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Bitwig Vector-4 & 8 Modulator - Morph Between Multiple Modulation Targets

Bitwig Guide | Aug 10, 2022

The Vector 4 modulator in Bitwig Studio lets you morph between different modulation targets by moving a dot between four corners, each representing a unique modulation setting, applying modulation in a non-linear, logarithmic fashion. You can lock movement to one axis and even automate the position with other modulators, allowing for powerful and expressive sound design options. The Vector 8 modulator works the same way but offers eight modulation points for even more flexibility in morphing between complex sound presets.

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Short Overview

With the Vector-4 modulator in Bitwig Studio, I can smoothly morph between different modulation targets by moving a dot inside a square, with each corner representing a modulation handle. The modulation response isn’t linear; instead, it uses a logarithmic or exponential curve, so even in the center, a little bit of each modulation is already applied. I can lock movement to a single axis or let other modulators control the axes for even more dynamic responses. This makes it easy to create evolving sounds or smoothly blend between preset-like settings, and with the Vector-8 version, I can work with up to eight modulation targets for even more complexity.

Introduction to the Vector 4 Modulator in Bitwig Studio

In this summary, I’ll walk you through how the Vector 4 modulator works inside Bitwig Studio, what sets it apart, and how you might use it to create morphing sounds by controlling multiple parameters at once. I also touch on related concepts and how this modulator compares to other modulation devices in Bitwig.

Exploring the Vector 4 Interface

The Vector 4 modulator offers a visually engaging way of controlling modulation. It uses a two-dimensional space where you move a single dot around a square area, and each corner of the square represents a different modulation target. At each corner, there’s a handle that you assign to a specific parameter of your device, such as a filter cutoff or resonance.

How Modulation Handles Work

You can assign each of the four handles to any modifiable control in Bitwig. When the dot is close to a corner, the modulation for that handle is at its maximum. The beauty of this system is that you can apply different amounts of modulation to multiple targets and smoothly transition between them by simply moving the dot.

Locking and Modulating the Axes

On the left side of the interface, there’s a slider allowing you to lock movement to a single axis. This means you can restrict modulation to only vertical or horizontal movement if you wish. Additionally, this slider can itself be modulated by other modulators, opening up more complex, cross-modulated motion, so you could, for example, make the dot 'dance' automatically by connecting an LFO to the axis slider.

Understanding Modulation Curves

An important detail is how modulation is distributed as you move the dot. The responses are not linear. If I place the dot in the center, there is already some modulation being applied to all targets but at a reduced amount. As I move toward a corner, the nearest handle’s modulation increases rapidly, while modulation to handles further away decreases more sharply. This transition exhibits a logarithmic or exponential curve rather than a straight, linear one. This means you have smooth but non-uniform blending between targets.

Practical Example with Polysynth

To demonstrate, let’s say I assign the top-left handle to cutoff and the bottom-right to resonance of a Polysynth filter. When the dot sits in the middle, some cutoff and resonance modulation is applied to both. Moving toward the bottom-right increases resonance modulation markedly while reducing cutoff quickly, but not perfectly symmetrically, again highlighting the non-linear nature of the modulation.

Multiple Modulations and the “Morphed Preset” Concept

Just like Bitwig’s Select 4 or Mix modulators, Vector 4 can act as a “morphing preset” modulator. You assign each corner to represent distinct sound settings. For instance, one corner could be a bass sound configuration, another a pad, a lead, and a snare. By moving the dot or automating its position, you seamlessly blend between these setups, crafting evolving, organic soundscapes.

Modulating the Modulator

Because any parameter in Bitwig can be a modulation target, you can even modulate the position or axis sliders of Vector 4 using other modulators like LFOs. This “modulating the modulator” allows for orbit-like, automated transitions through different sound states, further boosting creative possibilities.

Vector 8: The Extended Version

The Vector 8 modulator works identically to Vector 4 but offers eight modulation targets (handles) positioned at the corners and edges. This simply increases the number of possible sound destinations and the complexity of your morphing possibilities, but the operational principles remain the same.

Conclusion

The Vector 4 (and Vector 8) modulator in Bitwig Studio provides a uniquely intuitive and powerful way to morph between multiple parameter sets. Its non-linear modulation curves, ability to be modulated by other sources, and multi-target architecture make it a versatile creative tool for dynamic sound design, especially effective for live performance and evolving patches. Understanding the curves and modulation mapping helps to get precise, smooth transitions and more control over your sound.

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] So the vector of four modulator inside Bitwig Studio is a funny one because it looks nice.
[00:00:06] You have here this dot that you can move around in each corner.
[00:00:10] And each corner has a modulator handle where you can, you guessed it, probably apply some
[00:00:16] modulation to some random target.
[00:00:19] And then you can move between it or can move between the modulation targets and apply different
[00:00:25] amounts of modulation to different targets.
[00:00:28] And it's kind of like the select four modulator and the mix modulator I showed you earlier.
[00:00:35] They can apply, yeah, multiple amounts of modulation to different targets.
[00:00:40] You also have here at the left side some kind of slider where you can lock down basically
[00:00:45] the movement to one axis.
[00:00:48] And you can also use this to modulate from other modulators so you can highlight or can
[00:00:54] use a modulator handle from a different modulator and then modulate this axis here and let the
[00:01:00] ball dance.
[00:01:03] There is some special, yeah, there's a special thing to how this modulation works here.
[00:01:11] And I show you this here in this example on the polysand.
[00:01:15] There's also a vector eight modulator which works exactly the same, but instead of four
[00:01:22] you have eight modulator handles here, represented by these dots.
[00:01:28] But back to the vector four here, let's see, we apply here with this modulator handle in
[00:01:35] the left top corner to the cutoff here in the polysand all the way.
[00:01:43] And down in the right hand corner, we modulate here the resonance all the way, right?
[00:01:50] So now see how this looks like.
[00:01:52] When I double click here, this dot, it switches back to the center, but you can see we already
[00:01:57] apply some modulation to both of these targets.
[00:02:00] So it's not zero.
[00:02:02] And when I move here the dot to the right corner, right bottom corner, you can see we modulate
[00:02:08] now resonance all the way because this dot now is pretty close to this modulator handle
[00:02:14] in the right bottom corner.
[00:02:15] If I switch back here to the center, you can see we slowly apply a modulation to the cutoff,
[00:02:23] but very slowly and much, much faster we remove the modulation from the resonance.
[00:02:30] So it's kind of an exponential or logarithmic curve in how the modulation is applied.
[00:02:37] So it's not linear, right?
[00:02:38] So it's not like I'm going the same speed up in resonance as I go down in cutoff.
[00:02:45] So middle position is always a slight amount of modulation applied to all these targets
[00:02:52] you use here.
[00:02:54] Maybe also use it to the right top corner and maybe apply this here to the attack.
[00:03:01] Maybe the bottom left, we use here the attack from the amplitude.
[00:03:06] You can see we already apply a little bit of modulation to all of these targets.
[00:03:12] Only when we move the dot in one corner, we remove basically these two modulations where
[00:03:18] the dot is the farthest apart from.
[00:03:21] So in this case here, it's the opposite, this one here and this one probably, yeah and also
[00:03:28] this one.
[00:03:29] So dots are basically zero and only this modulation on the left bottom corner is basically applied
[00:03:38] back to middle position.
[00:03:40] So it's a logarithmic exponential curve to all of these modulations.
[00:03:45] That's important to know.
[00:03:47] So now do these sliders here on the left and the right hand on the bottom.
[00:03:52] You can use an LFO and can apply a modulation to this, right?
[00:03:58] There's also modulation to this if you want to.
[00:04:05] Maybe we duplicate this here and use a different phase setting, 50%, to relate this to that.
[00:04:16] So now you can see we basically have some kind of orbit around this middle point here.
[00:04:27] Yeah, you can see we apply all kinds of different modulations to these points.
[00:04:32] And exactly like the Select 4 modulator, you can use this kind of a morphing preset modulator.
[00:04:38] So you use one of these modulator handles, dial in all the values you want to have for
[00:04:47] a certain type of sound and then you move on to another modulator handle here and dial
[00:04:53] in a different pair of values to different targets and create a different sound.
[00:05:00] And then you can morph between these different presets kind of, right?
[00:05:04] And you morph between all these settings and can maybe change between the bass sound down
[00:05:10] here and switch to a pad sound over here and maybe go to lead sound here and maybe a snare
[00:05:17] sound there.
[00:05:18] I don't know.
[00:05:19] You can create different kind of sounds and you can morph between these sounds with this
[00:05:24] modulator pretty easily.
[00:05:27] And here the Vector 8 is basically the same, like I said before, but instead of 4 we have
[00:05:31] 8 targets.
[00:05:32] So here we have also here the middle lines, we have also targets, but it works exactly
[00:05:40] like the Vector 4.
[00:05:41] It's basically the same modulator, just having more modulation targets available.
[00:05:47] [BLANK_AUDIO]