Side Chain Compressors

Hello GP community,

I’m looking into switching over to GP for the GUI and predictive loading features that I can use with my newish but… slightly lacking in RAM… laptop. Especially for a backup system since I’m primarily a live player.

My question: Can you side chain in Gig Performer?

I’ve looked through the youtube vids, forum posts, etc and I just CAN’T find anything about this. I’d love to be able to throw a side chain from my 808 claps (programmed from my midi pedal board) into one of my Bus Compressors and side chain my synth internally… without having to rely on a click track… or a drummer playing on time… or an LFO inside one of my synths. It’d also be a nice way for me to balance out my own parts internally before I send them to the FOH engineers – (I can’t hear your clap, turn your pads down… now your pads are too quiet! Why isn’t your synth bass coming through… ya da ya da).

I like the idea of Gig Performer 2. The predictive loading is very reminiscent of my Muse Receptors (and nice on a smaller system like my current laptop). The user defined GUI – I saw I can make my own rack-level, visible meters!? Not to hijack my own thread, but speaking of…

Is there a way to embed the actual gauges from the plug into the rack? (like seeing PSP’s metering on the rack).

In summation –

  1. can I side-chain
  2. can I see parts of the plug in a rack? Or is it all widget based at the rack level?

I never tried side chaining before (I play old fashioned music :slight_smile: but I just put together a rackspace to try it out. Turns out that it’s trivial to do this.

If you look at the screenshot (on which you can click to enlarge it), I have an audio file player just playing an MP3 file and it’s being fed into the first pair of inputs of an MCompressor plugin (free from Melda) which is then being fed into a GP mixer plugin.

Separately I have a Lounge Lizard (electric piano) going into the mixer but it is is also being fed into the second pair of inputs of the MCompressor plugin. If you then enable side chaining on the MCompressor and set the threshold and ratio values appropriately, then every time I play a note, the volume of the MP3 file gets instantly dropped.

I have to say, that’s pretty great – especially since the functionality was there without anyone knowing it! I’m sure a “ghost track” would work with the right compressor, too (as long as the outputs don’t go to the interface/mains).

Simple, elegant solution; very much like the GP Product!

Thank you

Actually the reason it probably went unnoticed is because, from Gig Performer’s perspective, there really is nothing special about side chaining. It’s just that if you have to use a channel strip approach, there’s extra effort required to route the extra inputs.

I wrote a brief blog article on this topic and there is now also a 3-minute video on youtube showing how to do side-chaining.

https://www.gigperformer.com/side-chaining-really-easy-with-gig-performer

i never use sidechaining live (yet), but i wish it was this easy in my DAW…

Yeah, it’s really easy in GP

Hi dhj,

In previous years I’ve been trying to make sidechain compression happening in brainspawn’s forte, which clearly didn’t work. After having to change to GP because of the ending of BF, this turned out to be a great step! Like stated earlier: it’s different, and although it has similarities, it also has a lot of differences.

The Youtube vid clearly explains how to set-up sidechain compression with an audio file. Now, I’m trying to do this live. Our first attempt (sending the kick via my focusrite 18i8 channel 1 into the melda compressor and then sidechaining some synth pads) was great! The only thing: the kick is also going out trough the outputs! So our FoH received twice the kick’s…
In contrast to the vid, I didn’t route the (kick via the) audio input directly to the output, as to not have the kick sounding through, yet still it does.
I thought of putting a mixer in to mute the kick, but the melda has 1 stereo pair out so I guess both the synthpads as the kick it going through this stereo out… so now I’ve no idea how to mute the kick!
Do you have any suggestions?

Which compressor are you using?

Hi PianoPaul,
I’m using the one suggested in the video, the free vst compressor from Melda.

I’ve tried the mdex compressor from the Korg bundle, and though a sidechain function is present, I couldn’t get that one started, so referred back to the suggestion from the vid.

Here is a test gig.
Just replace the synth and drums by your own plugins.
Should work.
SideChain.gig (21.4 KB)

Thanks man! That’s very helpful of you. I’ll have it a go.
Much obliged!

Hi PianoPaul,

Those settings are brilliant! Exactly the way I would like the synths pumping by the kick of our drummer. Is a really exciting effect to have live control over.

The only thing: the kick is also coming hard through, directly to the FOH. Our engineer had troubles controling two kick signals, one directly from the drums, the other through my line outs…
I couldn’t find a way to get rid of the kick on my line outs…
In the video posted on the forum, there was an extra line out straight from the drums to the audio out. But apparently that isn’t necessary, it comes pumping out hard!
Do you by any chance have a suggestion on how to mute the kick after having it ducked the synths?

Kind regards,
Dick

Hi Dick,

I do not really understand.
The Kick Signal is routed to your audio in, right?
Then the Kick is sidechaining you plugin, in this way the Melda Compressor.
And now the Kick is also sent out via your Audiointerface?

Take a look at this
https://www.deviousmachines.com/duck/

Hi,
Thanks for your reply, and sorry to bother you with all these details. The possibility for sidechaining was for me one of the most important reasons to transfer to GP, and besides sidechaining, I’m amazed on how many possibilities GP has!

Okay, to clarify: I’ve set -up the sidechaining set, exactly as your gig file.
But now the dilemma: In our live set-up, our FoH routes me the kick signal back, going into my soundcard, directly to the melda compressor.
On the video by DHJ, I saw that the idea was to have the kick routing directly into the outputs besides having it sidechaining the mp3.

That last part is not necessary for me! The only thing I need at the output, is the pumping synth. But for some reason, the kick comes through even so.
See the attached file for my set-up. Have I done something wrong?

I’ll check the devious machines out. Looks promising!

Thanks for your help, again!!

That duck from devious has probably the options I need! I was checking the tutorial, and at 3:10 exactly my point occured!

Just downloaded the demo, see how this works.

Thanks for the suggestion!!

I finally found the issue…
It turned out that when I put an audio signal into the first 2 inputs of my focusrite, it will direct them straight through to the output, whether or not I have it attached in GP!!!
So the most easiest solutions ever, was not to have all kinds of compressors, or spectrum analyzers to block the low-end of the signal, but just to use another input port on the focusrite. Problem solved, everything working perfect.

So thanks for thinking along PianoPaul! At least I’ve learned GP a lot more in the past few weeks then I would have otherwise.

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Wow…thanks for your perseverance. What a bizarre design decision.