>> what is sidechaining and how to use it?
 

i think it is one of the less covered topics! can someone explain it plz ?

Basically sidechain compression is when you trigger a compressor using a signal different than the source.

Examples:

* You set the kick to trigger the compressor and you set the compressor on the bass. This will compress the bass on every kick drum to make room for the kickdrum.

* You have to do some voice overs. You set the voice to trigger the compressor and you put the compressor on your music track. Result is called "ducking", where the volume of the music will decrease when the person is speaking.

* You can set a hi hat pattern to trigger the compressor and use some long pads(you put the compressor on the pads)...It will do a gating effect that will chop up the pads...Really cool stuff.

That's about it!
I use the TC Native Bundle for that kind of stuff.

sidechain doesn't have to use a completely different source for the signal, either...you can also use an EQ band to trigger, but ducking is generally the most useful aspect of sidechaining.

Yup, slapping an EQ unit into the side-chain lets you control which frequencies will dominate the compressor action. Placing a graphic eq into the side-chain and boosting the high freq bands, for example, will make the compressor duck more when HFs are present = resulting in a "de-hisser" type action.
Likewise, attenuating the lower freq bands will stop the low end dominating the compressor action (seeing as LFs are the most powerful), resulting in less of a severe compression effect when heavy LFs are present. (Like kick drums, or bass lines, which would otherwise kill the rest of the audio spectrum as the compressor reacts to the most powerful signals - the LFs - more than any others, especially when a single-band compressor is being used).

This next link is a MUST READ. It discusses the more artistic side of compressor (and especially side-chain) usage, turning an otherwise single-character compressor into many others:

The Compressor's Secrets (and in PDF format which includes the illustrations).

An absolutely fantastic article.

Isn?t side-chaining the the same as they use on radio stations when they talk over the music?

Yep, there's loads of different uses.

To talk over the music, though, you need two copies of the talk/voice-mic signal. One to go into the sidechain of the music you wish to duck, and the other copy of the voice-mic signal will need to be mixed over the compressor output (the freshly ducked music signal output).

Can someone be a little more specific in how to actually set one up please. I have the TC Sidechainer But if I put it over the bass, how do I tell it that its the Kick channel I want it to trigger from !?!

Help here would be much appreciated

I haven't used the TC, so I'm not familiar with it, but on a sidechain compressor you'll either have a specific area to specify the sidechain input; or on some stereo compressors, they become mono when you sidechain, and the left channel becomes the compressor trigger input and the right channel becomes the audio input (to be compressed). It probably says in the manual.

thanks a lot for the answers m8s !!
gonna give it a try ;)

Gopal: Put the Sidechainer plugin on your kick. Then put the Compressor DeEsser on your bass and select "1" as the source.