Creating a Hocket Machine with Audio Receivers in Bitwig Studio

Tutorial | Mar 27, 2020

In this video, I show how to create a hocket machine in Bitvic Studio using audio receivers and modulation. I use a track called "hocket" with a classic 8 modulator and multiple audio receivers that receive audio from different tracks. To prevent unwanted noise, I adjust the smoothing value when switching between audio sources. I also demonstrate how changing the playback speed, time base, phase modulation, and direction can create different grooves and patterns. I use unusual rhythms on all the tracks to create a more drastic effect. The limitation of this system is that it only has eight steps in the classic 8 modulator. Overall, this effect is easy to setup and can create some interesting outcomes in a track.

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Questions & Answers #

Maybe you dont watch the video, here are some important takeaways:

Questions #

1. What is a hocket machine and how does it work? #

A hocket machine is a device where you can switch out the audio sources through modulation or automation. It allows you to create unique effects by switching between different audio sources. In the Bitwig Studio, this can be achieved through the use of audio receivers. These receivers receive audio from the tracks above, and you can use a classic 8 modulator to dial in one of the output receivers at a time. When all the audio receivers are switched on, you receive audio only from the track. It is important to use the value for the smoothing to prevent any unwanted noises or crackling while switching between different audio sources.

2. How can you change the groove and rhythm of the output pattern using the hocket machine? #

You can change the groove and rhythm of the output pattern by altering the playback speed or rhythm of the time base. This allows you to play around with various rhythms and switch up the output pattern drastically. You can also change the phase modulation to manually dial in the step you want or use automation to create creative and unique sounds. Furthermore, you can alter the playback direction to create more intricate patterns such as ping pong patterns.

3. Can the hocket machine be used with different sounds or rhythms initially? #

Yes, the hocket machine can be used with different sounds or rhythms initially. In fact, it works best when different and unique sounds are used. By having drastically different sounds on all these tracks, you can create a much more drastic effect in the end. You can even use exponential or unusual rhythms to create interesting outcomes when switching through the tracks.

4. What is the limitation of using the classic 8 modulator in the hocket machine, and is there a better way to step through all the audio receivers? #

The limitation of using the classic 8 modulator in the hocket machine is that it only allows eight steps. However, this limitation can be overcome by using other devices or plugins that allow more steps. As an alternative, you can use a dedicated group and select no output for this group, or you can use other modulation devices that allow more steps.

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.

[00:00.000] In today's video, it's about a so-called hocket machine where you switch out the audio sources.
[00:08.000] We are modulation or automation, if you want.
[00:12.000] And you can do something like this inside Bitvic Studio, pretty easily with the audio receivers
[00:17.000] and I'll show you how you can do that.
[00:20.000] Use my code polarity in the shop to save 10% on the price and support my channel.
[00:30.000] So before I show you how this works or explain how it works, I show you how it sounds.
[00:36.000] So let's hit play here.
[00:38.000] So this sounds pretty wild because you're switching through different audio sources.
[00:54.000] All the audio sources are pretty much completely different and that's how you can create such a weird effect.
[01:05.000] And to make this happen, I used here a track called hocket on the track there's a chain device,
[01:13.000] on this chain device there's a classic 8 modulator.
[01:18.000] And in this chain device there are multiple audio receivers, as you can see.
[01:24.000] And all these audio receivers are receiving audio from all these tracks they are above.
[01:29.000] And also, as you can see, all these tracks are basically muted.
[01:37.000] So they have no output.
[01:39.000] You should select the track here and you go down to the output selector.
[01:43.000] You can select no output because we want the audio not happening on the track itself.
[01:49.000] We want to have all the audio here on the audio track through the audio receivers.
[01:55.000] Okay. And one thing you have to make sure is that you have some kind of last device on the track itself.
[02:06.000] Because as you can see here, I didn't select the output itself.
[02:10.000] So you can go here to a track and then there's mostly something like this here where you have post.
[02:16.000] When you select post, you basically select the audio output after the fader.
[02:24.000] And when you go to the fader here or to the track and select no output, there is no post fader output basically.
[02:33.000] So you have to select the device itself, not the post fader.
[02:37.000] So that's something you have to make sure that you select some device from the track, not the track itself in the post output.
[02:46.000] Because then you receive no output when you mute these tracks here.
[02:51.000] And you have to mute them because when you let them output audio, then it sounds something like this.
[03:04.000] So you have output all the time from this track here and you don't want to have this happen.
[03:10.000] You want to switch between the tracks on this track only.
[03:15.000] So I'm switching here to no output. Maybe you can let these tracks output audio and then you make a dedicated group and then you select no output for this group or something like this.
[03:28.000] I think there are multiple possibilities inside a bit where you can change this up a bit if you don't like it this way.
[03:36.000] But in this project here, I switched everything to no output. So I can receive happily the sound on this hooket track here down below.
[03:51.000] So we have this PASIK 8 here and I used all these modulator handles on the PASIK 8 to dial in one of the output receivers at a time.
[04:08.000] So basically in this state where the mix knob is turned to zero, you receive no audio. And when you turn the mix all the way up, you receive audio.
[04:21.000] So I'm using here the handles. You can see to switch this audio receiver on and this handle switches this audio receiver on and so on. So and this is how it sounds basically and you can see when all these audio receivers are switching on then you receive audio only from the track.
[04:47.000] Also something important is that you use here the value for the smoothing because when you switch between different audio sources, you get a lot of crackling or some unwanted noises.
[05:11.000] Maybe it's something you want but you can make sure with the smoothing value here that the fading between the audio receivers or the audio sources is more pleasant.
[05:41.000] So this is something you have to keep in mind to dial this in at least to some small degree.
[05:53.000] Then there's something here pretty interesting because you can change the groove of your result pretty heavily by changing here the playback speed or playback rhythm, the time base here where you can switch this maybe to half note.
[06:24.000] So you can pretty easily play around with all kinds of strange rhythms or switch your output pattern up pretty drastically.
[06:34.000] And also you can change here the phase modulation which basically defines where your pattern starts or offsets in a percentual way and you can change it here to maybe hold rate and now you can completely manually dial in which step you want to have.
[07:02.000] So here we have one of course with the phase modulation on zero.
[07:14.000] So you can use this to modulate manually with the mouse or you maybe use controller or of course your automation for the phase here so you can just draw in.
[07:34.000] Yeah and can go creative crazy with this kind of automation and of course you can also go in for transport here transport rhythm and then you modulate the time base itself with automation or modulation and then you can go crazy with this one.
[08:01.000] You have also something like your playback direction and you can switch to ping pong here which can also be interesting.
[08:21.000] Okay so there's a lot of possibilities just by playing around with the passing eight direction speed time base and so on.
[08:33.000] Then there's also a possibility with with tracks itself so I'm used your pretty unusual rhythms on all of these tracks so when you when we output here actually this track to the master and listen to it.
[08:54.000] So I try to have something exponential rhythmically exponential stuff here on all these tracks so to have some kind of interesting outcome in the end when I switch through the tracks.
[09:12.000] So I think I used here and pull your synth for the base but I used just one note here as an output and I used to pull the grid here for the rhythm outputs I used in gates device and I changed up the rate of the scalar here as you can see.
[09:41.000] So when I turn this down maybe so I can change the rhythm with the Poly-Grid and the Poly-Grid then outputs and gate signal to the grid out which is a preset by myself you can download.
[10:06.000] And then the grid node out outputs a node signal to the Polysynth which then plays the sound of course so.
[10:20.000] So this way I can create some kind of exponential rhythms or unusual rhythms yeah that's what I also used here on the tracks which is a bit special but you can use the hockey machine of course with pretty straight rhythms and sounds I think the best the best outcome or the best result you can get with.
[10:44.000] Very strange or very drastic different sounds on all these tracks and this gives you a much drastically much much more drastic effect in the end right.
[10:59.000] Oh let's turn this off here to no output.
[11:15.000] So I think that's it for this video I think I explained it all there is to explain I don't think that some preset needed for you to download it's pretty easy to set up it's also a nice effect to have in a track and yeah let me know what you think maybe there's some feedback some critic maybe there's something I can do better but that's basically my first iteration of a system like this and I
[11:44.000] think it's pretty nice maybe a limitation is that you are that you have only eight steps here in the passing eight maybe there's a better way to step through all these audio receivers but I think with the audio with the passing eight it's pretty nice with all the time based options and speed options and so on.
[12:05.000] It's pretty perfect I think and it's already pretty crazy sounding with just five audio sources so yeah thanks for watching and I see you in the next video bye.
[12:35.000] You