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Spectral Sidechain Ducker

Orra Ducker

Per-frequency sidechain ducking

Most people use sidechain compression for ducking, which turns down your whole signal. Orra Ducker ducks only the frequencies that actually collide, keyed from any track, in any DAW. And with Orra Link, sidechain routing lives right in the plugin, so feeding several instances from different sources is the same simple workflow in every DAW.

Spectral, per-bin ducking across ~1000 frequency bins, not broadband
Draw the focus band, aim the duck at just the lows, the harsh mids, or the full range
Resolution control: carve surgically narrow or tilt broad and gentle
Stack multiple instances per track via Orra Link, 36 sidechain channels, keyed from any track in any DAW
Four latency modes: HQ, Balanced, Fast, and a zero-latency broadband Live mode for monitoring
One large analyzer shows input, sidechain, output, and the live ducking curve together
Self-key, host sidechain bus, or any Link channel, your choice per instance
Soft-edged focus band, stereo detector linking, and full automation on every control
$5/ pay what you can

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Duck the collision, not the whole signal

Per-frequency, not per-fader.

Orra Ducker runs an FFT on both signals and ducks each frequency only where the two actually overlap, so a kick can clear space inside a bass without dropping the whole bass line.

The Usual Routing

Running several duckers on one track, each keyed from a different source, is doable in some DAWs but fiddly, and the setup is different in every single one. Aux tracks, bus juggling, send routing, and a fresh fight with your host every time you switch.

Possible, but a different headache in every DAW.

The Orra Way

Orra Link takes the routing off your plate. Source selection lives right in the plugin, and each instance just picks its trigger from a dropdown, up to 37 sidechain sources feeding one track. No aux tracks, no bus juggling, and the exact same workflow no matter what DAW you are in.

One workflow. Identical in every DAW.

One track. One simple setup.

Each instance picks its trigger from a dropdown, no aux tracks, no bus juggling. Here is what that looks like in a session.

Routed via Orra Link

Instance 1, keyed to the kick

Reads Link 1. Carves a pocket in the low end every time the kick lands, leaving everything above it untouched.

Routed via Orra Link

Instance 2, keyed to the vocal

Reads Link 2. Pulls back the synth's mids only where the lead vocal sits, so the words stay forward.

Routed via Orra Link

Instance 3, keyed to the bass

Reads Link 3. Makes room in the low-mids where the bass and synth fight, and nowhere else.

Orra Link is a tiny sender-only plugin that ships alongside Orra Ducker. It broadcasts a track's audio onto a numbered channel in a shared bus that every Orra Flagship plugin in the project can read.

Drop it on any track or bus, pick a channel (Link 1 through Link 36), and that source becomes available as a trigger for any Orra Ducker instance in the project, even in hosts whose routing won't normally let you sidechain across busses.

Orra Link, Sidechain Sender Companion Plugin

Orra Link

Sidechain Sender, Included

We don't know of another spectral ducker that lets you stack a separate instance per source on one track, in any DAW.

Under the hood

How it works, the analyzer, and the technical detail

Per-bin, not per-fader

A normal ducker measures one number from the sidechain, its overall level, and pulls down one fader. Orra Ducker runs a 2048-point FFT on both the trigger and your audio, splitting each into roughly a thousand frequency bins. Every bin gets its own detector and gain computer.

Only the bins that collide

A bin in your signal is ducked only when the matching bin in the sidechain crosses the threshold. That is why a kick can make space for itself inside a bass without dropping the whole bass line, only the bins the two share get touched.

Resolution is the carving tool

RESOLUTION sets how finely the per-bin reduction varies across frequency, surgical and narrow, or broad and smooth. It is the difference between a precise notch and a gentle tilt.

The Live exception

Live mode skips the FFT and runs a classic broadband envelope ducker, one detector, one gain, for zero-latency live monitoring. Every other mode is fully spectral.

Signal flow

Trigger source (None / External / Link) → per-bin detector → per-bin gain computer (Threshold, Ratio) → temporal smoothing (Attack, Release) → frequency smoothing (Resolution) → focus mask (Low / High Cut) → applied to your audio. Stereo detection is blended by the Link control before the gain computer.

Complete your toolkit

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Six dynamics engines in six reorderable slots. Shares the same Orra Link sidechain system.

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Get Orra Ducker

A Customer Appreciation drop. Pay what feels right, $5 and up. Orra Link is included.