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= The fast and easy way to understand compression and reaComp =
= Side-chaining with ReaComp =
lets say you have made a recording, and you are largely satisfied with the results, however, the voice or instrument you recorded is not quite OK because at some points, you find it being overpowered and at other times you can find it is just too quiet and you have to strain to hear it. So you might either divide the track into items, adjust their volume, or you might be a super fancy kind of person who uses her super brain powers and a controller and does a very awful lot of dedicated automation on the volume for the track.... and then, one day, the entire mix changes and you have to do them all over again. Boy!  Turns out that you can have someone inside your computer do that on command, automagically, being respectful of the volume changes so they are just right, and you can compare the results immediately instead of pressing undo, redo, undo, undo, redo. ETC.
== What Is Side-Chaining? ==
In essence, a side chain is where you use the output of one track to control the output on another track. You could use Sidechaining if you want to have your background music on one track automatically lowered in volume, or ducked, when there is speech on another track. So for example your podcast intro music is ducked when you start speaking.
== How To Set Up A Side-chain ==
In the side- chain we will be setting up in this tutorial, we will be sending the audio from our vocal track to the music track. We will still want the vocal track to go straight to the master track so we can hear it. The copy that is sent to the music track will not be heard in the master, however it will be used to compress the volume of the music, or in other words, to duck the music.


== enter the world of compression and reaComp ==
First, create two tracks. In this example, track one will be called music, and track 2 will be called voice. This article assumes that you already know how to create tracks. If not, then [[Tracks_and_Track_Folders|read this article to learn how.]]


Rather than [[ReaEffects guide#2 ReaComp|explaining the entire effect controls and window in dept]], we can do an explanation from a "lets use this thing!" perspective. So, get to work.
Now we have a track with music, and a track with voice. The first step is to change the music track from a standard 2 channel stereo track to a 4 channel track. The first two channels are your standard left and right channels, channel 3 and 4 will be auxiliary channels, meaning that you won't hear the audio being sent to those channels.  To change the track to a four channel track, press I on the music track, to open the routing dialogue. Tab until you hear, “track channels.” Press Alt+Down arrow keys to open the combo box so you can select the number of channels. Arrow down to change from 2 channels to four channels. Press Enter to consolidate the change. Then press escape to exit the routing dialogue.  


# Find a quiet section or a section that sounds good to you and [[Monitoring levels when you can't see the meters|find
Next, setup a send, so that the audio from the vocal track is being sent to the music track. You can press I on the vocal track to enter the routing dialogue, tab til you hear, “add send.” Press Alt+Down arrow keys to open the combo box to select the destination track. Arrow down to get to your music track. When you're there, press Enter for the send to add, then press escape to leave the routing dialogue. Your send has now been added.
  out it's average level by using your peak watcher]].
# Open the effects on the track by pressing F after selecting it, and insert any compressor you would like; ReaComp will be used for this example. In your compressor, set your threshold value to about 3 db less than the average level reported by the Peak Watcher, and set the ratio to 4.2 or similar. Setting the ratio in this way means that the compressor will allow 2 db to pass if the sound exceeds 4 db over what you have set in the threshold.  
# Finally, you can see how many db's the compressor is pulling back next to the rms size box, , which is also known as the gain reduction amount. NVDA will read  them, first the left and  then the right channel. So you might want to select a part and play it as a loop over and over.
#If you find that compression is pulling the voice too far back or  that the volume is abruptly changing, you can increment the knee parameter, or the attack, or also play with the preComp setting to get a more subtle compression. So experiment with all of those values and settings to find something that is good for you. You can also increase the wet output to try and bring things back up to the volume they were, carefully, of course. However, the one that  determines how suddenly or gradually the compression is applied is the knee parameter so you might want to experiment with that one first.  


Next, set the destination of the send from the vocal track to the third and fourth channel of the music tracks. This will send the audio from the vocal track to the auxiliary channels of your music track. This means that the audio on your vocal track is being heard through your vocal track, but is also being sent to the auxiliary channels of your music track, so that you can use it to influence the music track.


  the box labelled RMS, is the one that tells you how hard the compressor
To send the vocal track to channels 3 and 4 of the music track, press I on the vocal track. Tab until you hear, “send to track one, music, delete button.” Once there, invoke your contextual menu with either the [[Useful Links and Resources#numpad emulation and applications key script|Applications key]] or the Shift+f10 combination. Use the down arrow key to get to the "Destination Audio Channel" setting. Press enter on that setting and, once again, make use of the down arrow keys to get to the 3/4 option, which will likely be the third option in most of the cases. Press the Enter key to consolidate the change and then press the Escape key until you land in the main Reaper window.
  is working. You should Leave the rms size parameter alone, and instead try increasing the
  threshold more towards the negative values, and also increase the ratio. You should
  hear differences in the sound if you are compressing things too hard because a compressor indeed makes the dynamic range smaller and "compresses" the volume of whatever you are putting it on.
  which is the idea, because then you would want to slowly adjust the
  values to get a more decent sound. To hear what the compressor is doing, you can toggle bypass on the currently focused effect with Control+B. When the effect is bypassed, you won't hear what it is doing. This is good so that you can hear whether the changes you have made with this effect are improving the sound or not.
If this is a bit confusing, you might wish to read [https://forum.cockos.com/showpost.php?p=278807&postcount=247 this excellent explanation] found in the reaper forums.


== Ok, so what about the other controls? ==
Now, we can add a compressor to our music track. In this tutorial, we are using the included compressor, Reacomp. Press F on the Music track to open the FX dialogue. Add ReaComp.


There's also a makeup gain checkbox, which will put the compressor to the top of it's range, with the parameters you've set of course, but it's good to use when you have really squashed a signal and need to well, make up the gain.
Once added, tab through the settings of ReaComp until you get to “detector input.” Set the detector input of ReaComp to aux 3/4. This means the compressor will be influenced by the audio being sent to it on channels 3 and 4, in this case, the audio from your voice track.  
There is also a limiter, a brick wall limiter box you can check to make sure you don't over-blow the limit of the plug-in itself, a safety brick wall limiter.
There is also the over sampling slider, but it sets the quality of the processing, but it can also use more computer resources though you will get the best quality by ramping that all the way up to 64.  


== lastly, some useful presets ==
Finally, we need to set up the compressor suitably to compress the music enough to hear the voice over. Set the ratio to a suitable value, perhaps 4/1 or higher. You can use the precomp and attack parameters to affect how quickly the audio is ducked and the release parameter to affect how quickly the audio returns to it’s original volume once the voice over stops. The lower you set the threshold, the quieter the music will be while it is being compressed.




one of the presets, called "stock - Fader Ride Vocal - aim for 8dB GR" uses the out-put of the compressor to help determine how the compressor works, how much it compresses dynamically based on the output.
We have now set up a side chain to duck our music while speaking. This may seem fairly complex at first, however understanding the concepts covered will help with lots of tasks you might want to undertake in Reaper, or any professional DAW
The advantage of driving a compressor based on it's output is that you can really do some deep compression
without your original signal sounding so squashed, good for a podcast where you have widely differing levels of speech and you don't want to have to slice and dice and adjust volume levels.
You'll still have to adjust threshhold and ratio and such but try this setting to start with if you have a lot of wide dynamics involved.


For more information on compression and reaComp, check the [[Chapter 16: REAPER Plug-ins in Action#16.11 Volume Control with Compression: ReaComp|corresponding section of the reaper users guide]]
== Some Tips for Windows and Mac users ==
 
As with most things in Reaper, there are many ways of doing things, and the best way may be different between platforms. For example, in Windows, you can set up a send as described above from the "View I/O for current track"dialog by pressing "I" on the track. Alternatively you can use the alt plus [[Useful Links and Resources#numpad emulation and applications key script|applications key]] on the track and you will find the options buried in these menus. Once you have a send set up, when in the  I/O for current track dialog, you will find a delete button for the send. pressing the applications key on this button will bring up further options for configuring the send.
 
Setting up a send from track 1 to track 2, is exactly the same as setting up a receive on track 2 from track 1.
 
When on the Mac, the most efficient way of setting up the routing for the side-chain is to follow the below steps.
* Bring up the I/O for the Music track
* Change the Track channels: from 2 to 4
* Keep navigating through the dialog to  the "Add new receive..." pop up button and add a receive from the Voice Track
* navigate to the Destination audio channel selection box, and change from channel 1/2 to 3/4
The routing is now set up and you can now close the dialog and add ReaComp to the Music track.
 
==Audio Tutorials ==
 
There are two tutorials on side-chaining, one based on MacOS and the other based on Windows.
In the MacOS audio tutorial, Garth Humphrey's talks you through creating a side chain in Reaper with ReaComp. [http://traffic.libsyn.com/iblindtech/RT08-DuckingWithSideChain.mp3 Download the mac audio tutorial here].
 
In Windows, Daniel Montalvo shows us how to accomplish side-chaining on Windows. He uses JAWS for Windows but he also explains what the differences are when somebody is using NVDA. [http://traffic.libsyn.com/iblindtech/RT10-SideChainReaperWindows.mp3 Download the Windows tutorial here]

Latest revision as of 22:45, 17 May 2023

Side-chaining with ReaComp

What Is Side-Chaining?

In essence, a side chain is where you use the output of one track to control the output on another track. You could use Sidechaining if you want to have your background music on one track automatically lowered in volume, or ducked, when there is speech on another track. So for example your podcast intro music is ducked when you start speaking.

How To Set Up A Side-chain

In the side- chain we will be setting up in this tutorial, we will be sending the audio from our vocal track to the music track. We will still want the vocal track to go straight to the master track so we can hear it. The copy that is sent to the music track will not be heard in the master, however it will be used to compress the volume of the music, or in other words, to duck the music.

First, create two tracks. In this example, track one will be called music, and track 2 will be called voice. This article assumes that you already know how to create tracks. If not, then read this article to learn how.

Now we have a track with music, and a track with voice. The first step is to change the music track from a standard 2 channel stereo track to a 4 channel track. The first two channels are your standard left and right channels, channel 3 and 4 will be auxiliary channels, meaning that you won't hear the audio being sent to those channels. To change the track to a four channel track, press I on the music track, to open the routing dialogue. Tab until you hear, “track channels.” Press Alt+Down arrow keys to open the combo box so you can select the number of channels. Arrow down to change from 2 channels to four channels. Press Enter to consolidate the change. Then press escape to exit the routing dialogue.

Next, setup a send, so that the audio from the vocal track is being sent to the music track. You can press I on the vocal track to enter the routing dialogue, tab til you hear, “add send.” Press Alt+Down arrow keys to open the combo box to select the destination track. Arrow down to get to your music track. When you're there, press Enter for the send to add, then press escape to leave the routing dialogue. Your send has now been added.

Next, set the destination of the send from the vocal track to the third and fourth channel of the music tracks. This will send the audio from the vocal track to the auxiliary channels of your music track. This means that the audio on your vocal track is being heard through your vocal track, but is also being sent to the auxiliary channels of your music track, so that you can use it to influence the music track.

To send the vocal track to channels 3 and 4 of the music track, press I on the vocal track. Tab until you hear, “send to track one, music, delete button.” Once there, invoke your contextual menu with either the Applications key or the Shift+f10 combination. Use the down arrow key to get to the "Destination Audio Channel" setting. Press enter on that setting and, once again, make use of the down arrow keys to get to the 3/4 option, which will likely be the third option in most of the cases. Press the Enter key to consolidate the change and then press the Escape key until you land in the main Reaper window.

Now, we can add a compressor to our music track. In this tutorial, we are using the included compressor, Reacomp. Press F on the Music track to open the FX dialogue. Add ReaComp.

Once added, tab through the settings of ReaComp until you get to “detector input.” Set the detector input of ReaComp to aux 3/4. This means the compressor will be influenced by the audio being sent to it on channels 3 and 4, in this case, the audio from your voice track.

Finally, we need to set up the compressor suitably to compress the music enough to hear the voice over. Set the ratio to a suitable value, perhaps 4/1 or higher. You can use the precomp and attack parameters to affect how quickly the audio is ducked and the release parameter to affect how quickly the audio returns to it’s original volume once the voice over stops. The lower you set the threshold, the quieter the music will be while it is being compressed.


We have now set up a side chain to duck our music while speaking. This may seem fairly complex at first, however understanding the concepts covered will help with lots of tasks you might want to undertake in Reaper, or any professional DAW

Some Tips for Windows and Mac users

As with most things in Reaper, there are many ways of doing things, and the best way may be different between platforms. For example, in Windows, you can set up a send as described above from the "View I/O for current track"dialog by pressing "I" on the track. Alternatively you can use the alt plus applications key on the track and you will find the options buried in these menus. Once you have a send set up, when in the I/O for current track dialog, you will find a delete button for the send. pressing the applications key on this button will bring up further options for configuring the send.

Setting up a send from track 1 to track 2, is exactly the same as setting up a receive on track 2 from track 1.

When on the Mac, the most efficient way of setting up the routing for the side-chain is to follow the below steps.

  • Bring up the I/O for the Music track
  • Change the Track channels: from 2 to 4
  • Keep navigating through the dialog to the "Add new receive..." pop up button and add a receive from the Voice Track
  • navigate to the Destination audio channel selection box, and change from channel 1/2 to 3/4

The routing is now set up and you can now close the dialog and add ReaComp to the Music track.

Audio Tutorials

There are two tutorials on side-chaining, one based on MacOS and the other based on Windows. In the MacOS audio tutorial, Garth Humphrey's talks you through creating a side chain in Reaper with ReaComp. Download the mac audio tutorial here.

In Windows, Daniel Montalvo shows us how to accomplish side-chaining on Windows. He uses JAWS for Windows but he also explains what the differences are when somebody is using NVDA. Download the Windows tutorial here

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