Ableton Forum

im wondering if its possible to duck or kind of sidechain something to a prequntised amount or to song/clip quantise?
i have tried using a sidechain from one track to another and this works, but is limiting for me in that i dont want a pumping, just a complete mute of one track/clip/drumrack when another plays, then to drop immediately back to the original sound..
i.e i dont want the timing of this to be dependant on gate time or release settings
make sense? is it possible in live,or a job for m4l?

depends of the source material you use for feeding the side chain...

i know, and there lies my problem, i dont want it to be dependant on the length of the sidechain trigger, but to be at a fixed length/quantise
of course i can set my compressor to work great on something >of a certain length< but when i change that trigger, the effect is obviously different.so i need a way to interupt the one sound sourse with another, in time and to the grid

could you set up a dummy clip that doesnt necessarily output sound to the master, but would dictate when the ducking occurs? there are a few threads on here about dummy clips if you dont know how they work, i think that it might alleviate your issue if i am understanding it correctly.

Hope that helps...

DangerousDave wrote:could you set up a dummy clip that doesnt necessarily output sound to the master, but would dictate when the ducking occurs? there are a few threads on here about dummy clips if you dont know how they work, i think that it might alleviate your issue if i am understanding it correctly.

Hope that helps...

thats a good suggestion, i could use a utility to mute the sound on the dummy channel, but i would then have to launch the dummy clip as well as the new audio clip. food for thought though.any more?

If I remember right you can sidechain the gate effect. This should then do exactly what you want: Mute the signal when there is signal on the other channel.

hmm, the gate effect is a little better than the compressor, as it has a hold fuction, but really i need to set the length to a quantised amount, so when my sidechain sourse changes to, say a drumhit of a shorter length, then the ducking will stay at the set length and not be dependant on the source+release/hold settings
i've got a feeling im gonna have to dip into max for this

NorvernMonkey wrote:hmm, the gate effect is a little better than the compressor, as it has a hold fuction, but really i need to set the length to a quantised amount, so when my sidechain sourse changes to, say a drumhit of a shorter length, then the ducking will stay at the set length and not be dependant on the source+release/hold settings
i've got a feeling im gonna have to dip into max for this

above you said you don't want to have it dependent from release settings, only from the other signal!

If you want rhythmic ducking independently from the source, the use the autopan set to stutter.

or the volume envelope of the track itself. As hoffman said elsewhere, live is a trancegate.

no i dont want rhythmic gating.and i know about volume automation. i need to interupt one signal with another, to a predefined quantise. to be triggered by the second sound, but not dependent on its length, or any settings such as hold, release etc so that when its released the sound reverts back to the first sound

sidechained gate.


or use a crossfader, that's what the djs do.

yeah i hear ya, but its not what i want.thanks anyway