Sidechain ducking from MIDI

Cubase
#1

I would like to be able to duck audio on an audio track using a MIDI track as the control source. Is this possible in Cubase? If so, does anyone know how to do it?

The closest thing I could find is the plug-in, “MIDI Gate”, but it only can do the exact opposite of what I want to accomplish, plus as a gate it is either all or none. I would also like to be able to control the degree of the sidechain ducking. A compressor side-chain seems like the way to go, but It doesn’t seem like the sidechains on the compressor plug-ins can accept input from a MIDI track.

If there is anyone who can tell me definitively that this is not currently possible, then I will post a request for this in the “New feature suggestions” forum.

#2

Why not feed the midi to a vsti and the audio output of that vsti to a side chain enabled compressor.

#3

Good idea. I’ll try that. Thanks!

#4

It’s currently not possible. From the top of my mind the best solutions for this are Fabfilter Pro C2 or Pro-G ( you can set this Gate to Ducking) or Cableguys Volume Shaper.

#5

Actually, this suggestion from “peakae” was a good one and worked just fine. In fact this solution should have been obvious to me initially, but it wasn’t.

#6

I second the Cableguys Volumeshaper. I have been fighting with comps for ducking for a while now, always finetuning attack and release until my flow was totally gone… Now I just add this volumeshaper as insert, drag the curve a bit and voila… on with my next bit.

I also love the other plugs… you can try their free panner to see what they are about.

#7

It’s probably a typical solution for electronic music with midi samplers and synths, but I think a midi ‘gate’ the way you described would be a nice clean and flexible on board feature for Cubase.

I guess it would have to be more of an LFO tool kind of thing. I don’t know how well midi alone will handle volume envelopes.