SidekickDAW
Complex setups at your fingertips.
SidekickDAW is a professional channel plugin that combines a virtual mixing console with integrated VST3, VST and AU plugin hosting, multi-bus routing, advanced gating, comprehensive metering and precise audio processing — all in a single plugin.
- VST3
- VST
- AU
- FX & Instrument
- macOS & Windows
- 4 gate modes
- 5 saturation types
- 8 encoding modes
- 6 plugin insertion points
- up to 8× oversampling
- ITU-R BS.1770-4 LUFS
Key features
Plugin Hosting Engine
Load VST3, VST and AU plugins inside SidekickDAW. Six insertion points per channel, drag-and-drop reordering, insert or send mode, and a Global Plugin Rack for centralized control across all instances.
Multi-Bus Routing
Create as many buses as you need, each with its own plugin chain. Sends with per-send gain, pan and polarity. Automatic latency compensation across the network. LR4 allpass crossover for true multiband processing.
Full Channel Strip
Dual gain stages (A/B), HP/LP filters from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, five saturation algorithms, per-channel delay and phase flip.
Metering Suite
4096-point FFT analyzer, ITU-R BS.1770-4 LUFS, goniometer, oscilloscope with auto-sync pitch detection and stereo correlation meter — all CPU-optimized.
Auto-Gain & Oversampling
Automatic loudness normalization with RMS, Peak or Hybrid detection. Process at 2×, 4× or 8× sample rate for alias-free saturation.
Two Editions
SidekickDAW (FX) for any audio or bus track. iSidekickDAW (Instrument) for instrument tracks with per-channel MIDI routing, note-range filtering and ±48-semitone transposition.
Multi-Bus Routing
Beyond simple channel processing — create independent buses, route freely, and let SidekickDAW handle latency and crossover phase for you.
Dynamic bus creation
Add, remove and reorder buses on the fly. Each bus has its own plugin chain and gain staging.
Send routing
Independent gain, pan and polarity per send. Parallel compression, reverb sends, custom routing.
Auto latency comp.
Cumulative latency tracked across all buses and chains, automatically compensated.
LR4 multiband crossover
Allpass phase compensation for transparent multiband processing across buses.
Four gate modes
Noise Gate
Threshold, attack, release, hold, floor, lookahead — the classic, dialed in.
Transient Gate
Dual-envelope detection isolates attacks. Perfect for extracting percussive elements.
Tonal Gate
The inverse — preserves sustain only. Lookahead included for transparent operation.
Trance Gate
Tempo-synced step sequencer with programmable patterns and configurable resolution.
All modes share threshold, floor, attack, release and hold. Pre/post-detector routing taps the side-chain before or after the plugin chain.
Five saturation algorithms
- DiodeGermanium-style clipping with asymmetric harmonics
- TubeWarm valve overdrive with even harmonics
- TapeMagnetic tape compression with soft limiting
- TransformerIron-core transformer coloration
- TanhMathematical soft-clip for clean saturation
Eight channel encoding modes
- Pass-through — direct signal path
- LR → MS — Left/Right to Mid/Side
- MS → LR — Mid/Side back to Left/Right
- LR → MS → LR — full round-trip for encoding-aware chains
- LR → RL — channel swap
- Left only — isolate left, mute right
- Right only — isolate right, mute left
- Mono — sum to mono
Metering & analysis
Three dedicated tabs, CPU-optimized — meters only run when their tab is visible.
Spectrum analyzer
4096-point FFT with multiband overlay showing crossover regions.
Loudness (LUFS)
ITU-R BS.1770-4 K-weighted, short-term + integrated, peak/RMS, scrolling history.
Goniometer
Lissajous stereo phase, age-based fade, color-coded spread.
Oscilloscope
Auto-sync pitch detection or manual frequency entry. Stable display at any frequency.
Correlation meter
Stereo correlation from −1 (out of phase) to +1 (mono), color-coded gradient.
Channel level meters
Per-channel peak/RMS, configurable −80 dB to +20 dB range, smoothed response.
Two editions, one workflow
SidekickDAW
Insert on any audio or bus track for channel processing, gating, multi-bus routing and plugin hosting.
iSidekickDAW
Load on an instrument track with per-channel MIDI routing (Omni or 1–16), note-range filtering with visual note naming, and ±48-semitone transposition.
Ready to try SidekickDAW in your DAW?