3rd Party Plugin Compressors that allow sidechain

[Jamie Harley]

Thank you for your reply ...I have 32c already as my main mixing DAW. I consistently use all 12 of the mix bus groups and often resort to creating extra aux buses in the channel area.
I’ve had issues with Waves plugins that in LogicX work fine and have useable side chain functions But as soon as I try to use them in Harrison I get the situation you pointed out earlier where the blue side chain appears but you cannot route it to the sc input on the plugin. The waves renaissance compressor is one of those for example ..the F6 is another. I will double check I was using their AU format but I’m pretty sure most of my waves compressors side chain functions are unusable. I’ve been through quite a few with frustrating results.
My point about other DAWs is that the plugins Side chain functions work fine on those but just not in 32C.

[Jamie Harley]

Ok ..Ive been doing some research into this and I find it is actually possible to use some ( well the ones I want to use anyway) third party plugins effectively that allow for sidechaining as part of their design. But the trick is that if they are stereo plugins it seems you have to add another side chain input on the pin configuration. Adding one only will not give you the sidechain input you require to patch so you need to add another. This seems like a very strange bug considering how useful this function is but this in fact allows you to use Waves plugins such as F6, Rcomp and the API2500 which I find the most useful. F6 in particular allowing stereo and mid side processing (so useful)
Ironically however this method does not allow you still to use the Spectral Comp from Harrison so its a shot in the foot there I feel.
Many thanks Dingo for all your help recently ..I think perhaps we've both learnt something from our interaction.
Ive yet to check if these methods work well on mixbusses but they certainly work on mono and stereo tracks.

[bernardo jimenez]

I guess I'm missing something here. On either Mixbus compressors I can't see a Sidechain input, only the L and R ones. I can create a sidechain, yes, but I'd have to get rid of one of the input signals (Left or Right).
What am I doing wrong? Can the Harrison compressors be used with sidechains even if the signal feeding the compressor is stereo?

[Dingo]

The ACE Compressor, which comes as part of Mixbus has a stereo instance that has SC input.
Also the AVA Multiband Compressor comes in stereo with SC.

[Tassy]

Fabfilter Pro- C (SC) works fine in MB

Multiband compressors and dynamic EQs are mostly interchangable regarding the result.
NOVA dynamic free eq can be sidechained too.

As to "sidechain" there are some misunderstandings what we consider "sidechaining"
Sidechain a plugin (real sidchain controlled by another track) or sidechain a channel strip (parallel compr/delay)rev/ etc) are different

I consider a plugin can be sidechained if the pin dialoguge of the plugin in MB makes it possible.
I have thousands of VSTs and I can count on one of my hands the ones that can be sidechained like that.

If a plugin has sidchain function/option within itself built in, like Waves F6, it does not work because the pin selector does not give "pins" for connecting to a SC source.
Better check it in the stereo version of the plugin to make sure.
In picture you can see the extra (empty) pins in Nova I talk about and ACE compr as in a post before