Puleeze…Side-chain compression

[John-S]

I will crow about the GLD’s virtues when it gets side-chain compression.

I had another opportunity to utilize my GLD but had to pass on it. Wanted to mic up a large choir at a loud-ish rock concert. The A1 ran out of channels on his Yamaha CL mixer. I wanted to side-car my GLD. Plan was to give about 20 handheld mics to some chorus members then overhead mic about 75 other singers. Overhead mics are sub optimal in this situation but I thought taking a submix of the handheld mics and use that signal to side-chain the expanders of the overhead mics which would allow significant feedback reduction of the overheads.

Out came the Behri board and the above scheme worked.

[wabaus]

+1 for side-chaining the compressor as well as for adding an expander option for the gate, then adding side-chain for that as well.

[GCumbee]

I’m sorry for saying this and know you have battled this for a long time but how did you/we get by without this before? Even in analog days did you SCC? Maybe you’re just onto a level I haven’t ever seen others do.
Not saying there’s anything wrong with that just saying it’s not the first thing I would think of. Probably you’re just a lot better at this type of thing than I am.

[guma]

There were some more threads begging for this feature in the past me begging for it too.
I used side chain compression the first time about 38 years ago with the good old dbx 900 series and ever since when it made sense in a certain application. In digital times even the poor LS9 had it so it’s a shame … !

[Rob-Spence]

Actually I believe all Yamaha digital desks have side chain. My 01v96 had it and ducking in the gate library.

[guma]

You don’t need to believe … they did and they do …

[guma]

The tiny tf series doesn’t but all others do …

[John-S]

GCumbee,

I made a long post a while ago on how I utilize side chain dynamics. Reposting it here would not serve anyone well. Briefly, I use it more for finesse than for obvious effects. As of late I mostly have it bring down the guitars and keys by a few dB when vocals are present. Same with effect tails. Effects go undimmed when the vocal stops or gets quiet and breathy. Adds a lot interest. Can’t be done with older style compression. Keeps the focus on vocals which is paramount in praise music.

The only way to get side-chain dynamics with a GLD system is to add an expensive laptop, an expensive Dante card and run Waves software. That adds about $5000.00 to the cost of the board. That prospect is not attractive at all.

[John-S]

guma,
I believe you are correct about the Yammy TF not having it. That board is aimed at more beginner operators.

John

[GCumbee]

I understand what you’re doing. Just something I’ve never bothered to deal with. I just mix with DCAs or Groups on analog and don’t worry much about any pseudo automation. Just the way I’ve always done it. To each his own.

[John-S]

It would be almost impossible to utilize side chain on one-off gigs or festival situations. I require familiarization and practice time.

John

[GCumbee]

I’ve been doing it since 1971. I guess I’m just used to it. Live shows and live TV audio

[wabaus]

@guma – we recently “upgraded” from “the poor LS9” to a brand-new GLD-112 Chrome edition.

The LS-9 (introduced circa 2006) is a 68-input, 72-channel console with 19 (16+3) mixes and 27 total buses – plus per-channel support for side-chain compression, compander, ducking, downward expander mode on the gate, and a few other conveniences I’ve requested as feature updates for the GLD-112. Price about 10 years ago (with expansion cards) was ~ $7k.

The GLD-112 Chrome edition (circa 2015) is a 48-channel (56-channels when using all 8 short-channel FX returns) console with 20 mixes and 30 total buses. Price this year for the Chrome edition with expansion card (excluding stage boxes) was ~$7k.

For a product at roughly the same price point, but 9 years newer, the GLD-112 Chrome edition does adds some conveniences (touch screen, more custom layers, 64-channel Dante vs 32-max on the LS-9) – but I was hoping for those in addition to, not instead of, the features of “the poor LS9” as a baseline.

[Rob-Spence]

My guess, since A&H hasnt responded in all the years i have asked for this, is that there is an oversight in the design that prevents doing it. Every other digital mixer they have produced has side chains.

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