#155: Mastering the Ghost Kick and Sidechain Compression in Logic Pro

Have you ever wondered how to create sidechain compression in Logic Pro? Or maybe you seek answers to the questions: what is the best compressor setting for sidechain compression? What is ghost kick sidechaining, or maybe just what is sidechaining? Then check out EP 155 of the Inside The Mix podcast.

Unlock the secrets of creating that signature pumping effect with my latest episode of Inside the Mix! I'm revealing a straightforward technique for crafting a ghost kick sidechain in Logic Pro. Learn how to transform a drum loop into MIDI to isolate the kick drum, leveraging the replace or double drum track function for precise control. I'll guide you step-by-step on setting up the ghost kick that will seamlessly duck your synth, ensuring a clean, interference-free mix.

But that’s not all – I'll also dive into the subtleties of sidechain compression to add dynamic flair to your tracks. Discover how tweaking threshold and ratio settings can drastically change the impact of your compression, starting from a preset threshold of minus 26 and experimenting with ratios between 20:1 and 30:1. Hear the nuanced differences with and without the compressor, and see how incorporating a bass loop can elevate your music to new heights. Don’t miss this episode packed with practical tips and hands-on techniques to elevate your music production skills!

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Episode Transcript

Marc Matthews (00:01):
You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast
with your host, mark Matthews.
Hello and welcome to the Insidethe Mix podcast.
I'm Mark Matthews, your host,musician, producer and mix and
mastering engineer.
You've come to the right placeif you want to know more about
your favorite synth musicartists, music engineering and
production, songwriting and themusic industry.

(00:21):
I've been writing, producing,mixing and mastering music for
over 15 years and I want toshare what I've learned with you
.
Hello, folks, and welcome tothe Inside the Mix podcast.
If you are a new listener, makesure you hit follow on your
podcast player of choice and ifyou're watching this on YouTube,
make sure you hit subscribe andthat notification bell so you
get notified of new episodes.

(00:41):
And, of course, to thereturning listeners and viewers,
a big welcome back.
So recently I was with acoaching client and we were
going through the mixing processand in this particular project,
the artist, the client, mycoaching client has a drum loop.
So we haven't got the separatestems for each part of the drums

(01:02):
kick etc.
And what we wanted to do wasside chain a synth to the kick
drum.
Now, if we were to use the drumloop, we're going to get
instances of the other parts ofthe drums triggering this side
chain.
So what we wanted to do wascreate a ghost kick as such.
So what I want to do is takethat audio, that loop of the

(01:27):
drums, and turn it into MIDI andthen just extract the MIDI for
the kick drum and have thattriggering, or rather, that is
the side chain going, or ratherconnected to this synth.
So that's what we're going todo in this episode.
That's probably a long way ofme describing what we're going
to do Essentially we're going todo in this episode.
That's probably a long way ofme describing what we're going

(01:48):
to do Essentially.
We're going to create a ghostkick and that is going to be
used for our side chain and thesynth.
So we're going to be duckingthe synth every time this kick
drum hits.
So let's dive in.
So here we are in Logic Pro andI've got a really basic project
open here.
I've got one drum loop, I'vegot a couple bass loops and I've
got a couple synth loops.
So I'm just going to play thedrum loop with this synth and

(02:10):
let's give it a go.
Okay, pretty basic stuff, right?
So what I want to do is, everytime that kick drum hits, I want
to duck that synth so you getthat ducking effect.
So the first thing I need to dois I need to get some MIDI going

(02:32):
.
I want to sort of extract thatkick drum in the form of MIDI
from this drum loop.
So to do that, I'm going toselect the drum loop and I'm
going to go up to track and I'mgoing to go to replace or double
drum track.
And it has opened this windowhere and you can select the
instruments.

(02:52):
I'm going to leave it as kick,I'm going to leave it as
doubling.
I don't want to replace theoriginal drum loop.
I still want that, just in case.
Well, actually I do want it forthis project, right?
And then you've got therelative threshold.
So if I open the MIDI regionfor this drum replacement, so
I'm just going to click on itand press E on the keyboard and

(03:13):
then, if I move the threshold,you'll start to see more MIDI
notes being populated, becauseit is now being triggered by
more information.
So the higher the threshold,effectively, the less MIDI notes
you're going to have.
So what you want to do is, inthis instance, I just want the
kick drum and I only want it to.
I want the kick on every beat.

(03:34):
Basically I don't want theaccents of the kick as you get
towards the end of a bar, so I'mgoing to drag it up until I get
sort of that even amount ofkick drums.
So when I play this now, infact, you can click on preview
in the dialogue window and youwill hear just what I mean, and

(04:01):
to stop the preview you have topress preview again.
I pressed the space bar hopingit would do and it didn't.
So the actual MIDI sectionitself I'm going to solo that
now and play that to you.
So it's automatically selectedfor me an acoustic kick.
I'm not bothered by the kicksample it's using, because I'm
going to mute it anyway when wedo the ghost kick process.

(04:21):
So I'm just going to play thisnow.
Okay, it sounds pretty good.
And then when I preview it again, what I'm listening here for
are sort of flamming where it'sslightly out of time, but it's
quantized anyway.
It's a tight drum loop.
So it sounds fine to me.
But I'm just going to previewit again.
Anyway, I keep pressing spaceto stop it.

(04:48):
Force of habit there, musclememory, you've got to press
preview.
Trigger note I'm going to leaveto auto.
It selects it for me, but youcan see when I click on this
drop down, you can select anyone of these notes and you can
see from sort of D sharp zero,as it were, and onwards it's
triggered to a particular sample.
But I'm going to leave it onauto because it's selected by
the instrument, I'm led tobelieve and the timing offset.

(05:12):
You can change that.
So if you are experiencing flam, you can do a timing offset and
it will move the notes.
But you could just leave it asit is and then go and quantize
it in the editor window anyway.
But I can see I've got an extranote there, so I'm going to
drag up.
There we go.
I've gone to minus 4.4 dB interms of relative threshold and
now I've got a nice even amountof kick drum samples here.

(05:33):
So I'm just going to press OK,commit that I don't need this
window on the left here.
And now I've got my kick drum.
So this is what I'm going to beusing for my ghost kick.
Okay, let's create this ghostkick sidechain.
So the first thing I'm going todo is this In the sampler for
this MIDI track, I've broughtdown the volume in the amplitude

(05:58):
section here to minus 14 dBbecause I wanted the kick drum,
the MIDI kick, to be a similarlevel to the rest of the samples
.
And then what I'm going to do isthis I'm actually going to
disable the output In theory,I'm just going to put no output.
So when I play this, I've mutedthe drum loop, but all you're

(06:18):
hearing is the synth itself.
So obviously there is stillsignal from the MIDI, as we can
see in the track, but there isno output track but there is no
output.
So then on this synth trackthat I want to side chain, I

(06:38):
want to duck when this kick drumcomes in.
I've got the logic compressorand I've actually used the
preset of slammed kick as mystart here is using a classic
VCA compressor nice fastcompressor and I've used this
one because I only want thethreshold and the ratio
parameters here.
Obviously, we've got makeup aswell.
I've turned auto gain off, I'vegot a 1 dB of makeup on here
just to get it back to a similarlevel to what it was at before.

(07:01):
So what I'm going to do here isI've got a threshold set to
minus 26 dB and I'm going toleave it there and I'm going to
use the ratio to control theamount of ducking.
So I'm going to slowly drag itup and it's probably going to
get to about 20 to 1 when itgets to the sort of level I want
it to be at and you'll start tohear the synth duck.
So let's give it a go.

(07:22):
So, yeah, that's 20 to 1, okay,and on the meter here I'm going
to play it again and look atthe gain reduction.
It's kind of like between minus8.

(07:45):
Minus 9 dB.
Now you could do it the otherway.
You could do the thresholdsuper low and then have a lower
ratio.
But what I find is itabsolutely slams the rest of the
audio and I don't want that tohappen.
In a simpler way of putting it,I find that having the
threshold here at sort of minus26 and then using the ratio at a

(08:08):
higher ratio it's not asaggressive with the side chain.
In fact.
Let's do it anyway.
So I'm going to drag thethreshold all the way down to,
like I don't know, we'll go allthe way down to minus 50.
And then I'll slowly bring upthe ratio again and I'll only
need to get to about sort ofthree to four to one in terms of
ratio and you'll start to hearquite pronounced ducking.
You'll start to hear quitepronounced ducking.

(08:35):
That's four to one.
Now it really depends on theeffect you're after, because
that might be what you're after.
In that case, great, roll withit.
But personally I like to go theother way and have it.
So I'm going to set it back tominus 26, which, just so happens
, was the threshold setting ofthe preset, and it worked.
And then I'm going to drag itback up to 20 to one, and now

(08:56):
I'm going to play it again andyou can hear it's less
aggressive.
I'm going to put it all the wayto 30 to one, and let's have a
listen to that.
What you could also do here isyou could drag the threshold

(09:16):
down again to make it even morepronounced.
So just play with the thresholdand the ratio to suit the
particular effect that you'reafter.
But that's essentially it.
And all the while you can'thear that kick drum.
So I'm going to drag it back to20 to 1, and then I'm going to
bring in the original drum loopand let's have a listen.

(09:42):
And this is without thecompressor, the sidechain, so
hopefully you can hear thedifference there.
Quite subtle In fact.
Let's drag it up to 30 to 1.
Let's make it more pronouncedand bring it back in.

(10:09):
Yeah, excellent stuff.
I'll tell you what I'm going tobring in this bass loop I've
got going on here as well.
Let's have a listen with theactual bass loop as well.
Cool something to play aroundwith.
So there you go, folks, areally simple way of creating a

(10:31):
ghost kick and sidechaining akick drum to a synth.
I think I said in the beginning, a synth to a kick drum.
Either way, you get the idea.
So that's how we're going tocreate, or rather, you can
create a ghost kick in Logic Pro.
Give it a go.