So I really like the set and forget things on my workflow so I don't lose time micromanaging shit, but recently I noticed that doing audio sidechain ducking with Duck doesn't work at all in ableton, it adds 400ms of lag before doing the duck so it renders it unusable.

DUCK WITH AUDIOSIDECHAIN



DUCK WITH MIDI



Did any of you have this problem as well? Am I missing something I need to touch to fix it?

Thanks!

 

I experimented something similar with a version I think of TCD (teamcubbeadooby) but I don't remember which one it was... I should check since these days I've been organizing my plugins and I don't know which one I installed, then I'll do some tests and I'll confirm it!

 

I spent a lot of time researching sidechaining/ducking some time ago. This was the single most educative video on the subject that I could find:

 

It's funny I've been using GMAudioDucker for some time now. It's an awesome tool.

Also for midi input ducking I've been using DuckBuddy from Slynk

I'm on a quest to remove as much vst as I can and work only with just native and max4live devices.

GMAudio has also an excelent clipper that make a good stand off even against Newflanged Saturate and it's lighter on the resources and latency. It's my go to clipper now.

https://robertkgm.gumroad.com/l/gmaclip

And happy new year btw!

 

Duck isn’t slow. You’re forcing it to wait by using an audio sidechain, and Ableton’s PDC has always delayed reactive, time based processing.
People check this every Live release hoping it’s fixed. It isn’t. Live is more concerned with alignment, so anything that depends on detecting audio will behave the same way until Live v20.

I’m not sure why you’d even reach for another plugin when the solution is already in your question: use MIDI. “Set and forget” feels like less work, but it’s really just the old sidechained compressor workflow. If the ducking pattern is predictable, there’s no reason to detect audio at all. Just run the envelope directly and skip the latency.

Also worth noting from your old screenshot: you’ve drawn MIDI quarter notes with no gaps between them. If Duck is following that, the envelope will stay open until the next note. Shortening the notes lets you control the tail of the envelope, basically the same way you’d use a release control on a sidechained compressor.

 

Oh, Duck MIDI note lenght has no effect on the envelope duration, it's just the trigger. I'm moving to other tools just for having everything in the ecosystem so I can reduce the amount of vst I've to reinstall if the system crash hard. For some reason GMAudioDucker reacts better than Duck, on audio, but I don't know the technicalities of why.

 

1) Take the reference/source track that will trigger the compression (change in level) in the target track and route it to an intermediate track or bus.
2) Apply whichever process that you require in that intermediate track/bus, like pre-delay, compression, EQ, dense gate reverb, etc (using plug-ins if necessary).
3) Route the intermediate track/bus to the sidechain that will affect the target track.

By processsing the audio in the intermediate track/bus (even in creative ways) you may manipulate the final result.

Cheers!