A while ago, I switched from Cableguys’ ShaperBox to Devious Machines’ Duck for handling side-chain pumping in my EDM songs. They both basically could do the job, but I just liked Duck’s UI better.
So in my current song, I noticed that the kick and snare just didn’t hit right, even though I had everything ducked when they hit. So I did some tests and was surprised to find that Duck was letting just a tad of the sound through before it ducked everything, killing the transients. ShaperBox on the other hand did not exhibit this issue, so I was about to begrudgingly switch back. (FYI I use MIDI triggering)
As a last resort, I read through Duck’s manual and discovered the Smoothing control. It’s meant to smooth out abrupt transitions that can cause clicks. Well, by default, it’s on full. However, if you turn it off (or near off), the problem totally goes away!
I don’t hear a click, so I’m keeping it totally off, but the click might just be getting masked by the kick and snare transients. Anyways, thought I’d share this tip.