Bitwig Studio 3.2: Overview and New Features

Tutorial | Apr 19, 2020

In this video, I give an overview of the new features and additions to Bitwig Studio 3.2 beta. The biggest addition is the new EQ Plus device, which allows for easy EQ adjustments without the need to open a new window. Other additions include a new spectrum analyzer with a customizable slope, a saturator with an expander feature, and new options for selector devices. The arpeggiator and polygrid also have new features, such as randomized starting offsets and an interpolation option. Additionally, there is a new module called the array, which allows users to store and retrieve values at specific indexes. Overall, the new features are useful and enhance the flexibility of Bitwig Studio.

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Questions & Answers #

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

What is the biggest addition to Bitwig Studio 3.2? #

The biggest addition to Bitwig Studio 3.2 is the new EQ Plus device. It is a new EQ device that offers you several features within the device interface itself. You can change the parameters for the bands, spectrum analyzer, over sampling, and update speed for the EQ, and apply gain in both directions. Additionally, you can click on the line to create bands, double-click to remove it, and change the cue with the mouse wheel. This eliminates the need to open an external window when using EQ VSTs and makes it very convenient to use.

What is the new option in the Spectrum Analyzer? #

The Spectrum Analyzer has a new option called tilt. It allows you to change the slope of the display so that you can get a better idea of the frequency distribution in your track. With different slope options, you can choose to amplify either high or low frequencies more, depending on what you want. For example, with a 4.5 dB per octave slope, the high frequencies are amplified and the low end is reduced slightly, making it easier to visualize the frequency distribution in your track.

How does the new arpeggiator work in Bitwig Studio 3.2? #

The new arpeggiator in Bitwig Studio 3.2 has several new features. You can now use different offsets for the notes on each step, creating more complex melodies. When you click on the device, you can also choose the Humanize option, which provides you with randomized starting offsets. It also has multiple patterns you can choose from, like up-down, down-up, in and many more. Additionally, you can change the speed to milliseconds to experiment with off-the-grid beat rhythms.

What is the Array feature in Bitwig Studio 3.2? #

The Array feature in Bitwig Studio 3.2 is like a storage unit where you can store values in and read them later. It consists of different indices where you can store values like numbers, waveforms or any other value. You can input values with the input of the Array and read them later with the output of the Array at the same index. This is especially useful for creating complex modulation sources or sequencing data in the Grid. With an array size of up to 1024 positions, you can store a lot of values and use them to control different parameters in your project. It's like a big memory that you can access with one mouse click.

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] So Bitwigs Studio 3.2 beta is out and I want to check it out and give some overview
[00:07.200] over all the new stuff additions to the new version. So let's start the video.
[00:18.240] Use my code polarity in the shop to save 10% on the price and support my channel.
[00:23.440] So the biggest addition to Bitwigs Studio 3.2 is of course the new EQ plus device.
[00:30.480] It's a new EQ and when you click on it on the left info paneer you can change for instance the
[00:36.560] over sampling to four times if you want. You can change all the parameters for the bands.
[00:43.520] You can change the spectrum analyzer. Nice options here for the resolution and the speed
[00:49.200] updating speed for the EQ and yeah you can just click on the line here to create bands.
[00:58.720] You can double click on the band to remove it and you can apply gain in both directions.
[01:05.600] You can use the mouse wheel to change the cue. Double click to remove it. So it's
[01:12.480] super useful actually to have something like this because you don't need to open up a new
[01:19.040] window when you use a VST and EQ VST. You probably have to click to open the window to make your
[01:26.800] EQ settings and then you close it down. With the EQ plus you don't need that in Bitwigs Studio
[01:33.760] because it's all happening in the device interface here itself. And as I just showed you there's
[01:41.120] also a bigger view looks like this. That's the same functionality and in this mode the device itself
[01:49.760] goes into some kind of table mode where you have all the parameters or bands here in more like a
[01:57.200] text form or a listed form. They can make changes this way if you want. So let's close this down.
[02:03.760] When I talked about the color ring here of the line it's not only happening in the EQ plus.
[02:11.520] It's from now on in every device where you change frequencies. So for instance when we load up here
[02:18.240] and filter and there's a frequency knob here and when you change the frequency you can see also
[02:27.120] the color changes. So when you remember the color of the bands you can instantly see when you load
[02:35.440] up a project or a new preset you can instantly see just by the look at the color in which frequency
[02:43.200] a change is applied or which frequency is dialed in. So if you remember the color you can instantly
[02:50.720] see which frequency which is a nice addition and this is also in every device I think where you
[02:57.680] change frequencies. So that's a nice addition to Bitwig Studio in general. So I think also when you
[03:06.480] load here let's load up an e-kick device. The tune knob is still red when you change tune because
[03:17.200] the range is pretty narrow. It's from 2021 to 82 hertz but this knob here where you can change
[03:27.360] the low cut it's also changing pretty much in color. So that's a nice touch and yeah that's the EQ
[03:38.000] plus. We have also a nice new change to the spectrum spectrum analyzer. Looks exactly like before
[03:49.040] but when you click on the spectrum device itself and go here to the left info pane you can see a
[03:54.720] lot of new options where you can choose from and the important option for me is of course the tilt
[04:00.720] where you can change the slope of the display. And I think in previous Bitwig versions we had
[04:05.600] a 0 dB per octave slope for the display and I show you why this is important for me. So in front
[04:13.920] of the spectrum analyzer I am adding a Poly-Grid here make this a bit quieter and I use a noise
[04:22.800] and output. So now we have some noise. You can see we have white noise and the white noise is
[04:38.560] on the display pretty linear but white noise is not actually pretty audible or something you use
[04:47.760] for mix downs. To have a reference you pretty much go for pink noise which looks like this.
[04:57.680] So the bass or the low end is amplified and the high end is less amplified. So it goes from left
[05:06.720] to the right basically down here. So when we change this here to 4.5 dB per octave now it looks like this
[05:20.720] it's more like a straight line. Now the high frequencies are a bit amplified and the low end
[05:28.240] lacks a bit. So for this way when we apply the spectrum here to our track basically
[05:40.080] all we have to do is to make sure that this line is pretty much straight to have a nice frequency
[05:45.280] distribution in our track. So this way you can instantly see by looking at the line here
[05:56.720] if this is a straight line if your track is nice distributed frequency wise.
[06:05.120] When we change this back to 0 to b I can't reach it basically it's not obvious to me
[06:15.040] where the problem lies right so when I switch this to 4.5 then it's much easier.
[06:22.160] So this is a nice addition for me at least for the spectrum analyzer to use it more in the future.
[06:30.320] That's also a bigger version. Nice. Okay. There are also a lot of new devices in BitwigStudio
[06:38.880] and for instance we have now an saturator which looks like this and you can open it up to have
[06:45.440] a more like a graph and the best thing about this is not only you can dial in basically everything.
[06:56.000] You have also an expander integrate so you can bring up pretty much a low end or not low end
[07:05.680] but quieter sounds you can bring up in volume and you can bring down louder sounds in volume. So
[07:12.400] not only can limit we can also expand which is a nice touch and also you have the same saturator
[07:24.000] as a as a Poly-Grid or let's go for the fx grid. We can
[07:32.960] use the same saturator inside the grid and click on the saturator itself. You can see now
[07:46.080] the side painting of all the options here or the same options as in the device version on the
[07:52.240] saturator in BitwigStudio. Okay. So saturator is pretty nice. I think I heavily use this one
[08:00.560] in the future. Also the tool device now has a new volume knob here as you can see which goes to
[08:08.080] minus infinity which is what everyone wanted basically from the start. The old game knob is still
[08:16.720] there where you have the minus and plus 3060b range and there's also this new knob. I think
[08:24.800] you're where you can swap the left and the right channel if you want just with one one click. There's
[08:30.160] still the L minus and R minus when you activate it you basically flip the polarity of the sound
[08:37.360] which I like because it's exactly my name. Okay. Then we have new options for the selector devices.
[08:44.960] So we have multiple selectors here in BitwigStudio we have the fx selector instrument selector
[08:50.080] and the note fx selector and all these devices are getting new features so we can when you click
[08:57.360] on the note fx selector you have in the info pane new options. For instance you can go for manual
[09:04.800] to round Robin and maybe we just add some fx here maybe put delay which is also new note echo
[09:21.440] and maybe go for micro pitch here. So we have three layers and we can we can't actually change
[09:32.480] the layers now because we are using round Robin here we have to switch to manual back so
[09:38.240] we can change the layer which one we want to use okay but when we select your round Robin
[09:44.960] and the MIDI input is activated every time we press a key it goes to the next
[09:50.320] next layer and uses this layer okay. You can also go for maybe random but selected that random
[10:01.520] or you can use keys which use MIDI learn and then maybe use here the C button and now this
[10:10.240] every time I press C we are selecting this layer when I use C sharp I selected the second one if I
[10:16.480] use D selecting the third layer so you can switch between the layers just with the press of a key
[10:26.240] and you can use this on every selector you can also go for fx selector
[10:32.480] or not note x selector and this is for reverb play it may be a situator of like this go here for
[10:53.120] keys which need you learn press a key and then you can select the layer basically with a key press
[11:07.600] nice then we got a new arpeggiator or it's the old one but you know it has a new feature set it
[11:17.680] looks like this now and maybe use a polycenter at the end and maybe a diatonic transposer
[11:26.960] and now we can
[11:27.760] you can use different offsets for the notes on each step as you can see to create nice melodies
[11:58.160] also when you click on the device itself you can choose here and the left info pane humanize
[12:08.160] and you now have randomized starting offsets and I think they lost these settings
[12:14.800] super helpful and of course you can change here to instead of yeah of divisions of your speed
[12:33.520] setting in the door you can go to milliseconds and experiment more with off the grid beat rhythms
[12:52.080] and of course we have new patterns here how the arpeggiator is played from the default settings
[13:00.320] you're up down up down and down up and so on we get now down in and so on so multiple patterns
[13:09.840] pretty interesting ones
[13:33.760] the polygrid itself got also some nice nice new features so when we go into a polygrid here and
[13:43.120] use a step module which looks exactly like before but when you when we click on it and go to
[13:51.360] the info pane here we can choose interpolation so now we have yeah interpolation of the steps
[13:58.640] basically when you go to b polar here then you can see and maybe use a higher step count
[14:08.560] and create some kind of some kind of multi stage envelope envelopes this way so if you are on
[14:17.840] the search for an mseg or multi stage envelope generator then this is maybe a solution for you
[14:26.640] and also some reset here like this and we need to face in
[14:40.720] this and now every time press a key on the keyboard should reset
[14:47.760] so this way and use it to manipulate stuff in the grid
[15:05.360] so that's a nice addition then there's also something like an array which is hard to describe
[15:13.040] for someone who doesn't code but it's basically like a storage unit where you can store values in
[15:21.920] and you store these values at certain indexes so index one index two and at every index there's
[15:28.080] value and you can write at this position at this index and you can read at this index basically
[15:34.720] so with the input here you get you may be use some value could be anything maybe in this case
[15:45.440] here I take a sign and maybe we use an spectrum oscilloscope here at the end like this and then we
[15:57.040] use a value value knob use the second one and one is the read phase and one is the right phase
[16:10.400] and this case it's called phase but it's actually the index and then we have something to trigger
[16:17.440] in and this case we use and trigger show to you so now we select basically where we want to write
[16:28.080] something and I choose the index by choosing a certain value here for this for the right phase okay
[16:36.720] so now I am triggering this and it stores the value that comes from the Sine-Oscillator okay
[16:43.360] so now it's stored at this index and to get this out we actually have to choose the same index
[16:52.240] with the read phase okay you can see it's switched now down to this position here because we just
[17:01.200] read the value from this index and at this index we stored before at the same index the value from
[17:11.040] the Sine-Oscillator it hope that makes sense maybe I make a tutorial about this what you can do with this
[17:20.240] to have some kind of context because this is just yeah the the theoretical
[17:29.120] explanation what this thing does but actually you can just store values at a lot of
[17:35.360] positions inside this module so you can choose here the array size which means you can store up to
[17:46.720] 1024 positions so you can store at every position you can store value and you can read this value
[17:56.320] at any time so it's basically just like a memory big memory okay so the array is also new inside
[18:07.520] the grid it's a nice addition to have and yeah that will be maybe a tutorial in the future so that's
[18:15.200] it I think for this quick tour of Bitwig Studio 3.2 it's in the beta right now I'm searching for bugs
[18:23.200] and of course try to submit some bug requests but let me know in the comments what you think about
[18:29.920] the new version what you think about the features what you wish for the future and if you want to
[18:37.200] buy it or not okay so if you want to upgrade your plan think about my voucher code polarity
[18:44.400] just use it in the store in the in the Bitwig store and get 10% off and yeah leave a like
[18:52.000] subscribe to the channel and I see you in the next video thanks for watching and bye