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dayoftheschmeckel
Known Participant
July 30, 2018
Answered

Side Chaining in Au3 (CS2) and Mirror EQ technique

  • July 30, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 1865 views

SIDE CHAINING in Au3 (CS2) AND MIRROR EQ TECHNIQUE

a) Might anyone in the forum know of any way - any way at all - to side-chain? Has anyone discovered a workaround routing via the buses maybe? If not might anyone know of a VST plugin that could help achieve this same thing?

b) Using additive/subtractive EQ, also known as "Mirror EQ technique"

Could anyone give a step by step description of how to do that using the built in tools? Of course, you need to see the waveform of both target tracks to see where the strongest peaks or transient energy is occurring where the waveforms are competing for space and then (if my understanding of M/Eq is correct) to then make a 1.5 to 3 dB cut in one side and then the same amount of boost on the other track on the opposite side. I hope I have described this properly. See video for full explanation: Mixing With EQ - Carving EQ Holes - TheRecordingRevolution.com - YouTube

Thanks in advance and appreciating any guidance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoJqNzxYQD4

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Correct answer ryclark

a) You can't do any side chaining natively within AA3 with any of it's built in effects. But depending on what you want to operate with side chaining there are various VST Side Chain effects which may work in Audition 3 OK. Search on the internet for 'Sidechain VST Effects'. Of course the latest versions of Audition do now have built in sidechain in some of it's effects.

b) It's not the waveform that you need to see but some form of Frequency Analysis which is built in to Audition. However you can only analyse one waveform at a time in the Edit view and open the Frequency Analysis window from there to see where the main frequency peaks are in your audio files. Though with experience this is mostly done by ear, as is the appropriate EQ adjustments using either the Parametric EQ  from Effects/Filter and EQ or using the Mastering plugin from Effects/Special. There is already a preset there for 'Making Room for Vocal', which will give you some idea of what needs doing.

1 reply

ryclark
ryclarkCorrect answer
Participating Frequently
July 30, 2018

a) You can't do any side chaining natively within AA3 with any of it's built in effects. But depending on what you want to operate with side chaining there are various VST Side Chain effects which may work in Audition 3 OK. Search on the internet for 'Sidechain VST Effects'. Of course the latest versions of Audition do now have built in sidechain in some of it's effects.

b) It's not the waveform that you need to see but some form of Frequency Analysis which is built in to Audition. However you can only analyse one waveform at a time in the Edit view and open the Frequency Analysis window from there to see where the main frequency peaks are in your audio files. Though with experience this is mostly done by ear, as is the appropriate EQ adjustments using either the Parametric EQ  from Effects/Filter and EQ or using the Mastering plugin from Effects/Special. There is already a preset there for 'Making Room for Vocal', which will give you some idea of what needs doing.

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dayoftheschmeckelAuthor
Known Participant
July 30, 2018

Yes, quite right! I did know that you cannot natively achieve side chaining within Au3 (CS2) - so wondered if their might possibly be a "cheat" or work around discovered by someone out there - it seems an odd omission by Adobe at least in this iteration. Cool Edit Pro  didn´t have this feature either. The only way seems to be to use automation to duck any music bed if doing voice overs, but as you´ll know there are other subtle uses for side chaining too.

VST plugin: There was a Dutch firm called Twisted Lemon that offered a free VST psuedo side chain plugin but that´s no longer available to my knowledge. If anyone has it and could send me a copy of it I´d be very grateful!

Right again with the wave form analysis! I´d correctly concluded this myself as being the go-to tool for the job although only available in the Edit window. I´ll have to just take snapshots and write down the values if I use this "scientific" method - as it will give a very detailed picture of the transient after scanning.

I personally wouldn´t attempt this type of EQ cutting and boosting by ear - its not accurate enough! Given the advantages of a DAW and information it can provide, its far more accurate to use visual profiling, judging with the ears in tandem depending on what tonality is desired in the track. For example; a doubled distorted guitar part - panned L&R respectively. I can imagine how important that would be in the metal genre. I did check the mastering tool for this by the way, but the faint graph isn´t really that helpful and the pre-sets offer only a very basic default, but better than nothing.

I´ve done some research on "mirror eq" and amazingly there´s not one single YouTube video from any Au3 (CS2) user. So either no-one has ever done it with Au-CS2 or if they have, didn´t wish to share the methodology! Regarding seeing the fluid waveform, there´s a VST called "Fab Filter" that comes highly recommended and this can be inserted on every track - although I´d worry about processor fatigue.

Thank you very much for confirming my own thoughts about how best to approach this within Au3 and I hope this post might attract further comments to help all other Au3 CS2 users. There´s a lot to know about the correct use of EQ!

PS: I´ve found some work arounds with other things - like compression for example as well as general shelving EQ - necessity being the mother of invention! I´d absolutely welcome any further discussion or tips on how to use the analysis tool vis a vis mirror EQ.

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dayoftheschmeckelAuthor
Known Participant
July 30, 2018

For the purposes of "mirror eq" - I have never done this (and wouldn´t be the only one!) but I think it is essential to know how to do it. We can see very clearly here the transients of the bass drum and synth bass guitar part - these two voices being the most typical of transients most people would like to see not fighting in the mix. The next question is what to do to effectively target and trim the areas of conflict and to boost by up to 3 dB on one side and to do the very opposite on the other waveform - the mirror image.which will allow a space for each and a total of 6 dB of spread in the mix. Can someone explain please a step by step analysis of these two depictions and then to give a step by step instruction on how to achieve the desired mirror eq? ThaNks in advance!

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