Questions & Answers

A fix for: Sidechain breaks when using the "Transformed to Audio Track" functionality

+41 votes
1,070 views
asked Jun 27, 2019 in Instruments and Plug-Ins by Regin (290 points)

I've made a video showing how a sidechain signal breaks when using the "Transformed to Audio Track" functionality

In essense, it works like this.

  1. Create an instrument channel and a kick channel
  2. add a compressor on the instrument channel and sidechain it to the kick.
  3. perform a Transform to Audio Track on the instrument channel.
  4. Result. The track is rendered leaving out the sidechain signal on the instrument track.
I would love to have added a feature to the Transform to Audio Track that listens to the sidechain signal when it renders the track.
To clarify things, I've made a video showing how a similar function in Cubase handles this task 

7 Answers

+1 vote
answered Nov 26, 2019 by robertgray3 (42,650 points)
Great FR, there are posts asking for this dating back to 2011. Logic and REAPER have done it since before that even, it would be nice to see this in Studio one
0 votes
answered Jul 13, 2020 by Regin (290 points)
I had high hopes for this feature was implemented in version 5, but unfortunately, I can confirm nothing has changed. Let's vote this feature up, shall we?
0 votes
answered Jul 13, 2020 by stevenkeen (3,120 points)
Workaround for now: Use an audio track as side chain input. This works.
0 votes
answered Aug 14, 2020 by Baphometrix (1,860 points)
edited Aug 14, 2020 by Baphometrix
In v5, The sidechained result now rendered correctly to the bounced replacement events.  But when you transform back to realtime, the original compressor (or ducking VST) is restored to the track's channel inserts, but the original sidechain routing is NOT restored. You have to remember what the original sidechain source was, and manually set up the sidechain routing all over again.

Interestingly, though, any Sends that exist have a different issue. When you transform to audio, the Send is removed entirely, so you lose the original processing through any FX tracks. But at least when you transform back to real-time, you get the Sends back.

Also interesting is that any channel notes you've written are lost during a transform and re-transform back.

So..... some small progress, but still far short of how it should behave.
0 votes
answered Jun 15, 2021 by davidcarlyon (570 points)
This is pretty basic stuff, it is a real shame this has not been dealt with. If I recall correctly, transform to audio does not process the side chain signal either, so it is no use doing 'render inserts' if you want to have your side chain processed.

That is also something that I would really like to see.

Reaper is much more advanced in this area.
0 votes
answered Aug 2, 2021 by bailatosco (4,730 points)
There is still no solution to this, right?
0 votes
answered Aug 30, 2022 by billbaldwin (160 points)
I hope I'm understanding the issue correct. I ran into this problem with some outboard gear that I'm side chaining with a bass drum track. I think it's the same issue though...rendering the track doesn't play the bass drum, so the outboard gear never gets triggered. For now I was able to create a "ghost" output. I saw Gregor do this...just add an output with no actual outputs assigned from your interface. Then you can create a new track set the output to that ghost out...and the input can be your track that you are bouncing. Arm, hit record and you'll get your sidechain effect. Then switch the output back to Master. It's a few more steps, but it works.
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