LFOTool sucks so we made Duck Buddy, the sidechainer of my dreams! (FREE DOWNLOAD)

[@Slynk]

For a while, during development, this plugin was called "Duck Boy" but I quickly decided to rename it to "Duck Buddy". The music industry is already so male dominated, so I didn't want to give the plugin a male gender, potentially further alienating the women producers out there. It's a small thing but I think subtle things like this push women away from music production and careers within the music industry. And I think we should be doing everything we can to create a comfortable atmosphere for those women looking to get involved in the music industry. This ain't no boys club.

[@therealquade]

I mean, we didn't even need to know that. Duck buddy is inherently funny to say.

[@Slynk]

@@therealquade Duck Buddy: Your friend with benefits!

[@artfxdnb]

Ah so glad to see you say this, been saying this about other plugins too that recently got pretty hyped (remember that NANI saturation plugin with it's h3nt@i plugin GUI?), like we don't need that crap in audio plugins.

[@igk1288]

🙌

[@johncitizen8828]

‘Duck Buddy’ is so much funnier.

[@au5music]

BRILLIANT Evan! Thanks a ton for this. This is also crazy useful for amplitude shaping individual drum hits.

[@Slynk]

Yes I'm glad you saw this and thankyou for the nice comment. You're the only person so far who has realised that this can be used as a transient shaper :)

[@lolgamercz8124]

@@Slynk Can i ask, how do you turn it into a transient shaper?

[@tobyarmstrong5450]

@@lolgamercz8124 probably just put it on the drum track and sidechain to ghost notes?

[@lolgamercz8124]

@@tobyarmstrong5450 thank you it works.

[@FranR00]

😀

[@apoplexiamusic]

OMG.... you just solved EVERY problem i have with sidechaining! While i love the control over the shape and timing with Shaperbox, the MIDI setups it requires is effin' tiresome to set up! Which is why i mostly use the Live 8 Compressor because it doesn't click, but setting up a MIDI trigger track is also a pain. But what is even better here is that Velocity function... just genius!

[@Slynk]

My exact train of thought right before we started working on this project LOL!

[@apoplexiamusic]

@@Slynk and that Mixed View... like seriously this can't be free, it's too good!

[@Slynk]

@@apoplexiamusic feel free to show your monetary support with one of the links in the description!

[@Mincher]

The velocity driven compression feature, alone, could have made you a millionaire but you're out here hooking everyone up. Amazing stuff!

[@exp42]

Prior to this device, I had painstakingly compared every sidechain method on the market. None of them were perfect and I ultimately settled on a combination of Gatekeeper (for primary sidechain duties) and the Live 8 Compressor (to clean up clicks and add lookahead). From a technical perspective this setup worked really well but as you covered in the video the workflow was a nightmare. Not only was the routing tedious but having to constantly resample the tune to see the waveform was such a buzzkill. This device solves every one of these problems, all while being an absolute joy to use. I can't say enough how much I appreciate all the work that went into this project. Thank you!

[@aashish2763]

It's a shame that this not implemented in Lfo tool, shaperbox, etc etc from so long . Midi routing is such a pain. Thanks Man! Very generous of you for not charging money on this. God bless.

[@jarlyk]

VSTs are somewhat limited in how they can interact with the DAW, since it's a generic standard that's compatible across multiple DAWs. I'm sure the designers of these tools don't _want_ to have to use these awkward workflows, but they have to make do with what's available via the interface. Since Max4Live integrates more tightly with Live, it has access to more information. In particular, as of Live 11 they added lagless binding to MIDI inputs from arbitrary tracks, which is the magic sauce that allows Duck Buddy to do its thing. That and M4L lets us integrate the plugin UI directly into the fx chain, which is quite nice, since it makes it feel more like a native plugin. The downside of course is that it limits it to just Live 11 Suite users, but for that group of users, it's a really convenient workflow.

[@Slynk]

Yeah we would love to be able to make something like this available to producers in any daw but we don't believe it is possible. I'm hoping this plugin helps to shake things up a bit and maybe the creators of some of these vsts will start thinking about ways to get around these limitations to bring about a better workflow for their vst sidechainers.

[@DjangoFlaherty]

I've read that the VST3 format allows plugins to share information between one other, so you could theoretically have a VST on one track that detects a MIDI or audio signal, and a VST on another track that takes the trigger and acts on it.

[@BigFknRobots]

yeah, it's an ableton limitation with how they implement midi routing in audio effects - it's annoying that it requires extra steps like this. Some other DAWs do a better job at this. Ableton has improved sidechain audio routing in effects plugins in these more recent versions. That used to be just as annoyingly implemented.

[@BigFknRobots]

It would be possible... there's a few approaches I usually end up with a folded away group of midi tracks that take input from my kick and output to shaperbox on each of my main groups. But, it's still an extra fiddly step when I add a group etc. I must remember to create a new midi track, set source, set destination, set it to "input" - it's not a massive deal for me, but still, it's not as fast as "copy and paste the device and the routing just keeps working" some ideas for work arounds.. 1- create a dummy midi port to send out your sidechain source info (be careful as this would require setting up manually if you were to open this project on another computer) 2- some plugins have built in communication between instances (eg. Izotope neutron/ozone) - so it would be possible for a ducking vst to do that... have a listening plugin, and then each ducking plugin can automatically receive that signal. 3- implement tricks with maxforlive to route midi instead. Basically, it's building your own way of routing the midi where it needs to go rather than using the default tools provided by ableton. The limitation is basically "you must ^send^ midi to that specific instance of the plugin" you can't set the plugin to "^listen^ to that specific source" It doesn't help that ableton doesn't like transmitting midi down through a plugin chain (something other DAWs like Bitwig can do) - once it hits the instrument, the midi dies and only the audio proceeds. Eg. in bitwig I can quickly have effects that have keyboard tracking - they have different values with high notes than low notes. Among many other things, but I digress. To do such things in ableton currently would require a whole lot more tedious steps and planning.

[@SeedtoStage]

Brilliant! Fantastic job. Just did a special on this issue on my channel and my conclusion was the same. There wasn't a really good solution ...yet. Then comes SLYNK. Bravo.

[@Lordxfx]

You know Slynk, this is one of the most complete analysis on the classic approach to side chaining using compressors and lfo tools. I bought my Duck years ago, but I only now understand why I use it. I hate that pumping sound. I'm now looking at your Essentials tool box. O ja, (Dutch), today I finally but the mother of all LFO's: The SlynkFO's.

[@jonlemmonmusic]

Damn Slynk this is legendary!!! The best thing to happen in Ableton since comping. :-) Finally after so many years Ableton is becoming a dream to work in. Thank you soo much!

[@kojikobura]

Genius! Thank you very much!

[@punchilux5783]

Yo this literally solves every irritating problem of working with LFO tool. So stoked I no longer have to duplicate multiple ghost note triggers across all my busses. Especially happy that I no longer have to automate LFOtool to turn off in sections where I don't want sidechaining. Ahhh this proves why staying up on learning on KZbin even after producing for 10 years is an awesome habit to stay in. Good stuff man thank you!

[@playmoore8197]

Thanks for hooking it up with this! I love the transparency from the zoom mode! lots of use this thing will get sir. Thanks again to you and the team!

[@stevenalpha331]

"it's painful, let me show you how it's done". LOL that sold me.

[@tobyarmstrong5450]

Amazing tool!! For a need so common with such shared frustration I’m so surprised no one has done this before, it’s like I just took for granted that side-chaining had to be annoying

[@badwave]

just switched back to Live, and this is what i see. i think im gonna cry. i love you.

[@TPNL1997]

This is amazing, only thing that sucks is that i now have to revisit everything I ever made. Thanks!

[@robtarius]

None of us can thank you enough for the amount of time you and all involved, have spent devellopping what is the most incredible plugin that will be at the heart of all our projects, working away, tirelessly, so that we can achieve perfect SdC Comp to produce the amazing results we all strive for but that would take so long to achieve before Duck Buddy. You should be commanded (dare I say Knighted!) by Ableton and Duck Buddy should be included as standard. I mean you’re giving this out for free! May your Karma benefit greatly from such a selfless gesture! I’m up at 6am to go work on a track with Duck Buddy because I’m so excited about it! Thank you

[@edmkidder]

Pretty sure this is now the last plugin on my default channels after watching this. Cheers, thank you!

[@connorflynn1885]

Back in ought 3 or 4 or so I traded my Tascam 8 track in for a Korg 16 track and started really recording bands. I had no idea what compression was, so I was using the volume faders with my fingers when bouncing tracks to do it manually and to me it always sounded *better* than compression. Your video reminded me of this. Excited to use your duck tool!

[@pikzel]

The compressor doesn’t have to ”finish listening to the kick”. You’ve set the threshold to -inf meaning it will be triggered by ANY incoming sound, regardless of volume, meaning it will never reach the release until the whole sample is over. Just set a higher threshold.

[@Slynk]

Very true but then I won't be getting -inf of gain reduction which is my goal. I have 0db drums and 0db bassline. Both playing at the same time with just enough sidechain to have 0db master level.

[@admiralhax9714]

this is unbelievable. the velocity thing controlled ducking is just *mwah*. why arent you selling this??

[@naughtywatermelon8662]

My word.... You are the greatest of all time for this... This is EXACTLY what we've all been needing. The large view features are incredible, the long look ahead, velocity features, the copy and paste while maintaining the routing. Thankyou for this 🙌🙏

[@locklan_]

wow man this is such a well thought out plugin. Sidechaining has been one of those things I've wrestled with for years to get perfect, eventually I landed on the external instrument > LFO shaper method and just dealt with the workflow annoyances. But holy shit man this thing solves all my gripes with that PLUS adds extra toys. That velocity feature is such a unique and thought out tool!!! I've always got around this just by manually adding in kick/snare samples in a separate track with varying volume levels to just avoid having to deal with those rolls/fills in the midi channel causing unnecessary ducking but now I won't even have to think about it. This is just an insane tool man, thank you so much.

[@Slynk]

Exactly! The velocity feature is super handy right!? I almost never bother with velocity on my drums but now I think I will use it more often with this improved sidechain workflow.

[@pascalchenard2686]

Ugh. Man. Thank you so freakin much. You did it. I've been wanting this for years and thought of building one myself. Went through all the workflows you mentioned. Thank you so so so much.

[@Slynk]

My absolute pleasure. From this day fourth, may sidechain compression suck less for everyone! For FREE!

[@nikhilas9091]

You don't know how much I've been wanting for someone to add lookahead feature to a sidechain plugin. Awesome work.

[@PittsMultiPass]

OMG! This is simply a PERFECT side chain utility - Slynk 👉🏻You be da best! 👏👏👏✌🏽🤘🏽

[@janvandertoorn]

Ok! hands down! the best Volume-shaper available right now!!!!! LOVE IT thnx

[@MikeBalk]

Thank you Slynk and crew!!!

[@cloudfraction2239]

this thing is amazing.everything is solved what bothered me about sidechaining stuff and everything sound so clear.thank you !

[@DrCook45]

Man thanks so much, I was able to upgrade from live 9 to 11 at Christmas thanks to my gorgeous wife. Now I can use this awesome plugin and stop wasting time with my ridiculous sidechaining methods!! :)

[@heyitsmeian]

Thanks for the tool! Giving back to the community is what really makes you a hero. I wonder how many total hours of frustration you've saved us all.

[@joshuameachum1064]

LEGEND!!! Been through all of the workarounds you covered in the past trying to address this issue. Thanks for solving it and the whole team that worked on it!

[@mollycoke9988]

Thank you so much slynk for sharing these precious lessons of yours. Cheers mate! Youre the man!

[@benjaminrdoyle]

Legendary, saw the problem, fixed the problem. Will definitely use this!

[@mvandell]

Thanks brother you've taken the ball ache out of an essential production technique and given us a buddy with cream on top. Big ups to you and your team for this generous offering! 🙏♥️🔥

[@ryandelaney3652]

Damn, the compare signal function does it for me… great job to everyone!

[@spice3d]

I use Devious Machines’ Duck which lets you set the Sidechain source and like Duck Buddy doesn’t require sending the signal. It also has look ahead. Has some additional features like multiband. As such, I didn’t get too excited watching this video until I saw the ability to see the source and ducked waveforms. I’ll have to check this out and see if it’s better than Duck. Nice job!

[@BigFknRobots]

GMaudio ducker is also great for visulising both

[@andysgtslick4425]

Looks great and thank you! I'll definitely try it out in a multiband rack as i need the different curves for the lows mids and highs in my workflow.. might be a bit clunky using it that way and that would be the only thing that would stop me from switching over from Volume Shaper. FWIW my Ableton template is loaded with 25 pre-routed Volume Shapers on a hidden track that i can just drag to wherever i need them in a project.. took a while to set up but i now never have to dive into that external instrument routing screen, which saves a lot of time and annoyance! Thanks again for this.

[@Naircol]

Duuuude this is actually a game-changer. We do not deserve you. We truly live in a blessed timeline

[@barrycole5930]

Genius…simple and effective solutions are always the best, and a free download to boot?! Awesome work. Thanks.

[@ParkrinkBeats]

Such an amazing plugin. Used to spend decent chunks of time routing midi, changing settings & checking oscilloscopes to make sure the waveforms were right. You’ve rolled all three of those functions into one device. Tysm. Really appreciate your work & the fact that its free is even crazier. THANKS🙏🙏🙏

[@therealquade]

And here I am, an FL Studio user, not even knowing what ghost notes are, that either just slaps an automation clip on, uses grossbeat, or just uses an envelope controller. Though honestly I have been just using limiters/compressors and now I actually see what the problem is. While I won't be able to use duckbudy because I use FL, I will however be able to use this knowledge to create a patcher setup that solves the same problem. so, thanks!

[@Slynk]

Once you make a patcher setup, you should share it on my discord server. Lots of FL users on there also.

[@therealquade]

@@Slynk Honestly, I'm not sure if I could do one of the most important things duck buddy does, which is the visualization to compare channels. That's something FL is normally really good at, but patcher's control surface doesn't have any visualization options of it's own, The best I could do is include multiple instances of wavecandy, but I don't know if or how window positions save in patcher, because you can't (currently) pin them to the control surface. I suppose I could put in a feature request for patcher to allow included visualizer windows in the control surface so that it stays bundled together. I can't see that being particularly difficult update for them. I actually thought that I could at least put VU meters on the control surface but apparently not. it took me opening FL after you replied to realize I can't. as for the actual functionality, The layout of what duck buddy does is almost identical to how envelope controller already works, except specific to volume, rather than controlling any parameters, which actually makes this even easier to set up. in fact, ignoring the visualizing part, it's literally just linking an envelope controller to gain on the mixer. It's really one of FL's most underrated features. The transparency of compression side of things did give me an idea though, which I might follow through with, though I'm not sure how best to set it up, and that's to make it multi-band. band split to low/mid/high to give each band a different envelope, since bass frequencies will need to compress over a longer time than mid/high, and the amount of compression needs to be more extreme on the low end. Aaand since it would also function like gating, it means pre-ringing of linear phase EQ would be moot, and PDC makes the delay moot. I'm just not sure how steep the bands should be and which filter types. you probably have more knowhow in that department to actually make that good though.

[@jarlyk]

If you run into any issues implementing, feel free to hit us up on the Discord for advice. We ran into a few subtle issues along the way and might be able to help point out the pitfalls. The ramp/smooth function in particular is a bit of an ad-hoc filtering solution that we tweaked until we found something that smoothed out sub clicks nicely with minimal bleedthrough. It's sort-of a low-pass, but it's running over such a small segment of the signal that it was easier to implement using some time-domain smoothing rather than messing with filter kernels and windowing.

[@therealquade]

@@jarlyk Honestly, Take a look at how complex FL's Envelope controller already is. Removing click should just be a matter of setting the curves to an S-Curve or similar, In my experience that already annihilates any clicks. The problem with using a filter is that either it adds phase distortion around the peak of the filter, Or it's linear phase and adds pre-ring and a fairly large latency. I think any sort of declicking should be done strictly through volume automation. The challenge is the UI Visualization, at least for FL's built-in tools.

[@moreorlesto]

This looks AMAZEBALLS! Looking forward to trying this out. Thank you for all the thought and consideration for side-chain compression scenarios that you and your crew have put into this!

[@samuelll3166]

This is brilliant. 🔥 thank you for making this mate. Edit: VELOCITY FEATURE 🐐

[@oncila]

Great Plug-in! The only thing it’s missing is a crossover to have multiple bands to sidechain.

[@Slynk]

Use a rack and use multiple duck buddies

[@Iyamcole]

Gotta say, this does beat out everything on the market. For Free. You, my sir, are a very kind man.

[@wynxwh]

This is such a life saver !!! Thankyou to all involved in making this. I have dreamt of this plugin

[@MsCropse]

I made like 5 versions of side chain solution by mess around the ableton unit, you just made the ultimate solution for us.

[@TheEviltaco666]

I’ve never liked sidechaining with ableton stock plugins but this is so exciting

[@kkenny]

Awesome plugin! Would you ever consider making a standalone vst to work with other DAWs like FL studio and Logic Pro?

[@entity9588]

It's not possible in the VST framework apparently.

[@Chalisque]

Specifically, a VST can't have a 'source track selector' in the plugin like you get in this and in e.g. Live's compressor. Routing midi/audio to a plugin sidechain must be done via the DAW, not the plugin, and such capabilities are patchy at best in most DAWs. (I can think how to accomplish this in Reaper, using multiple tracks to manage the routing, can't think how to do in most other DAWs -- especially not with a workflow as straightforward as this.)

[@altogethernow]

You need to use the eq right next to the side chain button (It EQs the signal coming into the side chain so you don’t hear it in the mix). You high pass so you only have the attack and then you won’t have that problem. And then you can use the compressor which is still a better plugin to use and understand.

[@akvmamusic]

Sidechaining is no longer a problem, tyyyy

[@kalambalam]

This plugin is next level of awesome. Well thought and well developed, you friends deserve an award. Thank you!

[@Padbangers]

Guess who just found a new go to sidechain. Great job, fellows!

[@lisotunali3807]

I'm just commenting for the algorithm to pick up on this because this is awesome. Our prayers have been heard! :D

[@Slynk]

Haha thanks!

[@nectariosm]

Live 8 FeedForward mode, job done. 0 cents spent, 0 bollocks routing, moving on the the music making part.

[@rhaab117]

Man I am so grateful and thankful for you and your squad for creating this. Constant routing and fiddling is so unmusical and vibe killing. My workflow thanks you immensely

[@maximgetman]

So about stock Ableton stock compressor [2:30]. You can activate EQ mode, and get input signal from click sound (highpass filter), which is 1-3ms of length, and then decide your attack/ratio values. And you will get an effect that you showed /w fades at 3:28. Exactly the same effect I did in the project and works exactly as you would like to have. And it's quite easier than sending midi info to the STFU plugin. Btw STFU has clicks if you drop hardware synth because STFU can't auto compensate the latency of the input signal from the hardware synth. yeap you can go to the view->show delay times->then decide which one is better for you...BUT stock ableton compressor still doing better, doesn't have a delay, doesn't need to get external midi notes, doesn't need delay time compensation working /w hardware... About LFOtool, it has EXACTLY the same features as STFU :) (MIDI Trigger) SNAKE OIL? :) I think yes...

[@jarlyk]

This plugin isn't doing anything revolutionary. It's just automating gain at times specified by note-on midi messages with some minor tweaks like velocity scaling, lookahead support and some anti-click smoothing options for subs, with some visualization to help tweak things. I can imagine thinking of it as snake oil if we were claiming it has some sort of proprietary secret sauce and wanted to charge $50 for it, but it's really quite straightforward. All we did was put together some tools that are useful for particular workflows that people often implement with triggered shape-based gain automation VSTs. We learned about a feature in Live 11 that would let us simplify that particular workflow via M4L and thought it might be useful for others who like to use a similar workflow. It certainly doesn't obsolete compressors, but using compressors for shaping a ducking response feels to me like a hacky solution to the problem; I imagine a lot of the other folks who gravitate to things like STFU and LFOTools are motivated by a similar feeling. In any case, you're entitled to your opinion, but it feels strange to me that someone could feel defrauded by a freely released plugin. It's certainly not my intention to mislead anyone. Cheers and happy music making, whatever your workflow.

[@artfxdnb]

This method using the EQ in Ableton's compressor works, but only when the click and transient on your kick are well defined and short. Sometimes you will have kicks that have very little of a click, or you might have a kick which has some noise layered in it, or maybe a hat, in these instances highpassing the sidechain input would not yield the desired result. In the instance of a kick without much of a click there won't be much left after highpassing, the one where there is a hat or noise layered on top (and I mean it's part of the sample, so bounced) the sidechain will not get short enough when using the highpass. So yes your method works for kicks that have a good transient and no high frequencies in the tail, but kicks other than that it won't work as well, which depending on the genre can be a big thing.

[@Slynk]

If i have a 0db kick and 0db bassline, I need to duck the bassline to -infdb while my 0db kick plays so that i don't get any peaks over 0db. When you use an EQ to shape the sidechain signal in a compressor, for example rolling off the lows and isolating the transient, you're also decreasing the volume of the incoming sidechain signal which makes -infdb gain reduction impossible. That is why ghost notes is required. Again, your workflow, music style and priorities may vary. Use whatever plugins work for you.

[@chilluscrypto]

Loving this mate!! Have you thought about adding a multi band feature to it? I’ve put it inside your band splitter rack but it’s kinda bulky visually at that point. You guys smashed this plug tho!!! Unbelievable to have the visualizer. Wow.

[@jarlyk]

The bulkiness of the band splitter in the rack is a good point; you can mitigate that somewhat by collapsing the things you're not tweaking, but it's still not ideal. I'm still not crazy about the idea of baking in a particular kind of split into Duck Buddy, though, both because it bloats the UI significantly and because it locks the user into a particular set of tradeoffs for the choice of split. I'm a big believer in modularity and avoiding cramming more processing into a single plugin than is actually required for its function. Still, I wonder if there's a clean way in M4L to create a more compact frequency splitter rack; I'll have to look into whether a M4L device can define chains.

[@ActualMattLewis]

I had gone back to the Live 8 Compressor after trying all the alternative methods ... Until NOW. Nailed it.

[@ecogrief9936]

Dude, you're fvckin GREAT! A few days ago I was ranting with my Broducer about the shitty workflow of SC Plug-In's or the shitty controls of Compressors. We didn't understand why there isn't a simple yet effective option...know we have it. Duck Buddy is amazing =D

[@vosakiz8735]

What Broducer are you talking about?

[@BigFknRobots]

I was talking about it with my housemate the other night - both use different methods, both have their annoyances!

[@katywings]

In a time were other plugins usually cost like 149.90$, this should be 299.90$, but it is FREE! Dope work and thank you so much 🤩👏

[@mellotom]

Bravo 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 you've solved every problem. Seriously thank you Slynk, Jarlyk, Iggylabs & Floodstate

[@avationmusic]

Not sure why but you remind me of DylanTallChief. The LES he made a few years ago has been life changing for my Ableton workflow and I recommend it to everyone I come across. I think Duck Buddy over here is about to have a similar result!😍 When clubs open up on my side and I start making some money again, I will definitely be donating. Thank you so much for this!!

[@Slynk]

I've been using LES since he put that video out. It has improved my workflow and I also recommend to everyone. Thanks for the compliments!

[@avationmusic]

@@Slynk Quick update: When I made this comment I only had Live Standard and so haven't been able to get this plugin yet, but upgraded to Suite now and just hopped on this. Absolutely in love. Will be sending a coffee your way shortly

[@ARCASIAUK]

Great video and thanks for the free download! I'm pretty sure that you can just sidechain from the STFU plugin on the channel you wish to sidechain from without having to go back and duplicating the external instruments..... the sidechain option is visible on the plugin.

[@monsdrum]

OK, let me first echo everyones praises - this is awesome work, and putting it out for free is so generous of you! Thank you for that! Then; you describe it as a M4L Shaper with a MIDI input, and I can easily see the comparison. But one of the features that I use the most in the M4L effects in the Modulator section in Live 11 is the mapping section, where I can map the output to pretty much any parameter on any track. Unless I've overlooked it, it seems that the Duck Buddy can only affect the volume, and that's a real shame. In a lot of cases (actually probably in most cases, to be honest), I would use eg. the Shaper to modulate a filter cutoff, or a dry/wet knob on a distortion, or a return channel send, or possibly a lot of these at the same time, seeing that the other modulators allow me to map to up to 8 destinations from the same instance. If you were to update Duck Buddy in the near future, please consider copy/pasting the Map section from the other modulators. That would see it get a lot of use from me!! Again, thanx for your work and your generosity!

[@jarlyk]

We had the mapping in there originally, but it was bloating the UI a bit and was somewhat tangential to the primary use case. I do have plans to make a MIDI-triggered shaper more specifically focused on creative mapping uses with some additional features that wouldn't make sense for a ducking curve. In particular, I want to support optional separate note-on and note-off curves, with an option to hold a value after curve completion during a note and/or between notes. This turns it into more of a midi-triggered flexible envelope generator that can then be mapped to anything. With lookahead you can even do a pre-attack section as part of the note-on curve. We'd still support gain passthrough (primarily for use as a gate), since the mapping system introduces some unpredictable latency (which is generally okay for a lot of creative effects, but can be really noticeable when it changes the timing of a gain curve.) Right now I'm focused on improving the signal visualizer and shape editor control, but I should get to the mapping plugin once free time allows.

[@monsdrum]

Ok, that sounds completely awesome! Thank you for your answer - I'll be looking out for that effect.

[@viktorstech2302]

OMG ! THAT SHOULD BE STOCK PLUGIN OF ABLETON !!! THX GUICE!!!

[@baiijoune]

You guys are doing the Lord's work with this!! Can't thank you enough for your efforts, seriously!!

[@KarasamaBeats]

Just cop the ableton tools kit and the classic drum breaks from his site guys ! Really these some gems right there !

[@MLElectron]

This is insane. I’m definitely switching to this holy method every now and then.

[@slava_q100]

I am not an Ableton user, but this is just SOOOO well thought

[@spleaque]

I'm a Reaper user but watched the whole thing. Pretty awesome plugin. 👍🏻

[@orphine]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!! I was WAITINGfor something like that!! You mate did an amazing job! 🤯 I love SO MUCH the Live integration..it helps a ton my workflow!! THANK YOU!!! 💣

[@CheeseForEverybody]

Holy Jesus, this is amazing! I have always been struggling with sidechaining because of this very reason but I couldn't quite put a finger on what the issue really was. Makes me wonder why the famous plugins like lfo tool or gate keeper don't just implement midi selection from inside the plugin! Cheers mate, fantastic video!

[@Slynk]

It's because the vst framework doesn't allow such a feature! So a plugin like duck buddy in vst form is impossible. It is only possible in maxforlive because of its deep integration with Ableton :)

[@CheeseForEverybody]

@@Slynk ahhh makes total sense thank you 🙏🏻

[@burn_after_reading]

Thanks Slynk buddy! Looking fwd to do some pro side chaining :) So far i was using the live 8 compressor but this will be a winning concept. And i agree this will for sure attract and challenge plugin developers to rethink how to do things and what to achieve in the future.

[@Slynk]

Yes exactly! Let's make some noise.

[@omgwtfrofltomato]

*cries in ableton standard* edit: that acknowledgement bit was beautiful

[@davidh1199]

Amazing tool for the arsenal, excellent creation.... thank you🙏

[@sononois]

Whoa, haven’t seen a Slynk notification in a loooong time.

[@Slynk]

chill out, it's only been a few months :P

[@sononois]

@@Slynk Just means I miss ya is all 😉 Duck Buddy looks rad! Good job dude!

[@austinolsen9136]

Wow... I was skeptical, but bye bye Gatekeeper. You had me at lookahead, but I've been a bit stumped on what to do with ghost notes for a while so the velocity thing is gold. You're truly a legend. This is going to be one of those pluggins like Span that you are going to see literally everyone using.

[@tarantism2676]

This is good and all. But if you enable the EQ option on the compressor you can have it listen for just the click of the kick (around 3-3.5k hz). It shortens the transient by a lot considering the click is so short. And when you actually turn down the release, it will be really close to what that knob says.

[@schoebelski6602]

Slynk, Jarlyk, Iggylabs ….and Aaaaiiiaaaaiii will alwaaays love youhuhuhuhuuhuu ❤️💛💙😁👍👍👍

[@beluga3941]

Seems to be the best ducking option.. Always nice to use MFL when possible. Thanks Slynk! Very much appreciated!

[@LarsWilms]

That waveform viewer ♥️ Thanks for this

[@maximboe]

You can also use the EQ to Hipass the Kick trigger on the Ableton Compressor to only Sidechain the Kick transient. Then adjust with A/R settings as needed. Still prefer the idea of Duck Buddy though...

[@drkastenbrot]

The velocity thing is the only reason i still use the compressor. Glad i can use this now.

[@voondoweb]

Wow men, thanks so much for this to all guys!

[@karlstenator]

"Compression is better. I go on first and clean the air!" "Ducking is better, I leave the track Slynky and smooth!" Duck Buddy, that's quack-tastic!

[@audiowav3203]

This needs to be integrated into lives stock fx atp, great work

[@simonkormendy849]

I've tried using the sidechain feature of Ableton's Compressor plugin in the past and to be honest, I was never happy with the results I got, so I ended up buying myself a copy of Xfer Records LFO Tool and I got much better results with it, Duck Buddy looks interesting and since it's a free download I'm going to get a copy of it for sure.

[@markusobermaier]

God i love this plugin, thank you so much slynk and contributors

[@Hlecktro]

The universal method that always works and gives you maximum control.... I just manually draw in a volume automation in the timeline. Works in any DAW.

[@Slynk]

Ain't nobody got time for that! It's way faster to spend 6 months developing a plugin that does it for you automatically :P

[@user-georij]

Actually in compressor you have an EQ, so you can leave only the conflicting frequencies, and the curve will change. That’s the point of short side chain on mid range sounds - they don’t conflict with a tale of the kick. By removing low frequencies in compressor you can do precise short side chain, that as bonus will sidechain to the real curve of conflicting frequencies and will sound cleaner. But there’s still no control over the curve, so if you need “Artistic” sidechain instead of functional - custom curves is must have.

[@gpkdnb]

I finally got around to using this. Absolutely amazing. Great work.

[@NonameDerp]

Thank you for the thought, work, instruction, and commentary

[@atetraxx]

Damn, this is amazing man. And you're releasing it free? My man

[@lecosmique]

Wow! That is flippin fantastic... A hearty WELL DONE! to the whole crew!

[@relvin8619]

Daamnnnn, thanx maaan!!!! The only thing this plugin lacks is linear phase multiband - we want to duck lows and highs of sound separately, because sometimes you need fast, unnoticeable ducking to maintain right groove, but when you do the lows of synth fight with lows of kick. And the only way to avoid it is to duck synth lows separately. Im using my own custom made rack “spectral separator” , but its pain in ass. So i hope u will add this function too!!! P.s. hello from Russia and sorry for my english Vodka Balalayka Pizdec Suka Blyat ))

[@Slynk]

yes. if you use an ableton audio effects rack and you have linear phase frequency splitting, you can use more than one duck buddy to create your own multiband duck buddy :) maybe we will create a multiband version someday. but the problem is mostly the gui. it is difficult to manage.

[@PaulvanderWalt]

Exited to give this a try...thanks dude!

[@storkontheroof]

10:43 And this is one of the reasons i love Bitwig so much: It's workflow. No problem at all here. Just select the channel on my instance of Duck. So basically the plugins don't suck, but.... Thanks for the video. Got some nice insights.

[@alexadach5507]

nice. never been super satisfied with the sidechaining volume shaping options out there. some pretty cool and musical features for sure.

[@Slynk]

i actually emailed steve duda to ask him if it is possible to do something like this as a VST and he said it's impossible. maxforlive is the perfect way to integrate it.