stereo key input for AAX?
 

Hi as far as I can tell in Pro Tools 12 vanilla there is no way to use a stereo signal as a key input to a compressor.

This would be very helpful for making stems so you could use the full stereo mix as the key input for the sidechain to the stereo bus compressor and be able to create properly compressed stems.

Anyone know if a stereo key input on AAX will ever be a possibility or if there is some workaround I missing?

Thanks!

Re: stereo key input for AAX?
 

No way that I know of that will give independent control of the left & right channels. Besides that you'd need a bus comp that can unlink the channels and there's not many that do that.

Re: stereo key input for AAX?
 

Bus the track with the Stereo "key" out, and have 1 Aux fed by the Left mono bus, and another Aux fed by the Right mono bus.

Put identical compressors on each Aux, and then recombine to a Stereo track, to print your Stem.

Basically, split the Stereo bus compressor in to two Mono compressors, before recombining to Stereo.


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Re: stereo key input for AAX?
 

So you're saying this: feed the output of track one to stereo bus 1/2 for example. Then two mono tracks with the input of one to mono bus one and the other mono track to mono bus 2. Then route the output of one track to mono bus 3 and the other to mono bus 4 and the outputs of those would be picked up by stereo bus 3/4 in another track right?

Trying to match the settings on both compressors ain't going to be easy. You could waste a preset on that but try doing that when tweaking settings and it gets old quickly.

Re: stereo key input for AAX?
 

You can create a group of the 2 channels containing mono compressors on the same insert (e.g. 'A') and in the group specify that controls and bypass are linked for insert A
Uncheck all other attributes of the group and leave it active all the time

Re: stereo key input for AAX?
 

Thanks for the explanation - didn't think of grouping. I mean I use groups but haven't used them in the way you're talking about (controlling plugins).

Re: stereo key input for AAX?
 

Thanks for the replies! Yeah I have done that workaround before with the grouped control linking of two mono compressors but I feel it has some drawbacks. it's not so much that its a bit cumbersome (which is annoying but not a real problem), but actually its more of a problem that it puts some restrictions on how you can apply the compression. There are compressors out there that accept stereo sidechains and have a lot of controls in terms of how to interpret that stereo sidechain signal and how to apply compression to the stereo signal being compressed. With two multi mono compressors you are stuck in a mode where the left channel and the right channel are being compressed completely independent from each other unless you choose for the sidechain to be the same signal (either stereo summed to mono or pick the left or right channel and sidechain that to both). If you had a stereo key input you could do so much more.

It's a pretty particular request I am finding from looking on the internet, but if anyone else is reading this and is hoping avid will add this feature, I put in the idea request at pro tools idea scale, here is the link please upvote it and give it some internet love!

http://protools.ideascale.com/a/dtd/...ut/262997-3779

Re: stereo key input for AAX?
 

If you have a mono sidechain feed to a stereo compressor, the left and right channels are processed the same way. If you have two mono sidechain feeds to two mono compressors, the two channels are processed individually. A true stereo feed to a true stereo compressor is there if you plug it into a stereo channel and DON'T use a sidechain. This is how it works and I don't see how it should be changed?

Re: stereo key input for AAX?
 

For some reason the op wants to have each sidechain control each channel separately in a compressor. PT is limited in that one can only have a mono sidechain signal and not all daws have that limit. Digital Performer doesn't have that limitation - you don't have to bus to a mono bus for a sidechain. You can use a stereo (2 channel) bus for sidechains.

Re: stereo key input for AAX?
 

Yep. But what does it have to do with stereo compressor? If the left and right are treated differently, isn't it multi-mono by definition?