#002 - Sidechain Your Reverb Return to the Snare, Not the Kick

Most producers sidechain reverb returns to the kick by default. But in DnB the kick fires roughly twice as often as the snare, which means the reverb is ducking constantly and never gets to breathe between hits. Sidechaining the reverb return to the snare instead lets the reverb sustain across the spaces between snares - exactly where you want atmospheric depth - and ducks only at the moments where snare clarity matters most.

The technique

1. Insert a compressor on your reverb return bus
2. Set the sidechain input to your snare channel, not the kick
3. Ratio 4:1, attack 1-5 ms, release 80-120 ms
4. Adjust threshold to get 4-6 dB of ducking on each snare hit
5. Enable a high-pass filter on the sidechain input around 200 Hz so the snare's body, not its low rumble, triggers the duck

The reverb fills the gaps between snares and clears momentarily when the snare hits - the snare reads cleanly while the atmosphere stays present. Works particularly well on liquid DnB where the snare reverb is a major character element. The default kick-sidechain pattern is fine for house, but at 174 BPM with breaks, snare-sidechain is often a smarter move.

The same technique applies to long delay returns in atmospheric breakdowns - ducking to the snare keeps the rhythmic clarity without flattening the atmosphere.