User Guide

Chapter 9 Plug-in Enhancements 79
The Ducker plug-in provides a simple means of performing this process. It can even
reduce the music level before the speaker starts (but this introduces a small amount of
latency).
To use the Ducker plug-in:
1 Insert the Ducker plug-in into an Audio Output or Bus Object.
2 Assign all track outputs that are supposed to “duck” (dynamically lower the volume of
the mix) to a bus.
3 Select the buss that carries the ducking (vocal) signal in the Side Chain menu of the
Ducker plug-in.
Note: Unlike all other side chain capable plug-ins, the Ducker side chain is mixed with
the output signal after passing through the plug-in. This ensures that the ducking side
chain signal (the voice over) is heard at the output.
4 Adjust the Ducker’s parameters.
The Ducker plug-in offers the following parameters:
 Intensity: Defines the amount of volume reduction (of the music mix track—this, in
effect, is the output signal).
 Threshold: Determines the lowest level that a side chain signal must attain before it
begins to reduce the (music mix) output level by the amount set with the Intensity
slider. If the side chain signal level doesn’t reach the threshold, the (music mix) track
volume is not affected.
 Attack: Controls how quickly the volume is reduced. If you want the (music mix)
signal to be gently faded out, set this slider to a high value. This value also controls
whether or not the volume is reduced before the threshold is reached—the earlier
this occurs, the more latency is introduced. It should be noted that this only works if
the ducking signal is not “live” (in other words, the ducking signal must be an
existing recording): Logic needs to analyze the signal level before it is played back,
to anticipate the point where ducking begins.
 Hold: Determines the duration that the (music mix) track volume is reduced for. This
control avoids a chattering effect that can be caused by a rapidly changing sidechain
level. If the sidechain level hovers around the threshold value, rather than clearly
exceeding or falling short of it, set the Hold parameter to a high value to compensate
for rapid volume reductions.
 Release: Controls how quickly the volume returns to the original level. Set to a high
value if you want the music mix to slowly fade up after the announcement.