Hello
 
I am setting up Sonar X2 for Sidechaining and think I understand most of it, but I have one question. What I have done is to use the ProChannels bus compressor with SideChain ability on a bus (SIDECHAIN below), and then sent a signal from a drumtrack (SC kick) with a single midi kick drum from Roland Groovesynth. I then send a signal to the compressor on the bus (SideChain) from a the track I want to use (e. g bass). I get the signal as illustrated below. When putting a "send" (PreFader) on a bass track to the Sidechain bus the "pumping" sc effects accurs.
 
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However, I did see a tutorial video where Producer Timothy Allen used Logic in a more "flexible" way. He did set up the Bus/Aux and SideChain kick track in the same way as have done, but without the compressor on the Sidechain bus. But he then seem to use a compressor as insert on the track instead of sending the signal to the bus (see below). This seem pretty smart as he can adjust compressor settings in each audiotrack, and not only the one on the SideChain bus (as I do). If I want to use Sidechain on several channels, I can only adjust the amount of signal being sent to the Sidechain bus, but not the actual settings of the compressor. As I understand it below, he is inserting a compressor on the kickdrum, turn on sidechain on the compressor and then sending channel 1 to the kickdrum in this case.
 
 
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Do I understand it correctly like this:
 
1. Create a bus/auxtrack and name it for example to Sidechain, Put Output to no Audio Out. 
2. Use Channel 1 with a kick sample send OUT to the SideChain Bus (w. No Output)
3. Insert a compressor on (for example) a bass track channel and turn on the SideChain ability on the compresssor 
4. Insert a SEND to the bass tracks compressor
 
Is this correct or am Im missing something. I want to create a template to use in my projects so it would be great to understand what he is doing.
 
Kindest Regards
Erik

Yeah, that should work, but I just did this to shorten it up.  You don't really need a sidechain bus at all.
 
1) create Audio track, set it's output to None, mark it as Sidechain.  Drop your kick (or looped kicks) in it
2) create another Audio track for what you want to sidechain, put compressor (I used the gate/expander) on it, turn sidechain on, drop your audio in it.
3) Go back to Sidechain track, create send to track you put the compressor/gate on (you should see it as a choice), and that's it.
 
I think if you save/open this project though, you get a warning that the 1st audio track points to nowhere, but I just ignore it.

Thanks Forkol
 
Yeah I have done as you suggest before, and it works very well...
However, if I understand the tutorial correctly, to set up the SC in this way he get more "controll" over SC. I guess it is related to having all sent from one channel, and perhaps the fact that compressors on different channels can be individually. Or can there be another reason?
 
Any ideas on this?

ErikDeluxe
Thanks Forkol
...
Any ideas on this?

I think you can create another send to another channel in my method as well.
 
Hm, not sure why.  I'm not sure what more control he'd be looking for.  My thinking is that you don't want to really do too much with a sidechain track in terms of processing it.  I have seen folks EQ it a bit, and I guess you can compress the actual audio on that track or transient shape it a bit for sharper/duller attacks, but I'd rather change the track compressor/gate that's reading the sidechain.  In many cases, I don't even create a sidechain track per se, just do a send off the kick track.
 
I like Timothy Allen's videos in general.  He also takes questions.  Maybe you can ask your question to him and see what he says?
 
 

Thanks for your reply:)
 
Yeah, that's great. I will send him a question! Guess on the Groove3 site? Try there...

What do people do when bouncing a project down to audio with side chained tracks in it? The effect never bounces down.