Problems with Reaper's Side chain system

[dePUNDIT]

I'm working on a track and I have found a bug in the Reaper side chain system mostly when using Plugin Alliance/Brainworx plugins.

Reaper doesn't have distinct mono tracks and these plugins, especially the console emulations require this to be able to load their plugins in mono but some time ago, I noticed that some of the bx plugins in my projects would just somehow, load a mono version. It baffled me for a while but I couldn't figure out why. Some of these plugins include the bx_2098EQ and all the bx console emulations.

Yesterday,I was working on a mix using the bx_console Amek 9099 across the entire mix and wanted to do a side chain on one of the tracks seeing as this particular plugin allows for external sidechain. However, as soon as I did the routing as usual, I opened the bx_console Amek 9099 plugin on the track and the plugin had converted and now loaded up in mono and not just that, but the sidechain wasn't working.
I tried to figure out why and found that when a track in reaper has more than 2 Track Channels, it causes these plugins to load in mono instead of stereo. Till now, I haven't been able to figure out a way to make it work.

To reproduce this error, follow the steps below...
1. Create a track in Reaper.
2. Insert any of the bx_console plugins or the bx_2098EQ plugin.
3. Open the track routing and change "Track Channels" to 4.
4. Open the plugin again and you will find that it has converted to a mono plugin.

If like in my case you used the bx_comsole AMEK 9099 plugin for this test, try routing another track to the track, sending to the Aux channels 3-4. Doing this, you will quickly find that the sidechain function cannot work. I have tested extensively and haven't been able to find a workaround.

Please fix this issue.

[Daodan]

In fx window top right corner click button next to Param to open Pin connector. In this window change VST3 bus size from Auto to 2.
To prevent this find plugin in fx browser, right click it and uncheck "Inform plug-in when track channel count changes" in Compatibility settings sub-menu. This won't effect existing in project instances but for new it will fix vst3 bus size to 2.
If you usually don't work in multichannel and work in stereo you probably want to repeat the same procedure for some other VST3 plug-ins that dynamically change bus size, pro-q 3 for example

[dePUNDIT]

Originally Posted by Daodan

In fx window top right corner click button next to Param to open Pin connector. In this window change VST3 bus size from Auto to 2.
To prevent this find plugin in fx browser, right click it and uncheck "Inform plug-in when track channel count changes" in Compatibility settings sub-menu. This won't effect existing in project instances but for new it will fix vst3 bus size to 2.
If you usually don't work in multichannel and work in stereo you probably want to repeat the same procedure for some other VST3 plug-ins that dynamically change bus size, pro-q 3 for example

Thanks for the response. It worked like a charm.

However, I have always advocates for Reaper to have dedicated mono tracks and every time I do so on this forum, people always respond like I'm asking for something completely useless and impossible.

After resolving this issue using the method you suggested, I did a little test and found out that tracks processing a plugin as a mono plugin consumed half the resources consumed by other tracks processing the same plugin in stereo which simply means, more than half of my computer's processing power is wasted unnecessarily processing mono tracks as if they were stereo.

Using this same method you suggested, I could get a somewhat mono track configuration, but I'd have to reconfigure the routing pins for every plugin on the track and in some sessions, this could be over 30 tracks with quite a lot of plugins which would be time consuming. As it is now, it's a choice between wasting CPU resources or wasting time.

This would be the best argument to make Cockos realise that it would actually be a good thing to have dedicated mono tracks in Reaper or at least a way to configure tracks to become completely mono.