Joe Lonsdale Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 Here's a simple little trick I use to make my kick and snare cut through a dense mix. From your kick channel, set up a 0db Aux Send to a free Buss (I always use Buss 50 so it's visually clear from the rest of my routing in the drop down lists). Right-click on the send and make it Pre-Fader so any volume changes you make to the kick don't affect your send. Okay, so now you have a new Aux strip receiving your kick drum. Rename the channel to kick-trigger (or whatever you like!) and change the output on that fader to 'no output' as we don't want to hear it. Now on your bass track, after all your other plug-ins, insert Logic's compressor and in the Side-Chain slot (top right) select "Buss 50 Kick-Trigger". Now adjust the threshold of the compressor until each kick hit is triggering 2 or 3db of gain reduction and play with the attack and release until you have a subtle and musical 'pump' of the bass volume - adjust to taste in the context of the whole mix. Your kick should now have a little more space to make its presence felt and the bass and kick should appear to lock in a little better! Repeat the process for the snare, but try dipping the electric guitars instead of the bass. Works with guitars and piano dipping out the way of the vocal too. Okay, you ready for a real mind-bending twist on the recipe? This time, set up the snare send as described above and name it Snare-Trigger or something. Now, from your electric guitar track or group, make a 0db Pre-Fade Aux Send to another buss, stereo if your guitars are stereo. Apply the channel EQ plug-in and with the low cut and high cut 'bracket' the EQ of the guitars until they only mask the essential body and crack of the snare - perhaps 200hz to 3kHz? Follow this with the Gainer plug-in and reverse the polarity. Follow this with the Gate plug-in and set the Side-Chain to listen to your Snare-Trigger buss and using the threshold, and side chain EQ filters if necessary, get the gate opening reliably to each snare hit. Now you should be getting an audible dip in the guitars with every snare hit, but not a total full range dip, a frequency specific dip that let's through just the essence of the snare where it was previously masked by the guitars. Using the EQ, gate attack/release and volume on the reverse-polarity guitar buss, you have an unbelievably flexible and controllable method of keeping both the snare and guitar loud as hell without them stepping on each others toes! Works to help poke the vocals through screaming guitars too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGWork Posted June 1, 2013 Share Posted June 1, 2013 Couldn't one just use dynamic EQ's and end up with identical results? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Lonsdale Posted June 2, 2013 Author Share Posted June 2, 2013 Er... yes. But if you don't have a dynamic eq... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGWork Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 Try a good one and you'll find out that they are indispensable tools if you are involved in audio production. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordi Torres Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 Try a good one and you'll find out that they are indispensable tools if you are involved in audio production. Hello SGWork and welcome to Logic Pro Help! Would you like to share your tips and tricks for using dynamic EQ's with us? Please feel free to open a new thread to do so... Also, please take a minute to read our forum rules and add you Logic version and system info to your signature: Forum Rules - please READ THIS before posting (#5) Thanks! J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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