I am unclear on how to set up things like sidechain compression in ardour. I would really appreciate some pointers on good ways to set this up (note I have searched the forums and still am not clear on the correct way to do this).
For example:
I have 1 stereo track with a kick drum.
I have 1 stereo track with a continuous pad/synth sound
3 channel buss with SC3 pre-fader, kick on in1, synth on in2 & in3 - seems as though it should work, but the compressor has no effect, other than making the kick silent
3 channel track with SC3 pre-fader, kick on in1, synth on in2 & in3 - works much the same as buss but needs to be record-enabled
I have tried putting sends pre and post fader for the above setups to no avail. I also attempted to make “3 channel sends” but this is not possible it seems.
Something that I am confused by is the path within the channel - 3 ins, 3 outs, but after the SC3 there are only 2 signal streams right? Is it possible to have a buss/track with different numbers of ins & outs?
If someone out there knows how to do this, I’d really appreciate some tips!
Do you mean the mono instructions in the post at top, or the info down the bottom with 3 channel buss and the like?
It seems it should be possible to get the 3 channel buss version working; I have spent quite some time but was not successful. I will have another very careful go tonight…
I will be trying to achieve this (from the bottom of the thread):
“It works in Ardour. Just create a new bus with 3 inputs and stereo output, apply the SC3, send the main signal to the first two inputs and the key signal to the third one.”
as it is want I want to do (stereo signal sidechain compressed). Of course there are many details not specified here, like whether the SC3 is pre or post fader, which inputs are the signal & which are sidechain (i believe in SC3 the first input is the sidechain). Also I’m not sure if a bus can have a different number of ins and outs, and the 3 channel panner confuses me a little (cos I’m dumb that is ).
Also an important note with SC3 is to set the chain balance to 1 (all sidechain), which I have made sure of in all my tests so far.
It is possible, in as far as step by step instructions, that link pretty well lists them. As you can probably gather form that link, it isn’t pretty right now, I believe this will be helped greatly by the port matrix in A3 when that hits, but in the meantime those instructions are pretty accurate.
Thanks for the link, that post made me believe it was possible, but having read through the suggestions there, i’m still unable to get things working. (note I have been aware of that post for a while, and by posting a new thread, I hope to get some clear steps/instructions/limitations up for other users; that post starts off with a hacky mono approach which makes it seem like Ardour doesn’t yet support this kind of routing)
At the moment whenever I need sidechain or any other interesting routing, I host the plugins externally (with jack-rack). Now I am running on Mac OS X I figured I should work it out once and for all as it seems tantalisingly possible to do this within Ardour! On Mac OS X I haven’t thought about what to use to host the plugins externally, maybe pd…
Anyway if anyone does sidechain compression within Ardour I’d be very appreciative if they could write up a step-by-step here…
I was just glancing at the mono info at the top, the concept should be the same. Th quoted you copied over…
"It works in Ardour. Just create a new bus with 3 inputs and stereo output, apply the SC3, send the main signal to the first two inputs and the key signal to the third one."
Sound right to me and is what I have done in the past when I needed similar. To cover your specific comments/questions…
like whether the SC3 is pre or post fader
Doesn’t really matter for those instructions as both are pre-panner. It is whereever you want to insert it in the signal chain, whether that be pre-fade or post-fade.
which inputs are the signal & which are sidechain (i believe in SC3 the first input is the sidechain).
This I can’t answer off hand, you will need to play and see which port acts as the sidechain and route accordingly.
Also I'm not sure if a bus can have a different number of ins and outs,
Yes they can.
and the 3 channel panner confuses me a little (cos I'm dumb that is :) ).
I can’t even remember if you should be seeing the three channel panner like this to be honest. Going off logic(Not memory) you should be seeing three stereo panners, one for each signal, at worst. But honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if you only saw two stereo panners for the outputs of the plugin, like a normal stereo track. Try it and see, report back:)
).