Envelope Follower for VST's lacking one?

[David Lincoln Brooks]

I have a question... I don't even know if this sort of thing exists:    I would like to have an envelope follower trigger any VST effect that lacks one.    I have a distortion VST plugin,  but I would like to have the distortion effect kick in only in moments when the track's signal reaches a certain volume.   

Some plugins have an Envelope Follower capability built in,   but most do not....    What do you do if you have a favorite VST effect which lacks a follower?     Is there a workaround of some sort that will achieve the desired result anyway?

Thanks,   David

Edited November 6, 2022 by David Lincoln Brooks

[Starship Krupa]

On 11/6/2022 at 7:40 AM, David Lincoln Brooks said:

I have a question... I don't even know if this sort of thing exists:    I would like to have an envelope follower trigger any VST effect that lacks one.    I have a distortion VST plugin,  but I would like to have the distortion effect kick in only in moments when the track's signal reaches a certain volume.   

Some plugins have an Envelope Follower capability built in,   but most do not....    What do you do if you have a favorite VST effect which lacks a follower? Is there a workaround of some sort that will achieve the desired result anyway?

There's one plug-in I can think of that might work.

MCCGenerator is part of the legendary Meldaproduction MFreeFX Bundle.

It generates MIDI CC messages based on a variety of things, from built-in oscillators, to level envelope following (which is what you want). It requires a way to map the parameters of your target FX to MIDI CC's.

Download the bundle and try it in free mode and see if you can get the results you want. I have the upgraded version, and the custom modulators section is readily accessible. This may not be so for the free version, as access to the modulators and multiparameters is advertised as one of the advantages of upgrading the bundle.

Good news, though, for another week, Meldaproduction are having a 50% off everything sale, and that includes the FreeFX upgrade. You can get the whole bundle upgraded for about $10 USD if you first sign up for their newsletter, which gives you a $10 credit. Then when you check out, apply discount code MELDA1923165. The result of all of these discounts is that you'll get the bundle upgrade for about $10 USD. There are of course 36 other plug-ins in the bundle, so it's a pretty decent deal overall.

[bitflipper]

You could rig something like that up with an aux send and a gate. A gate is basically an envelope follower. 

[David Lincoln Brooks]

Thanks,  guys... I'll try those...

[Starship Krupa]

If you just want it to turn on at a certain point, a gate that can send a MIDI note, like Unfiltered Audio's G8 (and freebie G8CM), might also help you accomplish this. G8 sends a MIDI note whenever it opens (or closes, it can be set either way).