The sidechain filter trick that opens up your drum bus
The drum bus trick in today's lead isn't a plugin — it's a sidechain filter on the glue compressor that ignores the kick's low end. Opens up the whole group.
▶ The Glue Comp Sidechain Filter That Opens Up Your Drums
Ableton's Glue Compressor with a sidechain filter ignoring the kick's low end gives the drum group bounce, not pumping. Pair it with a 100% wet convolution room send and a quick hand-clap variator you record live into the arrange.
Amp Room and modular chatter are both up 9× this week, with Softube Tape Echoes getting the same heat.
◢ learn
▶ Lag Envelopes and Unipolar LFO: DIVA's Smooth Brass Bass Trick
The filter envelope's Lag parameter rounds a triangle shape into something closer to a sine, giving the brass patch its mellow swell. Switching LFO2 to unipolar keeps the modulation anchored instead of wobbling past center.
▶ Move the Sample Start, Not the BPM, for a Groove
FrankJ3 shifts a sampled loop's start point by a few ticks to create its own swing — no timing changes. Then he hums the pitch contour into Operator to write a bassline that locks with the sample.
◢ free & gear
PLUSH: Free Brilliance and Loudness with 3-Band Inflate(free)
Two-stage processing — brilliance (Air shelf at 12k or Sizzle harmonics above 6k) into Inflate (full-band or multi-band with crossovers at 240 Hz and 2.4 kHz), sealed with a true-peak limiter. No sign-up.
TVHS Models Real VHS Physics, Not Just a Curve($9.50)
Wow and flutter are noise-driven and never repeat; dropouts fire on a true random process. The head-switching glitch runs at the real field rate, and ten convolution impulses were captured from tape hardware. Intro price $9.50.
◢ the word
Sugar Bytes Transfigure Hits iPad — Spectral Resynth for Free
Work inside the frequency domain: isolate a narrow band, delay just that, or resynthesize using FM locked to a scale. Standalone or AUv3; in-app purchase $24.99 unlocks full features.
Oden & Fatzo — Lauren
the sliding 303 bassline that ducks under the chopped vocal · pairs with the sidechain drum bus trick for a lesson in letting the groove breathe
| ▲ #11 | MERLIN BOBB, Mark Francis — Stupid Prizes (Shelter Remix Vocal) new entry · profile → |
🔮 Producer Horoscope (for fun) — Your EP's closing track will suddenly become the opener. Serve the curveball.
Go make something that knocks.
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covered in this issue: diva · sugar bytes transfigure