Side chain

Imagine you have a big box of toys, and you want to play with one specific toy inside the box but you don't want to take everything out of the box to get it. So, you create a special secret door on the side of the box that only opens for you, allowing you to grab the toy you want without disturbing the rest of the toys in the box. This secret door on the side of the box is like a side chain.

In music, a side chain is a special type of connection between two sound sources. One sound source is the main track that you hear, and the other sound source is a secret track that you don't hear directly. Instead, this secret track is connected to a special tool called a compressor that squashes down the level of the main track every time the secret track plays a sound.

To put it simply, imagine you're playing a game that makes a lot of noise when you fire your weapon. You could set up a side chain that turns down the game's sound effects every time you shoot, so that you can hear your team's valuable voice chat instructions without being overwhelmed by the gun noise.

In music production, side chains can help make a mix sound more balanced by automatically reducing the volume of certain sounds that might clash or compete with each other. This can be especially helpful for genres like electronic dance music, where there are often competing sounds fighting for space in the mix.