When to use Parallell compression vs Sidechain in Go Deeper tutorial

Someone else will chime in as to what to do to set up a sidechain (I'm not at my computer), but I thought I'd just throw this in: you might not want to go "all the way" towards that ducking sound. Admittedly its quite overdone in EDM at this point, although it still sounds great if done tastefully. You can, however, achieve a bit of subtle "bounce" to your track without full-on ducking, simply by setting up some master bus compression to breathe with the kick.

You can use pretty much any compressor that has attack and release controls. Just set the threshold so that the meter shows between 4-6dB of gain reduction with every thwack of the kick. Raise the attack until the gain reduction happens without affecting the sound of the kick at all (I set it to maximum and bring it down until I just start to hear the kick lose some of it's body, then back it off a bit). Then set the release so that the gain reduction meter is getting back to zero just before the next kick sounds. You don't need to set the ratio that high, maybe 4:1 - 6:1.

If you do it right, you should see the gain reduction meter "grooving" with the kick, and it'll give you tune just a little bit of bounce which, although not that noticeable when listening to it, you'll sure miss when you turn the compressor off.

Some people like to set this master bus "bounce" compression up from the get-go, because the added groove it creates will inspire your musical decisions when arranging and mixing the track.