Can somebody please walk me through this Sidechain? Thanks!

[Misha]

Hi Folks. 

I watched the video (see below). Can somebody please walk me through step by step if I want to do same in Cakewalk, with lets say stock FX?  I am a bit confused about two buses (an the rest of routing for that matter).  The way I understood... The initial setup in Cakewalk would be to create two buses, Lets assume Bus A and Bus B.  The vocal track output would go in "Bus A" ,  "Bus A" output would be set to "Bus B" and "Bus B" output would be set to Master....

Thank you in advance!

 

 

 

 

[mettelus]

Based on what that video is showing:

1. You have a Vocal track in place.
2. In the console view (OR you can show the Bus Pane (small icon in the lower right on the left track view pane)), right click an empty bus->"Insert Stereo Bus" Rename it so it is descriptive (like Reverb Bus).
3. In the track view (left pane), right click your Vocal track (the area beneath the name)->Insert Send->Choose the "Reverb Bus" you just made (or whatever you named it). Leave it post-fader.
4. In the Console View (or Bus Pane)->Insert a Sonitus Compressor, and then a Sonitus Reverb below it.
5. Back on your Audio Track, right click->Insert Send->Sonitus Compressor-Reverb Bus (or whatever you named the bus).

Repeat the above to add another bus for Delay, but using Sonitus Delay for step 4 on the new bus instead of Sonitus Reverb.

When finished, you should have FOUR sends on the vocal track:

1. Post-fader out to Reverb Bus.
2. Post-fader out to Delay Bus.
3. Side chain input to the Sonitus Compressor on the Reverb Bus.
4. Side chain input to the Sonitus Compressor on the Delay Bus.

Tweak to taste. The compressors are ducking the vocal (not sure why that video shows them in front of the reverb/delay). The settings he used are fine (solo the vocal track while messing with it so you can easily hear your changes).

Quick edit: See post below.

Edited September 7, 2023 by mettelus

[mettelus]

After I walked away I realized what he is doing, so you do want the compressors after the reverb/delay on the associated busses (can just drag/drop to reposition them). The reason is that he is saturating the bus with either reverb/delay and using the compressor to choke off that signal while the vocal is actually going. If the compressor is first, it will choke off what the reverb or delay sees, so there won't be that saturated FX tail he is talking about in that video.

[Misha]

mettelus,

Thank you very much! I will try this later today after work.  I understand the theory behind what the guy in the video is doing, I am just a bit confused how to do it in Cakewalk. Hopefully with your walkthrough it will do the trick (It seems it should). Thank you for your time! I will follow up either later today or tomorrow. Hopefully someone else will find this useful.

[mettelus]

No problem. It is really more paying attention to sends and where they are going (and what they are doing). Most sends you will want to leave post-fader (default), but you can play with those too... the reason being is "usually" you do not want to have an effect not proportional to the actual signal (post-fader), but this case is a little different.

[Misha]

mettelus,

It worked like a charm, following your instructions.  Thanks again!