Studio One 4.5 Sidechain

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Hi,
I hope someone can help me; I'm a simple soul who has just bought Neutron 2 and am trying to use the dynamic EQ masking features which require a sidechain but I could not get it going. So I went back to basics and tried to do a sidechain with the Presonus stock compressor and cannot get that working either.....
All I'm doing to test it is:-
Track One = Kick drum, played on a loop
Track Two = Bassline. Put the Presonus compressor on this track as an insert and select the yellow 'sidechain' button.
Then go to the 'send' on Track One (the kick) and tell it to send to the compressor. Crank the send level.
According to every single Youtube video I watch, that's all there is to it and yet it does not work for me. I have no clue what I'm doing wrong. I'm now presuming that the issue with Neutron 2 is not actually a Neutron 2 issue as indeed I cannot do the simple stuff with the Presonus stock.
If anyone can point me in the right direction here that would be great. I'm 99% sure I've had this working a year or so back but it's just not interested right now.
Thank you
Gary
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Gary,
If you have properly setup your receiving plug to sidechain and you have created a Send to it from your other plug, try changing the Threshold in the compressor until you can see it being activated. Sometimes if the threshold is too low, you won't see anything!
Bbd
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I'm having a sidechaining issue as well and it's driving me nuts. I followed all of the simple instructions and no compressors are receiving the sidechain signal at all. I've done some searching online and I've come to the point where I believe it's a bug. Is anyone else experiencing this where the sidechain signal is not triggering the plugin you're sending it to?
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Hi...
You don't necessarily need to use sidechaining with Neutron 2 to utilise the dynamic EQ.
For instance, if I want the kick to mask certain bass frequencies I put an instance of Neutron EQ (no need for the full plugin) on the kick and label it 'kick' (no prizes for stating the obvious) then put an instance of Neutron on the bass.
Using the bass instance in the EQ pane I click on masking and invoke the 'kick' Neutron insert, adjust the sensitivity to see where the interaction occurs between competing frequencies and then place an EQ node to span the interacting frequencies with a bell cut. Still with the same node active go in to the dynamic section (bottom right - doesn't show by default) and engage dynamic mode making the required adjustments for threshold etc...
As a result the bass EQ will cut dynamically at the required frequencies impeding less on the kick. Not exactly what you're looking for but in the absence of side-chaining it helps.
Regards....
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Apologies, I should clarify. I'm not having issues with Neutron like the OP. But it seemed like the OP also had problems with his sidechaining outside of Neutron. Ironically, my Neutron 2 is working fine, but my sidechaining in S1 isn't working at all which is very odd.
Thanks for the reply.
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When you insert the compressor plugin (on the bass track) you need to do these things:
1 Click on the Sidechain button right up the top to the right of the presets window. It should turn Blue
2 Look down below in the compressor in the Sidechain area. It too should also say External Sidechain in Blue
3 On the compressor there is level control for side chain to the left of the gain control. It may default to 0 dB. As well as sending the signal from the source track (i.e. kick in this case) you may need to turn this rotary side chain control up more so to see the kick signal in fact acting on the bass track. You will see it in the form of gain reduction taking place on the bass track in time with the kick drum.
For effective ducking too you don't need huge amounts of gain reduction either for this to be effective. A ratio of 2:1 might be good. Fast attack as well so it acts quickly on the bass sounds. Fast release too so it lets go pretty quick as well letting the rest of the bass sound to come through.
Set the threshold so the GR on the bass track is only 2 to 3 dB.
It all works here so there is nothing wrong with the setup. I am happy to make a short video on it as well if you are still having problems.
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If none of the previously mentioned solutions work, please try increasing your Buffer Size / Device Block Size to a higher value.
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alanbaumann1 wroteIf none of the previously mentioned solutions work, please try increasing your Buffer Size / Device Block Size to a higher value.

Thanks, you save my day! It works!
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Original post and initial responses do not show up when I visit this thread. Only the very last 2 posts show up. When I visit to OP's profile, I can see part of the original question, but not the whole thing. Accessing this thread from there also has the same result...only the last 2 posts show.
Has anyone else had this type of problem? This stuff happens fairly often for me.
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Whole thread seems to be ok for me
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Thanks- I guess I'll have to check with Presonus about this.
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Hello guys! I'm running Studio Ver.4 and I'm experiencing the same problems with side chaining. It only works on Buffer size 512 and above. It's not working with anything less than 512. Is there's any solution with this?
Thanks.
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I had a different problem. My side-chain would not work with neutron 3 no matter how i configured it or changed my settings. The only way i got it to work was to not use the vst version but a version with a ## on the plugin. Then instead of sending the sound from say a kick to the bass to duck it i had to send it backwards (from bass to kick using the plugin wrapper side-chain option. This is super weird and i have no idea why it works this way. I also couldn't get it to work if i manually set the side-chain from the channel strip either it had to be from the plugin wrapper.
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I was running into the same issue and none of the above solutions worked for me. It turns out that I had to turn the Monitor Button off for the bass track that hosted the compressor. I found the answer here: https://answers.presonus.com/19411/sidechain-is-bug
Hope it helps!
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Studio One 4.5 Sidechain

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on Dec 12, 2013 in Presonus Studio One 0 comments

Sidechaining can be used for corrective and creative results in your music productions. Using PreSonus Studio One, Gary Hiebner shows how to pump & duck different elements to help them pop in the mix.

When you start getting deeper into production, you may wish to introduce dynamics into the mix. A great way to do this is to incorporate sidechain techniques to provide some pumping and ducking effects. This can really open up your mix so that you can hear all the elements. Let’s take a look at how this is done in PreSonus Studio One.


Step 1 – Add the Compressor

Sidechaining is often used to get a sound to duck down so that it doesn’t compete with another sound in the mix. This is often the case with a kick and bass. Both can occupy a similar frequency range, and making space for them with dynamic effects can really improve your mix. When the kick hits, you want the bass level to drop down slightly so that this kick really punches through, and this can be achieved quite easily with compression sidechaining.

Insert the Compressor on your bass track and set the Ratio to about 5:1. Keep a close eye on the Gain Reduction meter as you bring down the Threshold. As you start bringing down the Threshold, notice how the Gain Reduction meter starts kicking in.

Set the Ratio to about 5:1 on the compressor.


Studio One 4.5 Sidechain Pro

Step 2 – Enabling the Sidechain

Now to enable the sidechain. On the Compressor click on the Sidechain button, and on the bottom right under the Sidechain section it should now read ‘External Sidechain’ as the source.

Click on the Sidechain button.


Jump over to your kick track. You have to tell the kick that it’s going to be the external source for the Compressor now. On the Sends section on the kick you can add a Sidechain source. Click on this to show you the sidechain options. Scroll through this and select the bass track Compressor. I have used the Mojito synth for the bass, so it should be something like this: Sidechain – Mojito – Inserts – Compressor

Selecting the Sidechain source.


Studio One Sidechain

Now when you playback the audio you see on the Compressor how the Gain Reduction meter is responding to the kick now, not the bass track. The more you bring down the Threshold the more the bass gets ducked through the sidechain compression. Increased the Sidechain knob next to the Gain to increase the kick sidechain level to the Compressor. This will also impact how much it’s ducking the bass.

Setting the Sidechain Level.


Sidechain is a great technique to create some space in your mix for specific elements if they are competing for the same space.


Step 3 – Sidechain with a Silent Source

What if you want to use a sound as the sidechain source, but you don’t actually want to hear this sound? For example, let’s say you have a pad sound with some long sustained notes and you want to create some ducking effects with it with something like a dummy kick track, but you don’t want this kick track heard. This is easy to do.

On your pad sound insert the Compressor. Let’s use quite a heavy compression setting. Use a ratio of about 11:1, and a long attack of 56.5 ms and short release of 10.5 ms. Now for the sidechain effect. Make sure Sidechain is enabled on the Compressor, so that it reads the External Sidechain.

A heavy compression setting on the pad sound.


Now use a kick track as the source. This will be the dummy kick so in the end it won’t be heard in the mix. For this instead of using the Sends, let’s change the output. Click on the Main Output, a list will come up, and scroll down to Sidechain. From the drop-down menu choose the Pad Compressor. I’m using an instance of Presence as my pad sound. So this will be: Sidechain – Presence – Inserts – Compressor. Now the Kick won’t be heard but its signal will be sent to the Pad track.

You'll need to change the output to 'Sidechain'.


Increase the Sidechain level to 12.42 dB. Now playback the track and start pulling down the Threshold and hear how the dummy kick track changes the pad sound.


Adjust the Compressor for the desired sidechain effect. Use a long attack for a more subtle ducking effect, or a shorter attack for it to hit in sooner. Also try different release times to hear how they sound. This works really nice in a breakdown section in a song. You can drop out all the other tracks in your song so only the pad sound is playing, but the pumping effect introduced with the sidechain compression can add a rhythmic element to this sound.


Step 4 – Gated Sidechain Effects

You can also get similar sidechain effects with the Gate, but a gate will cut off the sound giving a more drastic sonic effect. Let’s try this out on a sound with long sustained notes again like a pad. Insert the Gate onto the track. Enable the Sidechain button so it now reads an External Sidechain.

The gated sidechain effect is also very popular.


Let’s use the kick track again as the external source. On the kick sends choose the gate as the source.

Remember to set the source for the sidechain.


Depending on the sound, you may have to use different settings. But let’s start off with a Range set to -50dB. Set an Attack of 60 ms, a long Release of 238.9 ms and the Hold of 213.8 ms. Play back the song, and start tweaking the Open and Close Threshold. You should see in the Gain Reduction meter and how the Gate is working on the sound. Adjust the parameters as needed, but you’ll hear how much more dramatic this ducking effect is on the pad sound. For example, try out different Attack, Release and Hold times and hear how it alters the gated effect.

Studio One 4.5 Sidechain Free


Studio One 4.5 Sidechain

Sidechaining In Studio One 4.5

Conclusion

That’s how to make use of sidechaining techniques to create some dynamic changes in your productions. You can use it to create space for competing sounds in the mix, or use it for creative effects in your songs like shown with the pad and the dummy kick clip as a unheard source.

To learn more check out these video courses on PreSonus Studio One:
https://www.askvideo.com/courses/application/studioone

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