Im just starting to learn how to use sidechaining in cubase (11 pro). Im using it with the ping pong delay on the sends of one of my tracks. Ive clicked the sidechain icon on the effect and have 2 instances of the delay on the track, one as normal, the other sidechained. This allows the delay to be heard only at the silent bits of the track so it doesnt swamp the sound. This works great for effects that have the sidechain icon, but how do I achieve the same result with effects that dont have this ? For instance, I have the Arturia tape delay effect but it has no sidechain icon so I cant activate it. Im sure there is a workaround but I cant figure it out. Can anyone help ?
Make a new FX track with the desired effect. Then add a compressor after. Use the sidechain function on the compressor and play around with the threshold, ratio and release knobs. Also, disable automatic gain makeup.
The compressor will now duck the effect using sidechain input.
1 Like
hi thanks for the response, that wasnt the effect I was looking for though. It was the delay. I have multiple 3rd party delays that dont have the sidedchain option like the built in ones do, I wanted to know how to use them in the same way
You don’t. But you can achieve the same effect use a compressor with sidechain after your delay on the fx channel.
Hi
It wasnt neccesarily about the deley effect either, that was just an example, more the way I can achieve the effect using the sidechain method (or any other type of effect)
If the effect plugin doesnt have the sidechain button, how can it be sidechained ?
As the previous poster informed you, you can duck the send signal to the delay track using any VST3 type compressor before/after the delay (depending on what you’re looking for)
VST3 allows sidechaining function.
This is also possible with the built in compressor on any Cubase channel strip.
If you have the delay inserted on the direct channel, this is not possible.
It’s better to use an FX channel for all delay/reverb and send the direct channel to it. This allows for a lot more creative possibilities including the “trick” you’re looking for.
ok, great thanks, im new to sidechaining, just realising how many creative possibilities there are. Sorry if my posts were a bit vague 
Im still struggling a bit with this. Let me see if Ive got this right. My delay does not have a sidechain, so I add this to the send on my chosen channel. I then add a compressor on the next send of the same channel and this will achieve the effect Im after ? Ive tried this but it doesnt seem to work. Do I have to activate the sidechain on the compressor ? (what if it doesnt have one, some do and some dont)Ive also tried that with a compressor that does have a sidechani but then no signal seem to go through the compressor