Polarity - Music Producer & Teacher

Why Your Synth Keeps Clicking (And How To Fix It)

polarity — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 01:00:00 GMT

Tutorial | Mär 04, 2026

Clicking or crackling sounds in synthesizers occur when waveforms are abruptly restarted at non-zero crossings, causing sudden jumps in speaker movement. These artifacts can be prevented by restarting oscillators at zero crossings, adding short fades using amplitude envelopes, or by using voice allocation techniques like digimono or polyphonic modes to allow smooth fades between notes. In monophonic setups, introducing delayed retriggering or precise envelope shaping ensures smooth transitions and eliminates unwanted clicks and pops.

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Short Overview

In this video, I explain why synthesizers and samplers often produce unwanted clicks and crackles, especially when playing notes in a monophonic setup. The issue usually comes from abrupt changes in the waveform, often caused by starting or stopping a sound away from a zero crossing. I walk through simple ways to avoid this, like adjusting the phase of the oscillator to always begin at zero, adding a short attack or release to your envelope, or using voice alternation techniques. These solutions can be adapted in most DAWs, not just Bitwig, to achieve smooth, click-free sounds even in monophonic patches.

Clicks and crackles in synthesizers often occur due to abrupt waveform changes, especially when retriggering notes.
The main cause: Oscillator phase does not start at zero (zero-crossing), leading to sharp jumps in the audio signal when keys are pressed.
Free-running oscillators without retrigger cause unpredictable starting points in the waveform, leading to random clicks.
Enabling oscillator retrigger synchronizes phase but can still start at a non-zero value, causing consistent clicks if not set to a zero-crossing.
Offsetting the oscillator phase to start at a zero-crossing (e.g., 25% phase offset on a sine wave) reduces clicks on triggering.
Fast re-triggering of notes can still cause clicks because release phases of the envelope are cut off and replaced by a new attack.
Polyphonic or digi-mono synth modes help by allowing overlapping voices, so the previous note fades out smoothly while the new one starts.
Monophonic synths need delayed retrigger logic to let the release phase finish before triggering a new note, minimizing clicks.
Adding a short attack and/or release time to the amplitude envelope can help reduce clicks but may affect fast note retriggering responsiveness.
Logic delay modules in Bitwig (and similar tools in other DAWs) can delay gate retriggering to ensure envelope release has time to fade out smoothly.
Sample playback (e.g., using a recorder) also benefits from this logic, requiring both the playback and envelope triggers to be properly delayed for smooth fades.
Zero-crossing quantization (triggering only on zero-crossing of the oscillator) is possible but complex and not always practical for all setups.
Alternative envelope shaping using window functions or manipulating phase signals can provide smoother amplitude transitions.
The fundamental solution: Prevent abrupt, steep jumps in the waveform by ensuring smooth fade-ins and fade-outs, especially at note boundaries.

Why Your Synthesizer Clicks

In this video, I explain why your synthesizer or sampler might produce annoying clicks or crackles, especially at the start or end of notes. I also share solutions that apply not only to Bitwig but also to other environments like Ableton Live or Logic.

Identifying the Problem

Using a simple monophonic synthesizer setup with a sine oscillator, amplitude envelope, and oscilloscope, you can hear noticeable clicks when playing low notes. These clicks happen mostly at the attack (start) of a note. Sometimes, these are musically desired, such as when designing kick drums for added punch. However, in most melodic or ambient contexts, those click sounds are undesirable.

The Root Cause: Phase Discontinuity

The main reason for these clicks is that the oscillator is running freely and not retriggering its phase at note-on. In other words, each time you press a key, the sine wave starts at a random point in its cycle, often not at the zero crossing; sometimes at its maximum value, sometimes elsewhere. This discontinuity, when combined with the action of the amplitude envelope, results in a sudden jump in the output waveform. The speaker tries to respond instantly, producing an audio click.

Retriggering and Phase Adjustment

One way to reduce clicks is by enabling "retrigger" for your oscillator so it always starts from the same phase position when you play a new note. However, if the default starting point is not zero, for instance starting at -1 in the waveform, you simply move the click to a different spot. Retriggering at a non-zero phase still produces a sudden jump.

Phase Offset as a Solution

You can solve this by offsetting the oscillator’s phase so it always starts at the zero crossing when retriggered. By setting the phase offset to 25%, the sine wave starts at zero, eliminating the initial click for each note. This trick is vital and works in most synth environments.

The Issue with Fast Retriggering

Even after aligning the phase to start at zero, when you play notes quickly, clicks can reappear. If you trigger a new note before the release phase of the previous note has faded out, the audio output snaps from wherever it was in the waveform back to zero. This again forces your speaker to make a sudden, sharp movement, which produces a click.

Voice Handling and Envelopes

Most modern synthesizers handle this with voice management. In mono mode, only one voice plays at a time, causing the described issues. In "digi mono" or similar multi-voice mono modes, the synth will allow the previous voice to finish its release phase while starting a new one for the second note. In polyphonic synths, this is an automatic byproduct; voices alternate, avoiding clicks because each can finish its envelope smoothly.

Explanation: How Voices Eliminate Clicks

When playing with two alternating voices, pressing a second note does not immediately silence the first. Instead, the old note’s release phase concludes its fade-out while the new note’s envelope begins from zero. This overlap prevents discontinuity in the audio signal.

Handling Monophonic Environments

With older or strictly monophonic setups where you only have one voice, you need another solution. The answer is to delay the next note's retrigger until the release time of the amplitude envelope has finished. This ensures smooth transitions between note-off and new note-on.

Logic Delay for Release Completion

Using a "logic delay" module, you can delay only the upward signal (note-on), ensuring the synthesizer waits for the envelope’s release phase to finish before starting a new note. You match the delay time to the release duration of your envelope (e.g., 10-30 milliseconds), which keeps things smooth but should not be too long, or you will feel latency when playing live.

Other Techniques and Considerations

When using samplers or recorders, similar techniques apply. You may need to delay not just the envelope but also playback triggering, ensuring that the recorded sound does not cut off before the envelope fades out. This might require configuring separate logic delays for amplitude and for playback.

Advanced Technique: Zero Crossing Quantization

A more advanced or experimental solution is to quantize retriggering to the zero crossing point of the waveform. This means new notes only trigger when the oscillator is at zero amplitude, naturally avoiding abrupt jumps. Achieving this requires some signal processing and might be more complex to implement in some environments.

Using Wavetable Oscillators

Some wavetable oscillators start from zero by default or have phase options, which can also be exploited to prevent clicks without additional phase adjustment.

Broader Envelope Concepts

Envelopes in synthesizers control the way a sound evolves over time, usually with separate segments for attack, decay, sustain, and release. A fast attack or release can both cause clicks since they introduce rapid gain changes to the waveform. Smoother, slightly longer attack and release times help disguise or eliminate clicks by making these gain changes more gradual.

General Tips

Always check the phase and retrigger settings of your oscillator.
Use small but non-zero attack and release times on your envelope to avoid abrupt gain changes.
If possible, use multi-voice mono modes or polyphonic modes to allow notes to fade out smoothly.
In strictly monophonic setups, use a logic delay to allow the envelope to complete before retriggering.
Consider creative solutions like zero crossing quantization if your environment supports it.

Conclusion

Clicks and crackles are usually the result of abrupt amplitude changes, either due to random oscillator starting points or envelope shapes that are too aggressive. By aligning phases, retriggering at zero crossings, managing voices, and using modest envelope curves, you can eliminate most unwanted clicks in both monophonic and polyphonic synthesizer setups. These principles are general and can be applied in Bitwig, Ableton, Logic, and beyond. This understanding lets you craft clean, professional tones or intentionally add clicks for sound design when desired.

Full Video Transcription

This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by Whisper, 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.

Click to expand Transcription

[00:00:00] why your synthesizer keeps clicking. So this video is about having these annoying click sounds or
[00:00:05] crackle sounds sometimes when you play a synthesizer or a sampler. I want to explain to you why it
[00:00:11] happens and how to solve it. And it's also not bitwig-specific, so you can also watch this with
[00:00:16] Ableton Live or with Logic and then find some of your own solutions in these kind of environments.
[00:00:23] So what's the problem? So I want to play here certain sounds with the synthesizer,
[00:00:28] monophonic synthesizer and I have here a sine oscillator, I have an amplitude envelope,
[00:00:32] an oscilloscope and an audio output. So it's very simple synthesizer setup. And when I play here
[00:00:38] some notes on the keyboard, especially low sounds, right, you can hear these kind of crackles in the
[00:00:54] beginning when I press a key. It's very annoying. Sometimes you want exactly that when you make
[00:01:00] kick drums for instance, but most of the times you don't want it to happen if you play some ambience
[00:01:06] and you know some nice little melodies and you have these sine partials and every now and then
[00:01:10] you get some clicks. It's very annoying. So what's the problem here? So I want to show you this here
[00:01:16] in the oscilloscope. I use a gate input module and hook this up here to the oscilloscope. So every
[00:01:24] time I press a key on the keyboard, it just freezes the visuals here of the oscilloscope.
[00:01:31] So the first problem you can see here when I press a key on the keyboard
[00:01:37] is that the sine oscillator starts off center. So it's not starting at zero or in the middle
[00:01:45] of the oscilloscope here, right? So it starts off center. And you can see here the sine oscillator
[00:01:50] itself doesn't have a retrigger enabled. So it's just running freely, which means when I
[00:01:56] hook this up here to the oscilloscope itself, you can see it just runs. It starts somewhere
[00:02:02] and it just runs forever. And the only thing that happens that prevents it from outputting here to
[00:02:09] the audio output is basically the ADSR amplitude envelope. So it's just a free running playing
[00:02:17] oscillator and the amplitude envelope here just fades in the audio and fades out the audio,
[00:02:22] which also means we have no influence over when and how the sine oscillator retriggers.
[00:02:31] Okay, so it's just starts somewhere inside of the oscilloscope. So sometimes it starts at zero,
[00:02:38] sometimes here, sometimes here. So it depends on when I press a key. You can see it's all over the place.
[00:02:46] Right? And this gives you these kind of crackles. So when we hit here restart or when we enable
[00:02:53] restart on the oscillator, we restart the oscillator every time we press a key.
[00:03:00] So now we can see consistently we start at minus one, because you also can see this here on the
[00:03:07] graph on the oscillator itself, it starts at minus one. This is just a waveform. This is how the
[00:03:14] lookup table of the oscillator looks like. So, yeah, right off the bat, we get bad sounds.
[00:03:24] Every time we press a key, we get a crack or click. And sometimes that's exactly what you want
[00:03:33] when you make, for instance, kick drum sounds or bass sounds and you want to have a bit of smack in
[00:03:38] the attack. You get it this way, pretty free or for free. So this time we don't want it. So how do
[00:03:45] we prevent it? And we can do this here by just offsetting the phase of the sine oscillator.
[00:03:52] In between it works by using here a constant. So this one, this module just outputs a constant
[00:03:59] of one, number one, and then we do here 25% on the phase input, which means we just offset the whole
[00:04:08] graph by 25%. You can see here the graph when we zoom in, it starts at minus one. Then here in the
[00:04:15] middle, it's, of course, 50%. There's 100% and here between zero and 50% is 25%, because we want to
[00:04:22] start here exactly at zero. So we can do this here by inputting one and then using 25% on the phase
[00:04:29] input knob, or we can input a constant of 0.25 and use here 100%, it's just the same thing.
[00:04:39] So with this, we constantly now restart the oscillator exactly at zero, at a zero crossing.
[00:04:47] So this gives you no crackles. Right? Pretty dope. But when you play multiple notes very quickly,
[00:05:01] you get crackles again. Why is that? Do this here. Maybe it's too long.
[00:05:14] You can see this here. We play the first note. It plays from the beginning from zero,
[00:05:19] very smooth sine wave here. And then we retrigger in midst of the phase. So the phase happens to be
[00:05:29] here at this point when we press the key on the keyboard again. And then the thing does here a
[00:05:36] movement from +1 back to -0. So it switches back to zero. So why does this crackle actually?
[00:05:45] What's the problem here? Why does it produce a crackle? And the explanation is pretty easy.
[00:05:49] What you can see here on the screen is actually what your speaker cone does in real life. So it
[00:05:56] moves out and in of your speaker or the cone or the membrane moves out and inwards all the time.
[00:06:06] But when you do hear this very steep movement from going to the most outward position back to
[00:06:14] the initial zero position, it gives you this kind of crackle. It's actually what your speaker cone
[00:06:20] produces. So this is why it crackles all the time. So we want to prevent this. And people sometimes
[00:06:28] prevent this by using just a small little attack on the amplitude envelope just to fade in here.
[00:06:37] You can see this here. It's smoothly fades in.
[00:06:39] But sometimes it's not enough when you press your multiple keys. You can see
[00:06:48] also when you do hear a small little release time.
[00:06:53] Maybe bring also the signal of the amplitude into the oscilloscope. It's okay when I re-trigger.
[00:07:07] Ah, another one. This one. Okay. So here we press the first key and then we quickly press the second
[00:07:14] key. And what happens here is we switch back to zero. So we never finish the release time, right?
[00:07:21] So we press a key. We are here. And then we release the key. And then we quickly after that press
[00:07:28] another key again. So we never finish actually the release time, which makes it happen to fade
[00:07:35] out the audio. So we jump from here back to here, right? So we have never had really having this
[00:07:43] release time here fading out the audio very smoothly. So this never happens when you press
[00:07:49] key keys pretty quickly one after the other. And yeah, that's kind of a problem. So the solution
[00:07:57] in most synthesizers is that we switch from monophonic which is just one voice to a digi
[00:08:06] mono or whatever this is called. What's it saying? A monophonic playback with two alternating voices
[00:08:14] envelopes will always re-trigger from zero and note input is required to make each voice sound
[00:08:22] saving CPU. So this is a pretty technical explanation. But what it does is it's
[00:08:28] just launching two voices. So you press the first key, you press, you play basically this part here.
[00:08:35] And then when you re-trigger, so quickly release and quickly press again, we actually play this old
[00:08:42] voice the release time until it finishes. But at the same time, we start a second voice and start
[00:08:49] from zero. So when I show you this here on on a graph, I want to show you this, we have the first
[00:08:55] voice. This is probably active. You have an oscilloscope here and you start from zero
[00:09:01] and you play and you play. Then at some random point you decide, oh, let's play another note,
[00:09:07] right? And then it starts the release phase. So this phase here, because you release the key,
[00:09:15] and it goes down and fades slowly out. And because you press another key again, so you release and
[00:09:23] then you press again, we start here, but on a second voice. And exactly at this point here,
[00:09:31] when here the release time starts, we start here at zero again and play another sign partial.
[00:09:40] So this prevents everything from clicking because this is smoothly fading out while this sound
[00:09:46] plays. So we have kind of a crossover. So we fade from one sound to the other sound,
[00:09:52] but it needs to have two voices. And this also never happens here when you actually use polyphonic
[00:09:59] voices or multiple voices. Of course, you can always alternating between different voices. You
[00:10:04] play another key and the old voice slowly fades out in the background while you're playing a new
[00:10:10] sound on a new voice. That's why it never clicks properly on a polyphonic synthesizer when you
[00:10:18] start a sign partial from zero. It can click when you, of course, you never retrigger and you never
[00:10:25] retrigger from a zero crossing point, then it clicks also. So yeah, this is how you solve the
[00:10:34] problem. But sometimes you need to have this problem solved in a monophonic environment
[00:10:41] because you only have maybe one voice at your disposal. Maybe you want to create a
[00:10:47] generative patch or you have a very old monophonic synthesizer or whatever. So here you can solve
[00:10:55] this also in a monophonic way. So how do we do this? We just make sure that this release phase
[00:11:03] here is playing before you start a new envelope or a new envelope sequence. We can do this with
[00:11:13] the logic delay in Bitwig at least. It looks like this and it can delay certain movements in the
[00:11:21] signal. So here we have only upward movements in the signal. So when I press basically here,
[00:11:28] the key on my keyboard, every time I press here, it goes up to one and when I release the key,
[00:11:36] it goes back to zero. So it can really replicate what I'm doing on my keyboard. So here I'm pressing
[00:11:45] a key, here I'm releasing a key. But what we want to delay is only the upward movement. So when I
[00:11:51] press the key, that's what I want to delay. Why? Because I want to wait until this release
[00:11:57] sequence here is finished and then I want to press or go up again. So this is the idea. I'm
[00:12:05] delaying the upward movement until this release time is finished. And we can really dial this in
[00:12:11] here. We can say release time is exactly 10 milliseconds long. So I need to wait for 10
[00:12:18] milliseconds before I restart a new thing. I can do maybe 20 milliseconds. It doesn't matter.
[00:12:27] But for that, we need to actually disable here the precode because we want to use a delay on the
[00:12:34] gate input. We can use here the gate input. And we also want to delay the sign oscillator
[00:12:45] retriggering because also the release here needs to finish before we switch the oscillator back
[00:12:54] to zero. Okay. It's a bit complicated now, right? Okay. Anyway, so with this setup now, just delaying
[00:13:05] the amplitude envelope retriggering until the release time is finished. Okay. So now I can do this here
[00:13:11] and press multiple keys. And you can see it waits here basically for the thing to finish.
[00:13:19] Also important here, the amplitude envelope has a digital mode, which is called digital
[00:13:24] with exact timing. Usually it's on analog here, which sounds a bit better maybe.
[00:13:32] But when you dial in digital here, 10 milliseconds are really 10 milliseconds and also here
[00:13:39] 10 milliseconds for one thing. So instead of me triggering on the keyboard, I want to use here
[00:13:46] a quick setup to simulate when I really trigger very fast on my keyboard.
[00:13:59] So this is not needed here. It's just me simulating
[00:14:03] my very fast triggers. It makes this a bit faster. So you can see it here on the scope.
[00:14:13] When I retrigger, I can make this a bit longer. Let's make it a bit longer so you
[00:14:21] can see it better. So 30 milliseconds release time. So we need to wait 30 milliseconds here
[00:14:28] for the next retrigger. You can see it's much smoother there.
[00:14:31] Yeah. So it waits here for the release time until it finishes. Then it retriggers here again.
[00:14:42] Maybe go here also for 20, 30. Yeah, much, much better. But this is already pretty slow,
[00:14:53] 30 milliseconds. And when you need to dial in here, it's 40 now.
[00:14:58] When you need to have a delay of 40 milliseconds, because remember when you press the key on the
[00:15:05] keyboard, the whole setup waits for 40 milliseconds until it actually triggers the synth itself,
[00:15:14] just because of the release time. So you don't want to have this too high. So 40 milliseconds
[00:15:21] is pretty long. So you can probably feel this when you play it on the keyboard. So you want
[00:15:27] to keep it low, maybe at 20 or 10 milliseconds. But I want to show you this here, how it works.
[00:15:33] So here then you can see the sign is slowly fading out. So we have not this instant movement back
[00:15:40] to zero. This is what we want to prevent from happening, because this is creating this kind of
[00:15:46] crackle thing. So yeah, when we just here, go back to our initial preset. So I can trigger
[00:15:55] this with my keyboard. Let's play it with the sound.
[00:16:00] You can see there is no crackling happening, even though we press the keys pretty fast.
[00:16:15] What I would say 40 milliseconds is too much. Let's let's try it out here with 10 milliseconds.
[00:16:20] But you can see this is a problem that you can't solve without having a fade in or fade out.
[00:16:28] It's just not possible because the synthesizer doesn't know when you press a key the next time.
[00:16:36] It's just you have to look into the future, right? And we look into the future here and
[00:16:42] this set up by just delaying everything else by 10 milliseconds. So we have a bit of time.
[00:16:48] Yeah, this is also okay.
[00:16:51] Smooth as a baby's ass. Okay, so this setup prevents you from clicking in a monophonic setup just with
[00:17:04] one oscillator here. And you can also use this of course in a generative patch where you want to
[00:17:10] generate multiple nodes here with the triggers module or the gates module or whatever. You can
[00:17:16] re-trigger everything pretty fast and you never get any crackles. That's the point of it.
[00:17:22] Another setup that someone asked today was with the recorder. So sometimes you sample something
[00:17:29] instead of having a sine oscillator here. You have just something sampled in here and you also need
[00:17:36] some fade in and fade outs. So here the delay you probably want to also do this here with the playback
[00:17:47] and recording. Let's use a button here.
[00:17:58] And maybe use a sign, some sign here for the recording. So yeah, you re-trigger this.
[00:18:10] You can hear there's also some kind of crackling happening. So you probably need a bit more.
[00:18:21] 20 milliseconds here and you also probably need to finish here this playback because it's just
[00:18:32] when I release the key, it just stops playing. So we need to delay actually also the playback. So
[00:18:42] it plays further. So the amplitude envelope here has time to fade it out. But you can't fade anything
[00:18:49] out when it stops playing before the release is finishing, right? So this is another problem.
[00:18:55] So to solve this, we need to have here the logic delay actually only acting on the recorder for
[00:19:02] now. And we delay also on both directions. So when we release the key, the recorder keeps playing
[00:19:10] for 10 milliseconds longer. So the release time here also plays for 10 seconds longer because
[00:19:16] release time itself is 10 milliseconds long. And if you use a second logic delay here,
[00:19:22] but only upwards delaying for the ADSR. Something like this. So this is the setup. So now we can
[00:19:30] play here and then we press stop or release. You have your nice smooth fade out.
[00:19:41] You can make this a bit longer maybe here for 30 milliseconds so you can maybe see it.
[00:19:47] Yeah, but it's not going to work because we have here also 10 milliseconds so we need 30 there.
[00:20:04] Oh, we need also have 30 here. You can see it also here on the oscilloscope.
[00:20:15] You have a nice smooth fade in also nice smooth fade out. And it prevents you from having these
[00:20:22] clicks and pops and whatever you want to call it. Yeah, from happening. So yeah, this is my solution
[00:20:30] for monophonic patches. You can solve most of the stuff in synthesizer by just using like I said
[00:20:36] here multiple voices to here in bitwig or polyphonic voices because you have then multiple voices
[00:20:44] just alternating and smoothly fading from one voice to the other voice and it's pretty easy to solve.
[00:20:53] But sometimes you need to keep these monophonic setups here and you still want to have
[00:21:00] these pops and clicks removed. So this is the solution for that. Yeah, but the recorder and of
[00:21:05] course with the oscillator in sometimes also with the delay and stuff where you just resample and
[00:21:13] retrigger and you want to have these nice little smooth fade overs. Okay, at the end I want to
[00:21:21] give you here a quick idea for this setup. When you have a sine oscillator and we go here maybe
[00:21:32] again into an oscilloscope. And you can see here we have crossover right and my thinking was at
[00:21:39] some point why not use a logic here right and this compares it basically with zero. So when the input
[00:21:49] here the sine oscillator input is zero which happens only here on the zero crossing then give me a
[00:21:56] gate. So let's try this. You can see nothing happens there. You can switch to your exact
[00:22:03] matches nothing happens. So yeah it's kind of a problem when this would work easily then you could
[00:22:11] say I only want to retrigger when the phase is zero only then allow me to trigger the amplitude
[00:22:19] envelope. There are some tricks you can do to make this happen here you can use a bend and then you
[00:22:26] get at some point the two phases here right. Every yellow line is basically a zero crossing.
[00:22:34] What we do basically for this is bending here the waveform it looks like this. Make the zero line
[00:22:41] a bit more prominent so the logic device has a bit more time to get used to it or whatever.
[00:22:49] Yeah this kind of works. Exact matches also doesn't work but when you have this set up here
[00:22:56] you get the trigger every time we have a zero crossing then you can do an ad
[00:23:01] an amplitude envelope and only trigger this. So we use a gate input. Oops gate input.
[00:23:16] Only trigger the amplitude envelope.
[00:23:20] When there's a zero crossing happening we can do this with the name
[00:23:29] aquantizer. So this is our clock. The zero crossings is our clock.
[00:23:36] Maybe try to play this.
[00:23:47] This and maybe pitch it down.
[00:24:00] So you can quantize the triggering to the zero crossings. I don't know if this is a good idea
[00:24:10] but you can see here it kind of works. It's not the best idea probably but it gives you some
[00:24:19] solutions for certain problems.
[00:24:22] You can see it more clearly here. So clock quantizing the amplitude envelope to the face.
[00:24:33] Also an idea you can maybe try out if you want to have this possible in the Bitwig grid.
[00:24:40] There are also modules in Bitwig where you get the envelope for free. So let's say you want
[00:24:46] to make a sine oscillator and you can go for the wavetables oscillator because here we have this
[00:24:52] standard four waveform where you get a sine wave for free that starts at zero.
[00:24:59] So you don't need to offset this oscillator here. If you use the sine it always starts at minus one
[00:25:05] and the wavetable one with the standard four wavetable starts always at zero.
[00:25:10] We get this for free. You can use here for instance a trigger but instead of triggering
[00:25:17] with this here which you can do but we can also use a face input for that. So here's a face pre-quad.
[00:25:28] When I switch this off nothing happens but then I can connect here the face input to the triggers
[00:25:34] module and it gets face information again but now we can hook something up here in between
[00:25:39] and we get also the face information for that. So we can say this is here the face signal.
[00:25:49] It's more or less like ramp signal. It's going up from zero to one across one bar
[00:25:55] and then we have four triggers for each bar. So we have four up-down movements here from the gate
[00:26:02] between zero and one of the gate of the face signal which means we can trigger with this here maybe
[00:26:11] once each bar and then we have in the background here the ramp signal which is the face signal
[00:26:19] then we can use here the window module. The window module takes in also a face signal.
[00:26:27] We can use this to actually fade in and fade out certain things. So let's say we trigger here
[00:26:36] then we have zero volume then we go up to the volume until the end of the of the gate signal
[00:26:43] then we fade slowly out. So yeah but this we can also just take here an audio out
[00:26:53] multiply take this window as a volume signal.
[00:26:59] So it's more or less also an amplitude envelope so instead of using here an AD or ADSR which also
[00:27:11] just fades in and fades out the volume over time and you need to set the release time and the attack
[00:27:19] time here on this AD envelope manually. Here we have the the face of yeah of this trigger thing
[00:27:30] and we can synchronize basically when we trigger and how each trigger influences the shape more or
[00:27:39] less. We can do here also a transport thing which gives you also a face signal and the gate
[00:27:48] signal at the same time so you can say 16 so 160 node triggers we get a lot of triggers here
[00:27:56] and we need to fade for each for each trigger or let's say
[00:28:01] 16 16 triggers right so we have the same as before we can also say eight. So the the envelope changes
[00:28:12] or the timing of the envelope changes with your amount of triggers we can use this pretty easily
[00:28:20] to create sounds.
[00:28:22] And if you're not happy here with the shape of this envelope just sign up down movement
[00:28:43] uh you can influence the face so you can say uh band
[00:28:49] something like this right so the envelope is different
[00:28:54] like more like an amplitude envelope right you can see here or this is the attack
[00:29:01] it's the release and it changes with the speed.
[00:29:13] And yeah you can not only use this for the oscillator again you can use just the recorder here
[00:29:26] right and trigger the recorder and then you use
[00:29:29] this for the volume like this
[00:29:37] sign here to record again record here for a moment
[00:29:46] we have something in the recorder here we want to play it back
[00:29:56] but it's still smooth of course we have this movement here
[00:30:05] if we don't do this it sounds like this
[00:30:10] much better this way
[00:30:15] maybe there needs to be a delay here or maybe a shift you can use a shift
[00:30:27] this one
[00:30:36] yeah it's not perfect but you get the idea it's it's much better than this
[00:30:41] anyway so you can use anything more or less for amplitude envelopes you don't need to use the
[00:30:50] envelopes in general it's in the grid it's just everything is a signal and you can shape
[00:30:56] signals in all kinds of shapes and forms and yeah you just need the right idea and you can
[00:31:03] make it work and by the way if Bitwig watches this please make the recorder longer and maybe
[00:31:10] give us some pitch options okay thank you so that's it for this video I hope I could explain
[00:31:16] something to you why these crackles happening why these clicks and pops happening it's just
[00:31:23] where you restart the phase and you don't want to have these drastic movements in the waveform
[00:31:29] where you go from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0 or from plus 1 to minus 1 in a fraction of a second
[00:31:38] just make smooth smooth out movements and the crackles and the pops go away thanks for watching bye

Bitwig 6 Clip Launcher Automation Troubleshooting and Workflow Tips

polarity — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 01:00:00 GMT

Tutorial | Feb 25, 2026

The user encountered workflow issues when recording automation in the Bitwig 6 Clip Launcher, specifically problems with unintuitive controls, unnecessary automation gaps, and inconvenient ways of layering or editing automation clips. They highlighted the need for separate automation recording buttons for the Clip Launcher, and pointed out the confusion caused by overlapping features with the Arranger, as well as some persistent bugs. Despite these frustrations, they believe Bitwig 6 is improving and welcome further updates that enhance usability, especially for live performance and creative flexibility.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

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Short Overview

While working on music in Bitwig 6 and trying to record automation in the Clip Launcher, I ran into some workflow issues that disrupted the creative process. Recording automation feels unintuitive since it defaults to the arranger and requires awkward steps just to get simple parameter changes into the clip launcher. There are also confusing gaps in automation, odd visual feedback, and too many steps to simply record or overdub new automation. Despite these hiccups, I still believe Bitwig 6 is solid and much improved, but the Clip Launcher automation workflow clearly needs some refinement to feel smooth and creative, especially for live use.

The user highlights frustration with automation recording in Bitwig 6's Clip Launcher, specifically noting confusion and workflow issues.
Main problem: Automation recording defaults to the Arranger, not the Clip Launcher, unless specific steps are taken.
There's no dedicated "automation write" button for the Clip Launcher, only for the Arranger, which is confusing and unintuitive.
To record automation into a clip, the track must be armed and the clip must be actively recording and playing, otherwise automation is written to the Arranger instead.
The workflow involves awkward steps: unwanted audio gets recorded when only automation is needed, and deleting the clip also deletes the automation.
Empty space is recorded at the start of automation clips, representing the gap between clip start and the first parameter change, which creates tedious extra editing.
Automation continues recording even after disabling “automation write” unless the whole clip is stopped, which disrupts live or fluid work.
Visual feedback in the automation lanes is confusing, giving the impression that waveforms and automation events are being moved together when only automation is adjusted.
Looping is not enabled by default for new automation clips, requiring extra manual steps.
The process is not intuitive or live-friendly; extra steps and bugs complicate quick creative automation during performance or production.
Despite these issues, Bitwig 6 is seen as a promising update, fixing old bugs and offering foundations for improvements, but needs more attention to the automation workflow in the Clip Launcher.

Introduction and Context

In this video, I initially set out to create music in Bitwig 6 and walk you through my creative process. However, I quickly encountered a problem related to automation recording in the Clip Launcher, which shifted the focus of the video. Since I documented the experience, I want to share what went wrong and invite you to share your thoughts and experiences with Clip Launcher automation in the comments.

General Thoughts on Bitwig 6

I still believe Bitwig 6 is in a strong position. Recent beta versions have addressed many bugs, and the final release seems imminent. While there are still some ongoing adjustments and a noticeable impatience among users for the official release and subsequent updates, it is important to recognize the benefits of bug fixing as this lays a solid foundation for future features. Bitwig 6 also solves historical pain points for users coming from other DAWs like Ableton Live and FL Studio, making it a robust and reliable platform for music production.

Setting Up for Automation in Clip Launcher

Sound Creation Workflow

To demonstrate the automation issue, I started by creating a simple patch using Polymer, Bitwig’s synthesizer. I set up a sine oscillator with some decay, distributed notes across different octaves using a multi-note device and note transpose, and layered the results for a fuller chord. I then resampled this chord and processed it with audio effects such as a convolution reverb driven by white noise from a test tone generator. I also EQ'd the white noise before the resonator to control which frequencies entered the convolution reverb. This setup allowed for interesting tonal experiments and set the stage for automation recording.

Automation Recording Expectations

The goal was to automate EQ parameters in the Clip Launcher so the resulting movement would live within individual clips, potentially creating polyrhythmic effect loops. However, the process proved to be unintuitive and problematic.

Issues Encountered with Clip Launcher Automation

Automation Recording Target

When attempting to record automation, pressing the global automation write button by default records into the Arranger, not the Clip Launcher. This is unintuitive because there is only one automation write button, whereas there are separate overdub buttons for the Arranger and Clip Launcher. Ideally, there should also be distinct automation write buttons for both areas.

Confusing Workflow for Automation in Clips

To record automation directly into a clip:

The track must be armed.
You must record a new clip in the Clip Launcher (not just play it).
While the clip is recording, you can move the parameter to capture automation.

This method introduces further inconvenience:

The clip will record any incoming audio by default, often including unwanted sounds such as from the microphone. To fix this, I had to manually delete the audio region within the clip while preserving the automation.
The initial moments before moving the parameter are recorded as empty automation space, which visually and functionally clutters the clip. This becomes worse if the clip is running for a while before automation starts, resulting in long empty periods that must be truncated manually.
The visual feedback is confusing. Adjusting the start position of automation makes it look like the audio is being moved, though only the automation’s start point changes.

Overdubbing Additional Automation

If you want to add more automation lanes to the same clip, you must be careful:

The clip must be actively playing for automation to record into it.
If the clip is stopped or if the wrong buttons are pressed, the automation is recorded into the Arranger instead.
Stopping automation writing also halts the entire clip, interrupting the workflow, which makes live performance or spontaneous automation writing inconvenient.

Persistent Problems and Bugs

I observed bugs such as:

Automation lanes appearing for parameters I had not modified.
Clip launcher automation looping defaults to off, requiring manual activation every time.
Audio engine or chain switching sometimes glitched out, requiring a restart or reset of the project.

Recommendations for Workflow Improvement

This workflow is not intuitive, especially in a live or improvisational setting. Having separate buttons for automation write in the Arranger and the Clip Launcher would greatly improve usability. The Clip Launcher increasingly mirrors the Arranger’s functionality, so it should have its own complete set of transport and recording controls. Recording automation should only capture meaningful data (i.e., when a control is actually moved) rather than inserting empty spaces. Stopping automation writing should not require halting clip playback, preserving performance flow.

Conclusion

Despite these workflow issues with recording automation in the Clip Launcher, I still appreciate Bitwig’s innovative foundation and commitment to stability. I hope these issues can be resolved so that automation in the Clip Launcher becomes as fluid and intuitive as the rest of Bitwig’s creative tools. For now, be aware of these limitations and workarounds, and let me know your own experiences and suggestions regarding Clip Launcher automation and Bitwig 6 in general. I will continue exploring Bitwig and sharing further insights as new betas and releases become available.

Full Video Transcription

Click to expand Transcription

[00:00:00] Bitwig 6 Clip Launcher Automation, what went wrong?
[00:00:04] I initially want to make just music in Bitwig and show you the process, but I stumbled upon
[00:00:09] a problem inside of the Clip Launcher recording some automation.
[00:00:13] And you can see this in a minute, because I recorded it.
[00:00:16] That's why there's a video.
[00:00:19] But I want your input, so let me know in the comments down below what you think about automation
[00:00:23] in the Clip Launcher right now.
[00:00:26] Where are your problems?
[00:00:27] Yeah, give me some input.
[00:00:30] I still think Bitwig 6 is in a great spot.
[00:00:33] They fixed a lot of bugs in the recent betas and I think the release is right around the
[00:00:39] corner even though it looks like they, you know, move things around.
[00:00:44] But I think it's still pretty soon.
[00:00:47] But I want your input, so let me know in the comments down below what you think about the
[00:00:50] Clip Launcher Automation and maybe Bitwig 6 in general.
[00:00:54] And I know a lot of people are impatient waiting for the release, right?
[00:00:58] Because we need to move on to Bitwig 6.1 and get a new features near and there.
[00:01:02] I still think it's really great that we fixing all the bugs, getting a nice foundation to
[00:01:09] move on.
[00:01:11] Bitwig 6 actually does a lot of good things and fixes a lot of old problems a lot of people
[00:01:18] had in the past moving or coming from Ableton Live, coming from FL Studio.
[00:01:23] So it's still a good foundation and it's really good that they make sure it works.
[00:01:28] Okay, so let's head over to Bitwig and I'll show you what I mean.
[00:01:32] So I want to start here with creating a sound and I also want to show you a problem I have
[00:01:37] with the automation recording inside of the Clip Launcher because they also gotcha us
[00:01:42] to it.
[00:01:43] Okay, so we start here by maybe using a synthesizer, a polymer synthesizer.
[00:01:49] I just use here a sine partial, sine oscillator, a bit of decay and we use here a multi-node
[00:01:58] to create kind of a chord, maybe fourth, fifth, we put this into a layer, second layer, gets
[00:02:05] here a note transpose, goes up one octave and this one goes two octaves higher.
[00:02:13] And then we can just more or less record this into a rolling sampler.
[00:02:20] Let's see how this sounds.
[00:02:24] So we just play here one note C on the keyboard, that's a bit too loud, a bit quiet.
[00:02:33] That's cool.
[00:02:34] So we can take this sound and create another audio track here, on this audio track we use
[00:02:41] a test tone and after the test tone we use a convolution reverb and then we use here
[00:02:47] this sample, this chord inside of the convolution reverb.
[00:02:52] Okay, so we have an audio track and we have a test tone and yeah, a convolution reverb
[00:03:00] with the sample we just created and the test tone gets here white noise.
[00:03:04] We play white noise into this resonator, nice, so then we put the convolution reverb
[00:03:17] here into an FX layer, duplicate this convolution reverb and put it down one octave.
[00:03:22] We can make the first one a bit quieter, something like this, okay.
[00:03:42] So now that we have this, we maybe can change the sound by using EQ in front of the resonator
[00:03:51] so we can modify more or less the white noise here, taking out certain frequencies.
[00:03:59] It probably doesn't matter if you put it in front or after, but I kind of like it to tweak
[00:04:04] here the white noise going into the resonator.
[00:04:18] Okay, so let's imagine you want to change the EQ with automation, but the automation
[00:04:26] should live like in the clip launcher and it's not really easy, not really clear how
[00:04:31] to do this in my opinion, so maybe we will switch the loop on and the ranger.
[00:04:37] So let's say you want to record automation, it's pretty clear, you use here the automation
[00:04:42] right button and I have this on my keyboard on a shortcut because I use it all the time.
[00:04:48] So you hit play, you hit automation right and then you move around maybe here, band two.
[00:04:55] You can see it records into the ranger.
[00:05:03] Also you can see here it's not really recording, this is in my opinion also a bug, right, so
[00:05:09] I can change here the band gain and then it stops after the loop.
[00:05:13] This is still a bug in there, so this is bug number one.
[00:05:18] Okay, so this is recording into a ranger, which is not what I want.
[00:05:23] I want to record into the clip launcher, but how do you do it?
[00:05:28] There's only one button which is called automation right and it records into the ranger.
[00:05:35] So where's the automation right for the clip launcher?
[00:05:38] There's an overdub button here for the clip launcher and there's an overdub button for
[00:05:42] the rangers.
[00:05:43] Why isn't there automation right for the clip launcher?
[00:05:48] So this is my first question.
[00:05:51] You can record into the clip launcher, it's not a problem, but you need to do some things.
[00:05:57] So first up you need to arm the track and then you need to record the clip and then you can
[00:06:04] move these knobs around, then it records into the clip launcher.
[00:06:11] To stop this you need to hit space or click the stop button, so hit space.
[00:06:18] So now it stops recording and also here the automation is stopped recording, but then
[00:06:23] beginning here there's some kind of space gap, this is actually the gap between me hitting
[00:06:29] record or hitting scene one play and you know starting to move here the knob around.
[00:06:36] So this is already not good, but we can move this here around to this position.
[00:06:41] This is also weird kind of visual representation because it looks like you actually move the
[00:06:49] waveform so this one here around, which is not the case, you actually change the size
[00:06:57] and the beginning of the automation.
[00:07:00] You don't touch this, but it looks like you're moving the waveform around.
[00:07:05] So this is also a bit confusing to me.
[00:07:08] Also I don't want to record actually here the audio clip, I just want to record automation,
[00:07:16] but here it recorded something whatever I had here as an input, maybe it was my microphone,
[00:07:21] it was probably my microphone, right?
[00:07:23] So now I want to delete this clip because I don't want to record audio, I just want
[00:07:28] to record automation, so I delete this.
[00:07:30] So when I delete this, the automation lanes or clips are combined with this of course,
[00:07:36] it's not what I want, so I go back.
[00:07:38] So only option I have, I go into the audio clip and I delete the region inside and I
[00:07:44] go back out.
[00:07:45] So now I have an empty clip and automation, perfect.
[00:07:48] Maybe what I want, but I need to make some things happen.
[00:07:54] Also this one, Band 2Q, I never touched it.
[00:07:58] That's a lie, I never touched it, so I delete it.
[00:08:01] Okay, so now I have exactly what I want, maybe here, I also want to change this to the beginning.
[00:08:09] So the automation loops perfectly.
[00:08:12] The next problem, when I click on these clips, on these automation clips, on the left side
[00:08:17] you can see looping is off for some reason.
[00:08:19] So I switch it on, also here.
[00:08:22] So now I'm finally ready and I can hit play and it only automates Band 2 in a loop.
[00:08:32] Nice.
[00:08:33] Fine.
[00:08:34] And also you can see this one is a bit faster because it's a bit shorter.
[00:08:38] It's exactly what I want.
[00:08:40] I want to have polyrhythmically loops, different loop lengths and then they combine to something
[00:08:50] much, much nicer.
[00:08:52] Perfect.
[00:08:53] Okay, so this is nice how it is.
[00:08:56] So maybe we want to add some additional movements.
[00:09:00] Maybe we want to move here, I don't know, five around or actually Band 1.
[00:09:06] So how do I actually record now Band 1?
[00:09:10] Because we already hit record here on the clip, so we can't do this.
[00:09:16] We can only hit play and when we hit play here and when we hit automation, record here and
[00:09:23] start to move one around, then it records into the clip launcher again.
[00:09:31] Okay, let's do this again.
[00:09:34] Move this here again, but this time the clip is stopped, record and now you record everything
[00:09:44] into the ranger, which means when there is no clip playing in the clip launcher and you
[00:09:50] hit automation record, it records into the ranger.
[00:09:54] It only records into the clip launcher when there is a clip and the clip is playing, which
[00:10:00] is a bit confusing.
[00:10:01] I mean, it's okay if you know about it, but it's not intuitive, I would say.
[00:10:08] It's not really intuitive.
[00:10:10] So my opinion would be better to have here a second button exactly like overdub for automation
[00:10:18] ride, ranger and clip launcher.
[00:10:20] If you ask me, I would do this, there's a lot of space here inside of this thing.
[00:10:26] Why not do another button just for the clip launcher?
[00:10:32] It almost evolves already into a second ranger, so you need all the things separately for
[00:10:39] the clip launcher than for the ranger because it's its own thing.
[00:10:42] It has different rules, so maybe why not add also additional buttons for this type of thing.
[00:10:51] Okay, so now to record something on top here, like I said, we need to play this clip and
[00:11:01] we just let it run here for a moment.
[00:11:03] And then we need to hit automation ride because we want to record automation into the clip
[00:11:09] launcher.
[00:11:11] This needs to be armed, I think also.
[00:11:13] I'm not sure.
[00:11:14] Maybe I disabled it.
[00:11:15] Let's try it.
[00:11:16] Oh, it records.
[00:11:17] Okay.
[00:11:18] It needs to be armed this time, but now I'm moving around here, band one, and you can
[00:11:23] already see another problem.
[00:11:27] First up, when I disable automation ride here, it still records.
[00:11:35] It continues to record automation, so we need to stop the whole thing, or I think you need
[00:11:40] to stop here the clip, something like this.
[00:11:44] So this is the first problem.
[00:11:46] The second problem is you can see here in the beginning, there's a lot of empty space
[00:11:52] where nothing happened.
[00:11:53] And this is actually the gap between me hitting play on the clip launcher.
[00:11:59] So I'm just letting it run in the background.
[00:12:03] And me actually starting to move a parameter around on this EQ.
[00:12:09] So you get this empty space here every time.
[00:12:12] So when you have this basically running in the background, and it runs, I don't know,
[00:12:17] for five minutes, and you think, oh, maybe I kind of in the mood of moving around five
[00:12:23] and just recording it into a loop, it doesn't work because you have this five minute gap
[00:12:29] of nothing in front of the automation thing.
[00:12:32] So in my opinion, it's, it should start basically here, where we actually move about exactly
[00:12:39] how it works in the Ranger, actually.
[00:12:42] So when I move here now, the global thing, enable automation right, and then I move it
[00:12:48] around, but you have this empty space here, which don't need.
[00:12:56] So this is already something that needs to change in my opinion.
[00:13:00] So it's not, it's probably correct in a, from a developer standpoint, how it works from
[00:13:06] a workflow perspective, I would say that's not what you want.
[00:13:15] Because when you are here in the, in the Ranger, you let it play and you listen to your track
[00:13:23] and then you think, oh, I actually need to record five, then it starts here.
[00:13:29] Exactly where it is, right.
[00:13:31] And yeah, in the clip launcher, basically have this then as a clip.
[00:13:36] I get the idea, but yeah, I would say this is, it doesn't feel right.
[00:13:44] So again, clip launcher here does exactly what I want with recording into multiple clips,
[00:13:50] but there needs to be some tweaks, if you ask me.
[00:13:53] So when I want to record here, another lane for, let's say, band one, I need to be quick.
[00:14:02] I need to hit this record and I need to hit play here and then I instantaneously need
[00:14:10] to move over here to record actually what I want, because the more time I need between
[00:14:15] clicking this and moving around here, the more space I have in the beginning, if you
[00:14:20] know what I mean, play here and then I move around this.
[00:14:26] And to stop this whole thing, I need to hit stop, which is also not right in my opinion.
[00:14:30] You just need to hit this and leave it running in the background.
[00:14:34] Need to go in here and need to remove this awkward kind of space in the beginning.
[00:14:40] Also here.
[00:14:41] Yeah.
[00:14:42] And if you want to do this live on the fly, it's not possible.
[00:14:46] You need to hit stop every time to stop the recording or you need to stop here and then
[00:14:51] you need to go in there and tweak it and move it around.
[00:14:54] So the workflow is not really there.
[00:14:56] It's a clip launcher.
[00:14:57] It's something you probably want to use live and everything needs to be very fluid and
[00:15:02] very easy to get.
[00:15:04] And yeah, I already said this to a developer when you are live and you produce live or
[00:15:10] you do live shows.
[00:15:13] Your brain is somewhere else.
[00:15:14] It's, you know, everything goes the wrong way and you don't need to have any complications
[00:15:18] on top of that.
[00:15:20] So yeah, that's my problem at the moment with the clip launcher.
[00:15:25] But besides of that, it's really nice to have here an empty clip.
[00:15:30] Then there's an instrument here playing something and you have polyrhythmically playing automation
[00:15:37] lanes.
[00:15:38] Really nice.
[00:15:39] I mean, it doesn't probably sound very nice, but it's a delay, a bit of reverb.
[00:15:49] Um, slow machine or what's the name, what I use there sometimes slow machine, yeah.
[00:16:07] Let's pitch it down one octave again.
[00:16:10] We put this here after the reverb.
[00:16:17] Okay, so this is a drone and there is stuff playing us also here.
[00:16:27] I don't know why they put here some random lanes in there.
[00:16:31] I guess it's a bug.
[00:16:33] Yeah, this is, these are my problems with the automation recording in the clip launcher.
[00:16:40] Anyway, so let's continue here.
[00:16:42] Here's the test tone again, cause I want to show you why it's not showing here the second
[00:16:58] audio track.
[00:17:02] Oh, this is also a bug now.
[00:17:06] I can't switch here that the chain is not switching for some reason.
[00:17:18] Yeah, it's not showing.
[00:17:19] Okay.
[00:17:20] I need to start something new.
[00:17:24] Okay.
[00:17:25] Yeah, now it's, now it's switching again.
[00:17:28] Damn, I guess I just closed the video at this point.
[00:17:34] Thanks for watching.
[00:17:35] Next time, when I show you Bitwig 6 in beta, 28.

I Taught My Synth to Dream of Alien Oceans

polarity — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 01:00:00 GMT

Music-Video | Feb 22, 2026

For the patch, I recorded my own vocals, of course, all nicely processed with reverb and packed them into the sampler. I also added some water sounds that I generate with filters. There are water droplets too, so it all kind of reminds me of a cave system on some alien planet. I kept the atmosphere pretty static, meaning there aren't many melodies or anything like that.

You can watch the Video on Youtube
Download Generative-2026-02-14-Landmass in my Dispenser

It’s mostly interrupted by little sound effects like the water drops and some randomized sounds. But I think it creates a really cohesive vibe, and if someone wants, they can easily layer some sounds or melodies on top to give it a bit more meaning in a musical context. I just thought the atmosphere was pretty cool.

I Built a Space Ambient Dream Machine in Bitwig

polarity — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 01:00:00 GMT

Music-Video | Feb 15, 2026

Alright, in this Bitwig Grid patch, I tried to create some ambient vibes using a bunch of different voices and synthesis types. Of course, there's an arpeggio in there too, and I reused the effect generator from the patch before last because I thought it fit really well and adds a nice depth to the atmosphere.

You can watch the Video on Youtube
Download Generative-2026-02-14-Gravitas in my Dispenser

Other than that, there's nothing too special, just several synthesizers playing different voices, all randomly randomized, which creates this whole complex vibe.

Mini by AudioMap Sample Browser Plugin

polarity — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 01:00:00 GMT

Tutorial | Feb 13, 2026

Mini by AudioMap is a newly released sample browser plugin that uses an intuitive XY coordinate system to organize and visualize samples based on characteristics like brightness, noisiness, and percussiveness. It offers features such as customizable axes, keyboard mapping for quick playback, and the ability to scan entire directories, but currently lacks persistent folder scanning and a text-based search function. While it has some limitations like automatic sample playback on hover and missing quantization features, it is affordably priced and shows promise for rapid sample exploration and creative use.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

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Mini by AudioMap

Short Overview

I recently picked up Mini by AudioMap, a sample browser that organizes your sounds on an XY grid, making it easy to explore and filter samples by attributes like brightness and noisiness. You can instantly audition samples just by hovering, although I wish there was an option to toggle that off. The plugin lets you add entire folders, map samples to your keyboard, and record quick ideas with handy shortcuts. While it's missing persistent folder saving and search features, it's affordable and promising, and I look forward to seeing more updates.

Mini by AudioMap is a sample browser and sample viewer plug-in.
Uses an XY coordinate system for visualizing samples, allowing custom assignment for X and Y axes such as percussiveness, brightness, noisiness, and more.
Color coding indicates parameters (e.g., blue for less bright, red for more bright).
Samples play automatically when you hover over them; currently, no option to disable this.
Allows filtering by sample length and browsing by directories, including recursively through subfolders.
Lacks persistence: removing the plugin from a session requires rescanning all folders.
Missing a search/filter text box, limiting quick sample searches by name.
No content-based search (e.g., identifying snares by sound, not just file name).
Features a flexible keyboard mapping tool for triggering samples quickly, which works well for drum machines.
Includes a recording function and supports mouse gesture-based interaction and basic automation.
Currently lacks built-in MIDI/note quantization for sample playback.
Not expensive (around $25) and recently released, with some expectations for future updates.
Compatibility with Linux is unknown.
Overall, a promising tool with requests for feature enhancements such as better playback controls, persistence, sample search, and quantization.

Introduction to Mini by AudioMap

Today, I want to share a tip about a new plugin I just purchased called Mini by AudioMap. It's a sample browser and viewer that offers a fresh approach to organizing and previewing your audio samples, which I think could be quite interesting for a lot of people working with samples.

One of the most distinctive features of Mini is its XY coordinate system. You can map sample properties to the axes, such as percussiveness, brightness, and noisiness. The X and Y axes can be freely assigned, letting you explore your sample collection visually and interactively.

Visual Clarity Through Color

Samples are also color-coded based on a property you select, like brightness, where blue means less brightness and red means more. This visual layer makes it easy to spot the character of your samples at a glance.

Instant Preview with Mouse Hover

Whenever you hover over any of the sample dots, that sample is played back automatically. While this provides instant feedback, it can get annoying if you just want to browse silently; there currently isn’t a way to toggle this playback feature off, which I hope is addressed in a future update.

Customizing and Managing Directories

On the right side of the plugin, you have the directory browser. You can add your own directories, either specific folders or parent directories containing subfolders of samples. The plugin will automatically scan and list all subfolders, which makes for easy management.

Directory Controls

You can solo, mute, or remove directories as needed, giving you flexibility over which samples are shown in your browser at any time.

Current Limitations and Bugs

A key issue right now is that when you remove or close the plugin from your DAW session, you lose your scanned folders, meaning you have to redo the scan every time. This lack of persistence is either a bug or a missing feature, but I hope the developer addresses it soon.

Filtering and Searching Samples

A notable absence is a dedicated search box for filtering samples by file name. I often rely on this feature in similar tools, like XO, which allows me to quickly find specific sounds, such as snares. A more advanced feature would allow searching by sample content, not just the file name, but even a simple search box would be a significant usability improvement.

Additional Features

Resizable Interface and Flexible Mapping

The XY browser can be resized as needed. At the top, there is a flexible keyboard mapping feature: you can draw and bend a line across the sample field to map those samples to specific keys on your MIDI keyboard. This is especially handy if you want to quickly load and play samples chromatically on your keyboard or in a drum sampler.

Sample Length Filtering

Length sliders allow you to filter samples by their duration, so you can quickly zero in on just short or long samples.

Mouse Gestures and Shortcut Integration

The plugin incorporates mouse gestures for speedy workflow enhancements. For instance, hitting R on your keyboard lets you record a gesture that selects and triggers samples as you browse, which is useful for automating or capturing creative sample sequences.

Desired Improvements

Quantization and Beat Grid Features

One missing workflow option is quantization. It would be helpful if Mini could quantize sample playback or triggering to a musical beat grid in real time, much like other DAW-native samplers. Currently, to achieve this, you have to resample your session and then manually quantize slices, which isn’t as flexible as real-time MIDI quantization.

Playback Toggle

A simple but much-requested feature is the ability to turn off automatic playback when hovering over samples. This could be a button or keyboard shortcut to make browsing less distracting.

Price and Availability

Mini by AudioMap is affordably priced at twenty five dollars and, being a recent release, may still be in active development with more features and bug fixes on the way.

Platform Compatibility

I am not sure about the compatibility with Linux, as I have not tested it on that platform. It’s worth experimenting if you’re a Linux user.

Conclusion

Mini by AudioMap is a promising and affordable sample browser with an intuitive visual interface and innovative mapping and gesture features. While it already has a solid foundation, I hope future updates will address persistence, add advanced search and filtering, and provide better playback controls. For those who work extensively with large sample libraries, it’s definitely worth a try.

Full Video Transcription

Click to expand Transcription

[00:00:00] So just a quick tip for a plug-in on this Friday. It's called Mini by AudioMap. I just bought this
[00:00:05] yesterday and I thought it's maybe an interesting plug-in for you because it's a sample browser,
[00:00:09] sample viewer and a lot of people are interested in that. It gives you this kind of
[00:00:14] XY coordinate system for your samples. You can define what's on the X-axis, also what's on the
[00:00:20] Y-axis and how it's colored. It's noisiness, brightness. I guess everything that's blue
[00:00:26] is less and everything that's red is more. So blue is, in this case, you're not so bright and red is
[00:00:32] very bright. Every time you hover over some of these dots, it gets played back. Maybe it's not
[00:00:41] ideal for all cases. I wish there would be some kind of button where you can switch this off
[00:00:46] because every time you go over these dots, it plays back the sample. I guess it's okay.
[00:00:54] Then you can define it on the X-axis, for instance, percussiveness. So this is here, this axis,
[00:01:00] brightness. So here, everything here is not so bright. This is very bright. Then you go the Y-axis,
[00:01:06] which is very noisy and not so noisy. So which means I have a lot of bright, noisy samples and not
[00:01:19] many bright, not so noisy samples for some reason. I guess that's normal. You can also put this here
[00:01:26] on a diagonal line when you say brightness and brightness. You get something like this. So this
[00:01:32] is not bright. This is very bright. Then we also have down here length sliders. We can kind of filter
[00:01:46] for how long the samples. These are very short samples here.
[00:01:50] On the right side, we have all the directories. You can add, of course, your own directories.
[00:02:04] That's the whole point of it. You can solo certain directories here or just mute
[00:02:12] or just kick them out. You can also add parent directories. It's not like you have to define
[00:02:18] directories where you have samples directly in it. You can also just select parent directories
[00:02:23] and it scans all the sub directories in it. At the moment, I guess it's a bug, but if you close
[00:02:30] or if you remove the plug-in from your session, everything's gone. You have to scan these folders
[00:02:36] again so it's not persistent at the moment. Maybe there's a fix coming. I don't know. Maybe this
[00:02:40] is intended, but I guess it's not. Yeah, so this is a problem at the moment. I also miss here for
[00:02:48] the filtering some kind of search box, for instance, here in XO, which is kind of similar. So it's
[00:02:54] basically like mini but without the sequencer stuff here. Also here, when you hover over these
[00:03:01] samples, nothing happens. Here you have to click and drag and then if you want to drag something
[00:03:07] out, you have to hold down, I guess, here, control. Then it works exactly similar. Here it's a bit
[00:03:13] different, but it would be nice if you can just switch off the playback feature. So here I use
[00:03:20] the search box a lot. So I search for snare, for instance, and just filter for the file name.
[00:03:25] Yeah, this would be nice to have also in here just the text filtering. I guess it's not that hard.
[00:03:37] Even better would be if you could search for the real content. So if you type in snare and it also
[00:03:43] finds samples that are really snares, even though the file name says something completely different.
[00:03:50] But it's probably harder to do. Anyway, so this is the sampling and also here the XY coordinate
[00:03:58] system. You can also resize this. This is also no problem. There are something on the top here,
[00:04:04] right? So it gives you this kind of line that you can twist and bend.
[00:04:09] So this is the keyboard mapping, more or less. So these are now here, the low keys on my keyboard
[00:04:16] and these are the high keys on my keyboard. So I can put this line on top of my samples and then
[00:04:23] play it on my keyboard. So if you have a lot of samples and you just put this in random places,
[00:04:34] it could be really nice to have to just quickly load up samples onto your keyboard or fire it up
[00:04:42] in some kind of drum sampler instead of just dragging this out into a drum sampler and then
[00:04:48] triggering it differently. So yeah, nice to have. This is this feature here. You can also put this
[00:04:54] in all kinds of positions and bend it or twist it. No problem at all. Then there's here this record
[00:05:01] feature. I use most of the time see the keyboard shortcut which is just hitting R on the keyboard
[00:05:07] and then you can go through your samples like this and then you hit R again to stop recording.
[00:05:17] So this is called mouse gestures and then you can go into the plug in here and call or search for
[00:05:24] gestures, gesture position. Then you can automate this here of course in a bitwig or in a bar.
[00:05:35] Just draw in here some automation.
[00:05:40] What I miss here is something like a quantizer, a clock quantizer, what we have in the grid.
[00:05:53] So you can say only playback samples exactly in a 16-note grid or an 8-note grid or something
[00:05:59] dynamic. Maybe there is something like this already in there but usually what I had to do now or what
[00:06:07] I need to do is I need to resample this here and say bounce for instance postfader. Then you have
[00:06:15] like a lot of samples like this and then you right-click and you need to quantize it to a
[00:06:23] 16-note grid for instance. But this is like an audio. It would be nice if we could do this already
[00:06:28] with MIDI or with notes. So you can define the beat grid and then it quantizes all the triggers
[00:06:34] to this beat grid. It would be nice to have I would say. Then you can delete it here with this
[00:06:42] X and there is also a help menu here. You can see R is the shortcut for recording,
[00:06:46] control and drag and draw a MIDI line. This is what I showed you so you can say here
[00:06:52] or this is a multi-select shift, this multi-select.
[00:06:56] You can do something like this or sit on this. And you can multi-select if you want to track out
[00:07:05] multiple samples. Everything possible. This is the help. It's also not very expensive. I show you
[00:07:13] this here on the website. 25 bucks. I think this came out just a while ago, a few days ago. So it's
[00:07:21] not that old. I hope he brings in some fixes for the persistence of the samples and maybe add some
[00:07:31] small little features. Could be really nice to have. I don't know if it works within Linux.
[00:07:36] I have no idea. Try it out. Give it a try. I put the link in the description below and I think
[00:07:45] it's worth a try. Also playback here needs some kind of button that you can try it off at least
[00:07:54] or maybe P on the keyboard play or something like this. It would be nice. It's a bit annoying. Every
[00:08:02] time you go over these dots, you play it back basically. Anyway, that's the plugin called Mini
[00:08:09] by Audiomap. Link is in the description below. Let me know what you think. Leave a like, leave a
[00:08:14] subscription and see you next video. Bye.

Polarity MD - Multiband Dynamics Plugin Update

polarity — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 01:00:00 GMT

Tutorial | Feb 11, 2026

Polarity MD is a powerful, free multi-band dynamics plugin featuring four bands with downward and upward compressors, a clipper, and a range of global controls, now updated with oversampling, linear phase crossovers, normalization, and improved output matching features. This version offers expanded compatibility with various Linux distributions and enhancements like soloing bands, accessibility improvements, and resizable interface with saved window states. Users are invited to test the latest Beta 9, report bugs or requests, and enjoy a robust mastering tool without registration or cost.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

Short Overview

I just released an updated version of my free multi-band dynamics plugin, Polarity MD, which now works natively on Linux and offers a range of new features. You can use it for both upwards and downwards compression, clipping, and precise control across four bands, with options for oversampling, linear phase crossovers, normalization, soloing, and more. The plugin saves your window size and is accessible with tooltips and keyboard shortcuts, making it easier to use for everyone. No account, email, or subscription is required, and I welcome your feedback and bug reports to help polish it further.

Polarity MD is a free multi-band dynamics plugin featuring four bands, each with downwards/upwards compression and a clipper.
The plugin works natively on Linux, tested on several distributions including Arch, Ubuntu 24, Kubuntu KDE, and Debian 13.
No login, email, or subscription is required for download and use.
Added features include oversampling (up to 4x), with output post-clipper never exceeding 0dB.
Linear phase option for crossovers is now available for users who prefer it, reducing phase distortion.
Introduced normalization function to automatically balance band levels to 0dB, acting like a combined EQ and limiter.
Added processing bypass and output gain controls for better A/B comparison.
New Match button attempts to equalize the input and output loudness for fair comparison.
Global controls now allow scaling of input, output, upwards compression thresholds, and clipper thresholds across all bands.
Pro view unlocks detailed attack and release controls for each band, with global scaling for timing adjustment.
Added band soloing for focused monitoring; soloing all bands disables solo.
Improved accessibility with labeled controls, tooltips, window resizing, and persistent window size.
Fixed bugs, memory leaks, and improved plugin stability, especially in Reaper and across Linux systems.
Continuing to develop, gather user feedback, and planning knob/slider improvements.

Introduction to the Polarity MD Plugin Update

In this video, I provide an extensive update on my latest plugin, Polarity MD. This plugin is a free-to-use multi-band dynamics tool designed to work natively on Linux systems, as well as other platforms. My main motivation for developing this plugin was the lack of suitable native dynamics tools for Linux, especially as I plan to migrate from Windows to Linux for music production.

Feature Overview: Multi-Band Dynamics Processing

Polarity MD offers four separate frequency bands. Each band is equipped with both downward and upward compressors, as well as a clipper to manage transient peaks. This gives it functionality similar to popular "OTT" (Over The Top) compressors, but Polarity MD combines multi-band compression and clipping in a highly flexible manner.

Compressor Concepts Explained

Downward Compression reduces the gain of signals above a threshold, while Upward Compression increases the gain of signals below a threshold, allowing for detailed shaping of audio dynamics across different frequency ranges.

Platform Support and Distribution

The plugin is completely free to download. There is no login, email signup, or subscription required, making it highly accessible. I have aimed for broad Linux compatibility, testing it on distributions like Arch Linux, Ubuntu 24 (with 22 currently not supported), Kubuntu with KDE, and Debian 13, where I resolved previous issues like foldback bugs.

New Features and Updates in Latest Version

Oversampling and Clipper Improvements

A new Oversampling button allows the plugin to process at higher internal sample rates, up to 4x (192 kHz), delivering smoother audio at the cost of increased CPU load. Notably, only the post-output clipper is not oversampled, ensuring strict 0dB output limiting without "overs" occurring. This distinction between oversampled processing and a true output hard clip ensures transparent limiting while maximizing audio quality within the processing path.

Linear Phase Crossovers

Users can now engage Linear Phase crossover filters, eliminating phase distortion between bands. This is especially useful for mastering engineers or those running the plugin in parallel chains, although linear phase processing introduces additional latency and CPU consumption compared to traditional filters.

Band and Output Normalization

A new Normalize feature adjusts input, all bands, and output levels to bring the signal as close as possible to 0 dB, essentially maximizing loudness and providing a "pink noise" style tonal balance. This is useful for quickly optimizing signals for gain staging, though it can occasionally result in excessive brightness depending on the material.

Enhanced Bypass and Level Matching

A Bypass button temporarily disables processing, while a new Output Gain control allows users to compensate for loudness changes after processing. The Match button attempts to auto-level the processed output to the same loudness as the dry input, facilitating accurate A/B comparison. There is currently a minor bug affecting this feature that I plan to fix.

Global Parameter Controls

There are several global controls for efficient workflow:

Global Gain: Scales input gain for all bands or stages simultaneously.
Global Down/Up: Adjusts thresholds for downward and upward compressors globally.
Global Clip: Alters all clippers’ thresholds in one go for unified limiting behavior.
Time Scale: Stretches or compresses all timing-related settings globally.

Pro View and Detailed Control

A new Pro View reveals per-band attack and release controls, enabling deep customization of compression behavior. These parameters can be individually set or globally scaled while maintaining their relative differences, improving the precision for advanced users.

Usability Enhancements

Improved Accessibility

I have implemented more accessible labeling for buttons and controls, supporting blind users and compatible with screen readers. Tooltips are available when hovering over interface elements for additional clarity.

Resizable and Scalable Interface

The GUI can now be freely resized using browser-based shortcuts, such as Ctrl and the mouse wheel, or reset with Ctrl and zero. The window size and position are stored and recalled with project reloads, addressing user feedback.

Band Solo and Clipping Monitoring

Users can now solo individual bands for focused listening. Engaging all solos disables all bands, making switching intuitive. Additionally, a "clipping delta" monitor lets you hear just the clipped signal’s excess, useful for troubleshooting distortion and setting clipper thresholds.

Performance and Stability

I have addressed numerous bugs, memory leaks, and loading issues, particularly relating to the web view component in various DAWs, notably Reaper. The plugin is designed to be as stable and bug-free as possible, but testing and feedback are still encouraged.

Call to Action

Polarity MD is in Beta 9. I welcome all user feedback regarding bugs, feature requests, or suggestions for further improvements. I plan to refine the UI elements for smoother interaction in the future. I hope the community finds the plugin useful, especially for Linux music production, and encourage everyone to download it, test it, and share their thoughts.

Full Video Transcription

Click to expand Transcription

[00:00:00] It's time to give you an update on my latest plugin called Polarity MD and I showed you
[00:00:05] this already in the last video.
[00:00:08] It's a free-to-use multi-band dynamics tool having multiple bands here, four bands, each
[00:00:13] of them uses an downwards and upwards compressor and also a clipper and some global controls
[00:00:19] here so it's more like an OTT if you want to call it this way but it's actually a multi-band
[00:00:26] compressor and clipper and this one is completely free-to-use you can download this without using
[00:00:32] a login you don't need to use an email or you don't need to give me an email there's
[00:00:37] no subscription or anything like this and I also wanted to have this working natively
[00:00:43] under Linux because I want to switch from Windows to Linux and I need some tools and
[00:00:48] most of these plug-ins use iLog or they don't have a native version for Linux.
[00:00:55] So I thought maybe I give this a try and you know code my own plug-in so I have my own
[00:01:01] tools ready under Linux so this was the main goal.
[00:01:05] So let me know if this works fine within your Linux distribution I tested this with all
[00:01:10] kinds of distributions already so Arc Linux and or is it Arch?
[00:01:15] Is it Arch or Arc?
[00:01:16] It's probably Arch.
[00:01:17] Linux, Ubuntu 24/22 probably 22 is not working anymore at the moment but 24, Kubebundo with
[00:01:28] KDE and also Debian I tested this Debian 13 there was a ZEC foldback last time it should
[00:01:37] be fixed now.
[00:01:38] I also implemented a lot of different features here you can already see it looks a bit different
[00:01:42] from the last time I showed you this and it's still free so it's not like you need to pay
[00:01:48] anything or like that it's still free it's the same plug-in.
[00:01:51] Okay so I want to give you an update here so you can see at the top here we have some
[00:01:56] new buttons there so reset is the same thing as before you can reset all the settings to
[00:02:03] default and then there's here the sample rate that is the internal sample rate at which
[00:02:07] this plug-in is working and we have here an oversampling button now so you can press this
[00:02:13] and you can see now it works here at 4x oversampling 192 kHz and yeah it's a bit smoother then
[00:02:21] and what I also changed is the clipper at the output here the post clipper is not oversampled
[00:02:28] so this one really clips at 0dB there's no samples going over 0dB okay this was really
[00:02:37] really important to me to have this so everything is oversampled except the output clipper here
[00:02:44] so yeah this oversampling and it also gives you a bit more CPU of course you can see this
[00:02:49] here so yeah it's your own decision at default settings this is off by default then we have
[00:02:57] your L phase which makes all these crossover filters here to linear phase crossovers so
[00:03:05] you can press this it also takes a bit of CPU time there but now it's yeah without having
[00:03:13] your phase distortion for some reason a lot of people are really into these kind of linear
[00:03:19] phase crossovers for some reason probably they want to use this in parallel I never used
[00:03:24] actually a multi-band dynamics tool in parallel I don't know if this is a thing but usually
[00:03:30] you can stick here with the normal liquids Riley filters for crossover and drugs just
[00:03:37] fine and yeah you have no latency and it's good but some people want to use your linear
[00:03:43] phase so you can do this you can just switch this on and then use linear I can show you
[00:03:49] this here this is on the master can give you an EQ curve analyzer here put this there
[00:03:58] set as input and show you the phase just you can see there's no phase distortion can switch
[00:04:05] this off and it looks like this when it's on it's like this okay so yeah that's that
[00:04:15] linear phase implemented done then I also implemented you're something like normalized
[00:04:21] I'm not sure if this is if this makes sense in the current phase or how it is so what
[00:04:28] I did is it normalizes all these bands here it starts with the input and it tries to put
[00:04:34] this up to 0 dB so it increases the input gain here it also changes then the knob and
[00:04:40] then when this is finished it normalizes all these bands and then it normalizes the output
[00:04:45] clip so it brings everything up to 0 dB more or less and I can show you this how it sounds
[00:04:53] like here so you can see this is a bit too much it's a bit too bright it gives you more
[00:05:10] or less like a pink noise curve here it's it's like a queuing the audio material in
[00:05:16] a way because you change the input gain here but that's what I do sometimes with my crossover
[00:05:22] trick I showed you in some of my videos but here you can influence it's yeah it's it's
[00:05:29] kind of a queuing and limiting and clipping at the same time
[00:05:47] yeah that's normalized then there's a bypass now so we can bypass the processing and the
[00:05:57] problem of course now is that the output gain is much higher than the input gain so we can't
[00:06:03] really compare these two right the dry signals way too quiet so then I have here on the output
[00:06:10] gain which is also new so we can change the output loudness after the clipper double kick
[00:06:16] brings it back to 0 dB so with this you can now use the match button here so it normalizes
[00:06:22] or trial tries to level out the input to the output signal so it brings down the output
[00:06:27] so it's the same loudness as the input level so press this it's matching then nothing happens
[00:06:34] cool so you press this and then it brings it down to minus 3 dB then you can compare it
[00:06:47] it's more or less the same loudness now and yeah it's much easier to compare what's actually
[00:06:51] changed you can see we boost a lot of top end oh it looks like it doesn't go down yeah
[00:07:04] this is a bug okay this is something I need to fix or yeah I implemented this year this
[00:07:13] was the last thing I implemented but anyway so this is new the output is new then we have
[00:07:21] here also some global things I added the global gain you can scale basically the input gain
[00:07:28] here on each band or also on the pre FX and post FX right so we can go down and you can
[00:07:34] see it takes all these different offsets here and just scales them down when you bring this
[00:07:40] back to 0 dB it's back to the thing what you dialed in we changed here some input gains
[00:07:45] so it's basically adding dBs to each of these knobs at yeah at the same amount so you can
[00:07:53] scale the input gain can push everything into the clipper if you want to so yeah that's
[00:08:01] that global down is now renamed global up is renamed I think it was called global up
[00:08:09] before that so it's the threshold here of the upwards compressor also changed so it
[00:08:16] changes the upwards compression threshold here for the pre and post also down it's the
[00:08:21] same thing right down threshold goes down in each of these different bands then we have
[00:08:28] a global clip that you can bring down so you can yeah use all these clipper thresholds
[00:08:34] and bring them down if you want to timescale is the same as before nothing changed on top
[00:08:41] of that we have now a pro view here this button this brings up the attack and release timings
[00:08:48] here so instead of having just this timing scalar here or scale this pro button here gives
[00:08:56] you attack release on each of these bands and you can see it just scales also the timings
[00:09:04] and if you want to make some changes here if you want to make short attack short release
[00:09:08] here it's fine then you can use global scale to scale it up or down and it keeps all the
[00:09:15] relations or the relative timings here intact and you can double click this bring it to
[00:09:21] one or times one and then you can double click this here to bring it back to the default
[00:09:26] values so yeah this is the pro view more or less maybe I hide some other controls behind
[00:09:34] the pro view I'm not sure maybe I don't want to make it too convoluted too complex I want
[00:09:41] to keep it more like a plug-in that you can put on a master and call it the day right
[00:09:47] it's already having a lot of features I need to fix here the match feature but it kind
[00:09:52] of rocks if you have this on 0DB and use matching then it kind of rocks but yeah these are the
[00:10:00] new features oh yeah on top of that I almost forgot this here we have this clipping here
[00:10:06] before right you can hear the delta basically where it clips but also on top now we have
[00:10:20] here soloing so you can solo band 1, band 2, band 3, band 4 and if you click all of these
[00:10:28] bands into solo mode it disables all of them because it's the same thing so this is also
[00:10:38] now implemented also on top of that I had some requests from someone who is blind and
[00:10:46] uses this or want to use this plug-in so I added all these names here global gain as
[00:10:51] labels inside of this website more or less you can also go over each of these buttons
[00:10:57] here and you can see there's a small little tool tip because it's just a website more
[00:11:01] or less and what you also can do is you can resize the window now here and then you go
[00:11:08] into that and can use some shortcuts from your browser so you can use control and plus
[00:11:14] and minus and you can scale it up or down or you can go into here with the mouse and
[00:11:18] hold down control and the scroll wheel you can almost completely yeah freely increase
[00:11:28] the size of everything you can also use control and zero and bring it back to the default
[00:11:34] scaling also here the size of the window is remembered I stored this in the state of the
[00:11:40] plug-in so you when you close this down or when you reload your project it's exactly
[00:11:45] the same position with the same size so this was also a complain in the in the last version
[00:11:53] yeah I think that's it maybe I forgot something but I added so many different small little
[00:11:59] things here and there also smashed some bugs on different systems memory leaks and loading
[00:12:06] problems of the web kids of the web web view that's how it's called on different systems
[00:12:14] also in rebar so let me know if it works if you have problems I try to make it as pleasant
[00:12:22] and as bug free as possible of course and yeah that's more or less it for for now I think
[00:12:30] let me know what you think download this new version here it's beta 9 now and give me bugs
[00:12:36] give me feature requests let me know what you think and yes these buttons or knobs will
[00:12:42] be reworked at some point for now they kind of work but I know you know again see here
[00:12:48] the stepping and the quantizing here it's not it's not the best but it works and it
[00:12:53] looks okay okay that's it thanks for watching see you next time let me know what you think
[00:13:00] leave a thumbs up of course and bye
[00:13:02] bye!

I Taught My Synth How to Compose Melodic Techno

polarity — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 01:00:00 GMT

Music-Video | Feb 06, 2026

Alright, in this Bitwig Grid patch, I tried to randomly generate a new track every 32/16 bars. It's all based on randomness noise generators, so it's basically a Melodic Techno track generator (sort of). Of course, it can be expanded further, but you can already see my CPU is really pushed to its limits at the end. I’d love to add more, like percussion generators and stuff. There’s definitely more potential there.

You can watch the Video on Youtube
You can download the Patch from free in my Dispenser for free!

That said, I kept it a bit limited, but I think it’s pretty cool as a free download for you to grab. Feel free to tweak it or use it to generate tracks. You can see in the middle where it says "Every 32 Bars" or "16 Bars," that’s where a trigger is set off that resets all the Dice modules and generates a new track.

I also used the phase signal in combination with the Mirror to create a sort of arrangement, which just fades out the main lead sound to the arpeggiator, so it switches back and forth. When a new track is generated, it always starts with the arpeggiator, and then the main melody slowly fades in and out at the end. The snare, kick, and hi-hats change only slightly. There’s definitely room to do more with that.

The chords are more or less the same, but the sound changes. That’s just how club tracks are; not much changes overall. But I think if you add a few samples and randomize transitions, you could really get a lot more out of it. Considering it’s all based on randomness or noise, it’s actually pretty decent!

Polarity-MD - Free 4-band OTT Multiband Compressor for all Systems

polarity — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 01:00:00 GMT

Tutorial | Feb 04, 2026

Polarity MD is a newly released, completely free multiband dynamics plugin featuring four-band OTT-style compression with both upward and downward compression, as well as clippers on each band and the input and output. Compatible with all major platforms and plugin formats, it has a user-friendly, web-based interface and is designed to make tracks louder and more controlled with minimal setup. The plugin is currently in beta, available for download, and the developer welcomes feedback and suggestions to improve its performance and features.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

Short Overview

I've just released Polarity MD, a completely free multiband dynamics plugin that I've been working on for a few weeks. It features four bands of upwards and downwards compression, individual clippers on every band, and works across all major systems and plugin formats. I designed it to be easy to use, visually intuitive, and to sound great right out of the box whether on your master or drum bus. Please give it a try, share your feedback, and I'll keep improving it based on your suggestions.

Polarity MD is a new free plugin for multiband dynamics processing, focused on four bands with both upwards and downwards compression and built-in clippers for each band.
Available in multiple plugin formats: VST3, CLAP, AU, and soon LV2, and works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Designed with ease of use in mind: no account required, no telemetry, no licensing restrictions, always free to download and use.
Unique feature set includes four bands (instead of the typical three in OTT), separate input/output clippers, and visual color coding for compression and clipping feedback.
The entire backend is coded in C++ with JUCE, and the graphical user interface uses HTML and CSS for cross-platform compatibility.
Optimized for master buses and drum buses, designed to make tracks louder while providing detailed visual feedback.
Preset options for typical mastering and mixing use-cases, including common crossover frequencies and band setups.
Currently in beta: users are encouraged to test, report bugs, and offer feedback or feature suggestions for ongoing improvements.
Some issues are known, especially on macOS with plugin signing and format compatibility, but most major DAWs and systems are supported.
The visual look is still evolving, with upcoming design improvements planned through collaboration with a professional designer.

Introducing My New Plug-in: Polarity MD

Today, I am excited to introduce my newly developed audio plug-in called Polarity MD. This is something I have been working on for several weeks. The name “Polarity” refers to myself, and “MD” stands for Multiband Dynamics. The inspiration behind Polarity MD is to offer a robust four-band dynamic processor that is both powerful and easy to use.

Core Features of Polarity MD

Polarity MD is a four-band dynamic processor that features both upwards and downwards compression per band, as well as clipping. In contrast to the commonly used multiband compressor OTT, which typically provides three bands, my plug-in extends this concept to four bands, giving users more precise control over their audio spectrum.

Platform Support

This plug-in is available for all major operating systems, including Windows, MacOS, and Linux. It supports a variety of plug-in formats such as VST3, CLAP, and LV2 (with LV2 support coming soon). I have already tested compilation on Linux Mint, and Mac builds are also functioning, although there may be some signing issues on macOS due to lack of an Apple developer account.

Free and Accessible

Polarity MD is completely free to use. There is no need for an account, there is no telemetry, no copy protection, and it will always remain freely available. Binaries and the latest beta versions can be downloaded from the website linked in the description.

Detailed Overview of the Plug-in Architecture

Input Processing

On the input side, you have a gain control to boost or attenuate the incoming signal before any dynamics processing takes place. The plug-in has an input clipper fixed at 0 dB, allowing you to intentionally drive the signal into clipping when desired. Visual feedback helps you see when and how much the signal is being clipped, and there is also an option to listen to the clipped portion (the delta signal) to better understand the impact on your audio.

Multiband Dynamics

The plug-in splits the incoming audio into four frequency bands with independent controls for each band. Each band provides:

Upwards Compression: Enhances quieter signals by raising their volume, providing more perceived loudness and detail.
Downwards Compression: Reduces the level of louder signals, controlling peaks and evening out the dynamics.
Per-Band Clipper: Allows mild to aggressive soft or hard clipping per band for extra loudness and coloration.

Color-coded meters and indicators help you quickly identify the amount of upwards compression (blue), downwards compression (yellow), and clipping (red) present in each band.

Global and Per-Band Controls

An “amount” control globally adjusts the ratio of applied compression (from 0 percent, which is dry input, up to 100 percent for maximum effect). Each band also lets you change individual input gain and thresholds if needed. There are global thresholds for both upwards and downwards compression, as well as a global time scale to modify attack and release times. You can move quickly from subtle mastering tasks to extreme creative effects with ease.

Presets and Usability

The plug-in includes several presets for common applications like mastering and drum bus processing, with thoughtfully chosen default crossover frequencies (for example, 20Hz, 1kHz, and 5kHz for mastering, and OTT-typical settings for electronic music processing). These can be easily reset to the default state at any time.

User Interface and Technology

Implementation Details

Polarity MD is written in C++ and built on the JUCE framework, which ensures compatibility and performance across all systems. One of the innovative aspects of the UI is that it is built using HTML and CSS, allowing it to run smoothly no matter which operating system you are using. This approach avoids reliance on platform-specific GUI toolkits, providing a consistent look and feel.

Visual Feedback

The interface has been designed to maximize usability and provide clear feedback for your adjustments. All dynamic processing is visually represented, so you always know what is happening to your audio. There are plans in place to further improve the visual aspect, with ongoing work from a designer using Figma for future releases.

Use Cases and Practical Tips

Polarity MD was created with both the mastering chain and drum or bass buses in mind. The goal was to produce a tool that you can drop onto a channel, quickly dial in your settings, and achieve great results with minimal effort. The interface allows you to visually and audibly assess where dynamic processing or clipping might be pushing your sound too far, making it easier to fine-tune your mix or master.

Feedback and Future Development

Polarity MD is currently in beta. User feedback is crucial to improving stability and feature set. I encourage you to try it out, report any bugs you encounter, or suggest improvements via my Discord or video comments. My intention is to keep the feature set focused and user-friendly, but I am open to useful requests like the recently added per-band clipper feature suggested by a Patreon supporter.

Conclusion

Polarity MD is an open, free, cross-platform four-band multiband dynamics processor with flexible clipping and compression functions, designed to be both practical and musical. It is aimed at anyone looking to add powerful multiband dynamics to their workflow, whether on the master bus or individual instrument buses. More features and UI improvements are planned in the near future as I receive more feedback and continue development.

Thank you for your interest and support. Download the beta, give it a try, and let me know how it fits into your projects.

Full Video Transcription

Click to expand Transcription

[00:00:00] Today I want to show you a new plug-in that I just made and I'm working on this for a
[00:00:04] few weeks now.
[00:00:06] It's called Polarity MD and polarity that's me of course and MD stands for Mutiband Dynamics.
[00:00:13] So this is a four band dynamics with upwards downwards compression per band, of course,
[00:00:18] and clipping.
[00:00:19] And it works on every major system with all kinds of formats VSC3, CLAP and LV2 later on.
[00:00:27] It's coming, I already compiled it on my Mint system.
[00:00:32] So yeah, this is basically a four band OTT and we also have additionally on top on the
[00:00:40] input signal also here and clipper and the compressor upwards downwards and also a clipper
[00:00:45] on the output upwards downwards.
[00:00:49] And then we have four bands instead of three bands for an OTT.
[00:00:53] So on each band we have then additionally also a clipper and upwards downwards compression.
[00:00:58] So you can make stuff really loud, really easily, yeah, and it's completely free.
[00:01:06] You don't need an account, no telemetry, no iLog, brocks and all major platforms, WinMAC
[00:01:11] or Salinux, all formats VSC3, CLAP, LV2.
[00:01:16] So that's the plan.
[00:01:17] I put you the link in the description below and then you can download here the binaries
[00:01:21] and it's in beta at the moment.
[00:01:23] So you can try this out and please give me feedback.
[00:01:27] Of course, if you run into some bugs and I will fix it over the next coming few weeks.
[00:01:35] And this will stay for free for ever.
[00:01:38] So this is not like going away or anything like this.
[00:01:40] You can download this always and I try to make it as good and as pleasing as possible.
[00:01:46] Okay.
[00:01:47] So this is the website link is in the description below and I want to show you of course how
[00:01:51] it sounds here in Bitwig, this is how it looks like.
[00:01:54] And in the back end, it's completely C++ and it's based on juice.
[00:02:00] So it should work pretty well actually on all systems.
[00:02:04] And the front end or the GUI is actually in HTML and CSS.
[00:02:11] So this, of course, sounds a bit weird, but it's also pretty dope because it box on all
[00:02:18] systems out of the box.
[00:02:19] You don't need to have some kind of specific GUI framework to make it work on all systems.
[00:02:29] Here I just use HTML and CSS and it works perfectly fine.
[00:02:34] So in the background, I have a drum bass track here.
[00:02:36] This is on the drum bus more or less.
[00:02:52] And you can already see here, this is the incoming signal.
[00:02:55] It's called pre.
[00:02:56] So this is the full range signal or frequencies coming into the plugin.
[00:03:01] And you have here an input knob where you can change the input gain and push this more
[00:03:09] or less into the clipper here.
[00:03:11] The clipper is at 0 dB.
[00:03:13] So it clips everything away and you can see that it clips when you have here this red line
[00:03:18] going on.
[00:03:20] This is clipping.
[00:03:22] And if you don't like to see here this red line and you want to hear it, you can also
[00:03:28] now click here on this clipping indicator, which shows you more or less with the level
[00:03:33] how much you clip.
[00:03:34] So when we clip this here a lot, you can see a lot of red coming in.
[00:03:41] But you can also just click this and then you hear a delta signal.
[00:03:45] So instead of relying on these visuals here, you can just hear it.
[00:04:03] And this delta signal is then passed directly to the output.
[00:04:07] So it's not going through all of these individual splitters here.
[00:04:11] It's going directly to the output so you can always hear how the delta signal sounds loud
[00:04:18] on each band or on each process.
[00:04:25] So we can already here clip the signal a little bit and then we have here also downwards compression.
[00:04:30] We can pull this down.
[00:04:32] You can see in yellow here how much it actually compresses the signal if you want to.
[00:04:38] You can also change the upwards threshold.
[00:04:41] You can see in the background here in blue how much the signals actually amplified or
[00:04:48] increased in loudness.
[00:04:52] So it's more or less color coded.
[00:04:55] That's what I want to say.
[00:04:56] So if you see yellow here on the plug-in, it's downward compression.
[00:05:00] If you see this blue stuff, then it's upwards compression.
[00:05:06] If you see red, it's clipping.
[00:05:08] And then we have here the amount knob, which changes the ratio basically of all these compressors
[00:05:15] here of the upwards compression and the downwards compression ratio.
[00:05:19] You can dial in here to 0%.
[00:05:21] We have no ratio at all, so it's more or less the pure input.
[00:05:28] But you can also see here then the upwards compression and downwards compression is applied
[00:05:40] with 100%.
[00:05:43] Then there's here of course a global threshold for the downwards compression and the global
[00:05:48] threshold for the upwards compression.
[00:05:50] If you want to change this here, it's only applied to the four bands, not to the pre
[00:05:56] and post FX here.
[00:05:59] Also downwards compression and we have a time scale.
[00:06:02] This more or less scales the attack and release times all the time.
[00:06:08] You can make it very fast.
[00:06:17] Okay, you can also see here the output.
[00:06:26] The input we have here minus 14 LUFs and output is minus 9 LUFs, so you can also decide how
[00:06:32] much you want to compress something to get your desired target level or whatever.
[00:06:39] We can also change the input here on each band if you want to.
[00:06:43] Maybe we open this up here on the master.
[00:06:47] You can also see here the downwards compression, how much there is compression going down upwards
[00:07:07] compression.
[00:07:08] You can dial in exactly how much compression you want.
[00:07:12] For me I just do it very subtly here.
[00:07:15] I just dial in a lot of amount because you should hear how the effect is, of course,
[00:07:22] but in a real project you don't want to dial in that much compression here.
[00:07:27] You can also see always here how much there is clipping applied and so on.
[00:07:32] I tried to make it as visual pleasing as possible just to give you all the information
[00:07:37] you need to compress your signal.
[00:07:41] This one is best on the master, of course, and on drum buses or if you mix here the drums
[00:07:47] and the bass together, so drum and bass bus, that's where this is probably best put to
[00:07:55] use in my opinion.
[00:07:58] You can also change of course the frequency across all of us if you want to.
[00:08:02] I have here some presets for mastering, we just want a 20Hz, 1K and 5K, even octaves,
[00:08:09] to each octaves as the same content, typical OTT, crossover frequencies 88 and 2.5KHz,
[00:08:18] and then here an additional top band for the heads, something for the drum bus, also reset
[00:08:25] button if you want to reset it to the initial settings, so all kinds of different things.
[00:08:33] Because it's a web page I made it so it's kind of behaving like a web page so if you
[00:08:38] make the smaller you have bigger visuals here, you can scroll.
[00:08:46] Maybe I do it like every other plug-in where you can scale it up or down so it becomes
[00:08:51] bigger or smaller, but for now I think it's pretty fine how it is.
[00:08:59] It's not like completely new plug-in or anything you haven't seen before, but I always wanted
[00:09:06] to have like a 4-band OTT, but also additional clippers on each band.
[00:09:14] Also the background here for the clip clipper, the threshold is always on 0 dB, that's how
[00:09:20] I like it.
[00:09:21] There's actually in the background a control where you can change the clipper threshold,
[00:09:27] but I just kind of made it hidden here in this interface because it became too convoluted
[00:09:35] in having all these knobs all the time, I always thought about removing even more knobs
[00:09:42] and just dial in some good settings because most people just want to put this on a master
[00:09:47] dial in the mount, dial in maybe the scale and then call it day.
[00:09:52] That's what I wanted and I think if you put this here on a track, it should sound okay
[00:09:59] and fine almost from the get-go and it should make things louder and you can see where the
[00:10:06] problems arise, so something here.
[00:10:10] It's not clipping here, it's maybe clipping, so you can see oh there's a lot of content
[00:10:14] here in the mid-range because here it's clipping, here it's not clipping, here's a lot of upwards
[00:10:19] compression applied, here's a lot of upwards compression applied.
[00:10:22] Maybe I want to add more content in this range, so you can also use this as a guide what's
[00:10:30] going on in your track where you need to do some changes in your master or in your mix
[00:10:38] down.
[00:10:40] Like I said, I tried to dial in the best possible default settings for the plug-in, so you just
[00:10:47] put it on and have good outcome, but yeah.
[00:10:54] So this is how it looks like, how it sounds, polarity, empty, completely free, this is
[00:10:59] my stupid face so you know it's my plug-in.
[00:11:13] We don't clip it here.
[00:11:38] Then the output here of course is clipping a lot, so you can basically do clip to zero
[00:11:58] if you want to because we have four bands and just push all these bands into the clipper,
[00:12:04] clip it slightly and then you get a very loud output here.
[00:12:10] As you can see it's minus five loves at the moment because we just pushed each of these
[00:12:15] bands slightly into the clipper.
[00:12:18] Maybe we don't want to clip it too much here in the beginning, yeah you can damage your
[00:12:28] audio track pretty easily, but you can also make it very loud, okay.
[00:12:35] Then dial back the amount here.
[00:12:47] Yeah I just want to show you this, it's in beta at the moment, there are probably some
[00:12:51] bugs I have problems with the macOS build, someone said the macOS build is running,
[00:12:58] clap is not running on macOS, but VST3 is running, but you probably run into signing
[00:13:03] problems maybe because I don't have an Apple developer account, I don't have a Mac book
[00:13:11] at the moment, I compile everything on GitHub, but it kind of works on macOS, VST3 and AU.
[00:13:20] On Windows you can see it's running here, for me pretty nicely, I also tried it out
[00:13:25] on Linux already with VST3 and Clap, which is also running.
[00:13:31] Maybe you have an older Linux build, I don't know what you run, it's probably running well
[00:13:38] on Ubuntu and Mint, I'm using Mint, yeah let me know in my discord if you run into
[00:13:46] some bugs problems or maybe drop it down in the comments down below and we figure it out.
[00:13:52] I want to make it as easy and nice, nicely running as possible on all systems, so hit
[00:13:59] me up with the problems, maybe give me some feature requests, but I want to keep it at
[00:14:06] this kind of feature level, maybe I implement some additional things.
[00:14:11] This clipper here, this was some kind of suggestion from one of my patreons, which I found pretty
[00:14:15] nicely to add, but yeah if you have some more ideas, let me know.
[00:14:22] The interface, I know it's not the most beautiful visuals, but I have a designer running already
[00:14:33] doing some stuff in Figma, so let me know what you think and yeah, that's the plug-in
[00:14:39] called polarity MD, and of course I'm planning to do more plug-ins maybe in the future, but
[00:14:45] this was just a test, I'm working on this for a few weeks now and I want to put it out,
[00:14:50] let me know what you think, that's it for now, thanks for watching, see you in the next
[00:14:54] video, bye.
[00:14:54] [BLANK_AUDIO]

AD Envelope - Signal Generator

polarity — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 01:00:00 GMT

Bitwig Guide | Feb 03, 2026

The AD envelope module in Bitwig Studio's Grid is a versatile tool for shaping sounds, offering attack and decay controls with multiple modes, analog, relative, and digital, that affect timing and curve behavior. It can be triggered in various ways, looped for LFO-like effects, and used together with other envelopes for complex sound design, such as crafting kick drums. The AD module stands out for its simplicity and flexibility compared to more complex envelope modules, making it a go-to choice for quick and effective sound shaping.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

support me on Patreon

Short Overview

The AD envelope in Bitwig Studio’s Grid is simple yet powerful, letting me shape sound with just attack and decay stages, perfect for fast creative tweaks. I love that it gives me different curve modes like analog, relative, and digital, so I can tailor the response based on what feels or sounds best in the moment. Whether I’m designing quick percussive sounds, building kick drums, or tweaking synth patches, this envelope is straightforward to use but flexible enough to create complex results. Most of the time, I find myself preferring it over more complicated options because I can easily combine multiple envelopes for detailed shaping without unnecessary fuss.

The AD envelope in Bitwig Studio Grid is an Attack-Decay envelope without a sustain phase, shaping the incoming audio signal based on attack and decay values.
You can toggle between Analog, Relative, and Digital modes, each offering unique curve shapes and timing behaviors. Analog mode is fixed, Relative and Digital allow for adjustable curve bends.
The module outputs both shaped audio and a signal showing the envelope curve, which can be viewed on an oscilloscope for precise tweaking.
The envelope can be triggered in multiple ways, either through MIDI input (pre chord), a gate module, or periodic triggers for generative patches.
The loop function allows the AD envelope to act like an LFO, repeatedly triggering as long as the input remains active.
Modulator out provides envelope modulation outside the Grid, useful for sidechaining effects or external modulation.
In polyphonic mode, the envelope can control voice lifetime, determining how long a note stays active based on the envelope's decay.
Combining multiple AD envelopes offers more control for sound design, such as layering envelopes for kick drum transients and body rather than relying solely on the segments module.
Use the module intuitively, there’s no "best" mode, just use what sounds best for your application.
Explained the relationship between decay and release: decay occurs while holding a key; release phase activates after the key is let go (important for understanding other envelopes like ADSR and plug).

Introduction to the AD Envelope in Bitwig Studio Grid

Today I’m focusing on the AD envelope module inside Bitwig Studio’s Grid. This basic yet powerful envelope generator is a staple in countless Grid patches, and while the help menu in Bitwig provides ample information, I want to dive deeper, exploring both how it works and practical ways I use it, often even in preference to the more intricate Segments module.

Overview of Envelope Modules

Bitwig Studio’s Grid features several envelope-related modules, ADSR, AD, AR, Segments, and envelope followers. Each has its specific use case. The AD envelope, which stands for Attack and Decay, is the simplest. It does not include a sustain phase, just a quick rise (attack) and fall (decay). This simplicity makes it the go-to generator for many applications.

How the AD Envelope Module Works

The AD envelope requires a trigger (usually MIDI or gate input) to start its cycle. When triggered, it controls the amplitude shaping of an audio signal according to adjustable attack and decay parameters. Here’s how it typically functions:

Input/Output: You feed an audio oscillator (e.g., a sine oscillator) into the AD module, and the envelope shapes the amplitude of the audio passing through it.
Triggering: When the pre-chord button is active, MIDI notes can trigger the envelope via the grid, letting you play it from a MIDI keyboard or the piano roll.
Dual Outputs: The module provides both a processed audio output (with envelope applied) and a signal output that mirrors the envelope’s own shape, useful for modulation purposes or for visual monitoring on an oscilloscope.

Attack and Decay Controls

Both attack and decay are rate-based parameters, given in milliseconds and seconds. Adjusting these:

Attack determines how fast the envelope rises to its peak.
Decay determines how quickly it returns to zero.

Slower attack/decay settings stretch out the envelope’s movement, producing more gradual shifts in amplitude.

Mode Selection: Analog, Relative, and Digital

The AD envelope in Bitwig offers three distinct behaviors:

Analog Mode: Simulates classic analog envelope characteristics. The curve cannot be shaped, it's a fixed, smooth “analog” curve.
Relative Mode: Allows significant control over the curve by bending and shaping the envelope’s attack and decay slopes, giving a broad range of expressive possibilities.
Digital Mode: Characterized by very precise, often linear transitions. Here, you can modify curve parameters as well, but the shape and timing will have a distinctive digital flavor.

Each mode results in slightly different timing and feel, and there’s no definitive “better” or “worse”, choose what sounds best for your patch.

Triggering Flexibility

Besides note and gate input, AD envelopes can be triggered by other signal sources, such as the Trigger module, allowing for generative, automated, or periodic envelope cycles independent of direct MIDI or user action.

Loop Functionality

Enabling the Loop function re-triggers the AD envelope repeatedly while the trigger signal remains high. The envelope cycles (like an LFO) until the signal drops, making it useful for rhythmic, sustained modulation.

Modulator Output

The AD envelope’s modulator out allows its shape to be used as a modulation source elsewhere in your patch or even in the device chain outside the Grid. This makes it incredibly versatile for tasks like volume ducking or frequency shaping in external effects.

Polyphony and Voice Lifetime

In polyphonic patches (multiple simultaneous voices), the AD envelope can control the lifetime of each Grid voice. The “Affect Voice Lifetime” setting ensures a voice stays active only as long as the envelope is running. This helps manage CPU and keeps polyphonic patches tidy and efficient.

In monophonic mode, this option is disabled because the patch always has one active voice.
In polyphonic mode, the envelope itself decides when the voice should “die,” typically at the end of the decay phase.

Using the AD Envelope to Create Kick Drums

The AD envelope is essential when designing kick drums in the Grid:

Oscillator Setup: Feed a sine oscillator (fixed to a low note, e.g., G0) into the AD envelope for amplitude shaping.
Pitch Envelope: Use a second AD envelope to modulate oscillator pitch, creating the characteristic “thump” of a classic electronic kick by rapidly dropping from a high pitch to the base frequency.
Layering for Punch: You can layer additional envelopes for fine-tuned transient design, one for the initial click, one for the body, combining their shapes for better control than manually shaping with the Segments module.

Combining Envelopes for Advanced Shapes

While Segments allows custom envelope drawing, stacking and combining multiple AD modules can actually provide more control and flexibility. You can tailor the timing and intensity of each envelope section (attack or decay) through simple parameter tweaks rather than tedious curve editing.

Segments vs. Multiple AD Envelopes

Although Segments is powerful for detailed custom envelopes, I often find using multiple AD envelopes layered together creates better, more musical results for percussive sound design. Each AD envelope refines a particular transient or body portion, allowing quick, intuitive sound shaping.

Comparing Decay and Release Phases

In Bitwig, understanding the difference between decay and release is important:

Decay: Occurs after the attack, while the key is held, the sound drops from peak to sustain or zero, depending on the envelope.
Release: Triggers the final fall to zero as soon as the key is released.

The AD envelope only features decay, making it straightforward for percussive or one-shot sounds.

When and Why to Use the AD Envelope

For most tasks, especially percussive or plucked sounds, the AD envelope is my go-to. Its simplicity, efficient controls, and flexibility via mode and shaping options make it an essential tool. Use the extended envelopes (e.g., ADSR) only if you really need the extra hold or release controls.

Conclusion

The AD envelope module in Bitwig Studio’s Grid is simple yet deeply flexible, excelling at quick amplitude shaping, modulation duties, and percussive sound design. Its different modes and easy modulation routing make it indispensable in my workflow, whether for basic volume envelopes, kick drum synthesis, or clever modulation tricks. Choose the techniques and modes that inspire you musically, there is no single “best” method, just the one that works best for your sound.

Full Video Transcription

Click to expand Transcription

[00:00:00] Today it's about the AD envelope module in Bitwig Studio in the grid of Bitwig Studio.
[00:00:07] You can see there's a lot of information already on the help menu, a lot of things to talk about
[00:00:12] and also later on I want to show you how I use the AD envelope and yeah it's sometimes
[00:00:19] even better than just using here the segments module.
[00:00:23] You can see here in the category of envelope we have a lot of different modules ADSR, AD
[00:00:28] that's what we talk about today, AR, plug segments and then the other envelope followers.
[00:00:34] So I take just this envelope generator or module first because it's very easy to get
[00:00:42] maybe there is no sustain phase it's just AD which means attack and decay and you can
[00:00:50] feed audio in here and you get audio out and this audio is then shaped by this curve in
[00:00:56] terms of volume right so you can maybe use I don't know a sine oscillator here that produces
[00:01:03] a continuous signal as you can see here goes into an AD and then we have here an oscilloscope
[00:01:12] and nothing comes out of it and because we have here a pre chord we can enable so when
[00:01:17] it's yellow then this means we can send in a MIDI signal from the MIDI keyboard here
[00:01:23] this track is armed into the grid and then just trigger this envelope.
[00:01:32] You can see here then it lets this sine wave pass through the envelope so it's a kind of
[00:01:40] an amplifier combined with an envelope not just one module so it's an amplitude combined
[00:01:49] with an envelope but we also get out here the shape of the envelope itself it's called
[00:01:57] I think signal output envelope out envelope signal and then this is here the input signal
[00:02:05] with the envelope applied.
[00:02:08] So there's an audio output here and there's kind of a signal output and it gives you the
[00:02:12] shape of this envelope itself as a signal so when we hit here key again you can see
[00:02:21] the blue line gives you exactly the volume shape maybe we switch this here to slow right
[00:02:29] you can see in blue the signal and you can see in green the audio signal that's actually
[00:02:36] shaped by this envelope itself ok there are also two buttons here attack and decay and
[00:02:46] it's measured here in milliseconds and then at some point it becomes seconds also here
[00:02:51] milliseconds and seconds and you can define of course how fast it reaches here the highest
[00:02:57] point and how fast it goes back down to the lowest point.
[00:03:02] So making this here a bit slower takes a bit of time until it reaches the top and then
[00:03:09] it takes exactly two seconds until it reaches here back to zero again ok that's easy to
[00:03:16] get I guess but there are also some different options here you can select here with drop
[00:03:22] down and you can select between analog relative and digital and each of these modes you have
[00:03:28] different features and different timing so it's a little bit different here and there
[00:03:34] maybe with this disconnected sign and we leave everything as it is maybe make this a bit
[00:03:41] longer here and just duplicate this here three times something like this and here we say
[00:03:48] we want to have analog here we have relative and here we have digital you can already see
[00:03:54] the analog version here with with an A there's no option here to actually bend or twist or
[00:04:02] change the curve here itself it's just fixed it's a kind of I guess an analog curve that's
[00:04:08] how these envelope generators work in the analog world I have no idea probably relative
[00:04:15] here with the rates differential curves which means you can twist and turn or bend each
[00:04:22] of these curves I leave it as it is for now also here with digital it's the same thing
[00:04:27] so let's trigger actually three of these envelopes here with the same timing so it's the same
[00:04:33] attack time everywhere also the same decay times everywhere and so let's trigger this
[00:04:40] you can see they look and behave completely different right this one is a bit longer this
[00:04:46] one is shorter and this one has a very distinct curve here I guess that's the analog shape
[00:04:51] yeah and then here with the relative one you can actually shape it you can bend it to your
[00:05:02] needs you need to have a fast you know fast descent here to the highest point and then
[00:05:08] stay there a bit longer and or make it maybe like this also possible
[00:05:13] so yeah so you can stay true to the analog original sound or you can make it here more
[00:05:24] digital and then you can change here the curve settings also here with the with the digital one
[00:05:32] yeah so this is here with exact timing I don't know what this means probably that the timing of
[00:05:38] the attack and decay phase is you know specifically timed I can't measure it here on the oscilloscope
[00:05:49] but you can see here this looks this looks much different than this one so it's actually at the
[00:05:57] same time three six five three six five yeah it's basically the same thing you can see it's much longer
[00:06:04] it looks completely different so the question is now what is better there is no better or worse
[00:06:13] in audio you just apply what sounds good to you right that's how I proceeded through all my years
[00:06:21] I just put on my audio what I think sounds great I switch through the modes here when I for instance
[00:06:27] create snare sounds kick drum sounds or whatever I do with these envelopes and I switch through
[00:06:33] the modes and then I see oh this sounds much better on a snare attack or the sounds worse
[00:06:37] and I just you know stay or leave what I think sounds good so this is how you use that I would say
[00:06:44] so don't ask yourself what's better what's worse what not to use just do what I want to do and then
[00:06:53] leave what sounds good to you okay these are the modes let's delete this here for a moment
[00:06:59] there are there's also some more to it right so we have here also this pre chord I
[00:07:06] barely explained it but it's just you know taking in the signal from outside of the grid when we
[00:07:14] actually pressing your note and the keyboard or we play a note in the piano roll but you can also
[00:07:20] disable this and just reach here for maybe a gate signal which is basically the same thing because
[00:07:27] the gate module takes the note input from outside of the grid and just puts it into the signal and
[00:07:35] here you can hook up something in between and make some changes to it but you can also use
[00:07:40] something like a trigger module here and say please trigger this envelope four times each bar
[00:07:49] and you get a periodic signal here and then you can shape the audio so yeah you cannot
[00:07:57] only trigger this here with a keyboard when you want to create a synthesizer you can also do this
[00:08:02] here in a more generative way and influence how this envelope is triggered so easy possible
[00:08:09] then we have here this kind of knob it's called I think loop is it called loop
[00:08:16] we have to highlight this it's called loop yeah restarts the envelope whenever the trigger input
[00:08:22] remains high which means we can switch this on and if you have for instance a button here
[00:08:30] and this stays on it just loops over and over and it starts again when it reaches here at the end
[00:08:38] and it becomes slower of course when the decay time is longer and then when it reaches here zero
[00:08:45] then it goes back to the beginning so it's more like an LFO behavior so you can loop the envelope
[00:08:52] I guess most people already know how this works so yeah this also works here of course with the
[00:08:58] pre chord so when you hold down the key on the keyboard it exactly works the same
[00:09:02] nice so the last thing we have here is this modulator output and you can find this
[00:09:14] on some modules inside of the grid and you probably already know how this works
[00:09:18] you can get this signal here as a modulator so you can say maybe you have a volume knob
[00:09:26] at some point in your patch or outside of the grid here inside of the fx box you can also do this
[00:09:32] there you can just hit this right go into the modulation mode and then modulate maybe here again
[00:09:39] to duck something or maybe to shape the volume or shape frequencies or whatever so it's just
[00:09:45] another output here for the signal but instead of having here a cable that you can hook up you can
[00:09:51] just use a modulator output and sometimes I use this here on the fx box so we have a tool device
[00:09:56] or maybe a reverb you can connect this here and then you can connect the grid with the outside
[00:10:05] world with the post fx world or whatever you want to call it so maybe you have a reverb right and
[00:10:11] then you produce a snare sound and you want to duck the wet signal from the reverb away when the
[00:10:18] snare sound here plays the initial transient and you can do this here and do this all the time
[00:10:24] let's be honest okay so this is the modulator out it works perfectly fine what else there's not much
[00:10:33] to it you can also find you in the inspector on the left side again the attack the decay when there's
[00:10:42] a different mode here relative this is the same thing as here then you can of course shape here
[00:10:48] to curve if you want to and then we have something here like effect voice lifetime on the left side
[00:10:54] I'm not sure if I explained this already but when you have the grid if you click on the grid here
[00:10:59] and it's not in monophonic mode so monophonic means there's only just one voice active all the
[00:11:04] time but when you switch this here to polyphonic mode we have five voices available no voice is
[00:11:13] active you have to press a key or create a new voice to actually make the grid become alive right so
[00:11:20] here now you can see this is now not grayed out anymore effect voice lifetime which means
[00:11:28] the voice stays alive as long as the signal is true okay so maybe we can do here something like
[00:11:37] a sine wave and maybe I do an audio out here and make this a bit quieter connect this
[00:11:47] so we should have here no audio output right you can see here there's nothing you can hear
[00:11:55] nothing audible because there's no voice active because we have this here in polyphonic mode right
[00:12:00] five voices no voices active so what we have to do is we we have to make this voice become alive
[00:12:08] so we press a note on the keyboard right it's a very short sound but I still hold down the key here
[00:12:19] but it only gives me just a very short amount of sound and when we add now an ad here
[00:12:26] and say effect voice lifetime right and you make the decay time very long and then we play this again
[00:12:47] at some point it just stops so this envelope now affects the voice lifetime that's currently running
[00:12:56] yeah just by the how long the decay here is or you can define I think no you can define the
[00:13:03] decay time here and then it affects the voice lifetime yeah
[00:13:11] right and if I just remove this it doesn't work anymore so you have certain devices
[00:13:17] or modules inside of the grid that affects the voice lifetime when in polyphonic mode
[00:13:22] you can see it's not even hooked up to anything right you don't need to do this it's not affecting
[00:13:29] here the volume of the sine but it affects how long actually the voice is active but we can also of
[00:13:35] course here connect these two and also shape here the volume which is much better right
[00:13:43] yeah that's very important to know but when you switch here the grid back to monophonic mode
[00:13:50] this is grayed out because there's only or always one voice active all the time and we
[00:13:57] can also here just delete this and you can hear the sine wave playing all the time nothing stops
[00:14:05] it and this is why we need here to use the monophonic mode for these kind of generative grid
[00:14:12] patches I do all the time because there's a one voice always active and you can do whatever you want
[00:14:18] inside of the grid and it's still you know plays and keeps one voice alive all the time
[00:14:25] okay let's go back to AD here so I want to show you also something here which is something I showed
[00:14:34] someone on discord because he asked me about kick drums right when you want to make kick drums
[00:14:41] so let's say you want to make a kick drum and we started by using a sine and you probably want to
[00:14:47] have an amplitude envelope something like this and we need a bit of volume and maybe we use here
[00:14:54] peak limiter okay so we have this and we can play of course different notes which is not what you
[00:15:04] want you want to have a static pitch so we use here a pitch module something like this we hook
[00:15:12] this up so pitch goes into the sine oscillator full applied so everything that gets in here is
[00:15:19] applied and then we disable the pre chord because we don't want to change the pitch with the keyboard
[00:15:25] coming from the outside you only want to change the pitch here with the module so we go down to
[00:15:30] maybe g0 that's my magic magic note for kick drums you get something like this
[00:15:38] you can hear there are some some differences when you play that's because the sine partial
[00:15:47] or the sine oscillator is not re-triggering every time from the same place in the face
[00:15:54] that's much better and then we can define a pitch drop and you can do this multiple ways
[00:16:00] some people just modulate here the pitch offset
[00:16:03] something like this I do sometimes just duplicate here another one
[00:16:12] let's disable this and then we hook this up here to the pitch okay so we have the pitch incoming
[00:16:21] and then we just add this envelope to this pitch okay we make this a bit shorter so we have something
[00:16:31] like this so now the problem is we end up on g0 when the envelope is done when we are back down here
[00:16:42] right but it goes too much up here in frequency so we can add here another what's the name
[00:16:52] attenuator and we do something like this
[00:16:58] so we can change how strong or how much how far up we want to go with the pitch drop here
[00:17:07] I hope this is kind of clear you can also go to relative motors we can define the bend sounds
[00:17:22] a bit different okay then we bring in an oscilloscope here so we can track what's actually going on
[00:17:34] and we switch this to fast or maybe slow we see here our envelopes and then we also want to
[00:17:42] trigger the oscilloscope here with this so we have this envelope always here in the beginning
[00:17:52] maybe go too fast and that's much better so we can go up here in frequency right
[00:17:59] make this a bit shorter
[00:18:04] we get the perfect perfect click in the beginning but it's not perfect for the body so the body
[00:18:15] sounds a bit different so we want to have this and this combined so what I do sometimes is I
[00:18:27] leave this here for the click and then I do another one something like this for the body
[00:18:37] and then I add here another add module to this and then we do something like this and here we do
[00:18:46] a bit slower and we go down right so now we have here the body and here we have the click
[00:19:06] yeah and then we can just check here how it looks like combined let's use this and this
[00:19:15] it's hard to see because it's very fast but you can see we combine basically here two envelopes
[00:19:26] to one envelope this very short one here gives you the click and then this one gives you the body
[00:19:33] but still we have here in the beginning some information here right so this information
[00:19:39] in the beginning adds up with this envelope so we can combine different envelopes and can create
[00:19:45] a different curves from that and like I said at the beginning you can use the segments here
[00:19:53] and I see this all the time people using your segments and then I go this and you know reset the
[00:19:59] curve maybe do this and then they you know fiddle around here with very steep very precise positions
[00:20:07] here to get this kind of clicky feel and then a nice body and it's very fiddly and you can do this
[00:20:15] of course and you can do this multiple ways you can also say maybe I do like this and then I use
[00:20:23] a bend here right and then make this steeper maybe I show you this in a minute but I like
[00:20:32] to use the actually multiple envelopes like an ad combine them together just add them together
[00:20:39] and then you get much more control because you have these decay settings here you can define the body
[00:20:48] the click again define how how much you want to fall down here with the click
[00:20:55] yeah and sometimes you can combine even three if you want to right so it's not limited to two
[00:21:08] but I find most of the time this is much better to create sometimes kick drums instead of using
[00:21:15] the segments and fiddle around with the segments okay um at the end I show you basically this here
[00:21:25] with the the segments what I talked about but maybe this is something for the segments video here
[00:21:32] but anyway I show it most people probably don't watch till the end anyway um we have an oscilloscope
[00:21:40] here we have also a signal out take a gate to combine here this we switch to slow let's see
[00:21:49] how this looks like or maybe 16 note we get this maybe make it a bit longer eight note
[00:21:58] right so you have this kind of curved behavior here
[00:22:08] and instead of making it very fiddly and you go here into the corner you just you know leave it at that
[00:22:16] and then you take here a band like this you can something like that it's a bit steeper use the
[00:22:29] second one it's very steep now but now you don't need to you scale basically the curve a bit better
[00:22:37] outside of um this editor here so you don't need to be that precise here in the corner
[00:22:44] yeah you can make it steeper just by adding bands to the output
[00:22:50] that's what I do sometimes you don't need to do this but you can do it
[00:23:01] anyway this is for the segments video so this was the ad there's not much different to all the other
[00:23:10] envelopes here there's an adsr there's basically an added sustain phase here there's no looping
[00:23:18] and there's here a bias out but I explain this in the adsr video anyway but yeah all you have to
[00:23:27] all you need to know is basically the difference between decay and release because with the plug
[00:23:32] here there's also release and decay which basically means decay is when you hit the
[00:23:38] key on the keyboard and you stay on the key you use the decay but when you release the key
[00:23:47] so you press and release then you go into the second path here which is the release
[00:23:54] right as soon as you release the key you go to the second path which is the release so release
[00:24:01] is when you release the key and decay is when you still hold down the key on the keyboard and then
[00:24:07] it plays basically here then the decay phase also here with the adsr same thing you press and hold
[00:24:13] then it goes to the decay while you're holding and then it stays here then until you release and it
[00:24:19] goes to the release phase so the adsr is basically the most complete envelope ad is what I use most
[00:24:27] of the time because I don't need anything more yeah that's the ad for you great device great module
[00:24:37] I use it all the time thanks for watching leave a like see you next time

I Let My Modular Synth Design Its Own Utopia

polarity — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 01:00:00 GMT

Music-Video | Jan 30, 2026

I just built a cool drone in the Grid again, with a ton of pads and a lead sound that randomly plays every now and then. There are also some random FX sounds, plus a little wind and rain machine. I tweaked the resonance on the wind filter a bit too. It kind of sounds like that low hum you hear in Deckard's apartment in Blade Runner. I thought it was pretty nice to add that in. You can download the patch for free, as always, and it's made in Bitwig 6, so you'll need that to use it. Have fun, and don’t forget to give me a like!

You can watch the Video on Youtube
You can download the Patch from free in my Dispenser for free!

Polarity - Music Producer & Teacher

Why Your Synth Keeps Clicking (And How To Fix It)

Short Overview #

Why Your Synthesizer Clicks #

Identifying the Problem #

The Root Cause: Phase Discontinuity #

Retriggering and Phase Adjustment #

Phase Offset as a Solution #

The Issue with Fast Retriggering #

Voice Handling and Envelopes #

Explanation: How Voices Eliminate Clicks #

Handling Monophonic Environments #

Logic Delay for Release Completion #

Other Techniques and Considerations #

Advanced Technique: Zero Crossing Quantization #

Using Wavetable Oscillators #

Broader Envelope Concepts #

General Tips #

Conclusion #

Full Video Transcription #

Bitwig 6 Clip Launcher Automation Troubleshooting and Workflow Tips

Short Overview #

Introduction and Context #

General Thoughts on Bitwig 6 #

Setting Up for Automation in Clip Launcher #

Sound Creation Workflow #

Automation Recording Expectations #

Issues Encountered with Clip Launcher Automation #

Automation Recording Target #

Confusing Workflow for Automation in Clips #

Overdubbing Additional Automation #

Persistent Problems and Bugs #

Recommendations for Workflow Improvement #

Conclusion #

Full Video Transcription #

I Taught My Synth to Dream of Alien Oceans

I Built a Space Ambient Dream Machine in Bitwig

Mini by AudioMap Sample Browser Plugin

Short Overview #

Introduction to Mini by AudioMap #

The XY Coordinate System for Sample Navigation #

Visual Clarity Through Color #

Instant Preview with Mouse Hover #

Customizing and Managing Directories #

Directory Controls #

Current Limitations and Bugs #

Filtering and Searching Samples #

Additional Features #

Resizable Interface and Flexible Mapping #

Sample Length Filtering #

Mouse Gestures and Shortcut Integration #

Desired Improvements #

Quantization and Beat Grid Features #

Playback Toggle #

Price and Availability #

Platform Compatibility #

Conclusion #

Full Video Transcription #

Polarity MD - Multiband Dynamics Plugin Update

Short Overview #

Introduction to the Polarity MD Plugin Update #

Feature Overview: Multi-Band Dynamics Processing #

Compressor Concepts Explained #

Platform Support and Distribution #

New Features and Updates in Latest Version #

Oversampling and Clipper Improvements #

Linear Phase Crossovers #

Band and Output Normalization #

Enhanced Bypass and Level Matching #

Global Parameter Controls #

Pro View and Detailed Control #

Usability Enhancements #

Improved Accessibility #

Resizable and Scalable Interface #

Band Solo and Clipping Monitoring #

Performance and Stability #

Call to Action #

Full Video Transcription #

I Taught My Synth How to Compose Melodic Techno

Polarity-MD - Free 4-band OTT Multiband Compressor for all Systems

Short Overview

Why Your Synthesizer Clicks

Identifying the Problem

The Root Cause: Phase Discontinuity

Retriggering and Phase Adjustment

Phase Offset as a Solution

The Issue with Fast Retriggering

Voice Handling and Envelopes

Explanation: How Voices Eliminate Clicks

Handling Monophonic Environments

Logic Delay for Release Completion

Other Techniques and Considerations

Advanced Technique: Zero Crossing Quantization

Using Wavetable Oscillators

Broader Envelope Concepts

General Tips

Conclusion

Full Video Transcription

Short Overview

Introduction and Context

General Thoughts on Bitwig 6

Setting Up for Automation in Clip Launcher

Sound Creation Workflow

Automation Recording Expectations

Issues Encountered with Clip Launcher Automation

Automation Recording Target

Confusing Workflow for Automation in Clips

Overdubbing Additional Automation

Persistent Problems and Bugs

Recommendations for Workflow Improvement

Conclusion

Full Video Transcription

Short Overview

Introduction to Mini by AudioMap

The XY Coordinate System for Sample Navigation

Visual Clarity Through Color

Instant Preview with Mouse Hover

Customizing and Managing Directories

Directory Controls

Current Limitations and Bugs

Filtering and Searching Samples

Additional Features

Resizable Interface and Flexible Mapping

Sample Length Filtering

Mouse Gestures and Shortcut Integration

Desired Improvements

Quantization and Beat Grid Features

Playback Toggle

Price and Availability

Platform Compatibility

Conclusion

Full Video Transcription

Short Overview

Introduction to the Polarity MD Plugin Update

Feature Overview: Multi-Band Dynamics Processing

Compressor Concepts Explained

Platform Support and Distribution

New Features and Updates in Latest Version

Oversampling and Clipper Improvements

Linear Phase Crossovers

Band and Output Normalization

Enhanced Bypass and Level Matching

Global Parameter Controls

Pro View and Detailed Control

Usability Enhancements

Improved Accessibility

Resizable and Scalable Interface

Band Solo and Clipping Monitoring

Performance and Stability

Call to Action

Full Video Transcription

Short Overview

Introducing My New Plug-in: Polarity MD

Core Features of Polarity MD

Platform Support

Free and Accessible

Detailed Overview of the Plug-in Architecture

Input Processing

Multiband Dynamics

Global and Per-Band Controls