Side chains?

Have posted about this before but hoped upgrade to SP3 would fix the issue relating to routing external side chain signals.
The noise gate (and I see the Ringshifter too) have side chain options that seem to offer the use of external signals to control the audio, but I can't find a way to route audio into these plugins.
It appears the noise gate only allows the use of the side chain filters on the original input signal (to help to narrow the frequency that is to be gated without actually affecting the main signal). However the pdf manual (that was hidden in the app package so was unsearchable by Spotlight before) has now become an Apple Help file, and has indeed had some level of rewrite, including a bit about the noise gate..but it still states that "When no external side chain is selected, the input signal is used as the side chain." which infers that use of an external signal is possible.
Equally with the ringshifter plugin I can see no way of accessing an external source. In Logic there are drop down lists in the menu bar that houses the plugins to select a side chain routing.
Any ideas? as I would really like to use the gate to perform some 'ducking' tasks!

P.S. the side chain info is in the STP Effects Reference pdf not the user manual

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Side chain in logic 8

Hi guys can anyone point me in the direction of a good tutorial for side chain for dance music tracks in logic 8? i've read the manual but it still dosnt really make much sence to me, i think im a bit stupid.
thanks.

Without specifying what you actually want to do (side chaining is a technique to achieve certain effects, not an effect in itself) here's some general things to read:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3927558
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5137845
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5081924
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3706436
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3007887
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3946575
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4650819
(Yes, I stuck the word "side chain" into the forum's "Search" function...)

Side-chain filter does what exactly?

I'm sure this must be covered somewhere, but I can't find specifics in the manual or previous posts here.
Which signal does the side-chain filter in LP8's compressor affect--the side chain signal (i.e., compression only occurs when certain frequencies are present in the sidechain source signal) or the audio that's being compressed (i.e., only compresses certain frequencies in the track in which the compressor is inserted)?
If it's the former, how does one compress only specific frequencies using a side-chained signal? I'm asking partly because I want to use a kick drum to compress a somewhat bright bass, but I'd like to try compressing only the lower frequencies of the bass, down where the kick drum's frequencies overlap.
Hope I've explained this all clearly.

Randall--thanks so much for all your info. Like Dalek, I initially thought the side-chain filter does what I needed to do, but I guess not. The solution is a bit complicated, but that's not your fault; you didn't write the software, and at least you thought of a clever way to do selective-frequency ducking in Logic. I haven't had time to try it yet, unfortunately, but hope to tomorrow. I've taken the liberty of pasting below your post that you linked to on the Logic Pro Help board (hope this is OK), mostly so that anyone else with this same problem can find the answer all in one thread.
Randall's post:
Pursuant to my previous tip on improving noise gate performance:
http://logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=17553
. . . a couple of people asked me if I'd write up how to do selective frequency bandwidth ducking to improve a signals presence in a busy mix. So I thought Christmas day would be a good time to write this up and create an example as I'm deliberately not doing any "real" work today!
So here's the typical problem. A bunch of noisy guitars driving along and you want to inject an acoustic guitar or vocal lead in there once in a while. But you can't get the track hot enough or eq'd enough to overcome the noisy guitars. Ducking the guitars with either automation or a sidechained compressor might be too noticable, so this trick allows you to just duck the specific frequency range that is masking your lead track. Here's how to do it:
Note: the attached LP8 example just uses some stock Apple Loops that everyone should have, (I hope).
1. This is a mix technique and we'll be assigning plugs to auxes, so make sure PDC is set to "All" in your preferences.
2. Assign your noisy guitar tracks to a bus. We'll use bus 10 as in my example.
3. Assign your lead track to your main outputs. Create a Send on this track to bus 11 and set its level to unity, (ctrl-click the send).. This will also create an aux in your mixer. Delete this aux.
4. Create 2 new aux channels. Assign both their inputs to Bus 10, and both their outputs to your main outs.
5. Don't put any plugs on the first aux. On the second aux, (from top to bottom) place a Linear Phase EQ, a Noise Gate, then a Gain plug.
6. Set the EQ up with a Lopass and a Hipass only, with steep 48dB/oct slopes. Leave the Q at .71.
7. Set the Noise Gate as follows.
Threshold & Reduction: -100dB
Attack, Hold & Release: 0mS
Hysteresis: -20dB
Lookahead: 20.000mS
Sidechain: Bus 11
8. Open the Gain plug and enable Phase Invert(s). Close the Gain plug.
Here's what's happening in my example. When the acoustic guitar plays, the gate opens up on the second aux track that has the flipped phase noisy guitar signal. With the EQ bypassed and the aux faders at unity, you'l hear none of the noisy guitars as they will cancel out. In my example, I want to hear more of the body of the acoustic guitar which is about 225 to 1300 Hz so that's what I've set the EQ to pass. So now everything below and above that band won't be canceled. If I drop the fader down on the second aux, then the signal isn't cancelled as much.
When the acoustic plays, the body of the guitar sound comes through the mix a bit more as I'm attenuating the noisy guitars just in that band and just while the acoustic is playing. So your guitars can keep driving along!
You have a lot of control as you can tweak the reversed aux's fader for the amount of ducking and tweak the lo and hi pass freq parameters on the EQ to tune the band that gets ducked.

Side Chains and ducking

I am working on a dubbing project and need to copy the original soundtrack so that the new vox 'ducks' the music/fx slightly.
Although STP uses some of Logic's plugins (e.g. the compressor) it doesn't seem to have their ability to side chain, i.e. there is no drop down menu in the plugin bar.
The noise gate has a side chain facility but I can't see how to use it without a specific routing. I have tried using sends to a bus and inserting there but to no avail.
The STP manual mentions usage of the sidechain (pg54) relating to working with an external drum signal but it appears that this section has been lifted from the Logic Studio manual...
Any ideas?

P.S. the side chain info is in the STP Effects Reference pdf not the user manual

Naming of bus channels showing up in side chain menuLogic 9

Hi
In mixer view, Im using a kick which Ive sent to its own bus to use for side chaining, which is on bus 12, Ive installed a compressor on another track (Midi instrument track) in the side chain menu the bus channel just shows up as 12 not the name that i gave it.
In the drop down side chain menu the audio tracks show up as a the number, with the name next to it.
The midi tracks show up as just the number,with no name?

Solved the problem,
First it was Ultrabeat as Sidechain trigger... I mixed with two techniques and looped the ultrabeat when it was already looping inside the ultrabeat...
and other sound problems I guess are over cause of leveling the volume correctly,
while side chaining...
I guess I was too excited to start working with logic, didn't noticed that the audio engine is a bit different than cubase I guess...
still having some minor problems in other logic stuff, but happy that I've solved that issue...

Side chaining in LE 7.1.1

Hi
been having trouble being able to side chain the noise gate in logic LE, when i open up the plugin there does'nt seem to be a button on the grey bar at the top of the plugin to access the side chain? can anyone help?
cheers

Sidechaining is, unfortunately, unsupported in Logic Express.

Side chain issues

side chain issues vocal won't trigger evoc 20 poly synth i have my vocal on audio 1 i have set the side chain to audio 1 and the signal to voc by the way i should mention the synth is on its own instrument track i need a quick response please everything is updated

Once you've set the side chain input, you have to record enable the evoc 20 poly synth and play your MIDI keyboard while playback...you'll hear the vocoded effect on your vocals.
P.S. Make sure that evoc 20 is set to "voc" mode...
And another quick thingy, just fiddle around with the evoc 20 incase if you are not happy with its sounding...:)

Side chaining an oscilator

So I am trying add a kick Oscilators for some low end. So i created a new track and put a limitor on it and the plug in for the test oscilator but the button to side chain it to the kick does not come up. what am I missing?

Try a compressor instead or even better use the noise gate Plug-In for that - the limiter doesn't have a sidechain function..

Effects side-chain problem

I need to use the side-chain of the compressor and control it using the output of am instrument track, but the only sources that are displayed in the side-chain window are audio inputs and audio tracks. How do I correct this?

David Toppel wrote:
...or just use a bus send from the instrument track, without an extra auxiliary channel. That seems to work!
That's exactly what I said! Logic automatically creates the aux track for the bus for you when you change the output to the bus but I thought I would explain it that way so it was easier to understand...

Input to side chain

Input to side chain
Hi I bit of a daft one I’m afraid. How do I rout to a side chain with out the routed sound being audible
I what to boost a bass part when the kick drum is hit. Using the kick drum into a noise gate via a the side chain.
But always seem to get the drum sound coming through
Any help would be good
Joff

Route the Signal to a Bus - set the output of that Bus to "no output" in the slot above the channel fader - select that Bus as a sidechain Input for your Plug In. As Logic 8 automatically assigns Busses to Auxes you'll have to switch your Mixer view to "All" - look for the Bus and do the no Output setting there.

Compressor plug-in missing drop down for side chaining

I want to use side chain compression but the Logic Pro X 10.1 compressor seems to be missing the drop down menu to specify what track I want to side chain to. I looked at screen shots of the compressor online and mine looks exactly the same except for missing that and a couple other elements in the header bar of the compressor.
Any thoughts about how to fix this? Should I just delete and reinstall Logic?
Thanks

Make sure you have the correct Advanced Tools enabled.
Sidenote: lots of people seem to think that reinstalling Logic will solve issues, but it will not, except maybe in very rare and unusual cases (when a harddisk crashed or hung during install, for instance)

Side chain and routing

Hello,
pretty shocked for the moment.
If I have a gate on bus9 and want to use a side-chain-signal coming from bus5 - does not work - of the signal is coming from bus10 - works.
Can anyone confirm that? is that a bug?

Yes, I can confirm. As long as the Side Chain is coming from a higher number Bus, it works.
I am not sure if this is a bug, but I would think so.

Sorry..another side chain question!

I fully understand what a side chain is and how to use it.
My question is:
My bass track is on lets say inst 12 and my kick is from ultrabeat routed to aux1
When I select the side chain on the compressor on the bass track it only allows for track, input or bus to feed it...... No AUX!
So, do I need to send the aux to a bus to accomplish what I want?
Thanks in advance!
Craig

I fully understand what a side chain is and how to
use it.
My question is:
My bass track is on lets say inst 12 and my kick is
from ultrabeat routed to aux1
When I select the side chain on the compressor on the
bass track it only allows for track, input or bus to
feed it...... No AUX!
So, do I need to send the aux to a bus to accomplish
what I want?
Thanks in advance!
Craig
Yes you do need to route the sound you want to side chain through a bus (AUXs arent supported as far as I know). You can do that by setting the AUX output to a bus or using a send to send it to a bus. (And taking into account the first reply) subsequently you can choose to set the bus being used for the side chain signal to have no output.
Macbook Pro C2D, Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8) FF800, Logic Pro

Side chaining for volume control

Basically, I need to set up one track to automatically increase or decrease in volume according to the output of another. This is without any manual volume automation.
In other words, if the waveform for Track A has something in it, then Track B should be playing its own audio at the same level.
I heard this was possible with side chaining but I haven't a clue where to begin. Any help?

Hi, try this:
http://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins/product.php?id=MAutoVolume
Have a nice day!

Strange PDC issue when inserting compressor on a group with side chain

Hi Forum People!
Seem to have hit a brick wall trouble shooting this issue, and hope someone here can help.
Whenever I insert a compressor on a bus, and send a sidechain trigger to the compressor, PDC stops working for all multi-output synths. I can sidechain stereo tracks without an issue, but not group tracks with mutliple tracks routed through the groups.
For the record, as soon as I remove the send to the sidechain, PDC works normally.
Is this a limitation of Logic's PDC, or is there a workaround that I haven't discovered?
Many thanks for your time
Steve

LOL! Sorry, didn't have time to respond yesterday. The problem was the way in which I'd set-up the group. Here's how I had the group set up, which broke PDC:
I created an auxiliary track (the group), inserted a compressor, and routed my drums direct to this group.
Here's how I fixed the problem:
instead of creating an aux channel for the group, I routed my drum outputs through an unused bus, which in turn created the group channel automatically.
I've only been using Logic for 1 month, having used Cubase for nearly 20 years, so realizing some things are done very differently.
Thanks chaps!
Steve

Side chains?

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