FabFilter User Forum
ProL2 VST3 side chain input and Reaper
Hello,
I've been using the ProL2 plugin in demo mode for a while now and need to give some props to the devs here! Great job on the upgrade. :)
However, trying the side chain input with Reaper didn't quite work for me. As soon as I route another track into the currently active one in the inputs 3/4, ProL2 thinks I am on a surround track and now shows meters for Left, Right and Center. There are, however, still only two audio outputs on the track ProL2 is on, so it shouldn't detect any surround setup here. Same goes for when I go into the plugin's preference window and try to add the side chain input manually, ProL2 suddenly becomes surround again, when I deactivate, it's stereo. Tried it on both Windows and Mac, same result.
Is this a problem deriving from Reaper's way of handling side chain inputs or can this be fixed within ProL2? When I tried it in Cubase, it worked as expected. I'd love to use the side chain function in Reaper as this is my primary DAW, hope it can be fixed or maybe I'm just stupid. :)
Also, just so I got it right: In order to get the stem limiting, I need to route the full mix, premaster, includingthe stem I'm about to limit, into the single stem track? The instructions on how to use the side chain feature didn't seem totally clear to me when I read the manual, maybe you could elaborate on how to exactly use it in a future update. :)
Wishing everyone a good New Year's Eve and see you again in 2018!
[@mods: If this is a duplicate thread, I'm sorry and you can delete this; I tried to create a similar thread earlier and thought it hadn't worked, maybe I had just done something wrong. :) In that case, this one can be deleted.]
Hi Zet,
Thanks for your comments and info! The behavior in Reaper is due to the way that it handles multi-channel setups, which is kind of unconventional. We'll connect with the Reaper devs and discuss what's going on here and what we can do about it!
About stem mastering: I think you're correct: Put Pro-L 2 on the single stem track, and route the full, premaster mix to the side-chain!
Cheers,
Hello again,
it has been a while, as I didn't need this feature much recently, but I have just gotten around especially after today's Reaper update which includes
"inform VST3 plug-ins of multichannel context even if the plug-in does not adjust its I/O configuration in response".
Turns out, instead of Switching to LRC when I route another track in, ProL2 becomes LRLsRs now, which makes a lot more sense. However, the side chain is still not automatically detected.
It is possible though to do the routing manually through the plugin pin-connector and that seems to work just fine. :)
www.dropbox.com/s/0s8v6y7yqpjgoj4/Screenshot%202018-02-17%2016.35.36.png?dl=0
The only "downside" is, that now the LRLsRs meters are still displayed in the layout which is, quite frankly, a very minor nit picky annoyance.
www.dropbox.com/s/zhzkfhjxqn2mlzj/Screenshot%202018-02-17%2016.35.29.png?dl=0
I got around trying out side chain limiting some stems by now. The setup is a bit tedious and it seems to work the best for me if I simply duplicate the stems, put the duplicated into a parent track and route that parent track into the desired stem track side chain - alternatively another parent track with the ProL2 in and then export stem by stem.
I don't know if this information is of any value to you, but I have the feeling that FF might include more surround functionality from now on - still remember a certain promised Pro-R update ;) - you might want to be sure it doesn't intervene with any side chain options.
Hi Zet,
We're in touch with the Reaper dev team already to find a better solution.
Cheers,
Would be super useful if we could have a video tutorial on how to get the best workflow from using the side chain stem limiting. Another Reaper user here! Thanks
Hello Frederik,
thank you for your commitment! Looking forward to when the issue is resolved! Thre is one more thing, however:
I started another thread some time ago but apparently it slid through the greenlight process - I did formerly post as "Zet" but decided it's stupid to not use my real name here. ;)
I have another, weird issue regarding side chain limiting which I don't think was intended in development. I've tested it on macOS, Win7, Win10 on REAPER and Cubase 8.5 - all to the same result.
When Side-chain limiting single stems and increasing the gain slider, the signal starts to clip. As long as all of the currently active stems are routed into the side chain, I can increase the gain as much as I want without clipping, however, as soon as at least one of the playing stems gets muted, the output clips after increasing the gain. I.e. currently I can use the side chain limiting feature for stems only as long as I don't plan to increase the gain slider, otherwise the signal will clip. It will not clip if the full mix is routed into the plug-in's main input.
Is this intended behaviour? It would be nice if I could increase the gain while side chain limiting single stems as well!
@Nick: Thanks for letting me know. I will definitely release a tutorial video for this feature, if I get a reply from FF during the next few days, expect it to arrive this weekend. :)
Cheers!
Hello again,
I have now created a tutorial video on how to use the side chain limiting feature in REAPER - including a short demonstration of the currently existing issues. ;)
youtu.be/Hv8nENoNvbk
I hope some viewers will learn something out of it!
Cheers
Hi Hannes, many thanks for taking the time to create this video. I will follow what you did but for me I need to use live grouped tracks as my stems rather than bouncing out into new files. As if I need to make changes to mixes its not effective for me to work with bounced audio stems but it should still work ok. I hope FF and Cockos can get these couple of issues fixed as would be nice to be able to use the VST3 version. Cheers!
I've noticed you get different output amplitude results depending on how you bounce the stem out. If I solo the stem I want to export, then go to render window and select "source" master mix, I get clipping past 0db. If I select the same stem (not soloed) and select the source as "Stems selected tracks" then I don't get clipping. I am using the "safe" mode in Pro L2.
Scrap that last comment, didn't have my master buss at 0db. Tested again, almost the same output now.
Sorry for self bumping my own thread once again. I'm just here to inform you that with REAPER's "Request VST 3 Bus Channel Count" feature you can force the Pro L2 to be a stereo limiter. The number of channels refers to the number of output channels, so you'll get your requested number of those plus an additional amount of side chain channels.
www.dropbox.com/s/i3p6jx8e66xrp2w/Screenshot%202018-04-25%2022.29.48.png?dl=0
After you set your desired channel count you will have to increase and decrease the number of channels once more until you have the desired amount displayed, otherwise it won't display the changes (was the case for me).
Thanks fabfilter and reaper guys for this solution! :) It might not be as convenient as in other DAWs but it works well in Reaper's surroundings and is quite easy to set up. I hope you can at one point address the other issues I pointed out earlier.
-Hannes