Tags: posts polarity-music Bitwig Bitwig-5.2 Moog Poly-Grid Presets Replace VST Tutorial synthesizers

Moog Subharmonicon in Bitwig

Tutorial | Jul 29, 2024

In this video, I recreated the Subharmonicon synthesizer in Bitwig Studio. The layout consists of two main oscillators with sub ratio knobs for dividing the frequency. There is also a mixing section, routing panel, and pulley rhythms for creating unique sequences.

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Overview

In this video, I demonstrate how I recreated the Moog Subharmonicon inside of Bitwig Studio. I'll walk you through the layout and functionality of the preset, highlighting the key features and how they mimic the real synthesizer. This includes the oscillators, sub-ratios, sequencers, and polyrhythms.

Key Points

Questions & Answers

Maybe you dont watch the video, here are some important takeaways:

What is the main concept and layout of the Subharmonicon in Bitwig Studio?

The Subharmonicon in Bitwig Studio is a synthesizer that features two main oscillators with sub ratio knobs. These knobs allow you to dial in a division of the main oscillator frequency, which in turn changes the sub frequencies. The synthesizer also includes a mixing section, a routing panel, and pulley rhythms for creating rhythmic patterns.

How does the Subharmonicon preset in Bitwig Studio reflect the real device?

The Subharmonicon preset in Bitwig Studio closely mirrors the layout and functionality of the real device. It includes the sequencer sections, the main frequency knob, sub ratio knobs, volume controls for the oscillators, clock controls for creating pulley rhythms, and the output effects section. All of these elements are organized in a similar layout as the real device.

What are the main features and capabilities of the Subharmonicon preset in Bitwig Studio?

The Subharmonicon preset in Bitwig Studio allows users to create sequences using the sequencer sections, adjust the main frequency and sub ratios for the oscillators, mix and send clocks to different sequencers to create pulley rhythms, and apply output effects such as a low pass filter resonance. Users can also adjust the amplitude envelope and frequency envelope settings.

Is the Subharmonicon preset available for download and is there a way to support the creator?

The Subharmonicon preset is available for download on the creator's Patreon page. While the creator is unsure about making it free, they do mention that they have made other presets available for free in the past. Users can also choose to support the creator on Patreon to show appreciation for the time and effort put into recreating real devices in Bitwig Studio.

Transcription

This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by AI, so it might not be perfect. If you find any mistakes, please let me know.
You can also click on the timestamps to jump to the right part of the video, which should be helpful.

[00:00:00] So recently I recreated the Moog Labyrinth inside of Bitwig Studio and today it's about
[00:00:05] the Subharmonicon.
[00:00:07] So I want to share this preset video and this is how it sounds so I just hit play here.
[00:00:11] Okay, so I want to show you how this works and how the layout is.
[00:00:34] So this is the real synthesizer that you can see in the background here on the browser
[00:00:39] and the main idea is that you have two main oscillators.
[00:00:42] Each of these oscillators has sub ratio knobs so you can dial in a division of the main
[00:00:48] oscillator frequency.
[00:00:50] So you divide by two or three or four and so on, which also means these knobs are connected.
[00:00:56] So when you change the main frequency here, you also change the sub frequencies, of course.
[00:01:03] So these are connected.
[00:01:05] And then you have down here a mixing section so you can bring in the volume of each of
[00:01:10] these oscillators here on top.
[00:01:12] A routing panel where you can route basically sequencer one to either the main knob or the
[00:01:19] two sub oscillators here or both of them or just none of them so you can route this.
[00:01:26] But sequencer one is always connected to VCO one.
[00:01:29] It's nothing you can do to change this.
[00:01:33] So two is always connected to oscillator two.
[00:01:35] So that's the main routing.
[00:01:38] And then on top of that you have pulley rhythms.
[00:01:41] So you have not only sub ratios of frequencies, you also have pulley rhythms, which is basically
[00:01:47] more or less the same concept just rhythmically.
[00:01:50] So you have multiple clocks here, rhythm one, two, three, four.
[00:01:54] And then you can mix and match these clocks together to create pulley rhythms.
[00:02:01] You can route them to sequencer one or sequencer two or both of them or none of them or just
[00:02:07] this one in sequencer one and this one in sequencer two.
[00:02:10] So you can mix this to create pulley rhythms.
[00:02:14] And all of this is reflected inside of my preset here.
[00:02:18] You can see we have sequencer one on top here.
[00:02:21] Then we have down here sequencer two and sequencer one goes always to VCO one, which is this section
[00:02:28] here.
[00:02:30] And then sequencer two goes always to VCO two here.
[00:02:34] We have the main frequency knob here.
[00:02:38] We have the sub ratios here and here and also the levels for these oscillators down here.
[00:02:46] And we have the clocks here.
[00:02:48] We can mix and send to different sequencers to create pulley rhythms.
[00:02:53] And then at the right side here we have the output effect.
[00:02:57] So like a low pass filter resonance, of course.
[00:03:01] Then we have two envelopes, VCA for the amplitude envelope and VCF here for the frequency envelope.
[00:03:09] And then a VCF envelope amount here.
[00:03:12] So we can dial in a different modulation amount for the filter envelope, of course, and the
[00:03:17] volume knob.
[00:03:18] So that's basically it.
[00:03:20] So we have your play knob.
[00:03:23] So with the play knob we start more or less the triggering of the sequencer here.
[00:03:31] And I hit play.
[00:03:34] And then you can see here S1 means basically this is the step position of the sequencer
[00:03:43] one and S2 is the step position of sequencer two down here.
[00:03:48] So you have a slight idea where you are in the sequence.
[00:03:55] You can also hit stop and then use the next button here to step through the sequencer.
[00:04:01] It's exactly like it is on the real deal, right?
[00:04:04] You have this next button here to step through the sequence.
[00:04:10] And then on each step you can dial in a different position here of these two sequencer knobs
[00:04:15] and then hit trigger, trigger this position.
[00:04:28] If you don't want to use the trigger knob here, you can also use the keyboard.
[00:04:32] You don't change the key with the keyboard.
[00:04:34] You just, I just use trigger the gate input basically to trigger this position here.
[00:04:41] So here we change step two of sequencer one.
[00:04:47] Sequencer one goes always to BCO one.
[00:04:49] So we can change at the default position.
[00:04:54] Right.
[00:04:57] So this is the main frequency here.
[00:05:01] It's pretty high, but it's also very high on the device itself.
[00:05:07] I think it's C6 if I'm correctly.
[00:05:10] If I measure this correctly, but it makes sense because you want to dial in sub ratios
[00:05:16] and you get pretty low frequencies pretty fast when you just divide this main frequency
[00:05:22] by a certain number.
[00:05:24] So let's dial in here the sub oscillator here.
[00:05:26] Start with this.
[00:05:27] So this is also divided by one.
[00:05:31] So it's the same frequency as this one and then divided by two.
[00:05:36] So you divide the main frequency by a certain number and then you create chords with this.
[00:05:49] So this is then the main frequency.
[00:05:53] Right.
[00:05:55] And then maybe sub oscillator two.
[00:06:08] And then with the sequencer here, sequence one, we want to only change the main frequency.
[00:06:12] And when we change the main frequency, we also change the frequency of sub oscillator
[00:06:17] one and sub oscillator two, of course.
[00:06:27] Right.
[00:06:34] And so you can program in your sequence.
[00:06:36] You hit next and then you hit the keyboard and you dial in all the frequencies or sub
[00:06:42] ratios. You dial in the value for the steps and then you create a nice new step and sequence
[00:06:49] then of course at the end.
[00:06:51] Maybe I let this run here.
[00:06:56] It's a bit slow because the main time base here, which is just also a clock division,
[00:07:00] it's always synchronized to the main BPM of the project.
[00:07:13] Let's go for 50% here.
[00:07:15] And then we have rhythm one go to sequence one.
[00:07:34] So this is how this works.
[00:07:36] Maybe you can also dial in something of a step two.
[00:07:40] A problem I have with the real device also is that you trigger always a step when sequence
[00:07:49] or two, let's say sequence or two plays a bit faster than sequence or one, but you're
[00:07:54] also always trigger the first sequence all the time when you trigger with a second oscillator,
[00:08:03] a second sequence.
[00:08:04] I don't know why they did this.
[00:08:06] I guess it's just because you trigger with sequence or two and sequence or one, the same
[00:08:12] envelope for the amplitude, right?
[00:08:14] So it's not like you have two amplitude envelopes for each sequencer.
[00:08:21] So you always trigger the same amplitude envelope, right?
[00:08:25] So it's trigger the same thing basically, which in my opinion would be better to have
[00:08:31] two amplitude envelopes, but that's that's how it is.
[00:08:35] It's a very simple device actually.
[00:08:39] Let's play here for a moment.
[00:08:44] You can see here S2 plays a lot less fast than the sequence or one, right?
[00:08:55] You still trigger with sequence or one pretty fast.
[00:09:23] And when you mix here sequence or one, sequence or one, right, two rhythms, you more or less
[00:09:28] add up and you get kind of really rhythmic, interesting balance going.
[00:09:45] I think I did this pretty close.
[00:09:47] Maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong there.
[00:09:50] I can also update this in the future if I get something wrong.
[00:09:55] But I think this is how it works in real, in the real world.
[00:10:01] Yeah, inside, I can show you how it looks like from the inside.
[00:10:05] It's actually not that.
[00:10:08] It's not super complicated.
[00:10:12] A lot of stuff is here going into the sequencer, right?
[00:10:16] Adding up different trigger modules here.
[00:10:19] We have here the three oscillators and here three oscillators.
[00:10:25] There's also pitch quantizer to C major.
[00:10:29] That is also how it is in the real device.
[00:10:33] I use this here for this knob, quantized 8 E.T., right?
[00:10:40] And if you switch this off, then you have here, let's put this to port mode.
[00:10:48] There's no quantization.
[00:10:51] So you can turn this off if you want to.
[00:10:58] Is there something else I want to explain?
[00:11:03] No, I think that's actually it.
[00:11:06] You can reset also here the sequencer if you want to.
[00:11:10] Yeah, that's basically it.
[00:11:13] Yeah, I think that's the device.
[00:11:16] So put this here on my Patreon so you can download this.
[00:11:20] I am not sure if I make this for free.
[00:11:22] I have to look it up.
[00:11:23] I think I also made the labyrinth for free, so I probably make this also for free.
[00:11:29] But you can also support me on Patreon if you want to.
[00:11:33] If you feel the urge for that.
[00:11:35] Because sometimes there goes a lot of time into finding out how the real devices work
[00:11:40] and then implement this into Bitwig.
[00:11:41] So, you know, it's a bit of work here and there.
[00:11:45] So yeah, that's it.
[00:11:48] I think for this video, I hope you like it.
[00:11:50] I leave you a comment and like, subscription and so on.
[00:11:54] Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.
[00:11:57] Bye.