Does anyone use any sidechain compression techniques besides the Signal Follower?
I’ve tried using plugins like Twisted Lemon’s Sidekick and db Audioware’s Sidechain compressor but they don’t seem to be working in Renoise 2.8.
Twisted Lemon’s Sidekick Works for me in Renoise 2.8. You do know you have to load an instance on each track involved, right? So that one can send a control value to the other, etc.
This plug in is pretty neat but to be honest, imo the Signal Follower method sounds just as good as this particular plugin. I don’t know anything about the other sidechain compressor but maybe it works in a similar way and is totally bad ass.
These type of plugins don’t work correctly when running in a sandbox, ie. when a 32-bit plugin is bridged into 64-bit Renoise, or vice versa.
I believe that Sidekick is currently only available in 32-bit form, so you must also use Renoise 32-bit. You should also ensure that sandboxing is disabled in Renoise’s plugin preferences, since it’s still technically possible to bridge from 32-bit to 32-bit.
Ahh that must be was it was. I’m using 64-bit Renoise. Thanks guys I will give 32-bit a go.
Update: that solved the issue. Both Sidekick4 and db Audioware Sidechain Compressor work correctly in Renoise 32bit.
i cant use this. i have invested in x64 stuff, so im not going back to 32bit.
i dont seem to be able to do what i need.
i need to route some drums outside the mastering plug, ozone, to properly pump the drums in their own special way.
how to really do this ?
FWIW:From sidekick’s support page:
Is 64 bit supported?
Yes! Since version 5 SideKick has 64 bits support for pc and mac !
For basic sidechaining stuff like kick ducking, having a hi hat rhtym modulate a synth lead…etc…Is signal follower the way to go?
Yep… If you are trying to duck bass, with a kick, or stuff like that… Your best bet is signal follower
Signal follower’s power goes far beyond simple sidechaining. You can manipulate practically ANYTHING in the target’s DSP chain - distortion level, oscillator tune via Instr. Automation, or even another metadevice (another signal follower which modulates another one etc. etc.)
For sidechaining with signal follower I would automate more parameters of the traget to sound more naturally, e.g. classic bass highpass cuttoff and some gain reduction as well. My tracks always have like 7-8 signal followers on the kick as I use subtle gain reduction on almost anything
What would make the compressor really powerful for sidechaining is simply: if it could use another signal than the current track for its gain control. Imagine the normal compressor has an input and output, this would simply be adding a second input called “gain control”.
That’s exactly what sidechain compression is!
Yeah, but the compressor can’t do this as of 2.8.1 right?
Someone else mentioned this in a thread called “real sidechaining in renoise” or something like that, a few weeks ago.
I think sidechaining works ok with my Pro-C. I linked signal follower with Pro-C sidechain level. Native compressor does not have input level knob, is that the problem?
I use ducking a lot, meaning signal follower in a track changes Gainer Gain in a another track. If you add compressor after that Gainer, you can control how loud signal goes into compressor. Perhaps you need to control Compressor make-up as well in similar way (not sure since I don’t use the native). Or alternatively signal follower could control ratio of the compressor, I wonder how that would end up 
Anway, I’ve found I can do pretty much anything with signal follower. Just need some time to tweak it, but once you get the setup right, it’s a kind of re-usable pattern.
Can anyone explain me how the lookahead works? I kind of get it, but I was looking for a real world example…like “when I want my bass to duck the kick real aggressively, I set it around…”. I have just been setting it to 6, but I have no idea if that is optimal.
I’d like to be able to get real aggressive ducking now and then and am just sorting the optimal settings for this. It is working pretty well for me with the min volume around -6, max vol at 0, A/R set to far left, waveshape the curve (second to bottom) and lookahead at 6ms, but I feel like I could get it even better. It kind of just cuts out now instead of “sucking out”, if that makes any sense.