Random Step Sequencer for Melodies in Bitwig
Tutorial | Jul 02, 2019
In this video, I show you how to create a step sequencer that generates a melody on a click and in scale. I start by setting up a polygrid and creating a clock using a scaler. Then, I use a counter to create the step sequencer and apply some math to get clean integer values for each step. I use a dice to generate random notes and a comparing module to trigger the steps. I also use a pitch scaler to narrow down the range of the notes and a pitch quantize module to further refine the melody. Finally, I demonstrate how to use logic operators like smaller and bigger to manipulate the signals. Overall, it's a basic setup, but you can customize and expand on it as you wish.
You can watch the Video on Youtube - support me on Patreon
Questions & Answers #
Maybe you dont watch the video, here are some important takeaways:
Questions: #
1. How do I create a step sequence that generates a melody on a click in scale? #
To create a step sequence that generates a melody on a click in scale, you will need to follow these steps:
- Set up a polygrid on your track with the default modules.
- Create a clock using a scaler module and wire up the phase input to the scaler.
- Use a counter to create a step sequencer by wiring it up to the previous modules.
- Apply some math to the counter's output to get a clean integer value using a multiply module and a constant module.
- Set the constant module to the number of divisions you want in your step sequence.
- Use a dice module to generate a random note at each trigger or over the trigger.
- Use a constant module to define your step number.
- Use a comparing module to compare the output of the counter with the constant, and wire it to a select module as a gate signal.
- Pass the randomly generated note signal through the select module to switch between steps.
- Repeat steps 7-9 for each additional step you want in your sequence.
- Use a pitch scaler module to narrow down the range of the note signals.
- Use a pitch quantize module to further narrow down the notes to a selected range.
2. How can I create multiple steps in the step sequencer? #
To create multiple steps in the step sequencer, you will need to repeat the steps of creating the counter, dice, constant, comparing, and select modules for each additional step you want. Make sure to wire them up correctly and adjust the step number in the constant module accordingly.
3. How can I make the notes sound closer together? #
To make the notes sound closer together, you can use a pitch scaler module and set the range of the notes to a smaller interval. For example, you can set the range from C3 to C5 to narrow down the signals within that range. You can experiment with different ranges to achieve the desired effect.
4. How can I incorporate logic operators into the step sequencer? #
To incorporate logic operators into the step sequencer, you can use a logic operator module such as the "and" module. Wire the output of the scaler module to one input of the logic operator and wire the output of a button or another signal to the other input. Depending on the logic operator and the state of the button or signal, the module will output a signal or not. This can be used to create conditional triggers or gates in your step sequencer.
Transcription #
This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by AI, 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.
[00:00:00] Hey, welcome back.
[00:00:01] Giorgio Martini asked, "Can you please create a video on how to create step sequences that
[00:00:07] generate a melody on a click in scale?"
[00:00:11] And of course I can and I'll show you this in this video.
[00:00:15] And we need to have a polygrid in place on this track here and we leave all the default
[00:00:21] modules in place because we need at least to generate a sound.
[00:00:29] And then we need to create a clock and I use a scaler for that and one phase input and
[00:00:39] we check up or we wire up phase in to the scaler.
[00:00:44] And now we need some kind of counter to actually create some kind of step sequencer.
[00:00:53] And I wire this up as you can see.
[00:00:57] And now every time a tick comes in or a cycle is done, we're raising this number here.
[00:01:06] So we have some kind of step sequencer going on.
[00:01:12] And I use display to show you what the problem is now because the note, the discount area
[00:01:23] actually gives us a division of one.
[00:01:27] So not a real integer in case of a whole step.
[00:01:30] So one, two, three and so on.
[00:01:33] And we need to apply some bit of math here.
[00:01:37] And I use multiply the output of this.
[00:01:43] This and we use a constant.
[00:01:47] And constant needs the number of divisions we have, so eight.
[00:01:54] And you can see we get now a nice clean integer.
[00:02:01] So one, two, three, four and so on.
[00:02:04] And with this we can work out a small step sequencer.
[00:02:10] And for each step we need at least one dice to generate our random note at the trigger
[00:02:17] or the over the trigger.
[00:02:20] And we need the constant that defines our step number.
[00:02:25] In this case it's one.
[00:02:28] And we need the comparing module.
[00:02:32] I think it's an logic here.
[00:02:34] So this.
[00:02:36] And we need one select module as a gate signal.
[00:02:44] And I show you what I do.
[00:02:47] Now is to go out with this comparing to our constant.
[00:02:54] So every time the output of this is the same as the constant, then send a trigger signal
[00:03:05] to the select box here.
[00:03:09] So every time we reach one basically, I make this a bit faster, you can see we switch this
[00:03:15] on.
[00:03:17] And now we have some kind of small step sequencer going on and we need to pass through our note
[00:03:24] signal which is randomly generated by this dice here.
[00:03:29] And yeah, we need to create now multiple steps of this.
[00:03:34] So this is our second step, our third step and our fourth step.
[00:03:42] So let's go with four here, four and four.
[00:03:48] Now you can see we switch, can switch through all these steps quickly.
[00:03:58] We need to go at least with five.
[00:04:05] And now all we need to do is to create some module.
[00:04:16] And we can use this now as an.
[00:04:29] Let's check this.
[00:04:32] The die signal is basically outputting the same number, so we need to trigger it first.
[00:04:41] So let's use trigger.
[00:04:46] This one.
[00:04:58] Now we have exactly what we want.
[00:05:03] We have multiple steps that's switching through with the scaler here.
[00:05:10] So we have step sequencer and we have random created notes with this dice and with this
[00:05:17] trick on every time we use trigger, we have different pitch signals.
[00:05:31] But you can see the notes are pretty far apart from each other, though it's not sounding like
[00:05:37] a melody, right?
[00:05:39] So we need to narrow the signals a bit down and we can use a pitch scaler here and we
[00:05:48] can define a range in between.
[00:05:51] We want to have the signals.
[00:05:54] So let's go with C3 and maybe C5.
[00:05:59] So
[00:06:27] it's still pretty random because it's random and what we can do now is use at least one
[00:06:38] pitch quantize module here to narrow it down further.
[00:06:44] So we select here some notes we want to have.
[00:07:05] And
[00:07:29] this is basically our small step sequencer with random generated notes for each step.
[00:07:38] It's pretty basic, but you can advance or create more modules to define how you want
[00:07:44] to have it.
[00:07:45] And you can also create of course some kind of gate signal from the scaler here.
[00:08:08] So pretty nice and what you can do also is because someone asked me, can you please make
[00:08:20] a tutorial on how to use logic operators like smaller, bigger, etc.
[00:08:27] And we can use at least one button here and this and module.
[00:08:40] We go in here and we go in here.
[00:08:47] And this is basically the first or the easiest way to use a logic operator.
[00:08:54] So we have a signal coming from the scaler and we have the button activated.
[00:08:59] So we have two signals and because this is a logic operator, it says this is true and
[00:09:05] the bottom line is true, then send out a signal.
[00:09:29] Yeah I think that's it, a basic small random step sequencer to generate melodies.
[00:09:38] It's basic, but you can see, you can follow the setup and you can develop it further if
[00:09:48] you want.
[00:09:50] And yeah, thanks for watching this video and I'll see you in the next one.
[00:09:54] Bye.
[00:09:55] [Music]