Hi All Can I clarify a few definitions here based on real hardware usage. A sidechain is a send/return insert for a single device.. e.g. if you don't have mutiband compressors (but had three standard compressors) but wanted to compress specific frequencies you would plug an eq rack into your sidecahin in/out plug of your compressor..then the signal output of the compressor is what would be compressed. Say by boosting the bass frequencies, the bass frequencies would be compressed more than the rest of the signal. .. A simpler example would be wanting to distort a signal before compressing it. The distortion unit would be plugged into the sidechain. I suggest going to a hardware manufacturers site, say DBX and downloading a pdf of a compressor manual and investigating the block diagram. The reason for using a sidechain (in the hardware world) as opposed to plugging everything inline.. is simplification of patching and minimising the number of cables being used. In software there would be no reason other than aestethics to include a sidechain as it is possible to plug modules into each other in series without getting ground noise from excessive amounts of cabling. So Steve you are correct it isn't really useful. Correct about control output. However gain reduction on a compressor actually controls the output level or gain from the unit, it is not simply for "the user as a clue as to what is going on".. Often when compressing the resultant output may be larger than desired... When compressing a signal, input level is often boosted to get more of an effect from the compressor (usually this is controlled with the input gain on the desk) which is why the output level would often be very high.. gain reduction is a way of counteracting this. Here is a simplified diagram of a system using desk inserts for inline compression within one channel of an analogue mixing desk. 0 --->0------> 0> -------> 0 ------>0 ------------> BUS input input compressor eq level fader gain via section insert So using an insert means the input gain effects the input to the compressor and not directly to the desk channel. Without gain reduction the compressor is likely to send a signal that is is either hot (too high and hence distorting within the channel) or in some cases too low, making it impossible to give it effective signal level within the entire mix. This would be useful in a software compressor as well. As basic audio engineering tells us, the signal must be high enough to be clear of the ground noise and low enough not to distort within the mix. I hope this helps.. cheers Allan

Steve Harris wrote on Sat, 01-Mar-2003: Well, a non-compliant host won't do anything with a momentary hint, so the momentary action won't be happening anyway. The plugin itself isn't supposed to modify input controls so it can't do it itself (although it would be much easier). jlc

On Mon, Mar 03, 2003 at 02:26:44 +0100, torbenh(a)gmx.de wrote: Yes, thats correct. If combined with the CONTROL hint it should be set for one sample. - Steve

On Mon, Mar 03, 2003 at 11:44:12 -0500, Jesse Chappell wrote: The user can still toggle it manually (c.f. DJ Flanger). - Steve