Wavefactory TrackSpacer User Manual - About Sidechaining
TrackSpacer User Manual, Revision A
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About Sidechaining
Sidechaining within a DAW refers to using the audio signal in one channel (the send) to trigger or control
a virtual effect (VST, AU, RTAS etc.) that modifies the audio in a different channel (the receive).
Two examples of sidechaining that you may be familiar both involve the use of a compressor:
Ducking – using the presence of one signal to trigger a volume reduction of another signal.
A classic ducking setup involves using a compressor on a rhythm guitar track, with the
compression triggered by the presence of a lead vocal. This causes the guitar to “duck” out of
the way of the vocal.
Gating – using the presence of one signal to trigger a gate on another signal. A common dance
and electronic music technique is to use the audio from a kick drum to open the gate on a bass
track. This tightens up the mix by making the kick drum and bass attacks perfectly in sync.
Of course you can also use sidechain techniques with stem mixes so that an entire group of tracks can
be ducked, gated, equalized, or otherwise affected in response to another signal.
Setting Up TrackSpacer
This section provides the steps for inserting TrackSpacer and setting up the sidechain.
1. Decide on two tracks or channels that you want TrackSpacer to analyze. The channel containing
the audio to be equalized is called the affected signal. The channel that TrackSpacer uses for
comparison is called the control signal.
2. Insert TrackSpacer as an effect on the channel you wish to EQ – the affected signal.
Note: The procedure for Cubase with VST 2.4 is different. Skip this step if using Cubase and
proceed to step 3.
3. Setup the sidechain. Each DAW requires a different procedure. The most popular ones are
covered below:
Pro Tools
1. In the I/O section of the control signal’s channel strip, send the output to a bus.
2. Open the TrackSpacer GUI window within the wrapper and set the Key Chain
Input to the send from the control signal bus.
Channel 1 Send
Channel 2 Receive
VST Effect
Channel 2 Affected Audio