How to Sidechain with Volumeshaper, the BEST way

**DISCLAIMER - Cableguys released a new version since I made this, so the way I set this up is slightly outdated and my not work if you're using the new version. I will be uploading a new, up-to-date tutorial covering the latest version soon - hit subscribe so you don't miss that when I post it!
Here's THE BEST, most efficient way to use Cableguys Volumeshaper 6 to Sidechain your snares & kicks.
PLUS - a simple but powerful technique to test whether or not you have the cleanest possible sidechain without relying solely on your ears.
Volumeshaper vs Ableton Compressor - • How to Sidechain with ...
**SETTING UP Volumeshaper for sidechain - • How to Sidechain with ...
Routing midi to Shaperbox - • How to Sidechain with ...
Setting the attack - • How to Sidechain with ...
----- Nudging midi notes • How to Sidechain with ...
**PERFECT SIDECHAIN SYNC W. RESAMPLING - • How to Sidechain with ...
Before/After, personal mixing tips - • How to Sidechain with ...
Saving presets - • How to Sidechain with ...
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[@summajae]

This is 100% the best Shaperbox tutorial for midi sidechaining I've seen! Mate, thank you!

[@DiscoTuna]

Excellent vid. You are right, the other tutorials are rubbish compared to this. Thanks for making

[@ryanmartinez2876]

This video kicks ass. 2nd time watching it and I can recognize the time & energy that went into creating it. Big ups!

[@bastion_music]

thank you my guy! glad it's proven helpful for so many people

[@Re_ii]

Great video, thank you very much for your work!

[@twitcheyspleen]

great stuff. Thank you - I love Shaperbox

[@bastion_music]

Thanks! Yeah it’s been a game changer. New vid on waves smack attack soon

[@djaspor702]

Truly a great tutorial. Thank you!!!!

[@AuroraBPolaris]

I was going to make a video highlighting the absolute gem that is multiband sidechaining and adding a ms offset to make it snap harder...well i guess there is no need now! Bravo!

[@bastion_music]

thanks!!

[@centroidarchive7296]

genius * thank you for making this, so helpful

[@trexion3443]

11:58 the way that you drink out of the mug never stops cracking me up lol

[@MikeDeanOfficials]

Great video, one of the best 👍

[@ryanmartinez2876]

I love the gun shot FX on your videos. I am an immediate subscriber. Big ups Bastion Music.

[@bastion_music]

thanks man i think i got that from Dom mazzetti lolol

[@samwhite9516]

Thanks for this man. Very helpful

[@bastion_music]

np! Thanks for commenting

[@dreamaera]

Judging from this video, you deserve more subs

[@bastion_music]

haha much love. still new to the YT game

[@DanPerezSax]

I agree. So I gave him 1 more!

[@888anonyme888]

Thank you for this man this is sick

[@DiGiTz_music]

Hey, little late to the party, but still a wonderful tutorial, which helped me a lot! If you're still planning on doing some further tutorial stuff, I'd love a video on how to put different tracks of an Ableton project into a group. I'm struggling an awful lot figuring out, which instruments I would conveniently put into e.g. a Sidechain Bus, since it's just something that I haven't made any experience with. Thanks for your work anyways, appreciate the efforts :)

[@MrGerter1]

This is way better than compression sidechain, thanks a lot

[@bastion_music]

cheers

[@carlosjazzpick]

Excellent approach and clearly exposed at modern shaper-assisted sidechain, thank you. In trying to go further, I experiment with various combinations of vol, filter, drive, time, etc shapers. CableGuys ShaperBox2 is my Go-to utility tool in conjunction with Gatekeeper, TANTRA and Rob Papen XY-Transfer. It can be a detail intensive task at times, but it's worth saving those effects sets for potential projects. New subscriber here. BTW, my coffee cup is a copycat of yours, but I use it with a MUTE button! :-) or my wife would give me hot water instead.

[@bastion_music]

Thanks for the sub! And nice! Glad you've found more functionality with shaperbox than I. hahah true. I actually added the sipping sound effect in post for comic effect XD

[@coreymumper2208]

Been waiting for someone to have a good tutorial. Took me a long time to get all of this down. Hey man might have a golden egg for ya. Have you used "Envelope to MPE" new maxforlive device in ableton 11. You can put it on any audio track, or midi, so you can skip the external instrument and routing. Instead, you just pop the Envelope to MPE on, and list where your getting the signal from. Seem to work really well for instant sidechain. This video was helpful! I would love to see more.

[@coreymumper2208]

I gave you a FAT... Subscribe :) lol

[@mahdihassani6940]

this one saved me bro thanks

[@bastion_music]

happy to help

[@tobyarmstrong5450]

Very helpful, thanks man!

[@tobyarmstrong5450]

Ever use the time offset function to delay the midi vs dragging the actual clip? seems easier to revise for a whole track

[@djdepressedvegan]

Thank you! I'll look into this

[@bastion_music]

​@@tobyarmstrong5450 That would be easier, but when I resample test it, it doesn't seem to work. I have yet to test it with an offline bounce though

[@umanoid1523]

Great. Ive seen people use volume shaper to duck out volume for kicks but never was clear how that worked. I do a lot of dub, bass heavy tracks and always struggle with the low end. I usually use Izotope plugins to sidechain the bass with the kick using an eq and a compressor.This seems like its a cleaner way of doing the same thing. I already have sub mix groups on my busses so i’m going to have to look at the routing to make this work since i don’t think you can route midi to a bus.

[@bastion_music]

glad you found this helpful - You may just have to use groups instead of busses since they are basically the same thing

[@johnnysmall]

Dope stuff

[@buggzywestside]

nice explanation thank you!!

[@bastion_music]

you are welcome ser

[@buggzywestside]

@@bastion_music At 4:36 on the dropdown I get "SideChain L" twice??. Does it matter which one I choose?.

[@bastion_music]

@@buggzywestside yes. the first one sends to the first instance in the chain, the second sends to the second.

[@alexrimeisis1298]

Instead of moving the MIDI trigger back you can use Abletons track delay feature (Top bar, view, track delay) which lets you adjust by ms.

[@bastion_music]

i'm actually not sure that would work - the issue is that Idk at what point in the signal flow ableton actually nudges the track. Meaning, all the effects could be applied (including volumeshaper ducking) before the track is nudged, which doesn't help. The only way to know for sure is to test it with an external bounce. Which I've been too lazy to do. But all you reply guys keep suggesting it so I feel like I have to try it to settle it once and for all lol

[@chillselectfam]

nice man

[@itsmebarz9859]

watch for that delay compensation on ableton, not having a offset its the only downside of this plug, that why I prefer LFO tool

[@hollowxo6897]

the best

[@jarkkojs]

One thing that VolumeShaper lacks is velocity sensitivity for the side-chain. I've worked around this by having different notes to trigger side-chain curves of different amplitudes. A simple example where this matters would be a kick fill.

[@bastion_music]

solid workaround... I usually just don't bother sidechaining fills, or perhaps manually cut out or lower gain on conflicting bass on those transients

[@jarkkojs]

@@bastion_music Yeah or you can just automate and bounce the fills. I just wonder why any of these shaper plugins (e.g. also LFO Tool) do not give this as an option.

[@screamartsdnb]

Actually you could get clicking by adding attack if I'm not wrong because that might leave a bit of room for a transient to come through I think. But that's maybe not the case with volume shaper

[@LucaYourself]

thanks! could i just slap the sidechain in the track which I want to change or why should i route it through that sends and groups?

[@bastion_music]

Groups make it very fast & easy to sidechain multiple tracks in the same way at the same time. You'll probably want to do this in most songs. But in some cases, you may only want to sidechain one track to another track, and yes, then you just put Volumeshaper on the track you want to be affected. But, more often than not, I'll end up wanting to chain more than one track, which calls for a group.

[@jamesluttinger1224]

Could you do a tutorial on how to do this and properly route to a pre master?

[@bastion_music]

not sure i understand your question sorry - could you explain in more detail what you are trying to do?

[@MONSTIC]

Hello! How do I make the sidechain apply when exporting the stems? Because when I do it it doesn't export me with the effect

[@bastion_music]

hmm good question... don't have an answer off the top but you can google how to export stems with (midi) effects and should find out pretty quick

[@modernmabuse]

I can't get the beginning of the yellow line up and the end down. I want the volume to be lowered slowly but the curve at the end doesn't go down

[@RecklessG4B]

Can shaper box take from audio ? Like on abletons gate effect theres an option to "Take input audio from..." Im really trying to figure out how to do that in FL studio

[@bastion_music]

no, shaperbox only receives midi

[@omarcoming183]

Can you do more videos on shaperbox? It’s dope but idk how to use it

[@bastion_music]

only use it for sidechain tbh sorry

[@SCHALLZENTRALE]

is it possible to to use the side-chain-audio-in to trigger the envelope?

[@bastion_music]

Could you be more precise? "side-chain-audio-in" on what? The plugin? The track?

[@SCHALLZENTRALE]

@@bastion_music the plugin

[@martin-raison-music-composer]

4:35 Thanks for the tut' but my instance of shaperbox is grey so I can't click on it... Any help? :/

[@bastion_music]

hmm I reckon it's an issue with ableton / how your tracks are routed, rather than a shaperbox issue. too hard for me to diagnose without trooubleshooting, sorry

[@martin-raison-music-composer]

@@bastion_music Thanks for your answer, I appreciate it :) Have a good one

[@polardose9374]

Instead of moving the midi so the side chain starts when the snare hits, you can make the midi track hit 10ms before and then make the side chain dip at 10ms in volume shaper

[@bastion_music]

that's essentially what I'm doing. if you mean using the "delay" feature on the track instead of moving the clip, I'm actually not sure that works due to the timing of when that delay is applied - the signal may pass through group processing before delay is applied, for example. Would require testing with an offline bounce I just haven't gotten around to it cuz this way works & is easy to test in the session

[@poeticgeenetikstv4672]

how can I route retrigger into my MPC 2.10 software?

[@bastion_music]

No idea sorry man GL!

[@ToxiKraft]

What if you just create automations with a volume and EQ? It can be a little time consuming but it works and it's free lol

[@bastion_music]

nah. unnecessarily time consuming, way more room for human error, and stock EQ won't be as clean. well worth the $30 for this or chain shaper M4L. trust

[@TeleporterM11]

Is this version 6 you’re demoing.

[@bastion_music]

I believe so yeah

[@theyoungsapien]

I almosted used the name Bastion as my stage name!!

[@bastion_music]

haha unfortunately im not the only one. but at least no one else sounds like me

[@lenoxartcollective9922]

which track are you putting volume shaper on it is not clear through the video

[@bastion_music]

yes it is lol kzbin.info/www/bejne/p2mnhY2vq52cjsU

[@bastion_music]

it's on the Sidechain group / bus

[@lenoxartcollective9922]

@@bastion_music you referenced some other tutorial

[@bastion_music]

@@lenoxartcollective9922 yeah my ableton template tutorial. But I make it clear in this one too

[@TeleporterM11]

Why did you choose the midi trigger approach. It’s sounds no better than the default.

[@bastion_music]

for the reasons I explain in this tutorial :) Ableton has prob made compressor sound better, but I still prefer VS for the frequency bands.

[@playboyfan001]

Yeah that mutliband selecta is delicious

[@BigJerr]

no click in Ableton if you use Ableton 8 compressor - pro tip

[@jakayboy]

Now clip the snare and kick. And automate this whole sidechain process.

[@sduarte46]

why cant i never get this to work like im doing literally everything step by step and it doesn't work

[@bastion_music]

if you're using the latest version of volumeshaper, this video is outdated. - make sure your trigger midi tracks are turned on and delete all instruments/effects on the track

[@khz5324]

damn. how are you gotta sh*t on the other tutorials? LOL. that's cold. but thanks for the video!

[@bastion_music]

XD no prob! glad it was helpful

[@djdepressedvegan]

Cool- are you new?

[@bastion_music]

been producing for ~5 years. This is only my 2nd YT tutorial

[@seigemonstracity]

AND thats a stock plug in.

[@antidegenerates7449]

Bad lightning? For VST tutorial? Are you mad or something?

[@bastion_music]

twas a joke