User manual

Table Of Contents
240
Audio effects
Using the side-chain input
If the FX channel is configured in a surround format, the pan control will be a
miniature surround panner.
You can click and drag the “ball” in the miniature panner display to position the
send in the surround field, or double-click in the display to bring up the surround
panner. See the chapter
“Surround sound (Cubase only)” on page 266 for details.
Ö If both the send (the audio channel) and the FX channel are in mono, the pan control
is not available.
Using the side-chain input
Many VST 3.0 effects feature a side-chain input. Side-chaining allows you, for
example, to lower the music volume when someone is speaking (“ducking”) or to use
compression (e.
g. on a bass sound) when the drums are hit, thereby “harmonizing”
the intensity of the two instruments. Another possibility is to use the side-chain signal
as a source for modulation.
Effects from the following categories feature side-chain: Delay, Dynamics,
Modulation, and Filter.
Ö Certain combinations of tracks and side-chain inputs may lead to feedback loops and
added latency. If this is the case, the side-chain options will not be available.
Creating a Ducking delay
The delay repeats can be silenced by side-chain signals exceeding a certain
threshold.
You can use this feature to create a so-called “ducking delay” for your vocals. Let’s
say you want to add a delay effect that is audible only when no signal is present on the
vocal track. For this, you need to set up a delay effect which is deactivated every time
the vocals start again.
Proceed as follows:
1. Select the vocal track.
2. On the Project menu, select “Duplicate Tracks”.
Now you can use the vocal events on the second track to silence the delay effect.
3. Open the Inserts tab for the first vocal track in the Inspector and select
“PingPongDelay” from the effects selector.
The control panel for the effect opens.
4. On the control panel for the effect, make the desired effect settings and activate
the Side-Chain button.
Try out the effect settings to find out which settings will work best with your
project. For detailed descriptions of the parameters, see the separate PDF
document “Plug-in Reference”.
5. In the track list, select the second vocal track.
!
For detailed descriptions of the plug-ins that feature side-chaining, see the separate
PDF document “Plug-in Reference”.