Tracktion 7 sidechain issue

[do_androids_dream]

Using my Waves plugins (C1 + Rcomp specifically).. If the plugin has a sidechain input the audio does come 'through' the plugin even with the sidechain input set to <none>. I've tried connecting source 1 + 2 to input 1 + 2 on the connections button but still no joy. Anyone know what the problem is?

[do_androids_dream]

I have to conclude these plugins are broken in Tracktion. There is signal going through because there is activity on the meters AND I can use the makeup gain on both fine - it functions as a gain control - but the compressor controls do nothing to the audio. On C1 there is no activity on the compressor meters - on Rcomp there is - but they just don't function.

[Mark Swanson]

I am trying to understand just what you mean, because I have the same Waves plug ins you mention. I have never used sidechaining, partly because I don't understand it so well and also because I haven't really found a need or use for it in the things I do.
But, it seems to me that my plug ins do work, for standard compression. I tried to get the sidechaining to work a bit ago because I wanted to check it out, but I could not get the sidechain function to work. I came to the conclusion that it does not work in the Waves stuff because when I run these plug ins in Tracktion I do not see the "waves controls " along the top of any Waves Plug in. On my Mac, I see these controls but on my PC in Tracktion I do not and in there is something to turn the sidechain on...I will look again in a little bit.

[do_androids_dream]

If a plugin has sidechain capability a drop down menu will appear in the plugin window (in the top left). In fact, Tracktion has such a simple way of implementing it - you just select which track you want to trigger the compressor in that drop down menu and that's it - very elegant. In my case if I leave the sidechain as <none> no signal passes through the compressor part of the plugin yet there is activity on the meters and the make up gain works - very odd. I might add, I'm using the vst3 version so that might have something to do with it.

It actually does work for sidechaining.. if you select an input it triggers from it fine. It just doesn't work when no sidechain input is selected.

There is a workaround - copy the audio you want to compress to a new track, mute it, then set that track as the trigger for the sidechain. A bit cumbersome..

[Mark Swanson]

Admittedly, I am a bit over my head here so far. I could not make Tracktion run my Waves plug ins in VST3, only VST worked for me otherwise I had major delays and crashes.
I am about to fire up my gear and have a play around with this stuff. By the way, Dick is my favorite sci-fi author.

[do_androids_dream]

Thanks for replying here btw - the Tracktion forum is somewhat sleepy! Yeah PKD, Vonnegut and Herbert fan here

Some good news - within Waves Studiorack the sidechaining all works fine.

When would you experience crashes? Just randomly or when projects get big etc.? I've been using the Waves vst3 versions in Reaper with no problems at all for the last few months.

[Mark Swanson]

I had crashes when I would try to load in any Waves plug in with Tracktion 7. When I switched from VST3 to VST my troubles went away.
I have two screen shots here. One is from a video on Youtube that shows how to do sidechaining with the C1 compressor. The other is from my own screen, it shows what I see when I load C1 or ANY Waves plug in. The menu along the top is GONE. You may have brought to light another issue for me, I am supposed to have that.
And yes, I love all three of those authors!
I have to shrink the file sizes...see next post.

[Mark Swanson]

My screen shot....

[Mark Swanson]

From the video. See the menu at the top?

[do_androids_dream]

The menu at the top in the Cubase video is specific to Cubase. The reason you don't have the sidechain option is because unfortunately it's only the vst3 versions that support it I believe sidechain on vst2 is supported only in Pro Tools.

Thanks for your input though. I hope these threads become resourceful for other T7 users because there's not a lot of info out there - still no manual if I'm not mistaken.

[rrichard63]

... I believe sidechain on vst2 is supported only in Pro Tools. ...

Pro Tools is not the only one. Reaper does too. I think there are others but I can't name them right now.

[AegisPrime]

... I believe sidechain on vst2 is supported only in Pro Tools. ...

Pro Tools is not the only one. Reaper does too. I think there are others but I can't name them right now.

Tracktion does too but it depends on the plugin - TDR's Kotelnikov works perfectly with a sidechain input in T7 as a VST2 plugin.

[do_androids_dream]

... I believe sidechain on vst2 is supported only in Pro Tools. ...

Pro Tools is not the only one. Reaper does too. I think there are others but I can't name them right now.

Tracktion does too but it depends on the plugin - TDR's Kotelnikov works perfectly with a sidechain input in T7 as a VST2 plugin.

I'm just talking about Waves plugins specifically. Plenty of other devs plugins with sidechain work fine in Tracktion.

EDIT - Reaper doesn't support sidechaining on vst2 64 bit - at least it doesn't here for C1 comp/gate and Rcomp.

[rrichard63]

... I'm just talking about Waves plugins specifically. ...

I didn't realize that. I apologize for sending us in a wrong direction.

... EDIT - Reaper doesn't support sidechaining on vst2 64 bit - at least it doesn't here for C1 comp/gate and Rcomp.

Reaper does support VST2 sidechaining in general. I didn't know that Waves plugins are an exception.

[do_androids_dream]

... I'm just talking about Waves plugins specifically. ...

I didn't realize that. I apologize for sending us in a wrong direction.

... EDIT - Reaper doesn't support sidechaining on vst2 64 bit - at least it doesn't here for C1 comp/gate and Rcomp.

Reaper does support VST2 sidechaining in general. I didn't know that Waves plugins are an exception.

Yes it's just Waves plugins that are the exception (and one or two others like Eventide Ultrachannel).