Sidechaining and Solo
This will be hard for me to explain, so I apologize in advance...
I followed the nice https://blipinteractive.co.uk/nanostudio2/user-manual/TipsAndTricks.html article on setting up sidechain and all is 
. BUT, Is there any way that I can solo my sidechain destination track and still have the audio signal from my sidechain source being sent? I like to solo my tracks like this so I can dial in the "pump" effect without hearing everything at the same time. I've toggled pre/post on the send on the sidechain source pointed to the destination, but doesn't work like I thought it would.
Is this "by design" or am I holding it wrong?
Comments
If you use pre fader sends, and lower the fader completely on the original track (in the mixer, not for the send), you can hear the sidechain working while essentially muting the source.
It's not ideal, i'd be nice if this worked automagically like in BM3.
That does work! But, alas, IMO that's really not usable in a normal workflow
Seems like this should always be sending the signal or another way to toggle it.
Agreed, especially when automation is involved.
Just curious guys which setup you work with that handles this differently?
I'm normally not familiar with the iOS landscape and my DAW of choice (as in a prisoner's 'choice'?) is Cubase and it operates the exact same way as in NS2.
Ok there is a work around, or maybe this is logically how it should be.
Solo the source track AND the receiving sidechain track together. With the send track set to pre fader and volume down the effect can still be heard with both solo’d.
I take it in BM3 you stop the send propagation with a disable toggle?
Yeah, that would seem unusual to me. I suppose it's all relative to what you're used to.
You can also group the two tracks together for ease of use. I tend to create a separate track for the sidechain and set the volume fader to 0 anyway. It seems cleaner to do it that way. I can understand why others might not want to do it this way.
Btw is this about kick -> sidechsining ? Because this is easy to do
Now, if you mute channel 1, you stop hearing kick, but sidechaining still continues because actually sidechain signal comes from track 2 which is still receiving notes from muted track 1
Sometimes is not needed to add new feature , it's simply enough to think a bit, and then use existing features. And NS routing abilities are almost limitless ! Creativity first !
Here is example of what i described above
https://www.dropbox.com/s/udhpas56owyemnt/SidechainMuteExample.nsa?dl=0
@dendy HA! I’ve been wanting to put that exact configuration together to test all day long, but I’ve been getting beat down at work. That’s what I came up with as well in my head, so I thank you very much for proving it out and giving me the example. This will work wonderfully.
Further, you could create a sidechain group where you sent multiple sidechain sources that you mute and unmute with automation if you want to change the source throughout the song. Then feed that group as the external sidechain input on your destination.
The routing in NS2 is amazing. Thanks again for doing that dendy!
you're welcome..
yes, that routing is unnaturaly great.. not just ordinary awesome, it's so great that it needs new word. It's "nanostudiosome"
Actually, one issue with this is that I’d like to be able to use the kick of a drum kit i’m already using as the source. In the setup you’ve created, if I start playing drums on any of the other pads, it will send those MIDI notes to the Obsidian on Ch2 as well. I can’t seem to just isolate the MIDI output for a single pad. I’ve even tried to filter just the MIDI note of C2 48 (the kick on the ch 1 slate drum kit) on the “IN/OUT -> All MIDI Inputs” section on the Ch2 Obsidian.
This forces me to make a specific sidechain track with its own triggering pattern instead of being able to just use a single channel off of a kit that I’m programming. Basically I have to “synchronize” the midi notes on my kicks sequencer clip in my kit to the sidechain MIDI clip.
Unless I’m wrong?
my method is that i always use single instance of slate just for kick and second one for rest of drums
this gives me posibility sidechsin with kick without being distracted by hihats, snares, precussions and rest stuff
sometimes i also create main bus "drums" and into that bus i put multiple slate instancs with "single" kits, like slate with kicks, slate with hihats, slate with snares, slate with percussions
thanks to this? i have more space fir expetimenting with sound (i want different hihats ? then i just transpose played notes in sequencer) Plus i can then also experiment with using snare, or hihats as sidechain source (sidechsining of pad with 16th closed hihat gives interesting gating effect)
I definitely see that, and if I’m making four on the floor EDM, then it works great! But i actually finger drum most of my parts on the iPad itself. Like this...
https://soundcloud.com/dreznicek/bm3-live-drums/s-G9N58
I do that on a single kit. I don’t want to have to copy the kick part from a complex drum program out to another slate instance. I should be able to filter that MIDI note value on the input MIDI receive on a different channel.
You can use the sidechain filter on the compressor to let only a certain frequency through. By setting it low to around 80hz this should work in most cases to isolate mid percussion and hi hats, but if you have low toms playing on the same track, they will be occupying some of the low frequencies. Further to that, you could e.q some lows out of the other percussion in your source track.
As a side note to this, the expander function on the compressor greatly enhances the effect and gives you control over the release phase for really tight gated patterns.
BM3, just for sidechaining (you don't hear the source, you hear the ducking on the destination, which can then also be disabled).
Alas, different expectations, so everyone is right in this thread