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How to Separate Drums in Beats | Sidechaining in StudioRack

Feb 10, 2021 | 13,282 Views

Learn how to separate, rebalance and apply effects to snare hits in stereo drum loops, using the sidechaining option in Waves’ free StudioRack plugin chainer.

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Ever had a drum loop that’s almost perfect for you – except the snare was a bit too quiet or a bit too loud, or needed a little processing adjustment? Wish you could isolate just the snare and adjust it separately?

With StudioRack’s internal sidechaining feature, you can rebalance and transform just the snare in an otherwise great drum loop.

Multiband compression and EQ are usually the first tools producers reach for when needing to rebalance and focus certain elements in a drum loop. These approaches can help, but they often change the overall tonality and vibe of the sample.

The best way to increase the level of key hits in a loop – the snare, the kick, the hi-hat – is to separate them from the rest of the loop. In this tutorial we show you how to do it – with noise gate and EQ plugins inserted inside StudioRack, and routed using StudioRack’s internal sidechain option.

Later in the video we also show you how to create a custom sidechain high-pass filter within StudioRack, for use with any compressor that doesn’t have a built-in sidechain filter. Adding such a filter to your favorite compressor will help you when mixing or mastering bass-heavy music, to help the compression be more consistent and transparent.

Want more sidechaining tips? Watch 5 Top Creative Sidechaining Techniques.

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