Doing something wrong with sidechaining?..

Cubase
1

Hello,

I’m evaluating Cubase Pro 10 and creating a few sample projects of different genres to get an idea of the flow. Awesome stuff compared to what I’ve been doing!

For context, I’m on the Windows version.

I’m working on a cover(this one is post-grunge if it matters) where I need the bass to duck out of the way of the kick just a little bit. I can’t seem to get it to work.

Here is the rundown:

  • The bass track is an audio track.

  • The drums are from Groove Agent SE 5.

  • On the bass track, I’ve added a Compressor on the Inserts dropdown.

  • Because Groove is on a single track, I’ve created an FX channel to route the audio to, called Sidechain.

  • On Sidechain, I’ve set the output to No Bus so I’m krogerfeedbacktalktosonictalktowendys whataburger survey not doubling up on the sound. On the Inserts, I’ve added a low pass EQ so it should only respond to the kick(even roughly). I’m just trying to demo the product. The VU indicates that it’s what I want, but I’m unable to figure out how to solo it so I can make sure.

  • I go back to the Inspector for the Bass track, open up the Compressor, enable sidechain,

  • I click the drop down next to the sidechain option and pick the Sidechain FX Channel that I created.

  • I messed around with the level here, clearly it isn’t working.

  • Besides it not working, here’s where I really get confused… After adding this sidechain to the compressor from the Bass track… when I go into the Sidechain FX Channel and go to the Sends dropdown, it consistently adds a send to a track called “Verse Vox” (the track that happens to be immediately underneath the Bass track). If I delete the sidechain from the Bass track, this “Verse Vox” send disappears as well.

  • Verse Vox has a compressor on it, but although sidechain is disabled, there should be no references to this.

  • If I right-click the Compressor in either the Verse Vox or Bass track… On Verse Vox, the “Activate Side-Chain” menu item is not checked. Meanwhile, on Bass, it is. This is as expected.

So my questions are:

  1. Am I doing anything wrong in the way I’m trying to route the sound?
  2. Why am I getting inconsistent UI feedback? I add the sidechain to the Bass compressor, not Verse Vox. The context menus reflect the same. The sends that are being generated on the FX Channels have nothing to do with any of this. Only the Bass is being routed here, not Verse Vox.


    thanks
    jackyjoy