Keyed ducking AKA side-chain compression in Audition 3?

W

WyllyWylly

New member
I've been struggling to find a way to make this happen in Audition, because there appear to be no facilities built in to the app that make it possible, unlike ProTools. I've tried using the Waves C1-SC compressor to accomplish this but it's not giving me the results I want.

For example: I set up a pre-fade send on the kick drum track (mono) that feeds the guitar bus (stereo). On the guitar bus, the C1 compressor allows left, right or stereo input - but since Audition does not offer a keyed input anywhere, the result is far from perfect. I get nowhere near the compression I need. Running two C1s in parallel doesn't help much. Additionally, since the kick drum is now being sent to this bus, its audio output can be heard in the guitar tracks, which tends to unnaturally reinforce the kick drum.

I also work with material that has a very present keyboard sound, and I would like to have the vocal trigger ducking in the keyboard track. Doesn't seem possible in this app.

Anyone have a technique that works effectively?
 
Excellent. Thanks for that, downloading now to give it a try.

On a side note, it's hard to believe the Waves folks haven't done something similar, but then most Waves people I know are also ProTools users. *sigh*
 
It's possible that you have a bum power supply. If your power supply is a salvaged wall wart that puts out DC, it may or may not have an internal filter. It may or may not have an internal regulator to make the power smooth.
 
I think I may have figured out how to do ducking in Adobe Audition using the Waves C1 compression plug-in. (Note, Waves plugs don't come with Audition, you have to go buy it. But since it is a DirectX (DX) type plugin, it should work in any version of AA.)

Let's say you wanted your Kick Drum to duck the Bass Guitar. Do the following...

1. Create a duplicate kick drum track using copy and paste. (One will be used for the main mix and the other will be used in the ducking routine.)

2. Mute the original kick track for now.

3. Pan the duplicate kick track 100% left.

4. Pan the bass guitar track 100% right

5. Create a new bus (Bus A) in the Audition mixer and route both of these tracks to that bus. (I used hard routing but you may be able to use an aux send instead. That is the only reason I created the duplicate track. Anyway, if done correctly, the new bus should play the kick drum in the left speaker and the bass guitar in the right speaker.)

6. Insert the Waves C1 comp plug-in into the new bus as an effect.

7. Set the "Key Mode" button to L -> R. (The left channel will become the keyed input and cause the right channel to be compressed (or ducked) with each kick beat. You will not hear the left (keyed) channel, only the bass out of the right speaker. Set the bus output to mono to get the bass guitar back into both speakers.)

8. Adjust your compressor to get the desired results on the bass.

9. If panning of the bass is required, simply send the mono'ed (Bus A) output to a second bus (Bus B) where it can be panned in the mix.

10. Un-mute the first (original) kick track to get it back into the main mix.


Give it a try if you have the Waves C1 compressor plug-in. Or any stereo compressor that allows for keyed input/internal side-chaining between L/R channels.

Here are a few cheaper VST alternatives. However, note that only the later versions of AA can run VST type plugins. I have not tested any of them. Let us know if they work for you.

http://www.db-audioware.com/sidechain-compressor.html

http://www.twistedlemon.nl/site/index.php

http://www.otiumfx.com/compadre.php#

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1315.html

PS. Gimme some rep if you find this post helpful.
 
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