Need Help With Trance Project (CD Completed)

[Mushy Mushy]

Wags, do you have this?
https://www.waves.com/plugins/oneknob-pumper

It was given out free a few years back. This will see you through initially.

[Mushy Mushy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrl5Y5gnMFw

[wagtunes]

To sidechain reverb you need to put the reverb on an FX track, followed by a compressor. The compressor must be sidechained so it ducks the reverb trail, there is no need to have a sidechain input on the reverb plugin.

It's even easier if you have a plugin like Kickstart or LFO Tool or CableGuys VolumeShaper, that way you don't need to setup any sidechain.

Well, I don't know. He did this without using any compression, unless he simply left that part out. People really don't explain things well on Youtube AT ALL.

[recursive one]

This tutorial?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1GV6CTMky0

1:44 "after the reverb we need to put our compressor"

[wagtunes]

This tutorial?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1GV6CTMky0

1:44 "after the reverb we need to put our compressor"

No, ADSR knows their shit. This was just some guy. I can find it again if I have to. But I will watch this one. Maybe then I'll have some idea.

[mitchiemasha]

The thing with sidechain is no one does that anymore (for kick pumping). Most do it via a volume shaper but still use the term 'sidechain' really we should say ducking or pumping. The problem with a compressor is you're tied to the release curve of that specific compressor, you might never get the result you want. With the volume shaper we can draw it into get the exact pump we require

I recommend SHAPER BOX from Cable Guys. We can even stick this on the master bus, open Volume Shaper, set it to 1/4, purely as a visual reference. Now when triming the envelope on our kick and the release curve of the shaper or compressor on the bass, we can see to cycle precision the interaction between the 2. We can get things super tight!!! When you try it you will see exactly what i mean. It's like going from grey to white in your understanding in sound.

As for reverbs, they should always be pumped to the kick AND, sidechained (the old fashioned way) via the SAME sound going to it. Explained: that's 2 sends for the sound, 1 send going to the reverb bus, the 2nd send going to the compressor sidechain input on the reverb bus. It's important that the compressor is before the reverb on the reverb buss. It's the only way to get larger than life reverbs with out washing out the mix.

[wagtunes]

The thing with sidechain is no one does that anymore (for ducking). Most do it via a volume shaper but still use the term 'sidechain' really we should say ducking or pumping. The problem with a compressor is you're tied to the release curve of that specific compressor, you might never get the result you want. With the volume shaper we can draw it into get the exact pump we require

I recommend SHAPER BOX from Cable Guys. We can even stick this on the master bus, open Volume Shaper, set it to 1/4, purely as a visual reference. Now when triming the envelope on our kick and the release curve of the shaper or compressor on the bass, we can see to cycle precision the interaction between the 2. We can get things super tight!!! When you try it you will see exactly what i mean. It's like going from grey to white in your understanding in sound.

As for reverbs, they should always be pumped to the kick AND, sidechained (the old fashioned way) via the SAME sound going to it. Explained: that's 2 sends for the sound, 1 send going to the reverb bus, the 2nd send going to the compressor sidechain input on the reverb bus. It's important that the compressor is before the reverb on the reverb buss. It's the only way to get larger than life reverbs with out washing out the mix.

I wish you could see how my eyes glazed over reading this. I have no idea what you're talking about.

I need to find a video, for Cubase 7, that walks through the entire process step by step so I can follow it, stop the video if I have to in order to go to the next step, and complete to the end. That's the only way I'm going to learn to do this because all this tech talk is way over my head.

[recursive one]

For a basic "sidechain to kick" effect you may use this thingie

https://www.kickstart-plugin.com/

Costs 15 bucks and is dead simple to use, you don't need to do any routing, just use it as an insert, select a curve and dial the amount of ducking, done. Frankly I use this more often than an actual sidechain because I'm lazy. You can do the same thing but with more precise adjustments with Cableguys Volume Shaper, XFer LFO Tool or IL Gross Beat. This is even better than the actual sidechain because the effect doesn't depend on kick rolls or breaks.

These work unless you occasionally include additional kick fills. For this reason I've stopped using them. The best one I've found is Infected Mushrooms Kick & Bass Solver.

Depends on what you are after but if you sidechain things to your actual kick when you have a long kick fill it can completely kill the sidechaned signal for few bars or create weird stuttering. In most cases you don't want this.

Before I learned about these fake sidechain plugins I had been using a ghost kick for sidechain. I don't know what this IM plugin exactly does but in most cases I want my ducking pattern to stay the same all the time no matter what the kick does, and this Kickstart is a very handy way to acheive this.

[mitchiemasha]

Be specific in what you don't understand. Direct your questions. I'm confused how someone can be 13101 posts in and not know sidechain. Volume Shaper on the master bus is a "secret", there are no tutorials on using it the way i described, so that 1 i can understand. It's purely for the 1/4 wave display.

I use cubase 9.5. Do you have a project with general structure and melody ideas? Perhaps you could send me it and I could set up the sidechain things as I would do it, then send you the project back.

[wagtunes]

Be specific in what you don't understand. Direct your questions. I'm confused how someone can be 13101 posts in and not know sidechain. Volume Shaper on the master bus is a "secret", there are no tutorials on using it the way i described, so that 1 i can understand. It's purely for the 1/4 wave display.

I use cubase 9.5. Do you have a project with general structure and melody ideas? Perhaps you could send me it and I could set up the sidechain things as I would do it, then send you the project back.

I'm setting up a test project now. I don't have anything ready made.

I'm going to set up the following tracks.

Track 1 - Kick
Track 2 - Lead Vocal
Track 3 - Pad
Track 4 - Lead

This is what I want to do.

1. Have the reverb on the vocal only sound when there is no vocal triggering. IOW, at the end of each word or phrase. That way the vocal doesn't sound all washed out.

2. Have the pad pump in time with the kick. I actually did this a long time ago on a project using stock plugins but don't remember the project or where it is on my drive. If I could find it, it would help a lot. Don't remember what tutorials or what manual I read in order to set this up.

3. Have the lead do the same thing as the vocal. Only hear the delay at the end of each phrase played. Again, this should have nothing to do with the kick drum.

This should not be that hard to do.

[recursive one]

Explained: that's 2 sends for the sound, 1 send going to the reverb bus, the 2nd send going to the compressor sidechain input on the reverb bus. It's important that the compressor is before the reverb on the reverb buss. It's the only way to get larger than life reverbs with out washing out the mix.

TBH I also don't quite understand this bit. You send something to the reverb bus but you kill the signal you are sending but the signal itself. Doesn't make much sense to me. In this scenario I would put the compressor after the reverb, then it would make sense - as the dry sound stops or fades out the reverb tail appears

[Mushy Mushy]

Depends on what you are after but if you sidechain things to your actual kick when you have a long kick fill it can completely kill the sidechaned signal for few bars or create weird stuttering. In most cases you don't want this.

Valid points but in these cases I'd automate the volume in these sections to eliminate any side effects.

Before I learned about these fake sidechain plugins I had been using a ghost kick for sidechain. I don't know what this IM plugin exactly does but in most cases I want my ducking pattern to stay the same all the time no matter what the kick does, and this Kickstart is a very handy way to acheive this.

Personally hate using ghost kicks. It just seems like such a waste of time duplicating everything when a send will suffice.

The IM plugin only ducks the bass and leaves the highs intact. The same can be achieved with a multiband comp which is where Pro-MB comes in for me.

[Mushy Mushy]

TBH I also don't quite understand this bit. You send something to the reverb bus but you kill the signal you are sending but the signal itself. Doesn't make much sense to me. In this scenario I would put the compressor after the reverb, then it would make sense - as the dry sound stops or fades out the reverb tail appears

Same here.

[wagtunes]

Someone mentioned Fabfiler has sidechain but mine don't. Is it possible I didn't install the VST3 versions? If so, how do I get them installed?

[Mushy Mushy]

Someone mentioned Fabfiler has sidechain but mine don't. Is it possible I didn't install the VST3 versions? If so, how do I get them installed?

Dude with the utmost respect for somebody who has used every plugin ever designed this is something you should know...