Fun with compressor side-chain

[BryanM]

This idea would be more for guitar than bass, but could be applied to bass as well. I'm planning on running a drum trigger into the side chain of a hard knee compressor on the guitar, that would essentially act as a soft kill-switch whenever engaged and that particular drum is hit. I'm looking for any input on whether this is feasible or whether there's an easy way to go about doing this.

[bongomania]

Totally do-able and feasible, and in fact it is a popular studio trick. Pedals I can think of with this option include the FEA Opti-FET and the Empress, and actually a very large percentage of rack units have a sidechain input. If you can find one, my favorite gate, an Ashly SG100, had a full complement of envelope controls and a sidechain, and would be great for the "soft kill".

You'd have to finagle the triggering signal to be a suitable level for the sidechain input, but this is just a matter of adjusting a fader on the drum channel.