Ableton Forum

Wrote a simple tutorialabout it, hope it helps someone.

Hey, that's very nicely put together!

Before I switched to Live and was using Cubase a lot, I remember I tried this with the Cubase SX surround features and Reaktor. Worked really well -- but it seems this can be done much more efficiently in Live.

By the way, have you considered using an effect send to feed the compressor key signal input, instead of doing it the other way around? I mean, instead of routing the drum track directly to the key inputs in Reaktor (in this case 3+4) and listening to it in the mix using a return track, just make a return track which is directed into Reaktor channels 3+4.

After this you don't need to use a return track as a workaround to actually hear the drum track; now you hear it as usual, and can use (and automate) the effect send knob in the drum track (and multiple other tracks as well) to directly control what and how much is used as the key signal at any given moment.

Anyway, a great tip, man

great suggestion! that approach seems 'cleaner' to me too.. i'll quote your post in the article if you don't mind

No problem

I experimented a bit with the approach, and it seems Live and Reaktor are a great combination for this type of compression wickedness. For example, you can also create an additional send which contains a low pass filter and subsequently directs its output only into the send which goes into the (Reaktor 3+4) key input. Let's say the key input send into Reaktor is Live's send A, and the one with the low pass filter is send B -- you now have an instant choice on all audio tracks whether you want to send some of the signal as an unfiltered key signal (tweak send knob A) or use only its low frequencies (tweak send knob B).

By coming up with different combinations and experimenting with the routing, you can get all kinds of interesting results. As this seems to work so effortlessly between these two programs, it might be nice to use the key input sends for other kinds of modulation, too. You could, for example, send a key signal from another channel to change the parameters of a filter effecting the audio coming from an entirely different source. Instant auto filter automated through a key input!

I'm sure there are many things we can come up with this. It's great you brought it up

Nokatus wrote:You could, for example, send a key signal from another channel to change the parameters of a filter effecting the audio coming from an entirely different source. Instant auto filter automated through a key input!

I'm sure there are many things we can come up with this. It's great you brought it up

yeah, i think almost any ensemble can benefit from a sidechain input(s) as modulation sources..

im interested in sidechain input being fed to a transient detector that runs a simple HR envelope, and linking that to diff effects params..

there are a few ensembles that already have sidechain inputs.. im thinking of the ms20 synth from the user library (hmm im not at my music computer now but i dont know off the top of my head if you can route audio to the sidechain inputs if the reaktor vsti is on a midi channel, for synths).

edit: Ah, it does work with reaktor synths too

I...had.... no...idea...

Great tutorial!

I Love this tutorial and have been using it quite a bit lately in various projects. One thing though is that I find the 2 knee compressor to be a tad bit fidley to work with and ecspecially for sidechaining, have still not found any settings that work exactly the way I want them to (compared to the Sonalksis SV-315). I'm wondering if there are any , kind of, General settings anyone would recommend for it.

Also I thought that it would be cool and try this the the Phatblaster 2 compressor but it didn't appear to be possible. Although, I'm also a total novice to almost any "Under the hood" reaktor structures.
Has anybody tried this?

Thanks again for the tutorial. For surez

I just wanted to let you know how much i appreciated using this trick, it sounds great and works perfectly.

Sweet.
I can't wait to see how Live 7's built in sidechaining will hold up. And if anything ,just using sidwchaing on the autofilter and gate will be supa-dope.

maybe i just have more experience now with producing, but this just worked for me right away and was quick and easy to set up. and it sounded just like i had hoped.

so...
great thanks for sharing the knowledge!

update: For general sidechain compression duties live7's compressor works great. Sidechaining with reaktor is still useful for non-standard, exotic interaction between the audio material on different channels (eg. drums on one channel triggering envelopes in a reaktor ens on a different channel that modulate params x,y,z etc )

Yea for sure. Lives comp is easily up to par now with Logic's. Sidechaining is such a breeze now, and very effective.

Was wondering how to do this for ages, cheers guys! Dont have Reaktor but judt bought Ableton 7. Is it easy to achieve this effect using just the 7 compression unit?

@theoptimist. Yes, sidechaining is very straightforward in live 7 and upwards.

I wrote a short article about compression (including sidechain compression in live) that might be useful for you.

(just noticed that this is a very late reply!)