Pull an audio file’s level down on a repeating pulse and let it recover, the ducking pattern usually heard under a kick drum in electronic music.
No sidechain input
A real sidechain compressor keys off a second track, most often a kick or a click. This tool has one file and one chain to run it through, so there is nothing external to key off. The pulse comes from an oscillator instead, set directly in hertz rather than detected from audio.
Rate and depth
Rate sets how often the duck repeats, from 0.5 Hz to 10 Hz. Depth sets how far the level drops at the bottom of each cycle, up to 30 dB.
Attack, release, and shape
Attack and release control how the reduction moves toward its target, the same ballistics a compressor uses. A fast attack with the square shape produces the sharp step-down and curved recovery of a classic pump. Slower attack and release settings soften the edges into something closer to a tremolo.
Sine and triangle shapes fall and rise smoothly across the whole cycle rather than stepping, which reads as modulation rather than ducking.
Example: a pump under a pad
Rate 2 Hz, depth 8 dB, attack 5 ms, release 250 ms, square.
Each pulse pulls the pad down fast and lets it climb back before the next one lands, leaving a gap that a kick would normally occupy even though no kick is present in the file.