This article is about how to create a ducker if your plugin of choice doesn’t feature a dedicated ducking mode. We’ve deliberately avoided using the word ducker in the title because so many people equate ‘ducking’ with side chained compression. While the two are similar they are not quite the same thing.
Making room in a mix for the things that count is key, but it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. We show you how in a few moves.
Even in smaller-scale mixes it isn’t long before clutter gets in the way of key elements such as the top line, and making room for the point of focus has to be at the top of the mixer’s to-do list. Luckily there are lots of tools available to help us, but whether we reach for a specialist product or rely upon traditional techniques, understanding the goal is key.
What Is Mix Clutter?
On the understanding that any mix is essentially about getting the levels right, there are different kinds of clutter. Some is related to the arrangement itself, and this can be fixed before the artist even hits the studio. Dropping unnecessary parts, or only bringing parts in and out when needed is a well-known device that is totally effective and often overlooked.
Arranging chordal parts that don’t overlap is another area where the songwriter, producer, or arranger can buy clarity without sparsity; certainly there’s no need for easily moved instrument parts such as pianos or synths not to be edged along the keyboard as needed.
When we take the path of least resistance with the arrangement, the hope is that clutter will largely disappear. For everything else there is the engineering solution. Spectral overlaps can often be remedied using EQ to shave or scoop offending frequencies, and more recently dynamic tonal tools promise solutions that only take when it is necessary.
In terms of keeping focus, a more fundamental approach involves riding the level of audio that is treading on the toes of the vocal or other vital mix element. By turning down one thing to let another through, we are increasing clarity by reducing clutter. This can be done with the fader (automated or otherwise), or done using a processor which is often referred to as ‘ducking’.
The Inverse Gate
Gates and expanders help clean up low-lying unwanted audio, but some are even more useful as clutter-busting tools. These advanced expander/gates can do true audio ducking for us that is accurate and, once set up, quicker than automating fader moves at each ‘problem’ event. Examples include Avid’s Pro Expander and Pro-G from FabFilter, as well as stock solutions in Studio One, and REAPER. Luckily if your DAW’s stock expander/gate doesn’t support ducking, it can still be set up manually with some thought. This is simply a case of replicating what a ducker does; that is to ‘trickle in’ a polarity-inverted copy of the audio to be ducked whenever the priority signal is present. This inverted gating will partially cancel the audio to taste to achieve the ducking effect.
Making Room
Whether you’re using a dedicated tool, or building your own custom process in your mixer, changing mix levels dynamically to make room can be as transparent or extreme as you like. Not only that, but ducking audio with an ‘inverse gate’ leaves your audio’s spectral character untouched.