I'm looking for the following:

- Easy creation of an envelope with a few clicks, trigger by beat or sidechain.
- Overlay the sidechain waveform (!!)
- Duck only a band or certain part of frequency spectrum.

I know I'm just describing Duck by Devious Machine but that one has a bug even in the newest release and doesn't work for me unfortunately.

LFOTool doesn't have sidechain waveform overlay, Kickstart is too basic (no real edit of the envelope), ShaperBox is way too much and not fast in the workflow... Is there really no decent simple solution in 2024 that just works?

 

Out of curiosity, what's the bug? (and on what DAW / OS ?)

 

Nicky Romero Kickstart, which is by Cableguys also. It doesn't get much easier. Xfer Records LFO Tool is what some people still like.

 

Devious Machines Duck is the best without discussion. Fast workflow, grouping, extended sidechain controls and close to zero latency.

 

What release are you using? I'm using the latest R2R one here, no problems so far. Can't imagine ducking with duck (quack!).

 

I'm using Ableton live. The bug that Devious Machine's Duck stopped working after exactly 151 beats in the timeline is still there in latest R2R release. In Team Cubeadooby it's fixed but plugin randomly stops all the time so it's still unusable. Can be fixed with stop and play again but it's bugging every few seconds.

Kickstart, like mentioned above, is way too basic and doesn't even allow to create own curves.

 

Last edited: Mar 18, 2024

Based on what you're describing, Caelum Audio Flux Pro might meet your needs.

https://www.caelumaudio.com/CaelumAudio/?Page=FluxPro

Edit: Not sure if it supports filtering specific frequency ranges for ducking. If it does not it could be worth reaching out to the dev to ask if they can add it. I believe it's a small team who would probably care about user feedback.

 

Infiltrator 2

 

hello friend.
i wanted to ask you: why do you say that shaperbox is not fast in its workflow? i find it pretty easy to use, takes just a few clicks to make a quick volume shaper; a few more to sidechain it to something else.

 

do you want to know a private thing?
WELL I CAN DISCLOSE

air pumper Creative FX Plus | AIR | Premier Pro Tools FX Now For All Daws (airmusictech.com)

 

Just add a volume shaper and save it as preset, after that you can recall it with one click.
thats to hard?

Another not mentioned alternative:

https://www.vengeance-sound.com/plu...cer Suite Multiband Sidechain3&issue=PICTURES

 

Thanks for the suggestions but I'm looking for something that can do side chain and display the side chain waveform.

VolumeShaper is very powerful but somehow I never clicked with the way that the UI works. Okay I will spend some more time with it and see if if can be as fast as Duck. I'm thinking maybe to set up a rack in Ableton with controls like depth and band crossover mapped out so that shaperbox needs to be only open to draw the envelope.

 

STFU - its a freebie and pretty decent

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/stfu-by-zeek

 

Fabfilter Pro MB is most versatile for ducking imo

 

maybe the royal family should develop their own plugins would you buy it? i will forward this to my team at the palace!

 

It will not let you draw them, but you can modify existing ones whatever way you want. Read the manual.

Exactly. This is an even easier volume shaper: https://www.beatskillz.com/shop/ramp/

 

I personally prefer shaperbox for this, but I also like to occasionally use some of the other fx like the filter and distortion, so I get good use out of the plugin in general.

 

Did you try Filtershaper XL from them? You can also "draw" (from points) volume modulation curve, and it has all the other fx related features. It's a nice addition to Shaperbox.

Another enveloper like this worth checking is Caelum Audio Flux Pro. It also has insertable FX, and it has settings to make use of Control Voltages but maybe outside the scope of the thread. An updated version for both Mac and PC were posted last week.

 

Couldn't you buy Duck if it's the only plugin that meets your needs? Seems like the simplest solution to me. I don't mean that sarcastically either.

 

Keep them coming, I didn't know there are so many plugins for this. I'll check out Shaperbox more now..

I don't understand what you mean maybe because it's not my first language. Should this be a joke or passive aggressive? If not I'm sorry, or are you not happy with the selection of plugins?