Fairlight · Track FX · Ducker
Automatic Ducking in Fairlight
Use the current Ducker Track FX to lower music while dialogue is present and recover it when speech ends. We will separate the workflow Blackmagic documents today from older sidechain-compressor tutorials so the page stays relevant to current Resolve.
Dialogue drives automatic music reduction
Blackmagic documents Ducker as a Track FX plug-in on the target track. One or more dialogue tracks can be selected as sources; the target track is then reduced while dialogue is present and returns afterward according to the chosen controls.
1. What Ducker does
Dialogue becomes the control signal for a target track
Blackmagic defines ducking as reducing a target track such as music when dialogue begins and raising it again when dialogue ends. In the current Fairlight workflow this is handled by the Ducker Track FX plug-in, not presented as a generic compressor sidechain recipe.
The target is the track carrying the material you want to reduce. The source is one or more dialogue tracks whose signal tells Ducker when the target should move down.
Target
Usually a music track, but conceptually it is simply the track whose level should be reduced.
Source
One or more dialogue tracks selected in the Ducker window.
Speech begins
Ducker reduces the target according to the controls you set.
Speech ends
The target returns according to the recovery behavior you configure.
2. Setup
Open Ducker on the music track and choose dialogue sources
The current Blackmagic instructions are direct: open the Ducker window on the music track, then choose the dialogue track or tracks from the source dropdown. The Ducker plug-in uses those source signals to control reduction on the target track.
Multiple sources matter when the conversation is split across several tracks — for example interviewer and guest, several actors, or a host plus additional voice-over. You do not need to merge all speech into one physical track just to make Ducker react to it.
Target track on the left, dialogue sources on the right
The current Fairlight page explicitly describes choosing one or more dialogue tracks as the source from the Ducker window on the music track.
3. Controls
Set how far music moves and how naturally it comes back
Blackmagic explicitly calls out Duck Level and Recovery, plus additional controls that affect how the Ducker responds. The documentation also notes that you can adjust how quickly the music level returns in relation to dialogue level.
This page deliberately does not invent a fixed threshold, attack or release recipe. The right amount depends on the project, and the current product description does not define one universal numeric preset.
Tune the amount and the return, not a magic preset
How far the target is reduced
How the music returns after dialogue
How the Ducker responds to dialogue level
Blackmagic explicitly names duck level and recovery and notes that other controls determine how the plug-in responds to dialogue loudness. This guide avoids inventing undocumented parameter names.
4. Practical tuning
Make dialogue clearer without making the music pump
Start with less reduction
Use only enough ducking to improve intelligibility; excessive drops make the mix feel mechanical.
Listen to recovery
The music should return naturally after phrases instead of snapping back between every pause.
Feed it clean dialogue
Noisy or inconsistent dialogue sources can cause less predictable triggering; clean the speech path first.
Check the whole scene
A setting that works on one sentence may feel wrong when several people talk or pauses become shorter.
5. Ducker vs Automation
Use automatic response for repetition; use automation for editorial intent
Ducker and Fairlight Automation solve overlapping but not identical problems. Ducker reacts automatically to dialogue sources. Automation records and edits explicit level, pan or processing changes over time.
For a long interview or podcast-style edit, Ducker can remove repetitive manual work. For a trailer, music-driven sequence or a scene where every rise and fall is editorially shaped, automation often gives finer intentional control. They can also coexist when the mix needs both behaviors.
Two tools for two different kinds of control
6. Troubleshooting
Diagnose the source, target and recovery separately
Nothing ducks
Verify Ducker is on the intended target track and the correct dialogue source tracks are selected.
Music drops too far
Reduce the duck amount before changing the entire mix balance.
Music jumps back
Tune recovery behavior and judge it across natural pauses in speech.
Ducking feels random
Check whether the selected dialogue tracks contain noise, long breaths or other material that should not control the music.
Related Fairlight workflows
Clean dialogue first, then choose automatic or manual level control
Dialogue covers voice cleanup; Automation covers editable mix moves; Mixer & Routing explains the track and bus signal path around both tools.
The current Fairlight documentation is the source for Ducker being a Track FX plug-in, one-or-more dialogue-track sources, target-track volume reduction, Duck Level, Recovery and return behavior. Older sidechain-compressor tutorials are not used as the primary description of the current workflow.