side chain compression of a single frequency band

[Edouardo]

Hi there

I have been using Reason since Reason 3, and only the past last couple of month, I am transiting to DP8, the first 'standard' DAW ever...

There is one thing I used to do a lot in Reason is to duck bass frequencies using a compressor triggered by a kick (Sidechain). I found out how to sidechain compress in DP8, pretty straight forward, but it covers the full spectrum...

In Reason I would not link the compressor to any audio: just use it to send a signal (the noise reduction level) to an EQ. The EQ, connected to the bass audio, would duck only the lowest frequencies when the compressor tells it too (i.e when the kick hits).

This is pretty standard stuff, and is used in all modern productions. I am pretty sure some plugin must exist in DP to do that: side chain compression of a single frequency band. But I have now clue which!

Any ideas?

[kelldammit]

You could try the stock de-esser, actually, but note that it's going to be tuned toward fast transients, so it may or may not fit the bill.
Alternatively, you could find a 3rd party (free or paid) plugin with a sidechain eq. TDR labs' feedback compressor is a nice freebie.

Barring either of those, you could also try this:
Put a dynamics plugin on the track you want to compress.
Duplicate the track you want to use as the key source, and put an eq on it. Boost at the freq you're looking to trigger the ducking, and cut everything else. After you get the desired boost/cuts in place, you can use either a pre-fader send (turn the fader down as not to hear the eq'd key track in your mix), or assign the duplicate track's output to the dynamics plug's key input.
It sounds a bit convoluted, but this was actually how de-essing was done back in the day.

Hopefully that helps and was at least a little clearer than mud...Let me know if you have any questions.
cheers!

kell

[FMiguelez]

I'm not sure DP8 includes it, but if you go to DP9, there's a very nice dynamic EQ plugin. I just tried it for the first time last week to control the 250-400 Hz range for a vocal that sounded fine most of the time, except for a few notes. This plug controlled the dynamic range of that region beautifully and quite transparently.

[supersonic]

I'm not sure DP8 includes it, but if you go to DP9, there's a very nice dynamic EQ plugin. I just tried it for the first time last week to control the 250-400 Hz range for a vocal that sounded fine most of the time, except for a few notes. This plug controlled the dynamic range of that region beautifully and quite transparently.

Same here. I have used it a few times and found very good. For keying you can use any compressor that can do side chain inside DP (none of the UAD plug ins do it sadly but the stock ones do) and send your kick to an auxiliary bus which you will then assign in your compressor.

[kelldammit]

Oops, yeah, forgot about the dynamic eq. That was introduced in v8.