Polyphony & Stacking Settings

The Inspector in Bitwig Studio plays a key role when working with the Grid, as it offers detailed control over polyphony, voice stacking, and phase behavior. You can find the Inspector on the left side of Bitwig Studio, but you need to have a Grid device selected to access it. This can be done either by selecting the device in the track’s chain or clicking directly inside the Grid workspace.

Headers

Key Inspector Settings:

Voices and Polyphony

  1. Voices (Polyphony Control)

    • The Voices setting lets you choose how many voices (or notes) the Grid can play simultaneously.
    • There's also a toggle between True Mono and Digi Mono:
      • True Mono: Only one voice plays at a time, with no overlapping notes.
      • Digi Mono: Alternates between two voices, causing envelopes to retrigger with each note, even when playing legato.
    • For generative or self-playing patches, setting this to Mono ensures a single voice is always active without needing a note trigger.
    • For polyphonic patches (like chords), you can set this to multiple voices (default is 12).

  2. Voice Stacking

    • Voice stacking allows you to duplicate a single voice multiple times.
    • For example, setting Voice Stack to 3 will play the patch three times for each note pressed.
    • Using Voice Stack Modulators, you can slightly alter each stacked voice for creative detuning or modulation effects.

Grid Retrigger

  1. Retrigger Behavior

    • Controls when envelopes and phase signals restart:
      • Always: Envelopes retrigger with every new note.
      • Note-On: Retriggers only on new note input.
      • Never: Continuous playback without retriggering.

  2. Same Key Handling

    • Prevents overlapping notes of the same pitch by either fading them out or replacing them with the new note.

Routing

  1. Routing Options (Note Grid, Poly Grid, FX Grid Differences)
    • Note Grid: Offers Note Through, Control Through, and Audio Through options for signal passthrough.
    • Poly Grid: No Audio Through, since it’s primarily designed to generate sound, not process it.
    • FX Grid: Includes Auto-Gate, which disables a voice after a set time if no sound is being generated, helping manage CPU load.

Device Phase

  1. Device Phase Settings

    • Controls the phase signal behavior, often used for sequencing and modulation:
      • Phase length can be set (default is 1 bar) and synced to time divisions like half notes or quarter notes.
      • The phase can also be linked to Bitwig's global shuffle for groove adjustments.

  2. Free Run When Stopped

    • If enabled, the Grid continues to run phase signals even when playback is stopped.
    • Disabling this stops the phase completely, preventing sound generation during playback pauses.

These Inspector settings give you precise control over how the Grid behaves, especially when working with polyphonic patches or generative sound design. I'll dive deeper into some of these features later in the course when we use them in practical examples.

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