Side-Chaining and Ghost Notes Tutorial

I have another tutorial video for you.  This video is the last in a series of videos that Urban Francis and I put together, as a techno production project for a track called Hijack.

The track was produced in Ableton Live, and we have all of our Ableton project files available as a free download from Dropbox.

In this specific video, we wanted to explain what was going on with the Side-chain compression.  Eventually, the two of us are going to do a very detailed and complex set of tutorials about compression and side-chaining.  They’re very complicated and moderately advanced topics, and they take a little while to learn to do properly.  However, because we have some side-chaining happening in the Hijack project, we decided that it would be smart to give a brief overview, so any producers who are moderately familiar with Ableton would understand exactly what we’re doing here.

Here's a link to the video:

If you don’t understand what compression is, let’s start there, even though it’s a pretty complex topic.  I tried to do an explanation in my Mastering & Marketing Your DJ Mix video on YouTube, starting at the 21 minute mark.  It’s worth a watch, because of the graphic visuals.  However, let me also try to explain it here.

 A lot of people, when they hear about compression, they get the idea that compression makes things louder.  That’s incorrect.  Compression by itself does not raise the level of an audio signal.  There are several different settings in a compressor, but the main ones are this:

Threshold Value – this is the signal level above which audio is being affected.

Ratio – tells how much the portion of the audio that is above the threshold is getting squished.

Now obviously, if the audio is getting squished, then the audio is getting pushed down from its original volume to a lower volume.  So why, when people talk about compression, do 99% of them think that the audio is getting louder?  That’s a great question, and it’s something that a lot of people don’t understand properly.  First, you need to understand that compression BY ITSELF does not make the volume louder, it reduces the volume.

Now, let’s be honest – in the fight for volume to gain prominence in the listening space, very few people want to reduce the volume of their productions.  So that’s where another setting commonly associated with compression comes into play.  That setting is the make-up gain.

After compression is done, if a producer applies make-up gain to the compressed audio, it brings the volume back up.  A producer may set the make-up gain to the exact amount to bring the peak of the volume back up to where it was before the audio was compressed.  Sounds like a rather useless practice, doesn’t it?  Drop the volume, then raise the volume.

But the key thing is that when the volume is compressed, it is NOT dropped in a linear manner.  Louder parts are dropped more than quieter parts.  Hence the reason that I said that the audio gets squished.  Therefore, the audio now has a narrower dynamic range than before.  The peaks and valleys in the amplitude are not as significant; the changes from the loud parts to the soft parts are less significant.

Since the peak of the volume is unchanged from the original, once the makeup gain was applied, and since the dynamic range from loudest to softest is reduced, this means that the AVERAGE volume of the processed audio is louder.  And that’s the source of the misconception that compressed audio is always louder.  Compressed audio definitely has a narrower dynamic range.  If it is louder, that is only because makeup gain has also been applied.

Side-chaining

Moving on to Side-chaining, the way that side-chaining works, is that you’re taking a signal from somewhere else, and you’re analyzing that signal, and you’re using the analysis of the side-chain signal to control the compressor’s actions on whatever other audio is being compressed.  So in other word’s, the compressor’s actions are being dictated by the energy of the side-chain signal (side-chain audio source) that’s being fed into the compressor.

Remember that the signal that’s being fed into the compressor (the side-chain signal) may have nothing at all to do with the audio that you’re processing.  And also, remember that you don’t have to have a signal being fed into the side-chain.  If you don’t have a side-chain signal, the compressor just works at a steady set of values while it’s processing audio.  Essentially, a side-chain compressor without a side-chain signal is just … a regular compressor.

Ok, so imagine this.  Let’s pretend that the signal that is coming in to the side-chain input of the compressor is some sort of signal that is steady and repeating.  High energy/amplitude (lots of signal) alternating with low energy/amplitude (quiet).  A good example might be a repeating kick drum.  If you keep hitting a kick drum in a steady pattern regularly, then the “signal” (amplitude) is essentially a constantly repeating on/off/on/off/on/off/on/off pattern.  If this signal is what is controlling the compressor, then you’re basically turning the compressor on/off/on/off/on/off/on/off in the same timing and pattern.

Many producers DO use a kick drum as a side-chain signal, so that a side-chain compressor keeps turning on and off in time with the kick drum.  The compressor may be processing just about anything else while it keeps turning on and off.  Maybe it’s processing a synth line.  Maybe it’s processing a background pad.  Doesn’t matter.  It’s compressing some sort of audio, and it’s turning on and off in time with the beating of the kick drum, since the kick drum is being used as the side-chain signal.

A producer can use the kick drum from the track they’re working on, as the side-chain.  But they don’t have to.  They could use a different kick drum track as the signal.  And that other kick drum which is being used as a side-chain signal to the compressor does NOT necessarily have to be audible to listeners of the track.  So a producer could easily have two kick drum tracks in their song:  one that is audible that the audience can hear, and a second one that is not audible to listeners, but which is being used as a side-chain signal.

Why bother using two different kicks?  Maybe the producer wants a signal with a fast release for the side-chain (to turn the compressor off quickly), but doesn’t want the listeners to hear a kick that has a fast release.  Or maybe the muted side-chain kick needs to act as a side-chain signal during parts of the song where there is no kick drum playing.

If a producer brings an extra kick drum (or any other type of instrument or midi notes) into a side-chain compressor, but that audio/midi side-chain signal is not audible as part of the project, the side-chain audio signal is called a ghost signal, or ghost notes.

Using a side-chain to turn your compressor on and off allows you to compress audio when needed, to allow for a different part to shine through a mix, but does not compress the audio at other times.  This gives the producer a lot of flexibility.  It’s much better than if the producer’s only option was to permanently decrease the volume of other parts of the mix.

An advantage of using ghost notes or a muted side-chain signal is that you can have it turn the compressor on and off in any pattern or timing that’s convenient to you.

An advantage of using a regular audio source within the song (one that the listeners hear) as a side-chain signal to affect another track is that the timing may be perfect for your needs.  For example, if you need a kick drum to cut through a synth line, you can play the audio of the kick, and you can simultaneously route that auto into the side-chain of a compressor that cuts the volume of the synth, allowing the audio version of the kick to cut through the mix.

By the way, if you want to see the project that we used as the basis for this tutorial, here's the music video (yes, the full project files for this track are available as a free Ableton or stems download):

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

This Is Our Dream House, Volume 6 - deep house mix

I have a new deep house mix for fans, which you can download from this page. It's another volume of my "This Is Our Dream House" series of deep house mixes.






For those of you who aren't normally into EDM (electronic dance music), you might be curious to know the differences between my regular style of progressive/tech-house and this deep house mix. Actually, there aren't always a lot of obvious differences, because I usually lean a bit more towards the techy side of deep house than the pure organic stuff. So at first, this might just sound a bit like my usual style, but slower. But that would be far from accurate - the deep house in this set can be identified by a few significant differences. First, on most of the tracks, the instrumentation is often jazzier, ie. there will be Rhodes or Wurli keyboards, more horns, brass, more clean guitar sounds, and more jazzy/bluesy vocals. Also, the tempo of this set is down around 120-121bpm, whereas my mainstream club sets and radio shows are usually around 126-130bpm.


Here are the track listings:

01. Francesco Rossi - Paper Aeroplane (MK Gone With the Wind Remix).
02. Groove Cartell - Waiting In Vain (Vincent Kwok Instrumental Mix).
03. Angel Rize - Back In Time (Andrew Chibale Remix).
04. Rob Makzem - Summertime (Original Mix).
05. Robert Es - So Good (Original Mix).
06. Jimmy & Fred - I See Lights (Karmon Remix).
07. Sam Critchley - Stronger (Original Mix).
08. Vinayak A - Set Her Free (Martin Buttrich Remix).
09. Maak Daddi - All I Need (Original Mix).
10. Shanghai Underground Crew - Back To The Future (Original Mix).
11. Moodymanc - Black Paint (Larry Heard's After Dark Mix).
12. Mangaka - Racoons Lair (Original Mix).
13. Nadja Lind - Limbus (Hernan Cattaneo & Soundexile Remix II).
14. Niko Charidis feat Simone Perla - Tonight (Original Mix).
15. Henrique Said - Time Mirror (Original Mix).
16. Helmut Dubnitzky - Indigo Sky (Original Mix).
17. Eric Volta, Sebastian Voigt, & Forrest - Words And Chance (Original Mix).
18. Finnebassen - You're Not Cool Enough (Original Mix).
19. Parra For Cuva & Anna Naklab - Wicked Games (Original Mix).
20. Howson Bros - Fall Together (Original Mix).
21. Kiano & Below Bangkok - 49 Steps (Original Mix).
22. Fabio Ricciuti & Qubiko - I Can't (Dub Mix).
23. Espen - Last Chance Revisited (Original Mix).
24. Ivo Kolev - Blue Deep House Pill (Original Mix).
25. Vintage Lounge Orchestra - Georgy Porgy (Larse Remix).
26. Maximilian Hofko - Control (Original Mix).
27. Saverio Celestri & Samuel Habykai - Great Time (Alex Arnout Remix).
28. Namito & Rummy Sharma - Wade In The Water (Kolombo feat Ashibah Remix).
29. Horak - Holding On (Original Mix).
30. Tripmann - A Bout De Souffle (Original Mix).
31. Boy Funktastic - Feel Love In Music (Original Mix).
32. Andre Crom & Martin Dawson - In The City (Original Mix).
33. Wasted People & Joseph Marciel - She's Playing Hard To Get (Original Mix).
34. Baunz - Out Of The Window (Walker & Royce Remix).
35. Dusky - Mr Man (Original Mix).
36. Kate Simko feat Jem Cooke - Go On Then (Original Mix).
37. Mojeaux - When I'm Alone (Original Mix).
38. Breaking Toys - Cold Rum (Vanilla Ace Remix).
39. 6th Borough Project - Miss World (Soultourist Remix).
40. Choir Of Young Believers - Hollow Talk (Lane8, Jody Wisternoff & James Grant Remix).
41. Meals, the - Anabiosis (Original Mix).
42. Thermeoniq - Sun Begins To Rise (Mark Walker Deepness Mix).
43. Sean Savage - Nocturne (Original Mix).
44. La Fleur - Stella (Original Mix).
45. Adana Twins feat Digitaria - Reaction (Original Mix).

To download any of my studio mixes or recordings of lives shows, visit:

djbolivia.ca/mixes

Then go into the folder called "Bolivia's DJ Mixes & Live Shows"

Thanks for your support!

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music

I occasionally get asked what kind of music I play. My usual answer is "progressive house." But what IS progressive house? That's not something that even I understand. Luckily, there is a very tongue-in-cheek and amusing guide to electronic music on the internet which I can always point people to, namely Ishkur's Guide:

  http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide

Now let me warn you in advance that although some of the info on this site is quite accurate, other sections are quite misleading. And the sarcasm level can be extreme - which I appreciate. But if you can't make occasional fun of your own musical tastes, then there is something wrong.

Let's look at the definition of "progressive house" to get started:

Alright, this progressive nonsense has to stop. You do not make yourself intelligent and creative by using that word. Instead, you make yourself out to be haughty and pretentious. This makes you no better than the French. This goes for progressive house, progressive rock, progressive trance ... kill the word already, it means nothing...

When you go to the main page of the site, you'll see seven main genre categories on the top left. You'll be able to explore things like:

  Jungle: The black sheep of electronic music ...
  House: The world's perennial party music ...
  Techno: The depressing, gritty, dystopian genre ...
  Hardcore: The musical genre with bi-polar order ...

Once you get into any of those seven main categories, you'll see dozens of sub-genres mapped out, each with their own description and samples of that kind of music.

I guess some DJ's and producers might be offended by some of the descriptions in the guide, but underneath the sarcasm, you'll find some good info. It wouldn't be hard to spend a couple hours on the site, "broadening your musical knowledge."

Enjoy ...

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Creamfields Buenos Aires 2010

Creamfields is an annual electronic music festival which is held all over the world. The original was in England, and organized by the owners of the Cream nightclub. The event has grown and Creamfields festivals have been held in more than a dozen countries, but the one in Buenos Aires is one of the most successful in the world. The year, the 2010 festival was held on November 13th, and I was there.





(Click on any photos here to see them in higher resolution)


Creamfields Buenos Aires has been plagued by bad weather for its history. It has rained just about every year since the festival started in 2001, but this year was an exception. Saturday was hot and sunny, 27 degrees Celsius (remember that winter in the northern hemisphere is summer in South America). Organizers reported that it was going to be the biggest attendance in the event's history, with between seventy and a hundred thousand people.

With five stages, and more than sixty DJ's, it it impossible to see everyone. Some tough choices had to be made. I'll give some feedback on the sets that I did manage to see in a minute, but to put things in context, some of the world-class DJ's that I did NOT have time to see included Steve Lawler, Nick Warren, Calvin Harris, Laidback Luke, Mark Knight, and Marco Carola. Tragic.

The first set that I saw was Bad Boy Orange. To be honest, I'd never heard of him. At first I wondered if this was Bad Boy Bill and he had changed his name, because I think Bill's favorite color is orange. But it wasn't, it was a drum & bass DJ from Buenos Aires. He played an interesting set, switching between a lot of different styles.

Next up was Paul Kalkbrenner. Anyone who has seen the German film "Berlin Calling" would recognize him as the lead actor in the movie, which is a story about a DJ/producer. I've featured one of his tracks from the movie, "Sand & Sky," in my radio show (his brother was the vocalist). He didn't look like he was having a very good time during his set due to technical problems. The bass was very distorted at the start of the set, until the sound engineers got it figured out, and then at the end, the music just died halfway through his last track. It looked like he walked off the stage in frustration. But aside from those problems, which certainly didn't appear to be his fault, it was a good set. Very appropriate programming considering the slot he was playing - he didn't try to play aggressively, and it was a good warmup for sets to come. Basically, he played a slower progressive/tech house set.

Next up was Paul van Dyk, with a hard, pounding trance set. PVD started at 10pm, so it was pretty early in the night still, but the festival was getting pretty full by now. It's the first time that I've been right in the middle of a dance floor of probably fifteen thousand people, and it was pretty insane. Not the place for someone with claustrophobia. I think of all the DJ's that I saw, van Dyk was the one who did the best at turning a dance floor into a "living organism," which isn't surprising since trance music is the best genre for really working with breakdowns that people can anticipate.

On to Richie Hawtin. Hawtin is a techno DJ, and as such, his notoriety within Canada is a lot lower than it is outside of Canada. Unless you know electronic music well, you probably haven't even heard of him, even if you're Canadian. But outside of Canada, I would assume that he is Canada's second best-known DJ after Deadmau5, even more recognized than people like Max Graham and John Acquaviva. The amount of touring that he does is just incredible. Hawtin has used dozens of aliases in his production over the years, and one of the most common of those was Plastikman. His set at Creamfields was under the Plastikman monikor. He plays a dirty, minimal techno, with absolutely no vocals of course. There is a lot of interaction between his music and a visual show. This was one of my favorite parts of the festival. Technically speaking, it was unquestionably one of the best sets of the entire festival. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for the entire thing because I was trying to catch so many different DJ's, but it was pretty tough to walk away before he finished. Incidentally, I mentioned Max Graham a minute ago. The Argentinians really enjoy electronic music. Max Graham was playing in Buenos Aires on the same night as the festival, although he was in the city, at Crobar.

Next, I went over to the Cream Arena stage, where I caught the last fifteen minutes of Hernan Cattaneo. He's actually from Buenos Aires, and of course is incredibly popular in Argentina. He was playing a good progressive house style. I wish I could have seen a lot more of his set. Immediately after Cattaneo was Sasha. I didn't really want to stay for Sasha's set (even though he is one of my favorite DJ's) because I'd seen him before, but he was another one that was hard to walk away from.

Faithless was playing on the main stage by this point, so I wandered over there. That set didn't really excite me. They have great music, but it's hard to translate electronic music to a live performance of that music (as opposed to DJ'ing with the original recordings). Also, something appeared to have gone wrong, because they finished their set a lot earlier than the schedule indicated, and ended with an apology for circumstances beyond their control. I'm not sure what happened. Great production team though.

I popped over to the Arena One stage next and caught a few minutes of Steve Angello. Sort of a progressive house style, but definitely closer to traditional house and more mainstream than Cattaneo or Sasha. I had no time budgeted to hear more of his set, so I moved on quickly.

David Guetta was next, on the main stage. Here is where I saw the most interesting phenomena of the entire festival. When Guetta got onto stage, he called out on the microphone and it rang out across most of the fesitval grounds. The main stage was sort of an open stage, whereas the other four were more enclosed. Anyway, when he hollered out on the microphone, about twenty thousand people from all over the festival grounds just suddenly turned and rushed to the main stage. It was almost like Guetta had announced they were giving out bags of money. Anyway, I saw him in Montreal a few years ago, and it was ok but not outstanding. I have a ton of respect for him as a producer, he's obviously one of the very best in the world for the mainstream style he specializes in. But his strength is as a producer, not as a technical DJ (although my bet is that he'll definitely beat out Tiesto and maybe Armin van Buuren in the DJ Mag top 100 rankings next year). He started his set with "Getting Over You," then a track that I didn't recognize, then "Club Can't Handle Me," then "Like a G6." At this point I left, since those are all mainstream club tracks that I can hear anywhere.

Dubfire was my next destination. Dubfire (one half of the well-known Deep Dish duo) focuses on techno when he works alone, whereas Deep Dish focuses on progressive house. I would have to say that this was my favorite set of the night. The interesting thing is that there were no outstanding tracks that he played. Just a generic & smooth, almost exclusively non-vocal performance. It was great for the dancers though, because it was a technically superior set, with no real significant distractions. It had a great rolling flow to it. Also, Dubfire was playing in the Cocoon Arena, which was the smallest stage by far, so there were only a few hundred people in it and there was lots of room to dance. I stayed for almost his entire set.

After Dubfire, I actually came back to the main stage and saw the end of Guetta's set, which was interesting. He played a track that he said he had just finished on the plane that afternoon, and which nobody had ever heard before. He said that he was having so much fun at the party that he was going to call it "Argentina" when it's released. It sounded more like a Swedish House Mafia track than a traditional Guetta track, but I'm sure it will be pretty well known soon. You can hear it on YouTube already (there were thousands of cameras and mobile phones taking photos and videos). BTW, good to see Guetta on Twitter calling Creamfields BA the "best party on the planet."

Carl Cox was playing in the Delta Arena by this point. So I went to check it out. If I had to pick three DJ's "must see" DJ's that I hadn't seen before, Carl Cox would definitely be on that short list (along with Danny Tenaglia & John Digweed). However, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to see very much of his set at Creamfields without missing out on other things, so I made a conscious sacrifice and figured that I'd only watch him for about fifteen minutes, and plan to go see him specifically somewhere else in the future, where I could enjoy his show better. In the short time I saw him, he was on the microphone a couple times - his usual style, to get the crowd worked up.

By this point, it was past 4am, and I went back to the main stage. I wanted to see the closing act on pretty much every stage, but I knew it wasn't possible, so I figured to end the festival by catching Fatboy Slim's entire set (assuming that I liked the start of it). It seemed that about fifty thousand other people had the same plan. I wasn't disappointed, his set was another favorite of the weekend. He started out with about thirty seconds of his "Star 69" track then thirty seconds of "Praise You," and then started getting into full songs (he came back to each of those initial tracks near the end of his set, in their entirety). Fatboy Slim has had a lot of really well-known tracks, and they're all pretty vocal, mainstream tracks. I think he covered all of them in his set. He appeared to be playing on vinyl, which was interesting, because I'm not sure how he synced the videos to the music. His set had a pretty intense video component on all the big screens, with both computer generated graphical sections, and conventional footage (such as Harvey Keitel floating around from the "Weapon Of Choice" video). Anyway, it was another really strong set, and would have definitely appealed even to people who don't listen to electronic music.

So all in all, I'd go with Richie Hawtin, Dubfire, and Fatboy Slim as my favorite sets of the festival.

Some of the things that I really liked about the festival:
- The security was really, really good. They weren't intimidating or hassling people, but they were paying a lot of attention to keeping the lineups from turning into crushes. They would let groups of people into waiting areas rather than open access, so there was no pushing or shoving anywhere.
- Sound quality was pretty good everywhere. There was a big node in the front and center of the main stage where the trebles and mids were pretty minimal, so it was very bassy, but overall each stage had great sound.
- Aside from Paul Kalkbrenner and Fatboy Slim starting each of their sets with a teaser of a song that they played again later in their sets, there was not a single song that I heard twice throughout the entire night.

Room for improvement:
- There were no garbage cans! None! Argentina has no recycling program, so unbelievable amounts of plastic are just going to the landfills. So sad. Everybody just threw all of their empty bottles and hamburger wrappers and drink cups on the ground when they were done. By the end of the night, everyone was wading through a sea of trash. Apparently, this is normal for Argentina, and people just come in afterward and clean up the entire park, but I just couldn't feel comfortable about throwing trash or recyclables onto the ground. Some NGO's really need to go to South America and change the culture there with respect to recycling. Also, it was hard to dance with drink cups everywhere.
- The only real food was hamburgers. There were half a dozen hamburger stands throughout the festival grounds, but only one stand that sold pizzas. Not good for the vegetarians.

All in all, it was an eye-opening experience. The festival grounds were pretty far from where I was staying, and it took a lot of walking plus a few buses and trains to get home (three hours). But despite that, I'd love to go again next year!

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca