How to build a 'blend' control?

Cubase
1

For some reason I’m drawing a blank on how to do this.

I have 2 Audio Tracks and I’d like to blend them so that as the level on Track-1 increases the level on Track-2 decreases and vice-versa. Kind of like a Mix control on a reverb or compressor.

I just mean a way to route/config it within Cubase not any hardware controller.

2

You’re talking about “ducking”…sidechain stuff! Now to tell you how to do it is something else :wink:

Bill

3

Would a compressor on track 2, with a sidechain driven by the track 1 audio, work for you in this case?

4

First I thought this could be done using a quadro group with VSTMultiPanner and Mix6to2. You send track1 to front L/R of the quadro group, track2 to back L/R, and then use the front/back panner as a crossfader. Finally, send only front L/R to stereo L/R using the 6to2.

But this didn’t fully work, you can get gradation between 100% front + 0% rear to 50% front + 50% rear, but cannot go beyond.

So I gave up. Maybe with more groups and puzzling phase cancels, it’s possible to create a control that works like a perfect crossfader. Also, it’s maybe possible with a remote if you can somewhat invert and double assign.
It’s a lot easier if you build a simple 4 in 2 out crossfader plugin, though. :slight_smile:

1 Like
5

Here’s a simple way to build a Mix/Blend knob in Cubase:

  • Track 1 should be hard panned to the left.
  • Track 2 should be hard panned to the right.
  • Route the tracks to a Stereo Group Track: select both tracks, then right click, and select Add Track > Group Channel to Selected Channels.
  • Click “Edit Channel Settings” on the Group Track that you just created.
  • Add Imager as the first Insert Effect. Switch it to 1 band mode, and enable the LIVE button.
  • Add StereoEnhancer as the second Insert Effect, and click the MONO button.

Now you can use Imager’s PAN knob to crossfade between the two tracks. Of course, you can also use other pan effects besides Imager as the first effect, such as AutoPan or Cubase 12’s new FX Modulator.

2 Likes
6

I’m assuming you mean real time cross-fading 2 stereo tracks.

I’m not aware of any way to do that just inside Cubase using stereo signal on both tracks without add-ons - unless you go down the road of same wild multi-channel track configuration. Or some Generic Remote with virtual midi cabling connecting the two channels and inverting the midi values being sent from one fader to the other.

One pretty straightforward way with a single 3rd party plugin would be using the MRatio plugin from Melda’s MFreeFXBundle.

The concept of that plugin is that it crossfades between the main stereo input and the plugin’s sidechain input.

Step 1:
Insert MRatio into one of the 2 channels(e.g. Xfade test 01), and activate it’s sidechain

image
image1085×478 70.1 KB

Step 2:
Route the output from the other channel (e.g. Xfade test 02) to the sidechain of the MRatio insert in the first channel.

image
image187×560 18.6 KB

Step 3:
Use the “Ratio” knob in the plugin to crossfade between the 2 channels. The resulting audio will always show up in the first channel. So depending on other needs, might want to do that in a Group Channel or FX Channel.

3 Likes