Speaking of the "ducking effect" Craig, what would be cool is something (a VST) that does exactly that using a MIDI trigger instead of having to use a sidechain input.
 
I'm aware of the LFO Tool but is there something cheaper or bundled in X1 or X2?  I don't have X3 and to be honest, I don't think I'm going to upgrade this time as I went from 8.5 pro to X1 to X1 Expanded to X2 so I've had enough of upgrading TBH.
 
I also had no issues with 8.5 crashing until I went to Win7 64-bit but X1 solved that problem & so far, I've had no stability issues with X2a!  I also really like working with V-Vocal & have never had it crash as I always render straight down shortly after I'm happy with the result.
 
Perhaps I just like the Roland logo on my screen. 
 
Seriously, I am & have always been a huge fan of their synths, drum machines, interfaces, etc as unlike M-Audio, they always update drivers quickly & even still support some ageing Edirol UM interfaces which I wouldn't substitute as they work rock solid!

I just wish Steve and Jimi had more time together...

For a while now, I've wanted to do this in Sonar.  Basically, I want to send a pre-fader copy of a track to another track, rather than using a bus.  Normally I used this for an extra snap on a kick drum or snare, or grit on a bass.  So I would create a bus called "Kick snap" or something and send the kick track (pre-fader) to the new bus.  Then affect the bus as needed, and set the fader usually a lot lower than the main track.
 
Problems have been 1) the fader for the bus kick is way over in the console view, far away from the original kick track, and 2) if I solo anything else, the bus kick can still be heard, and I have to mute the bus.  I think if it were a track, it would be muted by the solo.
 
So I tried Ludwig's technique, made a new audio track with the sonitus gate inserted as a sidechain output.  Then send the original track to the gate sidechain (pre-fader) and nothing comes out.  The gate shows no input or output signal, and the track shows no activity.
 
What did I do wrong?  If I send to a bus, the signal goes through.  But with this sidechain technique, nothing.
 
I'm using X2 Producer FWIW.
 
 

Make sure the button below the Output label on the Gate is set to Sidech.

Thanks scook, I did that first.  That's the only way it would show up as send destination anyway.

OK, the routing is not right. The Output button does not affect the ability to sidechain. Try this:
1) Add a new audio track
2) Insert the Gate in the new audio track FX bin
3) Add a send to the original audio track (the one with clips already in it) pointing to the Gate
4) Enable the Sidech. output of the Gate
5) Start transport. Now both the original track and the track created in #1 should play.

RickJP909
Speaking of the "ducking effect" Craig, what would be cool is something (a VST) that does exactly that using a MIDI trigger instead of having to use a sidechain input. I'm aware of the LFO Tool but is there something cheaper or bundled in X1 or X2? 

 
So basically...you want a MIDI-triggered envelope generator? You can use the Z3TA as an effects processor to do that.
 

I don't have X3 and to be honest, I don't think I'm going to upgrade this time as I went from 8.5 pro to X1 to X1 Expanded to X2 so I've had enough of upgrading TBH.
 
I also had no issues with 8.5 crashing until I went to Win7 64-bit but X1 solved that problem & so far, I've had no stability issues with X2a!  I also really like working with V-Vocal & have never had it crash as I always render straight down shortly after I'm happy with the result.

 
I never found X2 particularly problematic either. However...at some point you'll probably want to upgrade to take advantage of the comping and ARA integration, which has more implications than just Melodyne. I always ilked V-Vocal but I have to say that the Editor version of Melodyne has won me over.
 

Perhaps I just like the Roland logo on my screen. 
 
Seriously, I am & have always been a huge fan of their synths, drum machines, interfaces, etc as unlike M-Audio, they always update drivers quickly & even still support some ageing Edirol UM interfaces which I wouldn't substitute as they work rock solid!

 
Which is one reason I'm not worried about the V-Studio working for quite a while longer.
 

Anderton

RickJP909
Speaking of the "ducking effect" Craig, what would be cool is something (a VST) that does exactly that using a MIDI trigger instead of having to use a sidechain input. I'm aware of the LFO Tool but is there something cheaper or bundled in X1 or X2? 

 
So basically...you want a MIDI-triggered envelope generator? You can use the Z3TA as an effects processor to do that.
 

Here is a process using the free 32bit plug-in AudioToCC

scook
OK, the routing is not right. The Output button does not affect the ability to sidechain. Try this:
1) Add a new audio track
2) Insert the Gate in the new audio track FX bin
3) Add a send to the original audio track (the one with clips already in it) pointing to the Gate
4) Enable the Sidech. output of the Gate
5) Start transport. Now both the original track and the track created in #1 should play.

That's exactly what I tried.  No sound or signal from the gate plug-in, or the new track.

Looks like you are gonna need to upgrade to X3 to make it work. Just tried and confirmed it does not work in X2a.