Think I've ditched LFOTool for Duck

[@DirtySecretz]

This was just a quick clip from my last live stream but if you'd like me to do full video on Duck or any other plugins I use let me know in the comments below 👇🏻

[@cachelesssociety5187]

Kickstart 2 now lets you see both the incoming sidechain waveform (e.g. kick) and also the target waveform (e.g. bass). Duck, Kickstart 2 and LFO Tool as I see it, each has advantages. I have all 3. The upgrade to Kickstart 2 was $5. I believe the plugin costs roughly the same as Kiclstart 2 if bought outright. Benefits of using Kickstart 2 - 1) you get the curves that Nicky Romero found useful, which are not all that easy to precisely replicate in Duck. You can adjust the start of the curve, moving it forward and backwards (as opposed to making changes to the drawn curve in Duck, which can be more flexible but not as easy and not necessarily as immediately effective. In essence, one could say Kickstart is simpler for its main intended purpose but. 2) you can use the end bar in Kickstart 2 to carefully determine how the ducking curve will end, while auditioning how it sounds. This is hard to describe but makes the 2 a bit different. For example if you use Nicky's curves, some of them duck the sound at the end. But you can make the ducking effect end abruptly. instead. 3) If you have several sidechains to that mixer channel, Kickstart 2 has a more readily available drop down. In FL Studio I can see the source tracks if I go to the plugin wrapper details, but Kickstart places this info on the main GUI. 4) Kickstart 2 lets the user, in the case of using it for a pumping rhythm on a synth, to move the ducking curve sideways. 5) My favorite Kickstart 2 feature - you can see the sidechain waveform and target waveform in different colors so you can visually focus in on what part of the kick and bass you're choosing to hide./reveal. This can be educational and helpful. Benefits of using Duck. a) Duck lets you control the level of each side of its crossover, so that you have potentially have 3 bands of control relative to your ducking curve. b) Duck lets you raise or lower the waveform points (vertical control), which gives you 4th dimensional control, meaning you can increase or decrease the ducking amount at particular ranges of time. Kickstart 2 has only its main ducking amount plus the crossover position. You can't set the level of ducking above the crossover. b) Duck has the 3 modes (MIDI trigger, repeat trigger, sidechain trigger) but also lets you completely draw your own waveforms (more flexible and creative, yet for those without Nicky Romero's experience this could be a drawback. c) Both Kickstart 2 and Duck have smoothing, but Duck lets you adjust how the sidechain triggers the ducking, and also lets you adjust the amount of smoothing. d) Duck is better at dialing in a Side Chain on things without a sharp transient - e.g. if you want to sidechain a synth to another synth. In practice I was unable to sidechain an fx I had to the pulsing subbass because Kickstart 2 coouldn't detect it. Duck to can be adjusted so that it will respond to weaker signals like this. Benefits of LFO Tool. @) LFO Tool has more creative features (a lot more, like creative filter types) but it's GUI is a bit outdated and it doesn't have some of the features of the other 2 tools so for some use cases you could find one of them more streamlined. LFO Tool may have been the first, and it is also the most flexible - but may not be as comprehensible as either of the others for those who lack knowledge.

[@simon_bolando]

Great comparison! It seems Kickstart 2 for ducking the kick and Duck for everything else should work fine. Do you think Shaperbox could replace all of them?

[@cachelesssociety5187]

@@simon_bolando I haven't explored the ins and outs of shaker box for these particular purposes. I do own it and maybe I should see what the advantages (and disadvantages) are. Shaperbox new reverb features is what convinced me to upgrade but then I got sidetracked. (Notice I didn't say "I got sidechaned" cuz that would have been a bad pun).

[@stumilnermusic9017]

Downloaded the demo after watching your live stream, it’s 🦆 ing brilliant 🤩

[@DirtySecretz]

Yeah I can’t believe I’d slept on it, installed it last December and forgot to even try it out although it seems Kickstart has caught up which I didn’t know about (see Yoshi’s comment)

[@stumilnermusic9017]

Yeah I re-installed Kickstart last night, so plenty of options now 👍

[@mbezik]

just made the same move myself, loving duck!

[@Wouterferdinand]

Lfo tool can the same though

[@josdamsmendez3127]

I just tested duck with white noise and isn't great. There are better compressors that performs much better like the free melda production compressor, it is amazing. Try that one instead you won't regret.

[@cachelesssociety5187]

Could you be more specific?

[@josdamsmendez3127]

@@cachelesssociety5187 about what?

[@zpurpz]

But duck isn't a compressor

[@josdamsmendez3127]

Speed response, curve and much more is better with melda. I don't know what you want me to specify​@@cachelesssociety5187

[@asecretcinema]

since when is Duck a compressor?

[@sezjames2472]

For me it stops working at 150 bars into cubase, shame cos I love the smooth option on it

[@yoshijaecques6890]

I think you’ve missed the release of Kickstart 2 🤌

[@DirtySecretz]

Oh nice! I hadn’t seen the new version but had tried out the previous one