Side Chaining the master bus

[Anita PotterParticipant]

Hey all. I was wondering if those of you that use Reaper have ever side chained your master bus? I know how to sidechain say bass and kick but for the master I'm a little lost. I don't think any of the plugins I have (including the stock ones) have a side chain button but please correct me if I'm wrong. Searching online hasn't yielded very good results just a lot of stuff I wasn't looking for or posts about how you don't need to do that. I liked it when search engines didn't give you a lot of nonsense you weren't looking for. Makes me miss the early 2000s for that 😉

Thanks!

[Patrick BonierModerator]

Hi, Anita:

You CAN sidechain with the stock plugins in Reaper. I don't think you can on the master bus, but you can make a "pre-master bus" and do it on that one. Here is a link to a Reaper Mania video on ducking using a side-chain.

https://youtu.be/8Tt5yWOxB2E

I have been using Reaper for quite a while, and I have found that the best way to learn any new skills is to go to the videos that Kenny Gioia makes for Reaper. You can find them on YouTube at Reaper Mania, or Reaper.fm by clicking the "Videos" link.

The other question would be, "What are you trying to accomplish by side-chaining the master bus?"

Searching for answers about Reaper on Google usually works better if you start it with "Reaper DAW" and then the term. For instance, I searched "Reaper DAW sidechain master bus" and got this as the top link, which explains how to do it:

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=89501

The biggest problem I have found when using google to search for Reaper answers, is to get posts that were made 10 years ago and now there is a better answer. I always check the date on any links before I click them, and try to get the most recent.

Another good source is the Reaper Blog Facebook Group. Jon Tidey is another Reaper Guru and he is very active in helping people solve their dilemmas.

Hope that helps.

[Anita PotterParticipant]

Hey Patrick. I do watch a bit of Kenny's videos 🙂 Only reason I was asking was a couple of feedback Friday's ago Warren said something about side chaining the master to let the bass and kick (could've just been the kick) breathe. I'm not sure if he meant to say Master buss or not which is why I got confused. It would probably be easier to just make a bass aux and a kick aux and side chain those then send those to where they need to go.

Yeah a lot of the info is outdated on searches. I remember finding one awhile back and they're talking about the I/O button (this is before I learned how to route) and I'm yelling at my screen I don't have one so I looked that up took forever to find that they renamed the Route button to that. I felt like an idiot LOL.

I will check out that Facebook group as soon as I can. Thanks Patrick 🙂

[Patrick BonierModerator]

I don't recall that particular reference, but a lot of times when he has numerous bass tracks he will refer to the bass aux/bus as the bass "master." I think that if I was confused by something Warren said in a particular breakdown, I would probably ask about it under the forum for that song. Warren moves through his breakdowns at a pretty fast pace, and I find myself rewinding a lot to figure out what he said. Also, I get confused by some of the Pro Tools terminology, expecially all of the steps they have to go through to get a bus track; so much simpler in Reaper.

Anyway, I've been a member for a year and a half and I've been to both Masterclasses in LA and I am only now getting ready to post my first mix for review, so I share a lot of the same issues you are going through with figuring out what he means sometimes. For instance, I have heard many people talking about letting a mix "breathe" and I have no idea what that means, so I usually ignore it. Might be a good question for FAQ Friday!

[Jason DavenportParticipant]

Side chaining the master bus means engaging a side chain filter on a compressor and setting the filter like a high pass filter, so the compressor doesn't affect the low end. Some compressor plugins have this function, some don't. Schepps Omni Channel has this functionality. Basically you put a compressor on your master bus, and set the high pass filter frequency above the low end. Somewhere around 150-200hz is a good place to start, so the compressor won't affect below the cutoff point allowing your mix to breathe. If the compressor is grabbing all those low frequencies, it can cause a pumping, or choking effect. Not sure how to do it in Reaper, with stock plugins, but I'm sure someone knows. You might be able to find a free plugin that does that. Also the Schepps Omni Channel from Waves goes on sale periodically. I just picked it up a couple weeks ago for $29. That's pretty cheap by anyone's standards 🙂 Hope this helps!

[Anita PotterParticipant]

Hey Jason. Yeah I don't think the stock Reaper compressors has a side chain function on it. So you're not actually routing any tracks to a side chain compressor like say how a kick and bass get side chain compressed to get out of each others way?

Oh bloody hell I found one I downloaded awhile back that has a sidechain knob *slaps self* It's called Nova67P which is a free VST. I haven't really used it cause it looks complicated but I played with that sidechain knob and it shows where the slope is and you can dial it in to where you need. I'm gonna have to go back to Katie's track and test that out.

[Jason DavenportParticipant]

Sounds like you got it figured out 🙂 No extra routing required. It is a little different than the kick bass sidechain... Put it directly on your master bus, loop the loudest section of the track, and set it so the meter(On gain reduction) is barely moving. Then engage the side chain filter and roll it up to the desired frequency and listen. You will probably not have any movement on your meter now. This allows you to set the compressor more aggressively without pumping. Good luck, hopefully that will get you back on track!

[Anita PotterParticipant]

Patrick - Warren talks about air on the track during this weeks Feedback Friday (I've forgotten which one it was on)

Thanks Jason. I'm going to switch out the master buss compressor with this one and see how that goes 🙂

[James GormanParticipant]

ReaComp has the sidechain under 'Detector input', and you can use the highpass for what you want.

I really need to read the manual for this. I just noticed it has an RMS section too! You might want to turn this to 0 to get a traditional compression response (RMS is less influenced by transients).

[Anita PotterParticipant]

That's weird James coz I'm not seeing side chain under that detector input at all just this:

Main Input L & R
Auxiliary Input L & R
Main Input L
Main Input R
Auxiliary Input L
Auxiliary Input R
Output (Feedback)

Is it one of those or am I missing something?

[James GormanParticipant]

What you are missing is me being sufficiently clear. I should have said 'Detector input" and the three sliders under it _are_ the side chain. You want Main Input L&R. Then the high pass slider under that will give you the 'side chain filter'.

[Anita PotterParticipant]

Aaaaaahhh Gotcha! Thanks James 🙂

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