Pumping levels with tremolo

[Twister]

Here's a simple way to use Tremolo to create that pumping effect that makes your tracks sound like they're dodging the kick drum. It works best with the kick drum playing on every beat.

 

• • Insert Tremolo into the track that you want to control.
  • Set phase to 0°. Leave all the other parameters as they are: Depth 100 %, rate 1/4, symmetry 50 % and smoothing 0 %.
  • Open the hidden offset-parameter by clicking the triangle at the bottom and set it to 180°.
  

 

With these settings you'll get complete silence for the first 1/8 of a beat and normal playback for the other 1/8. Now just adjust the parameters to smooth it out until it sounds right:

 

• • Depth for the amount of gain reduction
  • Smoothing for reducing the attack
  • Symmetry for changing the length
  • Offset for adjusting the position
  

 

So no bussing, no fussing. There are some downsides compared to sidechaining, though; For example the lack of midi control.

[rainstick]

yeh, i can see this having uses effect wise, but you also lose (presuming your using the logic tremolo) the attack / release parameters (trem shape would be the replace), as well as the threshold (depth would be the replace) and then there's not really any ratio. I don't really see why one would use this as an alternative.... although it may well work out nicely as a change or effect.

[Twister]

yeh, i can see this having uses effect wise, but you also lose (presuming your using the logic tremolo) the attack / release parameters (trem shape would be the replace), as well as the threshold (depth would be the replace) and then there's not really any ratio. I don't really see why one would use this as an alternative.... although it may well work out nicely as a change or effect.

 

Well, obviously this is a less dynamic option that works better on EDM tracks with kick on every downbeat, like house, trance, techno etc. In EDM the kick drum is usually played at constant velocity, which makes treshold useless since the sidechain input would be the same everytime. And the depth parameter IS equivalent to ratio in this case, since they both adjust the amount of gain reduction.

 

Also, it is often desired to have the effect to be heard even when the kick drum is not playing. With side chain compression you would have to create a ghost track without audible output that triggers the side chain silently, but tremolo does the same thing alone. I like to have some tracks that react to the kick drum and other tracks that don't.

 

Lastly, with sidechain compression you might get small pops in audio when compressing with fast attack, but with tremolo you won't.

[rainstick]

hmm... yeh i can see the point's, and maybe with other tremolos there's more flexibility and this works better but in terms of logic's plugs id use the compressor for the greater control, even with edm.

[David Nahmani]

hmm... yeh i can see the point's, and maybe with other tremolos there's more flexibility and this works better but in terms of logic's plugs id use the compressor for the greater control, even with edm.

Unfortunately greater control often comes at a price, as Twister indicated (for example sometimes a compressor will not give you the exact sound you're looking for).

 

IMO there's no right and wrong method, there's just various methods, and each have their pros and cons. Use the one that works for you and for the job at hand. I believe Twister made a good case of multiple situations where the Tremolo would be the way to go.

 

To add one more alternative, I once saw a highly successful EDM producer at work in Logic, and he sliced his bass audio region in multiple 1-beat long regions, and applied batch fade in to all the slices to achieve the pumping he was looking for.