Audio Units Sidechain Option

[Ned Bouhalassa]

I have a dream... Imagine if every Audio Unit had the option to use Sidechained audio as a modulator. Logic users know that the built-in synths like ES1 and ES2 can do this, why not extend this to AUs? Think of the possibilities like envelope following, pitch tracking, etc.

[willb]

This capability is actually part of the Audio Unit spec, but a lot of developers don't implement sidechaining capabilities. Zebra 1 had a sidechain, though, and I'm pretty sure I have a few AU compressors that sidechain.

[Ned Bouhalassa]

Interesting. I'd really like to know which AU synths allow for side-chaining. I think that Reaktor does. Which others?

[tylenol]

I have a dream... Imagine if every Audio Unit had the option to use Sidechained audio as a modulator.

I think people don't do this because audio rate modulation in the general case is fairly CPU intensive, and probably a lot of components of an AU aren't necessarily designed to gracefully handle modulation that is that fast. It's also hard to conceptualize in most cases; think of how hard it is to learn FM synthesis (i.e. audio rate modulation of an oscillator's frequency), and then generalize that.

There are plenty of AUs that use an audio sidechain for some specialized purpose (mostly compressors that I know of; automat can take audio input and use it as a sound source, and Urs has talked about doing something like this in a version of zebra, though I don't remember the details), and many that use a midi sidechain for one thing or another (MFM, volcano, kontakt, to pick a few at random from my folder).

[Ned Bouhalassa]

It's also hard to conceptualize in most cases; think of how hard it is to learn FM synthesis (i.e. audio rate modulation of an oscillator's frequency), and then generalize that.

The theory of sidebands may be hard to learn, but clearly, based on its popularity, the results of FM are pretty easy to hear, IMO. But that's not an application I'm attracted by. I'm thinking, for eg, of using a given beat to modulate the cutoff point of a filter, or to pan a synth line, or to increase the amount of a synth's built-in distortion by singing into it. Add a pitch-tracker, and you can use a synth to harmonize or just fatten up your vocal or whistled lines.

many that use a midi sidechain for one thing or another (MFM, volcano, kontakt, to pick a few at random from my folder).

Is this MIDI sidechain available while using the AUs in Logic? If so, how do you set it up?

Thanks!

[willb]

Is this MIDI sidechain available while using the AUs in Logic? If so, how do you set it up?

IIRC, you can insert, e.g., Filterscape or MFM2 as an AU MIDI FX on a new track. The MIDI you send to that track will go to Filterscape; you can select the sidechain (audio) input from the sidechain dropdown.

This stuff is a little more intuitive in Live IMHO, but it is certainly possible and fairly straightforward in Logic.

[muleskinner]

Interesting. I'd really like to know which AU synths allow for side-chaining. I think that Reaktor does. Which others?

Pretty sure Albino does it.

I think MiniMonsta does too.

I wish it was in Zebra2 but not yet, apparently Urs is waiting for the VST spec to catch up for consistency...