Hello,

FabFilter Pro-Q3 version is from July 2023 (VST3 - 64 Bit) - DAW is Studio One 5, Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit.

I have one VSTi track (a pad sound) and another VSTi track (bell sound).
The pad plays one chord and the bell track plays two tones (C4 and C5).
On the Pad sound track I added Pro-Q3 and enabled SideChain.

Then I created an EQ band, adjusted it and made it dynamic + picked the bell track for SideChain.
Everytime, when the bell tones sound, the dynamic EQ band gets applied - so far fine.

Now my issue:
Since the bell sound plays 2 different tones, I would need two dynamic EQ bands,
but the problem is they get always triggered, as soon as ANY bell sound appears.
I can set the threshold inside of the dynamic eq band, but this doesn't help me.

To me it makes the impression that I would need to create
- two instances of FabFilter Pro-Q3
- split the bell track into two separate ones, each tone in a unique track
- use different SideChains (first Pro-Q3 is for C4 sound, the other one for C5 sound)

It works, but is there an easier way?

Thanks for any help and best regards

 

Hello,

I found a better solution rather than having multiple tracks and instances of FabFilter Pro-Q3.
Every eq band can be enabled or disabled, which can be automated in Studio One.

So I just created two eq bands and set the automation, so that eq band 1 only gets activated when bell sound C3 comes
and eq band 2 when C4 sounds.

I assume by this method I won't even need SideChain and dynamic EQ points, because that's what the Automation already does.
At least I didn't hear a real difference after disabling SideChain + making the two EQ points static - just did a quick check though.

But from what I understood, dynamic EQ points might be better because they respond to the incoming loudness from the SideChain signal.
So dynamic EQ points + automation might be the solution here, but maybe there are even better possibilities?

 

With Melda MautoDynamicEQ you can use the pitch tracking functionality to follow the exact frequency by using only one band.
This is a video showing an example:

 

You're not using Reaper aswell by any chance? Because there exactly this is possible, automate any parameter by any MIDI note and any number (amount) of parameters.

 

Fun for a brain-teaser example, but you have already mentioned some of the other ways I would approach this.
I would do something like putting 2 instances of the EQ you want to use on the channel and automate the bypass to switch one EQ instance on, and the other one off, alternating them as needed. Cookie cutter, and you could always do more complex detail work further into the project.The first option I would think about, would be handling the automation on the source synth; just because it is "Cheaper" in resources. Also, since your notes are exactly 1 octave apart; we know that the higher note is 2 times the frequency of the other. You could pretty easily insert a Multiband splitter like MB-7 which you could load different effects processors to each of it's internal channel strips.

 

Last edited: Oct 15, 2023