Sidechaining Elektron devices

Clubkaiser · 2014-05-16T13:17:43.000Z

Hey all,

I was wondering if someone uses a sidechaining compressor for ducking duties.

My next project is gonna be a pure hardware based live setup.

Machinedrum
OT
A4
Nord Rack
Little Phatty

In the previous projects I used LFO Tool in Ableton Live to sidechain the incoming signals but as there is no Laptop involved I need something else for that purpose.
A friend of mine mentioned at least two or three 3630’s and use the Machinedrum Kick as trigger signal.

What do you guys think?

Cheers,
C

t · 2014-05-16T13:27:10.000Z

Do you need ducking? On what? Why? Can you work around it simply by lowering the volume or using amps on certain tracks?

Unless heavy pumping is a signature part of your sound, you might not need to buy more gear, esp. for live use.

Clubkaiser · 2014-05-16T13:57:21.000Z

Hey,

thanks for your reply!

Yea, ducking is elementary. Especially for the octatrack signal. I record the LP and the NR straight into the OT and use the random slice function quite often. The problem there is that some slices tend to be longer and clash with the kick from time to time. To avoid that I would like to use some sidechaining…

Editing volume on each step is too time consuming unfortunately.

Besides that if I have to sidechain lets say a pad straight from the NR and need some ducking especially for the pumping effect.

Cheers,
C

sicijk · 2014-05-17T06:01:40.000Z

Is a 4/4 music-style?

On OT you can use the crossfader to increment the depth of an LFO modulating the VOL…

On each Elektron, the LFO can serve for S-chaining style duties…with A4 and OT you have a easy-to revert state (Perf Macro - Crossfader)

brucewayne · 2014-05-17T09:15:42.000Z

I use an RNLA analog compressor for sidechaining with the md kick. One RNC hooked on the master to tighten everything up. Workds pretty good imho.

Robbie_verve · 2014-05-17T09:30:23.000Z

Well there is this magical device, I dont know if you heard about it, but it really gives you more flexibility with your audio signal paths.
Lots of people here are blinded by the elektron trinity approach, and link all their boxes through eachother.

But the magical device you will need and surely appreciate is called a ‘mixer’.
You can hook up all the individual outputs of your elektron boxes to this ‘mixer’ and enjoy better EQ quality while having the freedom to use effect slots on for example your octatrack for effects instead of some ice cold sounding excuse for an EQ.

You will additionally need a compressor and some cables.

I work like this for years.

check here please:

this is a demo how you can use a ‘mixer’ and a couple of compressors to be working in harmony to achieve a ducking effect and manipulate it with the aux sends on your ‘mixer’.

.R

sicijk · 2014-05-18T21:09:41.000Z

^ I am always on the side of having a mixer and using it…i have one at home and i use an SSL (luuuuuuckyyyyy) in my everyday job.

But i like the fact to link the Elektrons all together. It forces you to work within the Sound of these machines…it is not the best, e.g. in some aspects of the effects and processors (dyn/freq) and others …
and i know how good they sound on separate channels with good preamplifiers (my homey ones are not good…01V96VCM Yamaha…digital shit)…but yet immensely better than having the OT ( fed by MD and A4 and MD and A4 fed by MM and MM fed by OT cues…blablabla)…going to a stereo channel. Already the OT changes a bit the original sources, but …who cares?

Anyway…going to my point…
Suggesting to use a mixer when someone is asking for ducking…i would expect at least a special ninja mod move from this mixer…hehehehhe

Always Peace of course!!

My 2nd2cents is:

Sidechain using LFO inside the machines

Robbie_verve · 2014-05-22T05:43:34.000Z

well sidechaining with LFO’s gets you in trouble when you mute the kick. Unless you want that ducking effect going on, its a bit sucky.

Yeah Im suggesting a mixer, it’s almost the only way to do some proper ducking.

.R