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Bitwig Audio Receiver Device - Dynamic Audio Routing and Modulation

Bitwig Guide | Mär 01, 2023

The audio receiver in Bitwig Studio allows you to inject and blend audio from other tracks at any point in your effects chain, providing flexibility to creatively combine and manipulate audio. You can add effects, adjust gain, and automate mixing, even on instrument tracks that are typically for MIDI instruments. By using devices like Chain and modulators such as Pasek Eight, you can sequence, shuffle, and switch smoothly between multiple audio sources for dynamic and rhythmic sound design.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

Short Overview

In Bitwig Studio, I can use the audio receiver to blend audio from other tracks directly into my current track at any point in the signal chain, giving me a lot of creative flexibility. I can process the incoming audio with effects before injecting it and even modulate how much of it is mixed in, which opens up fun possibilities for sound design and live manipulation. By using multiple receivers with modulators like the Phase-4 or Chain device, I can sequence, blend, and shuffle sounds from different tracks in unique rhythmic or melodic ways. This approach lets me move beyond static arrangements and makes my workflow far more dynamic and experimental.

Overview of the Bitwig Studio Audio Receiver

In this explanation, I’m diving deep into how the Audio Receiver device in Bitwig Studio works. I cover its features, show different use cases, and provide creative ideas on how to integrate audio sources flexibly within your tracks. The summary is focused on using the Audio Receiver in both typical and creative music production workflows.

What Is the Audio Receiver?

The Audio Receiver in Bitwig Studio is a device that allows one track to receive and integrate audio from another track. This device is extremely versatile, as it lets you blend, inject, or process external audio sources anywhere in your signal chain. This also means you’re not confined to working only with the audio already in a given track; instead, you can reach out to any other track within your project and make use of its audio output.

Selecting the Audio Source

The Audio Receiver presents a menu where I can choose which track’s audio to receive. For example, I might select the output of a polysynth. Once chosen, this external audio is then routed into my current track, where it can be mixed or blended with whatever else is happening in that channel.

Effects, Gain, and Mix Modulation

There’s more to the Audio Receiver than basic audio routing:

Using Audio Receiver on Instrument Tracks

Typically, instrument tracks are meant only for instruments (MIDI devices), but the Audio Receiver device extends their capabilities. I can play a synth via MIDI and simultaneously receive and blend in audio streams from other sources. The track’s drop-down menu allows me to select from MIDI-capable tracks (controllers, keyboards, or instrument tracks with note data), broadening creative options by layering or processing audio in ways not normally possible on instrument tracks.

Injecting Audio Within the Chain

A unique feature is that I can choose exactly where in my device chain the received audio is injected. For example, I can place it before or after a reverb effect or anywhere else I choose by dragging the Audio Receiver in the device list. This provides precise control over signal path and processing order, which is crucial for advanced sound design and mixing.

Advanced Use Case: Sequencing Multiple Audio Receivers

As an example, I set up a collection of synth tracks all playing together and routed each of their outputs into separate instances of the Audio Receiver on a new track. By grouping these Audio Receivers in a Chain device, I can further sequence their activity using the “Phase-4” modulator called Pasek Eight.

Creative and Rhythmic Modulation

I also demonstrate how the Pasek Eight can be used for highly creative modulation:

Practical Applications

This flexible routing is especially useful in genres needing rapid sound changes, such as bass music. The Audio Receiver makes it easy to rhythmically switch between different processed basses, synths, or effects chains, something traditionally awkward or tedious to achieve without complicated routing, bounces, or group tracks. Additionally, since Audio Receiver can be precisely positioned in the chain, I can control which effects or instrument outputs the external audio interacts with, opening up deep levels of creative sound design.

Summary

The Audio Receiver in Bitwig Studio opens up powerful workflows for combining, processing, and sequencing audio between tracks. Its ability to modulate the mix, insert FX, and choose precise injection points makes it central for advanced production, live performance setups, and experimental sound design. With creative modulators like Pasek Eight, it becomes even more flexible, letting me animate, sequence, and morph between multiple sound sources rhythmically or randomly, all within a single track. This expands what’s possible with instruments, effects, and automatic switching, encouraging new creative uses across music production styles.

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] The audio receiver of Bitwig Studio
[00:00:02] receives audio from a different track.
[00:00:04] You can select the audio source here.
[00:00:07] Maybe we use this pully synth here, this pully synth output.
[00:00:11] And you can use this audio material here
[00:00:13] and mix it or blend it in with your current audio material.
[00:00:17] So you can inject audio in certain places in your chain
[00:00:22] and can grab audio from different tracks
[00:00:25] and bring it into your current track.
[00:00:27] There's also a source FX box here
[00:00:30] where you can add some additional audio effects,
[00:00:32] also VST devices, maybe a tool device,
[00:00:34] maybe compression, maybe reverb,
[00:00:37] whatever you want to use to alter your audio
[00:00:39] before you inject it.
[00:00:41] There's also a gain knob here
[00:00:42] where you can match the level of the incoming audio
[00:00:45] with your current audio level
[00:00:47] so it makes sense to mix it in, actually.
[00:00:49] And there's this mix knob here, of course.
[00:00:51] And it's nice that you can modulate this mix knob
[00:00:55] because it makes this device basically nice
[00:00:59] for creative uses.
[00:01:00] And I'll show you in a minute how you can do that.
[00:01:03] But first, I want to close this down here
[00:01:05] and can show you that you can use this audio receiver
[00:01:07] actually on an instrument track.
[00:01:10] And instrument tracks are actually only made for instruments.
[00:01:15] That's why they are called instrument tracks.
[00:01:18] You can use a pully synth here.
[00:01:20] You can see we can play this pully synth now
[00:01:23] with our keyboard and also receive MIDI data
[00:01:27] from the piano roll and also use the drop-downs here.
[00:01:31] And on this drop-down,
[00:01:32] you can only select tracks with MIDI data.
[00:01:35] So you can select MIDI controllers or keyboards
[00:01:38] and also different MIDI tracks or instrument tracks here
[00:01:43] where you have MIDI data on it or note data on it.
[00:01:47] So on these instrument tracks,
[00:01:50] you can use the audio receiver and inject audio here
[00:01:53] and blend it together with the output of this pully synth.
[00:01:56] So it makes basically the instrument tracks
[00:01:59] receivable for audio data.
[00:02:02] So this is basically a special use case.
[00:02:04] You can also decide where you want to inject your audio.
[00:02:07] So you can move this over here maybe, right?
[00:02:09] Or you have reverb here at the end
[00:02:12] and you want to inject the audio in front of the reverb
[00:02:15] or after the reverb.
[00:02:16] So you can decide where you add this data
[00:02:19] or where you inject it.
[00:02:21] So this makes it a bit special
[00:02:23] because you have the freedom
[00:02:27] of choosing where you want to inject audio.
[00:02:29] You can also delete this here again.
[00:02:33] So another way of using this is
[00:02:38] we have here this instrument track
[00:02:39] and there is basically one audio receiver here.
[00:02:43] And we have here on the first track just some kind of beat.
[00:02:46] And then we have down here a collection of multiple tracks.
[00:02:54] And these tracks are basically synthesizers
[00:02:56] playing some sounds.
[00:02:58] And when you unmute this here
[00:03:00] and we play everything together, it sounds like this.
[00:03:02] So basically a lot of sounds playing together
[00:03:09] at the same time.
[00:03:12] So what we can do now is,
[00:03:13] and that's pretty fun actually to do,
[00:03:15] is to just mute this group here.
[00:03:17] Go to the mixed instrument track here
[00:03:22] where we have our audio receiver
[00:03:24] and then say I want to receive audio here
[00:03:26] from the first synthesizer in this collections group, right?
[00:03:31] Polysynth one, output post, this track, right?
[00:03:36] And then we just duplicate this here
[00:03:39] and select the second polysynth output.
[00:03:42] Duplicate, select the third one.
[00:03:46] And we have also a bass in there.
[00:03:48] Collection, bass, output, right?
[00:03:52] So now we receive audio from these four tracks here
[00:03:57] in this collection folder.
[00:03:58] And the collection bus is basically muted.
[00:04:01] So we can hit play here.
[00:04:03] Or let's actually single this solo this here.
[00:04:07] So we can hit play here.
[00:04:08] And then we can fade in
[00:04:10] this synthesizer or this track.
[00:04:15] So we can bring this in.
[00:04:24] And what we can do now is we can use a chain device
[00:04:27] and put all of these audio receivers
[00:04:30] into this chain device.
[00:04:31] And on this chain device, we can use Pasek eight,
[00:04:38] modulator, and you can see we have your multiple steps
[00:04:41] and we can modulate something with each step.
[00:04:46] And there's also a tutorial on this page here
[00:04:49] for the Pasek eight, if you want to dive into this more.
[00:04:52] So we can use the first step, modulate the first audio source
[00:04:57] then the second one, the third one and the fourth one.
[00:05:02] So now we bring down here the steps to four
[00:05:05] because we have only four steps.
[00:05:07] We can use of course your eight audio receivers,
[00:05:10] if you want to.
[00:05:11] And now when we hit play,
[00:05:13] we basically step through the sequencer here
[00:05:15] and mix in each of these devices.
[00:05:19] So instead of playing this basically in parallel
[00:05:29] all the time, like we did here with the collections, right?
[00:05:34] We just mute this, use this instrument track here,
[00:05:37] use the Pasek eight to sequence basically
[00:05:40] when we fade in each of these audio receivers.
[00:05:43] So we play only one sound or one track at a time with this,
[00:05:48] which makes it already interesting.
[00:05:50] And it sounds like riff, right?
[00:05:53] It sounds like some kind of sequence
[00:05:55] that's nice to listen to.
[00:05:58] But we can also now alter here the settings of this Pasek eight
[00:06:03] to make some changes to how it plays back.
[00:06:06] So first we can introduce here a groove.
[00:06:10] So we have a global shuffle, 50%,
[00:06:13] which is pretty much, yeah, very much actually
[00:06:16] for this type of track.
[00:06:19] So 50% and we can use it to transport on this Pasek eight
[00:06:23] and use with groove.
[00:06:25] So now the playback is actually shuffled
[00:06:28] by the global shuffle amount.
[00:06:30] (upbeat music)
[00:06:33] We can change the playback direction with this.
[00:06:37] We can play it backwards and forwards.
[00:06:40] (upbeat music)
[00:06:43] We can change this playback speed here.
[00:06:48] (upbeat music)
[00:06:51] Or maybe a bit slower here or dotted.
[00:06:56] (upbeat music)
[00:06:59] (upbeat music)
[00:07:02] So something like this.
[00:07:10] And you can also use here the smoothing option.
[00:07:13] That's the face modulation, this one here.
[00:07:16] So when we turn this up, you can see it,
[00:07:18] it switches from switching these devices
[00:07:22] to slowly fading between these devices.
[00:07:26] (upbeat music)
[00:07:29] (upbeat music)
[00:07:32] So this is nice to know when you actually deal
[00:07:36] with some zero crossing click, click sounds,
[00:07:41] and you want to, you know, get rid of this,
[00:07:44] you dial up here the smoothing a bit.
[00:07:47] So it slowly fades between these mix knobs,
[00:07:50] which makes it a bit smoother, I guess.
[00:07:55] Another thing is, yeah, that you can play around
[00:07:58] with the groove and you can use multiple receivers here
[00:08:01] and use this in multiple creative ways, right?
[00:08:06] So this is also nice if you do some bass music
[00:08:09] and you wouldn't want to switch
[00:08:10] between different bass sounds pretty fast.
[00:08:13] And you also want to change when you switch
[00:08:16] between these bass sounds in a rhythmical way.
[00:08:21] So you can also modulate this,
[00:08:22] classic eight again, but different,
[00:08:24] maybe with the step mode here, right?
[00:08:27] And say I'm using a step mode here
[00:08:29] and then modulate the speed setting here
[00:08:31] or the playback direction with this.
[00:08:33] Or let's use this one here, maybe go for two,
[00:08:38] then randomize this here.
[00:08:42] (upbeat music)
[00:08:51] So you can use this in all kinds of creative ways
[00:08:54] to bring in audio from different tracks.
[00:08:57] That's at least how I use it most of the times.
[00:09:00] And it's just one use case I want to show you, okay?
[00:09:04] So this is the audio receiver here of Bitwig Studio.
[00:09:07] It's creative and it's nice to have.
[00:09:12] [BLANK_AUDIO]