FabFilter

are you trying to use a kick drum as a trigger source for pro-c? if so, then you will need to use the I/O drop down menus in Live.

on the kick channel's i/o drop down, choose the synth group in the top box, and the inputs in the bottom. you will want to use inputs 3/4. you will want to do this with a copy of your kick as this will stop the kick audio from going to the master.

hope this helps, pro-c is the one fabfilter plug-in I don't own, but I use Live quite often.

i dont quite follow the reply, regarding the 3/4 input.

Also fab guys, your plugs are ace but the sidechaining on the proc is a right faff. Please make it easier.
To just be able to just pick a track/bus to sidechain from would be a great addition.

Ok

Ive read up on the routing issues. So it seems if I want to side chain the kick that i need an independent sidechain dummy kick track every time i want a pro-c to external sidechain?

That cant be right surely?

Anyone know how you can sidechain multiple pro-c's from 1 source bus?

Has this been figured out?

Fab-C doesn't allow sidechaining as a return track, the kick cannot be routed to the return track Fab-C.

Individual Fab-C must be used for each track and gets very messy.

Group tracks with Fab-C can be created but allows no individual track wet/dry adjustment.

Hi guys,

Have you checked out the Pro-C manual? There's an extensive topic on external side-chaining, which also explains how to set this up in Ableton Live and other hosts:

www.fabfilter.com/help/pro-c/support/externalsidechaining.html

Cheers,

You can't seem to side chain this way for midi tracks. So if I want to side chain a midi track I have to bounce it first. I wish you could just set the input on the track to be compressed and use it that way.

(Ableton)

Also it seems as though this would require you to duplicate the track so you can hear the track that's doing the compression.

The whole sidechain thing in Ableton is a bit ridiculous, but it's an Ableton issue not a Pro-C one. One way you could get round it, is bus all the channels you want sidechaining so they are all driven by one pro-C, so you only need one duplicate kick track. But obv that limits your flexibility.

Thinking about it, if you used Pro-MB I guess you could add multiple bands, and switch all the bands to sidechain, this would then at least allow you to have slightly diff attack/release/threshold settings for diff things like bass/mids/tops.

Ableton really should add a sidechain option to toggle open on their plug-in boxes exactly the same way their compressors do. The current way it works is ludicrous imo.

Hi all,

If I understand correctly you can't use the Pro-C for side chaining, in Ableton, the same way use use the out of the box Ableton compressor? I.e. you just select the side chain input source track and away you go? E.g. the kick drum...

I have read the documentation and whilst I understand how to route it up for an external side chain source but when I enable the Pro-C I get no sound from the track the Pro-C is sitting on. Is this as Geoff has indicated earlier that you have to bounce the audio first?

Also, am I correct in understanding that because of the way this has to be routed that I will have to make n number of side chain tracks to route the out put to each and every Pro-C I want to enable for side chaining? One for my bass, one for the pads, one for the vocals... etc.

Surely I have misunderstood this thread and the help documentation?

any insight would be greatly appreciated
Pete

Ableton didn't make it easy in Live for side chaining with comps other than theirs. But it's surely possible (without bouncing...), but it's a bit of a pain to set up. I'll explain in a bit.

One thing to keep in mind though, Pro-C comes in various flavours, one is for side chaining. This is the one you want in this case. I don't think this works for regular compressing (ie, internal side chain), so then you'd have to switch to the regular instance of Pro-C.

1. Insert the Pro-C SC plugin on the track you want to compress.

2. Create a new Audio track in Live

(you'll need to have the In/Out section of Live visible for the next bit)
3. On the Audio track you just created, select in Audio From, the track you want to use as a side chain into Pro-C

4. On the same Audio track, select in the Audio To, first the track where you just put Pro-C SC in, then in the field below select Pro-C SC

Done!

This is all due to Live I must say, any compressor other than Ableton's have to be set up like this for side chaining.

And as to your last question, yes you would have to do this per track. Of course it would be better to create another a group of the tracks you wish to side chain, and then route everything to the group. Then you only have to do it once.

Again, all Live, I can't for the life of me understand why they didn't make this easier

Thanks Bram.

That really helps. It is shame that Ableton hasn't made this easier for plugin developers as the way you do this with their plugins is super easier from a workflow point of view.

Definitely needs to be a feature request for their next update.

Cheers.