sidechain in cubase 5

[giusmex]

hi guys


thank you for all of your precious help

i wante d to ask whether you know exactly how to do a sidechain effect in cubase 5, and if its necessary to have particular plug ins that route the signal or there is a "structural" way to do it ( that is to say, implemented in the same Cubase)


thanks in advance

[tehLORD]

Many of the native Cubase plugins are sidechain compatible. You'll see a button to activate the sidechain finction to the right of the 'W' or write button at the top of the plugin. Once this button is activated you can then send any other channel to that plugins sidechain input.

Non Cubase native plugins need to be VST3 compatible to sidechain in this way (Fabfilter Pro-C for example.

[giusmex]

thank you tehlord

anyway what is the exact routing of the signal in this case?

lets suppose i abilitate the sidechain in the plug in and lets say it is a compressor

now lets say i want audio track one ( kick) to control volume output of pads ( of FM8 for example) in track two.

the compressor has to be inserted in which track?

[tehLORD]

thank you tehlord

anyway what is the exact routing of the signal in this case?

lets suppose i abilitate the sidechain in the plug in and lets say it is a compressor

now lets say i want audio track one ( kick) to control volume output of pads ( of FM8 for example) in track two.

the compressor has to be inserted in which track?

You would insert the cubase compressor on the FM8 pad channel and activete the sidechain function.

you then go to the kick channel and use one of it's send slots. You'll get a drop down menu and you're looking for a list of sidechain destinations (pick the FM8 pad). You'll also have to turn the send level up on the kick channel (small bar under the destination name). I usually set the send level at 0db.

If you hit play you should see the gain reduction being triggered on the FM8s compressor. All you need to do is adjust the attack, release and threshold to get the desired ducking effect.

It's worth noting that a dedicated trigger track is a good idea. I do this by setting up a silent kick channel, also using a kick with a short snappy decay. what you can do is reduce the level of the trigger kick to 0db (make sure you set the send to 'pre-fader' (inbetween the on/off button and e button on the send you're using) so that you get a sidechain trigger even when the kick is silent.

[giusmex]

thanks tenlord



interesting this thing of the silent kick

but when would you want to sidechain a given instrument even when the kick is off?

[tehLORD]

thanks tenlord



interesting this thing of the silent kick

but when would you want to sidechain a given instrument even when the kick is off?

Maybe you want the pads to pump in a break with no kick?

Also, the silent sidechain kick I use is always very short. Sometimes I have the main kick in a track and the decay is quite long, and therefore triggers the compressor for longer than I want.