Duck Buddy 2 by Slynk

BUY WITH PAYPAL ON MY WEBSITE
https://slynk.net/product/duck-buddy-2/

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmZxriYwupg

Duck Buddy 2 is a MaxForLive device designed to make sidechain compression ridiculously accurate, flexible and easy. Customize your gain reduction shape, add ring modulation sidechain from an audio source and scale your gain reduction with MIDI velocity. Copy and paste your gain reduction shape from one Duck Buddy to another. Smoothly fade the volume down with lookahead to avoid clicks. It's easy.

Why use Duck Buddy 2?
VST sidechain compression plugins like Volume Shaper and LFOTool all have the same workflow problem. You can't pick a MIDI channel directly on the VST, you have to route MIDI to it. That means, every time you add another Volume Shaper, you need to set up another external instrument in your Drum Rack to send MIDI to it. Ain't nobody got time for that! With Duck Buddy 2, select your inputs once and then copy/paste it anywhere in your project that you want to sidechain. No additional setup is needed.

Thanks for checking it out. I hope you enjoy it!
- Slynk

FAQ

Q: Make Duck Buddy 2 multiband please?
A: Create your own frequency split rack in Ableton and put a Duck Buddy 2 on each band. Tada! Now you have a multiband Duck Buddy 2. I'd recommend using EQ3s to make the freqsplit rack but if you are interested in adding 64ms of unnecessary latency to your project, free free to use Pro Q3s in linear phase mode to create a split rack LOL!

Q: Can I use this in FL Studio or some other DAW? / Can you make a VST version?
A: No. The VST framework doesn't provide what dB2 needs to work so it's impossible to make a VST version that works on any other DAW.

Q: Does this work with Ableton Live Standard/Intro?
A: No. You need MaxForLive (which only comes with Ableton Live Suite) for this to work.

Q: Can you make a version that works in Ableton Live 9 or 10?
A: No. Ableton Live versions 10 and below are packaged with an older version of MaxForLive which doesn't have all the features dB2 requires.

Q: I found a bug / I have an idea for a feature! How can I tell you about it?
A: Join my Discord server and hit me up in the #maxforlive or #bug-reports channels with as much detail as possible. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Q: Duck Buddy 2 forgot my inputs! I found a bug!
A: Congratulations, you've found the same bug I've been dealing with for the last 15 years or so. I call it The Rack Bug.

The Rack Bug
When DB2 is inside a rack and you copy/paste (CMD+C/CMD+V) the rack, the DB2 in the newly pasted rack will have forgotten the MIDI and Audio inputs you selected. I'm pretty sure I can't fix this behaviour from my end. Why? You can observe the same bug with the stock Ableton Compressor. When it's inside a rack and you copy/paste the rack, the compressor forgets the sidechain channel you had selected. So it seems to be a bug with racks themselves.

The Rack Bug Workaround
Don't copy/paste racks. Instead duplicate the rack with CMD+D. Or you can hold CMD and drag & drop the rack to duplicate it. Duplicating the rack allows DB2 and the stock Ableton compressor to remember the inputs, for whatever reason LOL.

Change Log

Nov 26, 2024 - V2.02:

• Editing the shape by clicking the shape with your mouse triggers DB2 to remember the shape. But using the paste and clear buttons wasn't. This means your shape will be forgotten the next time you load the project. I fixed this by adding an additional step to the paste and clear buttons so that they also update the shape memory.

Nov 25, 2024 - V2.01:

• The lookahead fade begins at 0 dB and goes down to -inf dB. So if you trigger a new gain reduction shape before the previous one has finished, you can get a nasty click because the gain is instantly jumping up to 0 dB to begin the lookahead fade. I fixed this by starting the lookahead fade from the last known gain reduction level.
• In velocity mode and at RM amounts higher than 100%, the RM gain reduction was able to push down past the GR shape. I fixed this by clipping the bottom of the RM signal at the depth of the GR shape. Also, RM smoothing was not being scaled correctly in velocity mode. I fixed that too.

Nov 22, 2024 - V2.00:

• Duck Buddy 2 released! Yay!
  

Stay notified about future packs - https://slynk.gumroad.com/subscribe
Follow me on Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/evanslynk
Buy my music and merch on Bandcamp - http://slynk.bandcamp.com
Stream my music on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/4V7ap2HEMGNvgwdmOv4dth?si=aRW86tx3QLOSj1jxkA1pkA
I teach music production lessons. Interested? Apply here - https://forms.gle/jBV3FbcABz3MiqyP7