FabFilter

I'm sure you thought of this, but to be sure, are the Pro-L2 instances for the stems inserted post-fader?

Hey Bram,

Thanks for the reply!

Yeah, the L2 instance is on the main output's post fader and the printed (unlimited) mix's output is routed straight into the L2 stereo sidechain input, unaffected by any other type of processing.

Same problem here using Pro Tools. Have anyone figured out a way to make the side chain work correctly?

Pro Tools still only supports mono side chains, so there is no way to make stem limiting work correctly, unfortunately.

Cheers,

Wouldn’t down mixing to mono the unlimited full mix work? 99% of the people I know that are working in audio post are doing it on pro tools. Exporting stems for clients is a regular thing for us.

Stem limiting would be awesome and as of now pro-L2 is the only plugin promising to do it.

Aren’t you guys able to do something about it? Maybe a little tweak for the AAX version?

I have the same issue with sidechaining on Logic Pro X as described in 1st post. However, it works fine on Ableton Live. So I export stems in Ableton Live))

Hi guys,

there was an issue with the delay compensation of side-chain signals inside logic. However, this has been resolved with the 10.6.3 update that was release last week.

Cheers,

Hi all,

This issue unfortunately also still hasn't been fixed in Studio One.

I'm having the same issue in Pro Tools. The first problem was that if I'm using any plugins the sidechain latency is causing the limiter to kick in late. The workaround for that was to freeze all my tracks before bouncing, which is not ideal, especially on long-format stuff. Then another annoying issue is that the L 2 appears to ignore true peak limiting altogether when the sidechain is active.

Is there any updates on this issue or workarounds to get it work properly? I've been trying in Logic Pro X 10.8.1, Reaper and Luna, all to no avail.

The external sidechain is triggering the limiter in all DAWs, but all of them are clipping when the sidechain is enabled.

While I use Logic Pro as my main DAW, I'd consider even purchasing a different daw just for printing stem masters...I haven't been current in Pro Tools for a year or so and the last version I had in 2021 also still had this problem.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

I'm using Logic 11 on M1 Studio and having the same issue. I'm trying to deliver mastered stems to a client. I have L2 on my master bus set to external side chain fed by a ghost mix sent pre-fader. I'm not seeing any sign that the external side chain is hearing the side-chain source. Any advice would be hugely appreciated!

Hi, I am having what is basically the same issue above. L2 is not responding in time in side chain mode. I have a send setup on all of my sub mixes feeding one L2 instance on my 7.1.2 bed. L2 responds either early or sometimes late, does not catch the peaks, and the peaks get through. I have tried turning everything off but nothing makes the side chain mode work. FabFilter, can you please advise on any Pro Tools scenario where side chain mode works so I can at least have a baseline for getting it to work? Thanks.

Hi Aaron,

side-chain limiting in Pro Tools does not really work, especially in a surround setup. Pro Tools only uses mono side-chains. When you send the source signal to the external side-chain it will be summed to mono. A stereo limiter or surround limiter will not react the same to this mono signal as it would to a stereo or surround signal.

Please note you also need to make sure you enabled the delay compensation of the side-chain signals for the side-chain to be in sync with the limiter input signal.

I was running into a similar problem. I got the sidechain to work by bouncing my stems out of my mixing session. I took the bounced mixed stems into a new session, with no plugs in on any of the tracks, and mastered there. This minimized any discrepancy between the stem key (mix 2 track used for sidechaining) and the signal going into the mixbus and into the limiter. In ableton I also made sure to turn off warp mode from the stem key.

I have exactly the same problem in Protools. When I enable Ext side chain the L2 no longer behaves the same. I appreciate the key is mono but the L2 no longer catches peaks at all. It seems to add the gain that I use but stops limiting. Anyone know of a solution? Side chain is compensated in prefs.