Bitwig Reverb Device - Configurable Early and Late Reflections Reverb
Bitwig Guide | Nov 10, 2022
The Bitwig Studio reverb is divided into early reflections for simulating room characteristics, late reflections for controlling the decay and frequency of the space, and an output section for blending the wet and dry signals, as well as adjusting stereo width. Unique features like wet FX and tank FX allow creative manipulation by adding effects either to the wet output or within the feedback loop, drastically shaping the reverb's sound and character. By tweaking parameters such as diffusion, room size, and feedback processing, you can achieve anything from subtle room ambiance to complex, experimental effects.
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Short Overview #
Using Bitwig Studio's reverb, I can shape space for my sounds by adjusting three main parts: early reflections for simulating the first bounce of sound in an imaginary room, late reflections for controlling how long the reverb sustains, and the output section for blending dry and wet signals. The width knob lets me control the stereo spread, and I can get creative by adding effects to just the wet signal or to the feedback loop with the wet FX and tank FX boxes. By experimenting with room size, diffusion, and effects, I can craft anything from subtle spaces to striking, modulated ambiences, all while keeping my mix balanced and interesting.
- The Bitwig Studio reverb is divided into three main parts: early reflections, late reflections, and output.
- Early reflections simulate the initial sound waves bouncing off the walls of an imaginary room, giving a sense of space and size.
- The early reflections section includes controls for room model (room or hall), room size, and diffusion to shape how sound is reflected.
- Late reflections handle the reverb’s “tail” or decay, simulating how sound rings out in a space.
- The late section features independent controls for low and high-frequency reflection times and a build-up (diffusion) knob for smoothing or clarifying reverb tail.
- The output section lets you blend between the dry (unprocessed) and wet (reverberated) signal and adjust stereo width, from mono to enhanced stereo.
- There are two dedicated effect sections: wet FX (applies effects only to the reverb output) and tank FX (applies effects to the feedback loop, influencing the evolving reverb sound).
- Tank FX can be used creatively to introduce pitch shifts, modulation, or other effects in the late/stage reflection chain, greatly altering the reverb's character.
- The mix knob is key for positioning sounds in the mix, helping push them forward or backward in a 3D sound space.
- Practical tips include isolating early or late reflections, using tank and wet FX for creative sound design, and altering reverb characteristics for dynamic, unique results.
Introduction to Bitwig Studio’s Reverb #
In this summary, I’ll walk you through the main features and concepts behind Bitwig Studio’s reverb device, explaining how you can shape spaces, play with signal flow, and get creative with your sound design. The reverb is organized into three main sections: early reflections, late reflections, and the output stage, each offering a palette of parameters and creative effects. I expand on both technical and artistic uses, as demonstrated in the video.
The Three Main Parts of Bitwig Studio’s Reverb #
Early Reflections #
Early reflections allow you to simulate being in an imaginary room. Bitwig’s approach does not aim at emulating any real acoustic space precisely, it’s more about giving your sound the feel of some place. Early reflections are what you would hear in the first milliseconds after a sound is made, consisting of the first sound waves bouncing off nearby surfaces and returning to your ears. In the reverb device, these reflections can be shaped by:
- Room Model and Size: You can switch between smaller or larger spaces such as “room” or “hall” models and adjust the room size percentage to simulate anything from tight booths to open halls.
- Mix Knob: This lets you blend between the direct, unaffected (dry) signal and the reverberated (wet) signal, simulating how close or far the microphone is from the source.
- Diffusion: Controls how evenly the early reflections’ delays are distributed. Lower diffusion makes distinct echo “taps” more audible (simulating sparse spaces like stadiums), while higher diffusion gives a smoother, denser texture (suggesting cluttered, absorbent spaces).
Late Reflections #
Late reflections represent the sustained tail of the reverb, what we typically think of as the reverberant “decay.” This simulates how an original sound gradually dies out after multiple complex bounces in a space.
- Delay Time: Controls the overall decay time, allowing lengths up to 31.6 seconds for massive, drawn-out reverbs.
- Frequency Splitter: Lets you apply different decay times to lower and higher frequency bands; this is useful for shaping the spectral quality of the tail (for example, having a longer, darker low-end tail and a shorter, crisp high-end).
- Late Mix: Adjusts how much of the late tail is present in the output, in both serial and parallel configurations with the early reflections.
- Build Up: Functions similarly to diffusion but for the reverb tail. At lower build-up settings you can hear individual delay taps; higher build-up settings smooth out the decay.
Output Stage #
The output section determines how the overall reverberated signal is blended and positioned in your stereo field.
- Wet/Dry Control: At 0%, you hear only your dry, unaffected signal; at 100%, purely the reverberated (wet) signal is audible. Intermediate values let you blend both to taste.
- Width Control: Makes the signal mono (0%), leaves it unaltered in stereo (100%), or increases stereo width up to 150% by enhancing side channels and reducing the mid channel.
- Wet FX and Tank FX: Two effect insert slots for further creative manipulation.
- Wet FX applies effects only to the wet signal, after the main reverb path.
- Tank FX goes into the feedback path, meaning each time the reverb tail “loops” through the feedback engine, it passes through whatever effects you’ve inserted here.
Signal Processing Concepts Used in the Reverb #
All-Pass Filters and Delay Lines #
The core of the early reflections and diffusion sections likely uses all-pass filters and delay lines. These are widely used in reverb algorithms to simulate complex delay patterns that create dense fields of echoes or smooth, natural decay.
Feedback Routing #
Many reverbs, including this one, employ a feedback structure. The reverberated signal is looped back into the input, simulating ongoing energy bouncing around a room. Increasing feedback increases the sustain or length of the reverb tail.
Diffusion, Early and Late Reflections #
- Diffusion diffuses echoes in time, making a reverb smoother and more convincing, rather than a series of distinct repeats.
- Early Reflections provide spatial cues about size and wall proximity.
- Late Reflections define the overall “wash” of reverb, controlling how long and how complex the tail is.
Creative Possibilities with Effects #
Using Wet FX and Tank FX #
- Creative Processing: Insert devices like pitch shifters, rotary modulation, or chorus in the Tank FX section to process the reverb tail only. Because Tank FX sits in the feedback loop, effects accumulate, allowing for things like shimmer reverbs (with pitch shift each feedback pass) or modulated tails.
- Wet FX Post-Processing: Wet FX gives you post-reverb processing without affecting the feedback loop of the reverb itself, useful for adding finishing touches like EQ, compression, or one-off effects.
Example Applications #
- Shimmer Reverb: Adding a pitch shifter to Tank FX and setting it to +12 semitones transposes the feedback tail upward, creating ethereal, rising reverberated tones.
- Stereo Enhancement: A chorus effect in Wet FX or Tank FX can widen the reverb, making it more lush and immersive.
- Dynamic Modulation: A rotary device modulates both level and delay, imparting subtle movement to the tail, creating evolving ambiences.
Reverb as a Mixing Tool #
Reverb isn’t just for atmosphere, it’s a powerful tool for mixing depth. By adjusting the blend of dry and wet signal, you “place” sounds in a three-dimensional space, pushing them further back (more reverb) or pulling them forward (less reverb, more dry). You can shape the perceived space around an instrument, making it background or foreground in the mix not just through volume but through spatial context.
Conclusion #
Bitwig Studio’s reverb is a versatile, tweakable device that gives you control over early and late reflections, as well as plenty of scope for creative sound design thanks to its flexible routing and effect slots. By understanding the concepts of early/late reflections, diffusion, feedback, and creative FX application, you can craft everything from believable room simulations to extreme, otherworldly ambiences. Play with its settings to discover countless sonic spaces both realistic and surreal.
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 this is the reverb of Bitwig Studio and it's dissected into three main parts.
[00:00:05] We have the early reflections part here where we can kind of simulate some room, some individual
[00:00:12] room, some imaginary room, it's not a real room simulation, it's just to give you the
[00:00:19] feel of some kind of room.
[00:00:21] Then we have the late reflections part here in the middle where you can try and ring out
[00:00:26] the sound you just produced here with the early reflections.
[00:00:30] And then we have the output part here where you can mix in the wet signal slowly to the
[00:00:36] tri-signal.
[00:00:37] If you have this at 0%, you have the tri-signal only.
[00:00:39] If you pull this up to 100%, you only hear the wet signal and you probably want something
[00:00:44] in the middle here where you have a mixture of the reverb and the tri-signal.
[00:00:49] Then we have the width knob here and with this one you can make the output completely
[00:00:55] mono by pulling this down to 0%.
[00:00:58] 100% is basically no change to the stereo signal at all and 150% is increasing the side
[00:01:09] channels of a signal and I think you also reduce a bit the mid channel of a signal.
[00:01:15] So you make the stereo signal even wider.
[00:01:18] So if you double click this, you go back to a specific of 80.6% for whatever reason.
[00:01:26] I have no idea why, but that's the default for me.
[00:01:29] Then we have a wet FX box where you can add audio effects to the wet signal only and we
[00:01:34] have a tank FX box here where you can put on some audio effects to the feedback chain
[00:01:43] because every reverb has some kind of feedback routing.
[00:01:47] This means that internally you take the output of the reverb and feed it back into the input
[00:01:55] of the reverb.
[00:01:56] So you create this kind of looping behavior inside the reverb and the more you add feedback
[00:02:02] to it all, the more you add gain to this routing, you can sustain the reverb even longer and
[00:02:10] every time you iterate through this routing, you add here some kind of audio effect to
[00:02:15] it.
[00:02:16] It has a big influence on the texture of the sound of the reverb so you can drastically
[00:02:21] change how the reverb sounds with this tank FX box and this is also where you can get
[00:02:26] creative.
[00:02:28] So maybe we completely focus on the early reflections part here and to do this we bring
[00:02:34] down here the late mix to 0% so we only hear this part here and then we have an input signal
[00:02:41] of a piano sound that sounds like this and then we pull up the mixer to 100% so we can
[00:02:51] only hear what the reverb is doing or what the reverb does and this is basically just
[00:03:00] the early reflections part here and with early reflections the meaning of that is that basically
[00:03:10] when you are inside of a room and you have inside this room some kind of sound source,
[00:03:16] maybe a speaker, maybe you're just sitting there talking, these sound waves are going
[00:03:23] out to the room, over the air, to a wall and then these walls of course depends on their
[00:03:31] material are reflecting these signal, these sound waves and the first reflection from
[00:03:37] these walls are going back to your ears or to your microphone or whatever you have inside
[00:03:44] this room.
[00:03:45] So this is basically what we are talking about about early reflections.
[00:03:49] It's the first sound wave hitting the walls of your imaginary room coming back to you
[00:03:54] into your ears and you can change here how the room is looking or what kind of imaginary
[00:04:02] room you want to have.
[00:04:04] So room model is probably just a smaller room, hall is something bigger and then you can
[00:04:09] change the size here by increasing the percentage value of this room.
[00:04:15] So maybe we just go here with the room.
[00:04:16] So this simulates some kind of smaller room and indeed it sounds like a small room.
[00:04:29] But you can't change it's basically where you are in this room, so at which position
[00:04:34] or where the sound source is.
[00:04:37] So sometimes you want to move closer to your sound source with the microphone.
[00:04:42] So imagine you have an empty room inside this room is a piano, this one, right?
[00:04:50] And you want to move with the microphone closer to your piano and you can't do this here.
[00:04:58] But what you can do is just bring down the mix knob and this gives you more of the direct
[00:05:03] signal from the piano itself.
[00:05:05] So the piano sends out sound waves but instead of what is reflected from the walls you want
[00:05:13] to hear more of the direct sound coming directly from the piano without the reflections.
[00:05:19] So you can do this with a mix knob, right?
[00:05:20] So this is completely direct signal and then you move away from the piano with your microphone.
[00:05:27] And the more you move away from this piano, you get more and more information from your
[00:05:40] room instead of your piano because the piano moves further away, further away and you get
[00:05:48] more and more room information.
[00:05:50] So this is what you can simulate basically with this mix knob, how close you are to your
[00:05:54] source.
[00:05:58] And also you can use this to imagine inside of a mix down because free rubs are used also
[00:06:03] as a mixing tool because you can bring sounds or sound sources more in the background or
[00:06:13] more in the foreground, right?
[00:06:15] So you can say I want to have this piano sound slightly in the background.
[00:06:19] So instead of just pulling down the volume on the piano, you can also use reverb and
[00:06:23] put it in the background so it's more like a 3D kind of moving your instruments away.
[00:06:36] And instruments more in the foreground like a lead sound you want to have probably a lot
[00:06:39] less reverb or room information on there.
[00:06:45] So we pull this back here to 100% and we can change here of course the room size, we can
[00:06:51] make this room a bit bigger so we can increase here the size to 200% or make it even smaller.
[00:07:06] And you can hear from these artifacts coming in when I change the value that we change indeed
[00:07:13] some delay times.
[00:07:14] So there are probably some kind of all pass devices involved in this kind of simulation
[00:07:22] here and where you change basically the delay times of these all pass devices.
[00:07:37] So then we have down here diffusion and this is pretty important to know that we actually
[00:07:41] change here all pass parameters because with diffusion we can change how evenly distributed
[00:07:49] these delay times are which means you have probably maybe four or five or ten or whatever
[00:07:57] individual all pass delays and each all pass device has a different delay time and you
[00:08:07] can spread out these delay times here more evenly with the diffusion and you can hear
[00:08:12] when we have this down here at 100% we can hear these individual delay tabs.
[00:08:21] Can hear these small little delay things right.
[00:08:26] If you pull this up we have a more like a smoother signal.
[00:08:43] So you can use this maybe if you want to simulate some kind of stadium or some big live concert
[00:08:49] where you have more like a bigger space but still you have reflecting walls from different
[00:08:55] houses or skyscrapers or maybe ad signs or something like this you can pull this down
[00:09:00] here and then you have this kind of effect and you want to you simulate more like a dance
[00:09:08] room where you have a lot of stuff in there the diffusion is not so clear so or more clearer
[00:09:16] or more diffuse then you pull this up to 100% and it's much much smoother okay so and this
[00:09:28] has a big influence on the sound itself how you model your room basically so it's a room
[00:09:32] simulation what you have here a small little simple room simulation and if you switched
[00:09:39] to hall you have a probably a much much bigger room and 200% it's even more bigger and when
[00:09:49] you pull diffusion down you can hear more delay tabs because the room is bigger actually
[00:10:06] you probably don't change your delay times you bring in it sounds more like that you
[00:10:12] bring in more or past devices or something like this here you have my but maybe just
[00:10:17] three or past devices playing or four and here you have maybe 10 so you have more in
[00:10:26] between I don't know how this is made internally I have no idea but I'm guessing I'm guessing
[00:10:33] how this works basically just to give you a rough explanation so now that we can model
[00:10:40] our room our first reflection room or the first reflections of this imaginary room we
[00:10:46] can then go into the next stage here with which is the late stage the late stage simulates
[00:10:51] basically how long it takes to ring out for a signal so you maybe imagine you have like
[00:11:00] this room and then you stretch out this room so it's longer and has more depth like it's
[00:11:07] more like a tunnel right so you can increase the delay time can bring in the late mix here
[00:11:31] and the delay time here goes up to 31.6 seconds it's also very specific number for some reason
[00:11:39] and then you have both these knobs here left and right this blue one and this red one and
[00:11:48] you can change the delay times relative to this main delay time here for the lower part
[00:11:57] at this basic frequency splitter in here or you have two reverbs or two late stages one
[00:12:04] is the lower late stage here and one is the higher late stage and higher means higher
[00:12:09] frequencies lower frequencies so if you want to have more like a deeper sounding reverb
[00:12:14] you can increase delay time for this low stage here by using this and you can see it's times
[00:12:22] 1.78 times the mid timing so it's 1.78 times longer than 31.6 seconds and maybe you also
[00:12:34] want to have a shorter upper delay time as we can pull this down here nearly half half
[00:12:41] timing of this one half as long as this number so you can also influence how this reverb is
[00:12:53] weighted in frequency and the frequency distribution and you have a mix knob so this is the late
[00:13:05] mix only I think or not only it's actually it goes into the early reflections and then
[00:13:15] into the late mix but you only have here the late mix happening so it's basically a serial
[00:13:20] rooting and if you pull this down to 50% you can hear the late mix and the early reflections
[00:13:27] mix on top so it's parallel and serial at the same time and then you have this build
[00:13:37] up knob here and this works in my opinion exactly the same as the diffusion it can make delay
[00:13:46] smoother here you can still hear some delay tabs happening over time right maybe make this
[00:13:58] room smaller make it even super small I can hear these small delay tabs and you can remove
[00:14:18] this by using build up so we bring this up and it's much much smoother you can't make
[00:14:23] out these delay tabs anymore make it shorter and here you can hear it clearly
[00:14:51] so what this means is you can easily switch this reverb between having here completely
[00:14:58] nice little delay tabs so we pull this diffusion down make this bit bigger here so we can hear
[00:15:05] these delay tabs from the earlier reflections part and we can use here this one and use
[00:15:10] to build up at 0% we have only individual delay tabs which makes it sometimes sound like
[00:15:24] even a crane reverb
[00:15:48] or we can make it super smooth by pulling this up so this is basically how the reverb
[00:16:03] works and how you can utilize this it's super simple super easy and you can tweak it a lot
[00:16:12] I forgot to mention that you can change that you can change here the frequency splitter
[00:16:16] if you want to but I never did this really but you can try it out you can change the
[00:16:23] sound of course with this too when you change the delay times for certain bands and try
[00:16:30] and figure out what kind of sound you are going for maybe make the lower part a bit
[00:16:42] longer also depends on what kind of sound you are using as a source
[00:16:56] okay so now that we have this we close this down and maybe we increase here the sizing
[00:17:02] of the twigs we can see what's going on so maybe you want to use the tank FX at first
[00:17:11] with the pitch device which is the easiest and nicest way to explain this so the tank
[00:17:19] FX in my opinion goes only onto the late stage it's also building up here at the moment because
[00:17:27] this is yellow and also the tank FX is yellow so my opinion tank FX only works on the late
[00:17:33] stage and so we bring up here the late stage and say we want to go every time we go through
[00:17:41] the feedback loop I think you also delay the reverb time is basically a gain knob you increase
[00:17:48] the gain of the feedback feedback routing so if you pull this up you increase the loudness
[00:17:56] of the feedback routing so every time we pass through this pitch the pitch shifter here we
[00:18:02] increase the pitch by let's say 2 or maybe 2 or maybe 5 semitones and bring the mix up
[00:18:14] and this should end up in some kind of slow increase of notes
[00:18:36] you can hear every time it goes through this loop you add one or you add five semitones
[00:18:42] to this audio signal so it goes up every time we pass through this feedback loop and we
[00:18:50] can utilize this and say we want to maybe go in unison steps here in 12 semitones and
[00:18:57] make some kind of shimmer reverb
[00:19:17] if you think this is too drastic then you can try it on the wet FX so the wet FX is
[00:19:22] basically just the output the wet signal of the reverb so there's no feedback happening
[00:19:28] so we only pitch up by 12 semitones maybe bring in the mix here
[00:19:45] so that's something you can do also interesting is on the tank FX here maybe use a rotary
[00:20:04] a rotary device is basically changing at the loudness with an LFO and also the timing
[00:20:15] delay modulation here with the rate so you can make us use a slow rate and change the
[00:20:20] timing a bit and the amplitude a bit so bring in some movement to the reverb over time
[00:20:26] [MUSIC]
[00:20:36] [MUSIC]
[00:20:56] Or maybe try it out, even on the bad effects.
[00:20:59] [MUSIC]
[00:21:21] The rotary is very nice on the 10 FX in my opinion.
[00:21:25] [MUSIC]
[00:21:28] Also, you can use a chorus.
[00:21:30] Maybe use one of the new chorus devices here.
[00:21:33] [MUSIC]
[00:21:35] And yeah, make it even wider.
[00:21:37] [MUSIC]
[00:21:44] I bring the feedback down.
[00:21:45] [MUSIC]
[00:22:14] So you can use all kinds of devices just to experiment with the reverb
[00:22:18] and what does, what do the sound.
[00:22:20] And certain combinations can give you a really nice reverb
[00:22:26] just by experimenting with the 10 FX and the WET FX box.
[00:22:31] But this video is only about the reverb and how it works.
[00:22:35] So I want to end this video here.
[00:22:38] And you probably find at some point on my main channel
[00:22:42] a lot of tips and tricks how I can use or utilize the reverb
[00:22:45] with certain different devices.
[00:22:48] [BLANK_AUDIO]