If you’re a producer, there’s a strong possibility you either use sidechain compression or have heard of it. For those who are unfamiliar, sidechaining means using the output of one track, such as a kick drum, to alter the compression on another track, such as a bassline. In simple terms, it’s a way to set up your mix so that when one sound comes in, another one quiets down.

Other than the fact that it’s an effective tool for mixing, sidechain compression is a way to innovate because it allows you to turn non-instrument sounds into music.

We sat down and spoke with our own Oli Morgan, who specialises in stem mastering here at Abbey Road, to answer these questions and more, along with demonstrating his workflow for a stem mastering session.

When mixing or producing a track, you can use distortion and saturation in subtle ways to mimic other processing chains, achieving more musical results overall and without making the track sound clipped. Below are three tips using our Waves Audio / Abbey Road Saturator and J37 tape plugin.