Bitwig Grid Course

This free to access course teaches you how to use Bitwig Studio's Grid. Learn how to use the Grid to build synthesizers, audio and note effects as a Beginner, step by step! This course is free and will be updated regularly with new content.

The course is free to use without a login or subscription. If you'd like to give back, you can subscribe to my Patreon or send a donation via PayPal.

Update Log #

• 2026-07-14: Added Control Signal Toolkit and Timing, Triggers and Probability, clarified the signal chapters, and launched the companion Building Large Bitwig Grid Patches course.

Overview #

The course is divided into several modules, each focusing on a specific aspect of the Bitwig Grid. Below is a list of the modules included in the course. Each module contains detailed explanations, examples, and exercises to help you understand and apply the concepts effectively. Start with the first module and work your way through the course at your own pace.

1. What this course covers - This Bitwig Grid course teaches you how to use Bitwig Studio's Grid, create music, design effects and instruments, and master the Grid. Start here!

2. What is the Grid - Learn what Bitwig's Grid is, how it compares to other solutions, and what it isn’t. Understand its limitations and how to work around them effectively.

3. The Bitwig Grid Devices - Bitwig features three Grid devices for creating note FX, instruments, and audio FX. Learn their differences, why there are three devices, and how they interact with the rest of the Bitwig DAW.

4. Polyphony & Stacking Settings - In Bitwig's inspector, you'll find several options for the Grid that give you control over polyphony and voice stacking. Additionally, the Phase and Free Run settings are important for certain patches, as they affect how phase-driven modules behave.

5. Grid Window - Learn how to navigate the Grid window, find and add modules, lock the workspace, and create or change cable connections.

6. Base Knowledge - Before we dive deeper into the Bitwig Grid, it might be helpful to clarify a few terms that often come up. To make sure you know what’s being referred to, here’s a brief overview of the key concepts.

7. Grid Modules - Alright folks, now it’s getting serious. Let's meet the modules of the Bitwig Grid. Small, Powerful and powerful like little Lego Audio Bricks!

8. Module Features - Before we dive into the different signal types in the Grid, let’s first talk about the features available in the Grid modules themselves.

9. Grid Signals - Learn about the signals used in the Grid and how to connect them to modules to create sounds or build logical constructs.

10. Control Signal Toolkit - Learn how to inspect, scale, move, sample, and smooth control signals with a compact set of Grid utility modules you can reuse in any patch.

11. Note Grid - Creating a Note FX Patch - Enough with the theory, let's dive into building a small patch so you can get a feel for the workflow. After all, the best way to learn is by doing!

12. Note Grid - Quantizing Notes - Let's quantize notes directly in the pitch domain and restrict them to specific notes so we can effortlessly play within a scale!

13. Note Grid - Creating Chords - In this lesson, we’re going to try something new: creating multiple notes within the Note Grid even when there’s only one note as input.

14. Poly Grid - Basic Subtractive Synth - The first subtractive synthesizer we're building in the Grid: Overtones are subtracted to create a sound.

15. Poly Grid - Additive Synth - Let's create an small additive synth in the Grid out of our subtractive synth with some basic functionality.

16. Poly Grid - FM&PM Synthesis - Here we learn about FM and PM synthesis, and how to build a simple FM synth in the Grid.

17. Poly Grid - Vector Synthesis - Vector Synthesis is a method of sound synthesis that uses multiple oscillators to create complex sounds. In this lesson, we will explore how to create a vector synthesizer in the Bitwig Grid.

18. Poly Grid - Granular Synthesis - Granular synthesis is a method of sound synthesis that uses small segments of audio called grains to create complex sounds. In this lesson, we will explore how to create granular synthesis in the Bitwig Grid using the Sampler module.

19. Poly Grid - Physical Modeling - Physical modeling in the Grid can start very simple: send a short noise burst into a playable comb filter. This creates a basic Karplus-Strong style plucked-string patch.

20. Timing, Triggers and Probability - Learn how gates, triggers, clock tools, Chance, and Dice work together to create rhythmic and controlled random Grid patches.

21. Poly Grid - Self Running Patches - A self-running Grid patch built from my official Bitwig video: an internal clock from two Triggers and a Clock Quantizer drives a feedback loop where the oscillator's own audio becomes the next quantized pitch.

22. FX Grid - Building Audio Effects - Until now we built note tools and instruments. The FX Grid is the third Grid device and it processes incoming audio instead of generating it. Learn how audio in and out work, what the Mix knob does, and build a small drive effect to get the workflow.

23. FX Grid - All-Pass Reverb - Build a reverb from scratch in the FX Grid using a chain of all-pass delays. The trick is choosing delay times that are not multiples of each other, so the tail sounds diffuse and smeared instead of like a repeating echo.

24. FX Grid - Custom Filters - Build your own filter shapes in the FX Grid by blending a dry signal with one or more All-Pass modules. Phase cancellation turns the combination into low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, notch, and wild custom 'mirror' filters you can sweep with a single macro.

25. FX Grid - Chorus - Build a chorus from scratch in the FX Grid by modulating a short delay with an LFO, then stack it into many voices to recreate Serum's Hyper. Stack Spread gives each voice its own LFO phase and stereo position for a wide unison-style ensemble.