Same sidechain source on multiple plugins

[gpkcaminha]

I'm trying to set up some sidechain compression from a kick on a few tracks. When I set it on a single track, it works well. However, the moment I set the same sidechain source (kick track) on a second track, it simply stops working, as if the kick signal wasn't reaching the sidechain input on both (or more) compressors. The only way to fix this is to delete all sidechained compressors and start over but again I can only set up a single one for a given source. I've tried multiple compression plugins so that's not the issue.

Is that some common issue or characteristic of Waveform? How do people set up multiple sidechain compressors on the same source?

[Kang]

I'm trying to set up some sidechain compression from a kick on a few tracks. When I set it on a single track, it works well. However, the moment I set the same sidechain source (kick track) on a second track, it simply stops working, as if the kick signal wasn't reaching the sidechain input on both (or more) compressors. The only way to fix this is to delete all sidechained compressors and start over but again I can only set up a single one for a given source. I've tried multiple compression plugins so that's not the issue.

Is that some common issue or characteristic of Waveform? How do people set up multiple sidechain compressors on the same source?

I was able to get it working with the newer sidechain way (drop down menu on top left of plugin, may only be VST3), but it did seem like it wasn't working at first. I can't reproduce it though, it seems to work every-time now. There was a bug with extra plugin inputs where you had to reload either the project or waveform for them to initialize, it doesn't seem the same as this, but you may try saving it, exiting, and re-loading just to check.

Do you have aux/return sends on any of the sidechain channels, out of curiosity?

edit: What wasn't making it work at first is that I had the tracks I was doing it on also involved in a rack-style sidechain. Do you have any racks/wrappers going?

[gpkcaminha]

Hmm I do have some aux send/returns in some tracks, I also have some submixes going on. No racks though.
I'm really not sure what's going on. Apparently it will work on some tracks but not others. I was able to add to two or three tracks but then it won't work for further tracks, even ones without any send/return or submix. I tried replicating this on another project that had no send/receive or submixes and it didn't happen. I'm also using the top-left sidechain dropdown. Reloading/reopening waveform didn't help unfortunately...

Maybe I could try getting rid of the send/receive and submixes on another edit just to see.

It's a bit frustrating but luckily I'm still not doing mixdown on this song, so I hope I can find some solution before I get to that point.

[Kang]

Which version of Waveform?

What plugin(s) are you using? Do you have sidechain input enabled on all the ones receiving the kick feed (I assume you do since you can get one instance to work)?

Are they all audio tracks, or MIDI too?

I'd keep testing on the project with no submixes or sends/returns, just so that's not a factor in troubleshooting.

I'm able to get it going no problem with elysia mpressor and voxengo crunchessor, running the 11.5.1 beta. 4 tracks each with input all coming from the same kick track. All audio.

[gpkcaminha]

Which version of Waveform?

What plugin(s) are you using? Do you have sidechain input enabled on all the ones receiving the kick feed (I assume you do since you can get one instance to work)?

Are they all audio tracks, or MIDI too?

I'd keep testing on the project with no submixes or sends/returns, just so that's not a factor in troubleshooting.

I'm able to get it going no problem with elysia mpressor and voxengo crunchessor, running the 11.5.1 beta. 4 tracks each with input all coming from the same kick track. All audio.

OK I think I figured it out but will answer anyway just in case anyone is searching:

Waveform 11.5.2, I had just basically Serum and some reverb plugin. I was using the stock Waveform essentials TCompressor but I tried with other compressors as well.

The tracks are MIDI but I was putting the compressor after Serum so that shouldn't be a problem.

The way I fixed it was by going on the button just left of the Sidechain dropdown on the top left corner -> Configure Plugin Channels -> Input busses -> Stereo Side Chain -> Named Channels. It was marked as "Mono" and I switched to "Stereo". Then I clicked the button just to the right of the sidechain dropdown and routed "Kick left" to the bottom "Unkown" and "Kick right" to the topmost "Unknown". The reason why the plugin sidechain inputs are called "Unknown" is not super clear to me specially even for the Tracktion compressor plugin which is supposed to be nicely compatible with Waveform, but might be some configuration step that I missed too.

I also tested with other plugins, for the Fabfilter Pro-C I had to actually go back to "Mono" and route both kick channels to the same "Unknown". Having on Stereo only worked if I used only one of the channels routed, and apparently the sidechain signal was weaker that way - very weird.

Not sure if this is some bug or something, I couldn't really isolate the issue, as it was super hit and miss for me. But using Stereo is quite consistent - and if it doesn't work apparently messing with the number of channels (mono - stereo) and source channels - plugin input mapping seems to reset things into place.

In any case, thanks for the answers! Even though it's still a bit unclear it helped me troubleshoot a bit.