Sidechain

Plugin strip sidechain panel showing source and mode selection

Sidechain routes one track’s signal to control a plugin on another track, through three modes: Audio, MIDI, and Trigger Impulse. Gridshift supports traditional audio sidechain routing as well as trigger-based modes. MIDI and Trigger Impulse modes use clip start positions and MIDI note-on events as triggers — since these positions are known ahead of time, there is no detection delay.

Set up a sidechain

Open a plugin in the Plugin Strip

Open a plugin in the Plugin Strip (click the plugin card to expand it).

Switch to the Sidechain tab

Select a source track

Choose a mode

Modes

Mode	Description
Audio	Routes the source track’s audio to the plugin’s sidechain input bus
MIDI	Sends MIDI note-on events at note and clip positions to the plugin
Trigger Impulse	Generates synthetic audio impulses at note and clip positions to the plugin’s sidechain bus

Available modes depend on the plugin’s capabilities (sidechain bus, MIDI input) and the source track type.

Lookahead

MIDI and Trigger Impulse modes show a Lookahead slider (0–15 ms) that fires events early to compensate for plugin attack time. This works by looking ahead in the timeline — it does not add latency.

Via MCP

The same routing is available to AI assistants through the plugin_configure tool. Set up classic kick→bass ducking in one call:

{
  "track_name": "Bass",
  "plugin_slot_index": 0,
  "sidechain": {
    "mode": "trigger_impulse",
    "source_track_name": "Kick",
    "lookahead_ms": 5
  }
}

Modes accept audio, midi, trigger_impulse, or none (to disconnect). audio and trigger_impulse require the plugin to expose a sidechain input bus; the call returns a clear error otherwise.

Last modified on July 11, 2026

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Set up a sidechain

Modes

Lookahead

Via MCP

​Set up a sidechain

​Modes

​Lookahead

​Via MCP

Set up a sidechain

Modes

Lookahead

Via MCP