soloing a track that is side chained

How do you solo a side chained track, to hear how much the sidechaining is having an effect on the overall track?  When you solo that track, it appears to then also mute the sidechain input track(s).  The only way I can see to do it is pull all the other track fadars down, that you don't want to hear (with the side chain input tracks obviously on pre fadar).  As you can see, that wouldn't be practical in a lot of situations.  Muting the tracks you don't want to hear (which would leave fader levels intact), also kills the send levels as well.
 
Seems I'm missing a simple step or a basic concept....or how to re-arrange the signal flow?

Set the send to the sidechain input pre-fader.

I usually clone the track that's creating the sidechain signal for independent control over the audio and the control signal. Processing the control signal can do all sorts of interesting things. Often it's helpful to be able to automate the two differently as well.

mixmkr

Anderton
I usually clone the track that's creating the sidechain signal for independent control over the audio and the control signal. Processing the control signal can do all sorts of interesting things. Often it's helpful to be able to automate the two differently as well.

that's an interesting thought.
 
However,...and not that this is really a *need* per se...   but I was looking for a way to solo JUST the receiving track that was side chained...WITHOUT losing the side chained sound on that track.  IOW, when you solo the track, it mutes ALL other tracks effectively, thus turning off the input track, whether it's pre fader, cloned or whatever.
 
Basically, I was really fooling around with the side chaining today, and looking for goofy, un-needed routing situations ;-D

 
Group the receiving track and control track solo buttons. One click to solo, one click to turn off solo.

Anderton
Either I don't understand what you want, or you don't understand what I'm saying. I may have gotten too complicated because I set up pretty heavy-duty sidechain effects that involve processing the control track and sometimes pulling out some of the audio. But it sounds like you have a relatively basic request:
 

 I was looking for a way to solo JUST the receiving track that was side chained...WITHOUT losing the side chained sound on that track.

 
Let's use a practical example to make sure we're on the same page:
 

• You have a track with guitar that's going through a gate with a sidechain input.
• You want a track with drums to feed the gate sidechain via a send, so the guitar is gated by the drums.
• You want to be able to solo the guitar track, hear how the drums feeding the sidechain affect the guitar sound, but not hear the drum track's audio.

Yes? If not, please explain what I'm missing.

 
YES, this is exactly what I was asking to do.
 

Anderton

When you solo the track, it mutes ALL other tracks effectively, thus turning off the input track, whether it's pre fader, cloned or whatever.

 
This is not correct, so maybe this is the issue. When you solo a track, you are effectively turning the channel fader on the other tracks all the way down. However, the status of any track's mute, solo, or fader position will affect a send ONLY if the send is set to post. As the send from the drums is pre-fader, it's not affected by the solo button on the guitar track. The signal feeding the sidechain persists, even though you can't hear the audio from the drums because the solo button has muted the drum track's audio output.
 
I just tested this now with the example given above, and if the track sending to the sidechain is pre-fader, and the send level is up, then the guitar will be gated by the drum sound whether the guitar track is soloed or not.

 
This is NOT how it works on my system with X3e, unless I am missing a "global solo" setting or something.  I FOR SURE had the control track send PRE fader and when I solo'd the receiving track, I could see my compression signal in the PC4K compressor STOP.  Just as if I had muted the control track.  Soloing a track is NOT like pulling the fadars down on the other tracks..... understanding the fadar is typically the last in the chain.  It is ALSO MUTING THE OTHER CHANNEL BEFORE THE SENDS, whether they are set pre or post fadar.  Believe me, if it didn't, it would work and I wouldn't be asking this question, because when I first solo'd a track, I noticed this right away.  BOTH in hearing and also the visual on the gain reduction meter on my PC4K that was receiving the side chain.
 

Anderton
 Why do you consider the routing "useless" or "beating a dead horse" if it lets you solo the processed signal without hearing the audio from the control signal? Or do you want something else that I don't understand?

 
I was half joking...because I've been *struggling* to describe my question.... and everyone including yourself was NOT totally clear on my question...or had an answer that was slightly off topic, etc, etc.  Also because it really ISN'T that big a deal.  Probably a rare occasion to use this scenario, but since I noticed it, I brought it up here in the forums to help understand X3 better.  The program rocks to the max, so it is almost always easy to find another solution or work around, should you find a procedure you can't do.
 
BTW, I whole heartidly thank everyone who has replied.  That's what makes these forums such a HUGE asset and a great place to learn and help others.  I'd be lost without these forums and the knowledgeable people that respond.
 
 
 
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFigf5nyhuM
Here's a video showing that using the solo button (on the track being side chained) will shut off the control track.
 
Sorry for the video quality.   camtasia on the way  :-D

I could not replicate the failure either. SONAR works as it should here, using pre-fader sends always send signal to side-chain solo or not.
 
I did use a new project and a project template created in X3 for testing.

Welp... I just did a quickie track using audio tracks ONLY and it worked just fine!!  Solo'd the track and the side chaining continued.
 
I'll experiment further, but I was using Superior Drummer 2.0 as my control track in the video.  I'll try other options in THAT same [corrupted??] project and see what happens.  In the past, I have had some odd (but rare) behaviours with Toontrack, that it wouldn't surprise me if Superior Drummer wasn't the culprit in this.
 
You guys have been an immense help and just another reason to confirm I'm using the right software.  thx again!
 
btw...I'm using a brand new StudioCat, I've had DimPro crash it at 64 samples a time or two (locked up my Steinberg UR-44)...but otherwise it has been crash free for about a month now. 

The fact that it was a virtual instrument was a CRUCIAL missing piece of information. MIDI tracks don't have pre/post send options. When you soloed the sidechained track, you were muting the MIDI track. No MIDI, no data feeding drums, no drum sound, no send to the sidechain. There's nothing wrong with Sonar, Superior Drummer, or the PC compressor.

4. Group the sidechained track's solo button with the MIDI track's solo button so when you solo the sidechained track, you solo the MIDI track along with it.

mixmkr
How come I feel like an idiot?

You have much to learn, young grasshopper, if you want to be an idiot. To be a true idiot, you would have needed to post a subject title in all caps that said "SONAR BROKEN!!! SIDECHAN FUNCTION DOESNT' WORK! NEITHER DOES SOLO BUTTON!!!!!!!!!"
 
Then you would have had to say that the sidechain and solo buttons work in every other program, and that you're going to switch to Reaper because it's not broken like Sonar. Then you would also have to toss in some kind of personal insult to the Bakers, like "This has been happening since Sonar X1!! When are we going to get a fix? Are they too stupid to fix something this simple? Haven't we been patient enough waiting for the Bakers to stop goofing off and fix this deal-breaker that has prevented me from becoming a pop star??!?!!??"
 
You'll get the hang of it if you practice enough.
 

Grem
I just got around to seeing if this works. It does!
 
It was much easier than I have believed it to be. I will be using this technique in the future. It's in the tool box now!

Don't forget you can get creative with this - multiple sends feeding a sidechain, processing the control signal, etc. For example with dance mixes and a stereo drum track, you can roll off the highs from a drum track and have just the kick do the processing, or use delay on the sidechain send. What you're gating can be processed as well - make it a cloned track, and you can sidechain somelike a particular frequency range.