Totigerus Posted June 20, 2017 Share Posted June 20, 2017 (edited) I really don't know what it's called that I'm trying to achieve, so I don't know how to search for it. I have a project that has 30 tracks, including MIDI instruments, instrument busses, and send effects. I want to take 29 of those tracks, and mute them every time this one staccato keyboard stab occurs. I've tried using the noise gate plug, and using side chain compression, but I probably made a mistake somewhere. I got close to my desired effect using the ducking feature in the noise gate plug, but it didn't completely mute all the other 29 tracks. it just lowered them, and raised the staccato keyboard stab slightly. How do I use my staccato keyboard stab to trigger something that mutes all the other instruments, busses, and Effects all together at once? I hope this made sense. Edited November 29, 2020 by Totigerus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted June 20, 2017 Share Posted June 20, 2017 You could use sidechain compression for this effect: Route all 29 tracks to a bus. Insert a Compressor on that bus. In the Compressor, max out the Ratio and set the Threshold as far down as possible. Turn off Auto Gain and set Make Up to 0. Choose the keyboard track as the side chain. Ideally you should get about 40 dB of gain reduction in the Compressor. That's not enough to completely MUTE the tracks, so in the Audio FX section of the channel strip, Option-drag the Compressor down to copy it once or twice, yielding 80 to 120 dB of gain reduction (which should be enough to mute your tracks). You could also achieve the same effect using parallel processing, a noise gate and a Gain plug-in to invert the the phase... so the noise gate works backwards (when it lets the phase-inverted signal through, that signal is summed with the original, resulting in silence). That gives you 100 dB of gain reduction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totigerus Posted June 20, 2017 Author Share Posted June 20, 2017 Hey David! Thanks for the fast reply! This is almost working perfectly. But It's not cutting off the 29 tracks fast enough. What should my ATTACK, RELEASE AND KNEE settings be? Currently they are all set to the fastest possible I think. KNEE= 0 ms ATTACK= 0 ms RELEASE= 5 ms Is there a way to make the effect faster? Do I need to set something up differently in the SIDE CHAIN settings of Logic's COMPRESSOR? Or is there a different way to do this with ducking or gating which might work better? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted June 20, 2017 Share Posted June 20, 2017 Hmmm I just did it and it sounds just as fast as with a mute button to me... did you copy it to get 3 compressors? You Compressor settings sound like they're just as fast as they can go. Make sure whatever keyboard sound you're using to trigger the compressor has a fast attack as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totigerus Posted June 20, 2017 Author Share Posted June 20, 2017 in your first step, when you say "route all 29 tracks to a bus" Are you talking about changing all of their outputs to a single new bus, using the output slot, or just sending the 29 tracks to a bus using the bus slot? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted June 20, 2017 Share Posted June 20, 2017 Are you talking about changing all of their outputs to a single new bus, using the output slot Yes, exactly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totigerus Posted June 20, 2017 Author Share Posted June 20, 2017 Well i got pretty close using your method, but with a ducker on the bus channel instead of a compressor. But I can't figure out the ATTACK, HOLD, and RELEASE settings. The effect still is too slow no matter what I do. David do you know any other methods that might work for me? Like maybe with a GATE? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 I suggested a method with the noise gate in my original post... but it's a bit convoluted, and it should give the same results as with the Compressor really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totigerus Posted June 21, 2017 Author Share Posted June 21, 2017 whoops i missed that oh well thanks david for your help i'm giving up for now I'll try to experiment some more and if i get better results, I'll post my findings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solution fusbur Posted June 21, 2017 Solution Share Posted June 21, 2017 How does it sound to you if you automate Solo on the keyboard stabs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totigerus Posted June 21, 2017 Author Share Posted June 21, 2017 How does it sound to you if you automate Solo on the keyboard stabs? thats a good idea I'll try that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totigerus Posted June 21, 2017 Author Share Posted June 21, 2017 How does it sound to you if you automate Solo on the keyboard stabs? thats a good idea I'll try that. That did the trick thank you fusbur and David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 Alright! Good to hear! Whatever works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.