Side chaining EQ

Blue cats plugins can do it I think, but...

  Add your track, add two busses, add a send to each buss from your track.  

Drop a sidechain comp on the buss you want to duck the freq and set it to whatever source you want, like a kick.

Adjust the eq on both busses so one handles the part of the frequencies you want to do duck, set the other buss to take the frequencies that the ducking one doesn't handle.

Your kick ducks the buss with the low frequencies,  the other buss lets the higher frequencies though unaffected. 

Set the main track (Bass) to post send, and turn it all the way down.

Expand as needed.

EDIT: It this is confusing let me know and I'll try to elaborate, ESL here 

Blue cats plugins works via midi cc's as far as I know, so for example a frequency analyzing plugin can be set to watch a frequency on one track, then you can add one of the eq plugins on a buss and set that to receive from the frequency analyzing plugin and have one of the bands of the eq react to that, I think only the pay versions have that functionality.

Kenneth, You are a smart guy.

Hmmm....I'm not sure if I understand the premise here. An EQ is (generally) not a dynamic effect...that is, it does not change what it's doing in response to a variable (like level on a compressor) so a side-chain doesn't make much sense for it.

What Kenneth is describing is a super-cool classic method for emulating a multiband compressor by using busses. While it's certainly been done before, there are really only a few situations where I'd want to do it that way:

1. if I wanted a different compressor on each frequency range, like a '76 on the mids and a TLA-100 on the lows

2. If I had a situation were each frequency band on a multiband needed a discreet side-chain input.

3. if I didn't have an actual multiband compressor.

In any case, without a variable driving a parameter on an EQ I'm not sure I understand what a side chain would do....the concept of a dynamic EQ is kinda interesting (pulling down a frequency in response to that frequencies level), but that really is pretty much what a multiband comp does. 

Dean


EDIT: Heh....Bit beat me to it...

Thanks to you all for your responses.

I've asked a few other manufacturers since yesterday and they all say no they don't do this.

Sidechaining has traditionally been a compression feature, I agree, but surely that's because where it's come from in the analogue domain?

I often use automation to amend the EQ of, say, a guitar part while the vocalist is singing.  If I'm using automation to do this, wouldn't it be a nice feature if I could easily and simply plug the vocal part through the sidechain of a hypothetical sidechain enabled EQ?  I don't necessarily want to change the compression settings on the guitar.

Anyway, I will give Bitflipper and Kenneth's suggestions a try and see how I get on :-)  A multiband compressor with sidechaining sounds like what I need.

Many thanks,

Mike T.