To sidechain in FL Studio, put Fruity Limiter on your bass track and switch it to COMP mode. Select the kick’s mixer track, right-click the small arrow at the bottom of the bass track and choose Sidechain to this track. Then pick the kick in the limiter’s SIDECHAIN box and lower the threshold until the bass drops by about 7 to 10 dB each time the kick hits.

That’s the setup Max teaches in his free FL Studio course. Below are the exact clicks, plus his group trick for full songs, his kick and 808 fix, reverb ducking for vocals, third-party plugins and an LFO Tool-style pump made with FL Studio’s own plugins.

What is sidechaining in FL Studio?

Sidechaining means one sound controls the volume of another. Most of the time the kick drum is the boss. Every time it hits, the bass gets quieter for a split second, then comes back. Producers call that quick dip ducking.

You do it with a compressor. That’s a plugin that turns a sound down when it gets louder than a set level, called the threshold. The ratio sets how hard it turns it down. A normal compressor listens to the track it sits on. In Max’s words, sidechain compression “works exactly like a compressor,” except “we take a different trigger.” Here, the trigger is the kick. If compressors are new to you, start with how to use a compressor in FL Studio.

Why bother? The kick and the bass both live in the low end. When they hit at the same time, they blur into one muddy thump. Max’s rule is that you don’t want any sub bass playing at the same time as the kick, and sidechaining fixes exactly that. The kick punches through, and the bass fills the gaps between hits. Push it harder and you get the pumping sound you hear in a lot of EDM and house.

How to sidechain the kick and bass in FL Studio

This is the classic setup, and all it needs is Fruity Limiter, which comes with FL Studio. Max compresses with Fruity Limiter instead of Fruity Compressor because it shows you the waveform. You can watch the ducking happen.

1. Give the kick and the bass their own mixer tracks. In the Channel Rack, the number on each channel shows which mixer track it plays through. Make sure the kick and the bass don’t share one.
2. Add Fruity Limiter to the bass track. Open the Mixer (F9), click the bass track, click an empty effect slot and pick Fruity Limiter. Max first turns its CEIL (ceiling) knob up, so the limiter part doesn’t touch the sound. Then switch it from LIMIT to COMP (2).
3. Send the kick to the bass track. Click the kick’s mixer track to select it. Then right-click the small arrow at the bottom of the bass track and choose Sidechain to this track. The kick now reaches the bass track’s plugins, but you don’t hear it through that track.
4. Pick the kick as the trigger. In Fruity Limiter, right-click the SIDECHAIN box (4). You’ll see every signal that reaches this track. Choose the kick. Max stresses that it’s very important to pick the kick here.
5. Set the ratio and the threshold (5). Set the ratio to about 4:1. Then pull the threshold down while the kick and the bass play together. In his demo, Max aims for the bass to duck by about 7 to 10 dB.
6. Listen, then adjust the release (6). Switch the limiter off and on to compare. Keep ATT (attack) fast so the bass ducks the moment the kick hits. The REL (release) knob sets how fast the bass comes back. A longer release makes the pump more obvious, and a shorter one keeps it subtle.

Don’t let the other knobs scare you. Max’s advice on the threshold and ratio: “Only those two knobs will matter for now and for many, many weeks to come.” A simple way to set the release is by ear: the bass should be fully back up just before the next kick lands.

Max sometimes skips the menu and just left-clicks that arrow. That sends the kick’s sound to the bass track too, so he turns the little send knob all the way down to avoid hearing the kick twice. Either way works.

When the ducking sounds right, play the whole song and re-check your levels. If the kick now sounds boomy, Max cuts a little of the boxy low mids on the kick, and does the same on the bass.

How to sidechain a whole group, not just the bass

On a full song, Max doesn’t stop at the bass. Max’s words: “What I would do personally is create a new separate group for everything that we want to apply sidechain compression to.” A group, also called a bus, is one mixer track that several sounds play through. One plugin then treats them all at once.

1. Make the group. Pick an empty mixer track and name it Sidechain. Max puts it on insert 1, at the very start of the mixer.
2. Route your sounds into it (2). Click a sound’s mixer track, then right-click the arrow at the bottom of the Sidechain track and choose Route to this track only. Do this for each sound you want to duck: the bass, pads, chords, melodies, arps and other background parts.
3. Leave some things out. Keep the drums out of it. Max also leaves out the brass, because “it creates this impact,” and he does the same with the crashes.
4. Add one limiter (4). Put Fruity Limiter on the Sidechain track, ceiling up, COMP mode. Select the kick’s track, right-click the Sidechain track’s arrow and choose Sidechain to this track. Then pick the kick in the SIDECHAIN list, set the ratio to about 4 or higher and lower the threshold.
5. Clean up. If you had a separate sidechain limiter on the bass, remove it. The group does that job now.

The SIDECHAIN list doubles as a check. It shows every sound you routed into the group (2), with the kick at the bottom once you’ve sent it (4).

The video below shows the same setup on a full track. It also adds a second Fruity Limiter to the same group with the snare as its trigger, so the music dips a little on every snare hit too.

How to sidechain a kick and 808 without losing the 808

With an 808, Max does it a different way. Max warns that normal sidechain compression “will duck down the whole volume of the 808,” including the higher frequencies you want to keep. So instead of turning the whole 808 down, he turns down only its lowest frequencies, and only while the kick hits.

1. On the kick’s mixer track, add Fruity Peak Controller and set its BASE knob to 50%. This plugin follows the kick’s volume and turns it into a control signal.
2. On the 808’s mixer track, add Fruity Parametric EQ 2. Drag the first band to about 200 Hz.
3. Right-click that band’s level (its volume) and choose Link to controller.
4. Pick the kick’s controller. In the window that opens, set Internal controller to Peak ctrl – Peak (4). That’s the peak controller on your kick.
5. Flip it. Set Mapping formula to Inverted (5). FL Studio shows it as 1-Input, with a line that slopes down.
6. Click Accept (6).
7. Play them together. Every time the kick hits, the 808’s low end dips and the rest of it stays. Turn up TENSION on the peak controller to shape the dip.

Max calls a balanced low end “super crucial for every mix.” For more on getting the two to sit together, from choosing samples to setting levels, see our guide to mixing a kick and 808.

How to sidechain reverb so vocals stay clear

Reverb is the other big use. Max is blunt about it: “the worst thing that you could do to your vocal is just put the reverb on it,” because it blurs the words. His fix is to let the vocal duck its own reverb. The reverb hides while the singer sings and comes back in the gaps.

Here’s how he sets it up in his free course:

1. Make a new mixer track and call it Side chain Reverb.
2. Put your reverb on it, and take it off the vocal track. Set the reverb’s dry to 0 and turn the wet up.
3. Click the vocal’s mixer track, then left-click the arrow on the reverb track. The vocal now feeds the reverb.
4. Add Fruity Limiter after the reverb and switch it to COMP (4). Right-click SIDECHAIN, pick the vocal (4) and set the ratio to about 4:1.
5. Lower the threshold (5) until the reverb ducks while the vocal plays. Then set how much reverb you want with that track’s fader.

In his demo, the reverb’s decay is 2.5 seconds. An older Max video gets the same result with Fruity Peak Controller instead. He puts it on the vocal, links the reverb’s wet knob to the vocal’s peak with Link to controller, and sets the mapping formula to Inverted.

That same video goes one step further. Max routes every instrument except the drums to one sidechain track and keys a Fruity Limiter from the vocal, so the instruments dip slightly whenever the vocal plays. About 2 dB, he says, “is definitely enough.” If you’re still deciding which effect a sound needs, here’s reverb vs delay in plain words.

How to get the LFO Tool pump with FL Studio’s own plugins

Plugins like LFO Tool and ShaperBox draw the ducking shape for you instead of using a compressor. The video below argues you don’t need them, because “everything that those two plugins make can be done inside of FL Studio.” It builds the same thing in Patcher, says it takes about 30 seconds, and calls it “by far the best way” to sidechain in FL Studio right now.

The big win is that the shape follows your real kick notes. So it works with any kick pattern, not only a steady four-on-the-floor beat. Here’s the build:

1. On the mixer track you want to duck, load Patcher. Inside it, add Fruity Balance (1) and activate its volume knob.
2. Add Fruity Envelope Controller (2). Delete two of its points, so only the dip shape is left.
3. Right-click the envelope controller and choose Outputs, Controllers, Articulator 1. Connect that to Fruity Balance’s volume (3).
4. Right-click From FL Studio and choose Outputs, Events, MIDI port 0. Connect it to the envelope controller (4).
5. In the Channel Rack, add a MIDI Out channel. It uses port 0 by default. Copy your kick’s notes onto it.
6. Set the base to 30%, so the shape only pulls the volume down and never pushes it above 0 dB. Then reshape the curve until it sounds right.

A tip from the video: build it in from the start. Add a Layer channel, select the kick and the MIDI Out channel, and click Set children in the Layer’s settings. Then program your kick on the Layer. Every kick note now triggers both, so you never copy notes again.

The same envelope can move more than volume. The video links extra articulators to a reverb’s wet, a delay’s wet and an EQ’s low-pass, all moving in time with the kick.

How to sidechain a third-party plugin in FL Studio

FL Studio’s own plugins see a routed sidechain right away. Most third-party plugins don’t. A Mix Elite short puts it bluntly: “If you just sidechain one mixer channel to another, most third-party plugins won’t work properly.” The fix is a setting inside the plugin’s window.

1. Send the kick to the plugin’s mixer track with Sidechain to this track, the same as before.
2. Open the plugin. Click the gear at the top left of its window, then the plug-and-gear icon for its detailed settings (2), and open the Processing tab.
3. Under Connections, open the list next to the sidechain input and pick the kick (3).

Now the plugin hears the kick on its sidechain input, so its own sidechain controls can react to every kick.

Other ways to sidechain in FL Studio

• Fruity Compressor (1). Newer versions of FL Studio let you sidechain it too. Use Sidechain to this track as above, then pick the kick in the compressor’s sidechain list (2). A Mix Elite short from January 2026 shows it.
• Fruity Peak Controller and Fruity Balance. Put the peak controller on the kick and Fruity Balance on the bass. Link Balance’s volume to the kick’s peak with an Inverted mapping. It’s the 808 trick, applied to the whole volume.
• Sidechain automation. Put Fruity Balance on the bass, right-click its volume knob and choose Create automation clip. Then draw a dip at every kick. The kick isn’t actually driving it, but you get full control of the shape.
• A note-triggered automation clip. The LFO Tool video shows a shortcut. Make that automation clip, delete it from the Playlist, and copy your kick’s notes onto it in the Channel Rack. Then open its editor and shrink the shape to one short dip.
• Gross Beat. This FL Studio effect has ready-made volume shapes for a sidechain-style pump. Like LFO Tool, it follows the beat grid rather than your actual kick, so it suits a kick on every beat best.

Sidechain not working? Check these 4 things

1. The limiter is still in LIMIT mode. Switch it to COMP (1).
2. The kick isn’t routed. Select the kick’s track first, then right-click the arrow on the track you want to duck. It’s easy to do this the wrong way around.
3. The SIDECHAIN box is empty. Right-click it and pick the kick. If the kick isn’t in the list (3), it isn’t routed yet.
4. The threshold is too high. Pull it down until the purple gain reduction moves on every kick.

In the screenshot above, the list only shows the bass layers. That’s what an unrouted kick looks like. Sidechaining is one fix among many, so if your mix still sounds off, check these beginner mixing mistakes.

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