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2. Flexible ducking with TAL-Filter II

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If you like the simplicity of automatic ducking but need more control, Togu Audio Line’s classic TAL-Filter II is the plugin for you. Still free for Mac, Linux and PC (download from tal-software.com), TALFilter II can modulate volume as well as filter cutoff frequency. Start by putting Euro chord.wav on an audio track in your DAW. 2

Put TAL-Filter II on the audio track as an insert effect. Click the Modulation Type field to bring up a list of the available modulation destinations. Select Volume. Now the flexible envelope in the graphical display controls the level of the audio signal. Currently its resolution is set to four bars, which is a bit long for our needs. 3

Click the BPM Factor parameter and select 4x. This sets the timing to a resolution of one bar. Now we can program our ducking curve much more easily. Drag the node at the top left-hand corner of the panel down to the bottom to set the whole bar to silence. 4

Next, click a quarter of the way through the bar (use the lines in the background as a visual guide) to create a new node. Drag this to the top of the panel, then click again to create another node and move the second node to the bottom of the panel. This will create a rising movement on the first beat. 5

Click the node at the top of the panel and you’ll see two curve points appear. These can be used to adjust the shape of the envelope on each side of the node. Drag the curve on the left-hand side of the node downwards to make it more concave. 6

Click the first node, then drag the curve point to the right of it up to get a more slinky shape. Because we can position each node manually, we can use this to duck the track with rhythms that are more complex than single repeating cycles, like the 2-step pattern illustrated above. The Depth knob controls the strength of the effect. (Audio: 2-step ducking)