Sidechain not working with snapshots

FMOD Studio
1

Hello,

The specific scenario I’m trying to do is having a sidechain from the music lower the low frequencies of a eq3 on my ambience group. It works perfectly fine whenever I’m not using a snapshot (in the main mix), but if I try to set it up on the snapshot, it just stops modulating. It happens with all sidechains. All the rest is working perfectly on the snapshot.

I think this was working before and just stop working for whatever reason? If I try to include any other modulators they work fine, which suggests that there’s something going on with the sidechain send but I can’t figure it out.

Anyone may know why this can happen?

2

I’m afraid I can’t entirely picture your set-up. Could you describe your project in more detail - or better yet, upload a copy of the project to your profile page?

3

Hello Joseph,

Thanks for your help. I can’t upload the copy of the project right now and seems like I can’t make attachments for a video either, so I’ll try to explain it better.

I am making a game where I have different areas. Dungeon 1, dungeon2 etc…
Inside the main group in the mixer, I have created groups for sfx and music. Inside sfx, I have ambiences, character, enemies… And finally, inside ambiences I have the different zones, Dungeon 1, Dungeon 2… Likewise, inside the music group, I have dungeon 1, dungeon 2…

What I want is to create a snapshot for each of the zones. This way, I can apply convolution reverb to all sfx groups depending on the zone and specific mixing details for each zone, specifically I want my music to affect the ambiences via sidechain (and other sidechains like enemies’ attack sfx volume affect the music volume but the problem persists).

I created a sidechain in the music dungeon 1 group. I went to the ambience dungeon 1 group and, inside the low frequencies knob in the eq3, added a sidechain modulation with the music dungeon 1 sidechain. Whenever I do this inside the snapshot, it just doesn’t work, feels like the snapshot is stopping the sidechain send. I tried to use any other modulator LFO for example, and it works perfectly fine, it’s just the snapshot.

Like I side, it also happens if I crate a sidechain on my “Enemies” group and send it to the “Music Dungeon 1” group in a modulator that affects just the main volume knob, so I don’t think it has to do with the EQ3 effect.

If I do this outside the snapshot, in the main mixer so to say, without selecting any snapshot, it works perfectly. This happens with any sidechain that I’m trying to create.

Hope I was more clear this time… and again, thanks for your help

4

Thanks! I think I have a clearer idea of your project’s structure, now.

Unfortunately, it looks like you’ve discovered a bug: Sidechain modulators in snapshots don’t correctly process links to sidechain effects in the mixer. They’re supposed to, but they don’t. I’ve added this issue to our bug tracker, so it should be fixed in an upcoming release of FMOD Studio.

In the mean time, you’ll have to work around the issue. The easiest way to do this is to place the sidechain modulator on a return bus, and use a snapshot to control both a pre-fader send to that return bus and the volume fader to the right of that send.

5

Thanks Joseph!

Ok, glad I was not going crazy at least :slight_smile: . Yeah, I set it up with a return bus, it’s a bit harder to nail the right mix but it works fine.

Thanks for your help!

6

Man, this threw my so much… Anyway, another work around is to add a compressor and use the sidechain input on that gain. The S/C of the comp is accessible when the snapshot is active.