FabFilter

If I create a band to compress a mid frequency range to take out harshness on a guitar or vocal without triggering from an external source,can free sidechain still be used in conjunction?..How and why?..I've read the manual and watched all the MB videos several times, but am still confused to how free sidechain works with existing bands...

Not exactly understanding your question, but maybe I've got it.

Each band has the option to utilize the intern free side chain from the expert panel. You may be over thinking what this function does. It simply narrows or widens the range of what the threshold knob will see. If its say, a narrow width and it lies between the upper mids and the highs, then the only part of the sound that will trigger the compression/expansion would come from that select range.

Anoher example, say you want to take the hi hats in a drum kit only when the snare hits happen. You would want the actual band to be affecting the area of frequencies where the hi hats live, but then you'd want to enable the free band imternal side chain and slide that over left to the mids where the snare frequencies live.

Your example, split the band range over the area you want compressed. If you only want this area to listen to the frequencies in that range, and trigger the compressor when that area gets above a certain volume, then you don't need to mess with the side chain. But, if you want to reduce/compress those highs during a palm mute to make it beffier, then you would use the internal side chain to do so. You would simply activate the free band side chain, then narrow it and slide it down to the lower octaves, thus enabling the compressor over those high frequencies to listen only to the lower frequency band to trigger the threshold setting.

Hope that helps

Couple of typos in the last response.

*utilize the "internal" side chain...
*Anoher example, say you want to take the hi hats in a drum kit "and lower them" only when the snare hits happen

First of all, thanks so much for your response..I posted this question in several forums and no one else answered..Guess I'm the only one not grasping the concept. So the actual band and the free sidechain work together or independently of each other? Is it either one or the other?
If it is one or the other,why not then just set the actual band width control with a steep slope to isolate a particular range? is the free sidechain able to achieve a narrower focus than by dragging the actual band widths?

It's really not that different from triggering from an external source, it's just that the source is a different part of the spectrum than the band you are compressing within the same track, rather than a different track altogether. Mdjagg's example is a good one: if you had two separate tracks, snare and hi-hats, and you wanted to compress the hi-hats with the snare hits, you would simply put a single band compressor on the hi-hats and set the snare track as its external sidechain, right? Now let's say that you have an overheads track, including snare and hi-hats, and you want to do the same thing: what you would do with Pro-MB is define a band (the thing to be compressed) around the frequencies where the hi-hats live, detach the sidechain (the thing triggering the compression) and move it to where the snare lives.

For what you say about removing harshness from a guitar or vocal, generally you would not do this: you would simply set up your "harsh band", leave the sidechain as it is and you're good to go. But let's say that you have a hard-hitting guitarist that makes the strings buzz when he really digs in on those fat power chords. You would define your band high up in frequency where the buzz happens (the thing you want compressed) and the sidechain down low where the fatness is (the thing you want triggering the compression). And why not simply put the band up there and let it compress normally? Well, maybe because then he goes to clean and sparkly rhythm guitar and you don't want to lose the attack and sparkle in that part, which you would if you were compressing those highs "in response to themselves"... Does that make sense?

Yes..got it..finally..embarrassing actually..The ironic thing is that I'm not a newb, and have been externally ducking my EQ'd delays and reverbs for years on vocals and guitars..don't know why the internal sidechain concept of FFMB was escaping me...But many thanks to both of you for your time and patience..You're good people for taking the time to help someone out, and have good karma coming your way...

It's always good to explain it "out loud" or on paper. It makes it easier for me to understand now too, and also, the next person that asks I'll be able to state what is happening a little more clearly.

I wish that this board emailed you when there was a reply, I get around to looking at this forum only once every few weeks. I'm glad I was late because Cabirio nailed the explanation perfectly.