus needed) and selected the bus for the VO Track Stack, selected the "Duck" option, and viola! Instant joy. For the record, I also tried the old Ducker, which you can still get by holding down the Option key when you click to add the plugin then go to Legacy. It didn't work either. 

 

So, from what I can tell, if you want to duck more than one track at a time, you now have to use the Duck option in the Gate plugin, then select the side chain you want. No need for an extra bus anymore.