How to set up MAGC in Reaper? Differences between MGAC and Compare?

[Nicolas Castro]

Hi guys! First post here in KVR. I've seen some tutorials for MAGC in Ableton, I can see how it works and what it does, but I don't know how to setup the sidechain in Reaper. Anyone can help me?
I would also like to know what's the difference between MAGC and Compare. Of what I understand they do basically the same thing right?
Thanks in advance!

[Hexspa]

MAGC sets the level of an incoming signal to match that of a sidechain, iirc. You drag the routing button on to the gui then go to the pin editor in reaper's plugin border and set ch 3+4 to the sidechain input of the plugin. Just look up "reaper sidechain routing" on youtube and something will come up.

In contrast, MCompare is about level matching, yes, but you can select whether you level match to the serial signal or the sidechain. You don't setup the sidechain the same though, you do it as "sources" from within the melda plugin. Plus, MCompare lets you load wavs and you can pull that "source" from anywhere you can place a plugin whereas you can only take sidechains in reaper from maybe pre or post fader.

Overall, the purpose of the two plugins is different even if they have a little bit of overlap: kind of like MSaturator vs MAutoDynamicEQ even though the latter has some saturation built in.

[Nicolas Castro]

Thanks Hexspa, that clarifies a lot how to set up MAGC. Last question: so in what specific scenario would you use MAGC then?
Thanks again!

[Hexspa]

Thanks Hexspa, that clarifies a lot how to set up MAGC. Last question: so in what specific scenario would you use MAGC then?
Thanks again!

It's open-ended. It's to match dynamic envelopes. That can range from setting it slow to make sure a vocal is louder than a backing track, give a violin the envelope of a snare or create compression-like distortion effects. I don't use it much but I though it was most useful for creative applications, like many of Melda's more unique titles and features.

[sparella]

I use MAGC for gain staging of long effect chains. I tweak each processor so that there isn't a gain build up that could fool me into "louder is better". Then I bypass MAGC once my gain staging is set.

[Nicolas Castro]

Thanks a lot guys, that was really helpful!