Subject:Side Chain setup in ACID Pro 7 Too complex

Posted by: inocmusic

Date:3/31/2010 3:13:01 PM

First of all many people I have spoken to don't believe sidechaining is even possible in AP7. It is, I do it all the time but it is quite complex and could be much simpler and in fact is much simpler in many other DAWs

Here is my process if I want to sidechain compress a mono bass guitar track using a kick drum as the trigger using a Waves C1 Compander plugin:
Route a copy Kick drum hard panned left to bus A, route the Bass guitar hard panned right to bus A. Insert C1 plug on Bus A and set it so that left channel triggers compression on the right channel. The C1 only outputs the compressed/effected channel and only uses the trigger signal internally in sidechained mode
I then Route Bus A, who's output is now a right, hard panned ducking bass to my outboard summing mixer that I mix through and re center the Bass which is now ducking with the Kick drum.
This actually works out ideally for me since in order to route a mono track such as bass or vox to my external summing mixer I have to hard pan anyway (since the output busses are all stereo and I only want to send a single channel in the case of mono to the summing box)
If I want to sum within the software I guess I would try changing the pan law on Bus A to either add channels or full power and see if that allows you to recenter in software, panning and volume should be post FX so shouldn't impact what the plugin does
If that doesn't work
Set up a second bus and route bus A to bus B (bus to bus routing is allowed) and then pan bus B to my hearts content
and finally if that doesn't work
Export/print the ducking track and convert to mono (assuming that you're happy with the kick drum and don't expect any changes)

If I want to sidechain effect a stereo track I have to do the whole process twice, once for each channel with the exception that I do not need to center the tracks when done

This seems far too complex and could be done in a much more steamlined fashion

Any plans for updating in a future release?

Subject:RE: Side Chain setup in ACID Pro 7 Too complex

Reply by: coolout

Date:3/31/2010 3:42:22 PM

Lack of true sidechaining is a limitation of the vst standard I believe.

Most DAWs have it built into the internal routing or the plugin developers use stereo panning as a workaround.

If you want more control of panning in Acid Pro use Stereo Tools by Kelly Industries. This little plug in will streamline things for you.
I've been using this plug in for years for sidechaining and all sorts of panning trickery.

http://www.kellyindustries.com/free_plugins/kelly_industries_stereo_tools_vst_plugin.zip

Subject:RE: Side Chain setup in ACID Pro 7 Too complex

Reply by: inocmusic

Date:3/31/2010 4:06:02 PM

Hey thanks for the link Coolout I'll check it out, I like the sound of panning trickery :-)

Actually panning is not a huge deal for me since I am summing outside the box and generally am using sidechains on the bass and backing vox which are mono anyway and I need hard panned to send out on a single channel to my outboard box.
I was just thinking about how it would have to be done in software if I had no outboard summing option

Also in Reaper for example one can track to track route so put a plug an track 1 but use track 2 to trigger the side chain without all the copying trigger tracks panning and messing around with busses and routing

I have no intention of using Reaper as I much prefer ACID but would like to see the ease of use for this function within ACID in a future release

Subject:RE: Side Chain setup in ACID Pro 7 Too complex

Reply by: AxEast

Date:6/18/2010 12:53:21 AM

amen!