Sidechain effect on OT?

Hi there

Bought an OT not long ago. I’ve owned a MD for some years, and very often on the MD I use the “pseudo-sidechaining-trick”, where you set one track to trigger another tracks LFO, causing the latter track to ‘duck’ every time the fist track is trigged.

Is there any way of doing the same on the OT. Any way of creating that kind of ducking effect between tracks?

Help is greatly appreciated.
All best

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Hey there. I’m not sure about going between different tracks but I get a side chain by using an LFO assigned to volume and playing with the settings - putting trigs in to match the trigger sound etc.

You can also use the volume on the amp page and place a parameter lock with the volume down on every trig you want it on - then use the slide function so it flows - if that makes sense.

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instead of trigs, you can also use the LFO designer to make the custom waveform match the sidechain source (well, drums;))
if you have a regular 4x4 beat then just use the basic waveform and that’s that. just be sure to set the LFO to ‘sync trig’, so that it starts along with the track.

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Great. Many thanks audiotonomy and twardowski :+1: :+1:

agree with the lfo trick.

if you go to google and type: “Octatrack Sidechain”
Then this wonderfull video will come up as first match. Its so easy sometimes.

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LFO on amp volume is nice but:

Go for hardware compressor

Great compressor for this is:
http://www.fmraudio.com/

great small stereo compressor

Put the cue out of the OT as key in the compressor and the master from OT in the input for ducking.

Deside what you want to key with the cue and have fun.

Real side chain is much more dynamic.

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I have used the lo-fi effect and tuned the AMD to match the beat. It works alright as a quick and simple pumping effect.

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Having the similar problem, I went for a more complicated solution… and made myself a small MIDI sidechain box using an Arduino.

It allows me to use MIDI tracks from the Machinedrum to trigger MIDI enveloppes to duck various channels of the Octatrack, adjust the sidechain amount and release time, and is fully programmable if I need to.

Project details if someone’s interested: http://project1404.com/2014/05/arduino-midi-sidechain-ducking-box/

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^ that’s the organic bit, I take it - leaving some uncompressed signal in the mix? it’s even more super ultra cool if call it new york compression which it basically is;)
jokes aside, this is a great trick! thank you for sharing

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Thanks for this great tip :+1:

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Hello Pierre…

I have both OT and FMR RNC…

sorry I know is very simple but could you pleaee be just a little bit more explicit?

you mean sending the cue out to the sidechain input?

thanks

this one:

  • the cue out in the RNC side chain in (need a mono to stereo cable)
  • the signal you want to duck into the RNC input
  • the RNC output to your mixer

enjoy!

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thanks! will try :slight_smile:

So how do you guys achieve this without doing some crazy LFO plock on the compressor gain?

you can use the AM (from LoFi-FX) with starting point zero on every 4th step locked … experiment with depth and speed

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Also consider drawing a custom lfo shape, adjusting the speed to match the bar length, and modulating AMP/VOL - I’ve had good luck in the past.

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The easiest way I’ve done it is using an LFO with the below details.

Octatrack Side chain

Parameter - Amp Volume
Square Wave
Multiplier 16x
Use Trig- Synch Trig
Speed 32
Depth as require
Might need to reduce volume to compensate for Lfo

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+1 for Amp Vol and lfo designer, but I’m not sure about square wave…

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Duly noted. Thanks peeps.

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For maximum “pump” - :joy:

:^)

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