shaft9000 wrote:yes - sidechaining has become even worse than autotune or any other recent bandwagon-atrocity you care to mention
i say HAS BECOME since it has always been known as ducking, and is readily patchable on many modular synths and old compressors as-is.
the thing is people used to use it with restraint, but combined with limiting effects in DAWs where it gets numerically maximized/crushed/blasted - the results usually end up grating and remarkably UN-dynamic.
this is because it swamps the entire f**k mix, and is used by people as - frankly, and i say this with no emotion - it's a mix-crutch.
a way to "bulk-up" the sound without improving the composition of a piece one bit.
consider this -they're cornering it rhythmically, most of the time, and it f**k up any swing potential, for one-
"appropriateness BE DAMNED...let's duck the fukr and make this s**t CUTTING EDGE!!! oh and cut anuther line fer me eh"
it's very much used with similar intent as the oft-over-used 'filtersweep build' that sounded cool in 1994 but by 1998 ? ner...
even worse, "blanket sidechaining", or B.S. as we have so much of now, is a proportionally inverse come-back-from-the-dead evil-er twin of the giant goddamned GATED SNARES of the 80s that you couldn't get away from for years on end(on the radio&MTV) unless you jammed up your ears with soundproofing material.
thankfully i rarely have to listen to the radio anymore, unless i'm in someone else's car or waiting around in a shop for help. if that's what some kids like, fine. they'll move on eventually.
so rampant sidechaining doesn't bother me. but it's not helping any of those tunes become classics any quicker, either.
Haha yeah you said it. The other day I was listening to this "Stravinsky" bloke (yeah I hadn't heard of him either) and he kept on turning down the other instruments momentarily when he wanted to draw attention to another element or instrument. I immediately was disgusted at this mixing crutch which didn't improve the composition whatsoever, it gave me a headache!
I kind of resent the idea or even the possibility that sidechaining is a mixing "crutch", I almost resent the idea that a "mixing crutch" could even exist in the first place. Most of the time if it's used as a purely mixing tool you barely even notice it, so Polka sidechaining is clearly not just a mixing tool as much as it is a compositional tool. (which should be obvious as often things will continue ducking even when there is distinctly no bassdrum playing at the time) Even if it was just for mixing to make things not muddy or muddled what's wrong with that? I could turn around and say EQ's are a mixing crutch, or compressors and limiters were crutches and honestly it would mean about as much IMO.
Y'all don't hate at tremolo on an E piano, what's wrong with sidechaining?
