Any way to duck with sidechain from another block?

[Aurasphere_au]

I spent a couple of hours to try doing this with every conceivable angle including asking chat which was full of rubbish; this is a short piece from the preset

 

Input >>> Digital delay

         >>>Tape delay with 99% Feedback

 

The dig delay is the highest priority and I want the signal of it to sidechain the ducking of the tape delay so that as the main delay resolves it reveals the underlying drone of the tape feedback

Ive done this a lot in mixing over the years and thought it should be pretty straightforward for Helix

Am I missing something or it just cant be done?

 

Cheers

[rd2rk]

IIRC, it's one of the new features of Stadium.

[Aurasphere_au]

On 8/25/2026 at 2:20 PM, rd2rk said:

IIRC, it's one of the new features of Stadium.

Cool...well thats a shame...I wont be buying anything new for a while...not because I dont want to.

Was an absolute snap in Guitar rig...in fact you could combine it with step sequencers and lfo etc...why they couldnt do a hardware version I dont know but Im not doing software based live again. that 7ms of latency is only small but its a showstopper else thatts where I would be

[theElevators]

Here's a suggestion.  You can only do split paths, but it's very tricky.

 

1. Add a duck'ing reverb block, with mix at 100%

2. Move the block to a parallel path.

3. Now on line 2, what's coming in is your guitar signal, what's coming out is ducking reverb only.

3. Add a sensible amount of delay after that on the same line, a few repeats, not 99%

 

Now as soon as you stop playing notes, the duck'ing reverb engages, and the signal goes to the delay.  

 

Ducking reverb is sweet.  It lets your entire note ring out, and when you stop playing, it creates this wall of sound.  You need to play around with the pre-delay and feedback parameters.  

 

Duck'ing reverb works great on the Helix, and if you put it in parallel path, you can add a bunch of effects after it, mix it however you want.  

 

If you can't get the duck'ing effect working, if it's not automatically disengaging as you need, you can always assign things to the expression pedal and mix your delay out, or even bypass it.  

 

 

 

 

Not really related, but I crated a preset that creates a synth pad, all using parallel paths.  So you may find it useful how to organize things in all those parallel paths.  

 

 

 

 

[rd2rk]

On 8/24/2026 at 11:31 PM, Aurasphere_au said:

Cool...well thats a shame...I wont be buying anything new for a while...not because I dont want to.

Was an absolute snap in Guitar rig...in fact you could combine it with step sequencers and lfo etc...why they couldnt do a hardware version I dont know but Im not doing software based live again. that 7ms of latency is only small but its a showstopper else thatts where I would be

 

GR was never my favorite amp sim, but its routing capabilities were its standout feature.

Also had some crazy effects. I loved the Psyche Delay!

Unfortunately, NI was mainly into synths.

 

[Aurasphere_au]

On 8/26/2026 at 12:30 AM, rd2rk said:

 

GR was never my favorite amp sim, but its routing capabilities were its standout feature.

Also had some crazy effects. I loved the Psyche Delay!

Unfortunately, NI was mainly into synths.

 

Thats my take a bit too...although its bface sim is way nicer than any of the L6...and Ive owned all of them too.

I agree...GR is still on one of my template fx channels...just feels like old school patching guitar pedals on the mix and I love it. L6 did a great job with all the component level stuff in amp farm and I much prefer the older stuff...very unique sound but just falls over now in the daw and no updates.
Helix native is a nightmare as you cant run just single comps

Ah well...GR still going strong, stable as and itll do for now for the mixing side

 

But yeah the helix is meant to about performance and playing...guess Ill just have to forget my dreams about it and do it only on the studio version 

[Aurasphere_au]

On 8/25/2026 at 11:08 PM, theElevators said:

Here's a suggestion.  You can only do split paths, but it's very tricky.

 

1. Add a duck'ing reverb block, with mix at 100%

2. Move the block to a parallel path.

3. Now on line 2, what's coming in is your guitar signal, what's coming out is ducking reverb only.

3. Add a sensible amount of delay after that on the same line, a few repeats, not 99%

 

Now as soon as you stop playing notes, the duck'ing reverb engages, and the signal goes to the delay.  

 

Ducking reverb is sweet.  It lets your entire note ring out, and when you stop playing, it creates this wall of sound.  You need to play around with the pre-delay and feedback parameters.  

 

Duck'ing reverb works great on the Helix, and if you put it in parallel path, you can add a bunch of effects after it, mix it however you want.  

 

If you can't get the duck'ing effect working, if it's not automatically disengaging as you need, you can always assign things to the expression pedal and mix your delay out, or even bypass it.  

 

 

 

Thanks for the reply

main issue is the idea is for dichotomy in the delay, the higher priority is a remake of the Ibanez dm1100 (my goto of all time) which helix does reasonably but the feedback is moderate and as mentioned, I have a tape based delay near infinite feedback that creates almost a drone and delay A should always be in front until it fades and then have the drone delay (using wow and flutter) to be a mashed but related tone

Duck delay has the right tools but wrong tone and no loop degrade ie w&f

Cheers anyway. Always get something out of seeing others use of machines so thanks for the vid, nice tones. I dont think I have played a cover in 30 years lol but great effort.