Sidechains and Connector / Patchwork?

[Mr D]

Hi folks,

Does anyone know if Blue Cat plugins can do the following?

I work with Samplitude, and in this DAW it's possible to have objects on a track with plugins effecting them. So the track itself has no FX, but when the timeline reaches the object with the effect inserted on it, it gets effected for the duration of that object. This works in realtime, it's not like an offline render that many DAWs also have.

The problem is, this doesn't work with sidechains. So, when you have a track effect in Samplitude, you have an extra "sidechain input" drop-down at the top of the plugin that lets you route another track to the sidechain input of the plugin (presuming of course that the plugin supports a sidechain input).

But i was wondering if Blue Cat's Connector, in conjunction with Patchwork, could get this working? I had a quick try, but with no luck, but to be honest i never used Connector before, so i thought that before i spend a load of time trying to achieve something that may be impossible, i'd ask the fine folks on this forum about it!

Below is a pic illustrating what i need to do.

Cheers!

sidechain.png

[Blue Cat Audio]

I think it should indeed be feasible with Connector and PatchWork. Have you already seen the tutorials for Pro Tools and Da Vinci Resolve? I guess it should be similar in your case.

Stereo Side Chain in Pro Tools with PatchWork & Connector

How To Side Chain In Da Vinci Resolve with PatchWork & Connector

[Mr D]

Thanks for the tip, i got it working by following the Pro Tools tutorial!

I have a question: obviously packet size and buffering amount are thing you need to consider when using it in real time, but what about with offline render? Then i guess it doesn't matter, right? You might be getting dropouts in real-time, but when you render offine, in theory the drop-out are not an issue, correct?

[Blue Cat Audio]

Unfortunately it depends on the implementation of the renderer. It may sometimes not work upon offline rendering because the renderer works in parallel on separate tracks.

BTW I guess that in your case you can actually avoid the need to buffer anything (if using the "App" Connection setting) by selecting the side chain input (even if it doe snot do anything): it will give samplitude the information about the dependencies between tracks so that they are processed in proper order.

[Mr D]

OK! But i think you're talking about bouncing out stems, right?

If it wasn't to work when bouncing everything down to a stereo mix, we can pretty much say the renderer is broken, right?

I'll try the "App" thing!

[Blue Cat Audio]

If you are using "local machine" or "network" settings for the communication between instances, offline rendering won't work AT ALL, as the communication process is fully asynchronous. It is almost sure that the receiver won't have received the audio before it gets called for processing by the renderer.