Mackie Stereo and Mono Side chain Compressor A brief word about Compressors, Standard vs. Sidechain Compressors

Stereo and Mono Sidechain Compressors for Tracktion

A brief word about Compressors

	As an example of how to use a	Loud
	compressor, supposing you have a	Loud


	track with a wide dynamic range.
	This may have some exquisitely
	detailed and quiet passages, played	Wide
	before breaking into the ﬁnal	Dynamic
	crescendo of Heavy Metal ﬁnal-	Range
	crecendo-ings.

This track may overpower the oth- er tracks during the loud passages, Quiet and yet if we drop the track's over-

all level, the quiet passages may be lost in the mix.

	The compressor allows us to drop	Loud
	(compress) the level of the higher
	(compress) the level of the higher
	passages, once they get louder
	passages, once they get louder	Less
	than a threshold level. When	Less
	the music is quieter than the	Dynamic
	threshold, it is not affected. This	Range
	decreases the dynamic range of the
	track, and allows it to be a better	Quiet
	ﬁt in the mix.	Quiet

The overall level of the track can be adjusted using the makeup gain, or automatic makeup gain. This compensates for the reduced output once the compressor has been at work, and lets you place your track's level relative to the other tracks.

The features and controls of this compressor plug-in are similar to what you might ﬁnd on a real-life beer-stained electronic compressor.

Standard vs. Sidechain Compressors

A standard compressor detects the level of the input signals from the main (host) track, and applies the math to this track to produce the processed output signals.

LEVEL DETECTOR

AND CONTROLS

INPUT

OUTPUT

A Sidechain compressor has an extra (Key) input compared to a standard compressor. The sidechain compressor can detect the level of input signals from the main track OR the signal level from an alternate source. The alternate source can be a processed version of the main track, or the output of a different track.

		LEVEL DETECTOR
KEY INPUT		AND CONTROLS

INPUT

OUTPUT

The math or processing applied to the main track reﬂects the signal fed into the sidechain. In this way, we can have one track triggering the compression of another.

If the key input signal goes above the threshold, the plug-in will compute the amount of compression and apply it to the main input (even if it has not gone over the threshold).

If you add an EQ plug-in to the Key Input line, you can narrow in on a desired frequency range for your compressor to work from.

To make the connections in Tracktion, you must use the Rack Filters option, and assign which track will be connected to the Key Input. An example of this is shown on the next page, so fear not.

User’s Guide