Explaining my Favorite EQ Plus Init Settings for Pitch Tracking in Bitwig Studio 3.2
Tutorial | Jun 08, 2020
In this video, I explain my favorite init settings for the EQ Plus in Bitwig Studio 3.2. I start with a completely empty project and add a fully grid, saw wave, ADSR, and an audio art. With the EQ Plus, I remove all the init settings to start fresh. I explain the harmonic series, which produces harmonic overtones when using a saw wave. To set up bands for these harmonics, I add a band for the fundamental frequency of C3. I save the EQ Plus as an init preset to remember that changing the gain for the first band changes the fundamental frequency. I add bands for the different harmonics and use the key track to keep track of the pitch or notes played. The key track also keeps track of any pitch band girfs applied. I saved this as an init preset for pitch tracking or note tracking, which works well for monophonic sounds such as bass sounds. I also demonstrate how the EQ Plus follows pitch tracking custom pitch tracking and works alongside the kick drum. Overall, this is a useful trick in a toolbox to apply to EQs and other instruments.
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Questions & Answers #
Maybe you dont watch the video, here are some important takeaways:
What is the EQ plus in Bitwig Studio 3.2 and what are init settings? #
The EQ plus is a device in Bitwig Studio 3.2 that allows you to adjust frequencies and harmonics in a sound. Init settings are the starting point for a device or plugin, and in the case of the EQ plus, it refers to the default settings when you first load the device.
How do you set up the EQ plus for pitch tracking on monophonic sounds? #
To set up the EQ plus for pitch tracking on monophonic sounds, you first need to add bands for each harmonic frequency you want to adjust. You can do this by using the C3 frequency as a reference point and adding bands for the first, second, and third harmonics (or more if you have the room). Then, add the Key Track modulator to the EQ plus and set the spread to 64 steps. This will keep track of the pitch of the currently played note and adjust the EQ bands accordingly.
How does the pitch band expression work with the EQ plus? #
The pitch band expression allows you to create pitch bends in your sound using a series of points on a line. The Key Track modulator in the EQ plus also keeps track of these pitch bends and adjusts the EQ accordingly, creating a smooth transition between frequencies as the pitch changes.
How can the EQ plus be used for designing bass sounds? #
The EQ plus can be used for designing bass sounds by using the Shift setting to adjust the fundamental frequency of the sound. A ratio of 2 on the first oscillator in the Phase-4 synth will give you a bass sound one octave lower, so setting the Shift to -12 will bring the EQ plus in line with that octave lower sound. You can then use the EQ bands to adjust the harmonics and create the desired bass sound.
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] I recently posted a video on my social media accounts where I showed off some EQ plus settings
[00:06.720] and some people asked what's going on there and in this video I try to explain my favorite
[00:14.400] init settings for the EQ plus in Bitwig Studio 3.2.
[00:23.200] Use my code polarity in the shop to save 10% on the price and support my channel.
[00:28.480] So to explain this EQ plus init setting I am going here for a completely empty project
[00:35.920] and I'm adding here a fully grid because I want to add a completely clean saw wave and ADSR
[00:47.440] and an audio art, okay and I'm going for a note clip here
[00:56.640] and in this note clip I'm painting a note of C3 and after the Poly critter I'm using an EQ plus
[01:09.200] and I'm removing all my init settings so we start off pretty simple and I can explain why I add
[01:17.040] something to it. So when we play back this clip here maybe I go to the EQ plus here and go for
[01:27.440] Speed to Freeze. So you can see here now the saw wave in the spectrum analyzer and you can see
[01:36.000] this is the first peak and this is the so-called fundamental frequency. This is the frequency of C3.
[01:45.040] But when you use a saw wave you get also a lot of harmonic overtones. You can also look at the
[01:52.800] Wikipedia page for the harmonic series and it says harmonic series is the sequence of frequencies,
[01:59.520] musical tones or pure tones in which each frequency is an interjump multiple of a fundamental.
[02:05.680] So this is basically when you look at the graph here of a saw wave these are all the harmonics
[02:14.160] you hear. When you switch here to a sine wave for instance a sine wave has basically no harmonics
[02:21.520] it's only a fundamental frequency and it's called pure. So this is a sine there's only a
[02:30.400] fundamental frequency if when we switch here to saw we get all the harmonics okay and we want to
[02:41.760] set up bands for these harmonics so we can change them. So when we have your C3 I add one band
[02:51.520] and this is the band for the fundamental frequency. So I go here for C3 okay make here the
[02:58.640] queue a bit narrow and I go to zero. So this is the first the first band and it's all fundamental
[03:06.640] frequency and when we save the EQ plus here as an init preset in this state every time I load up
[03:13.040] this device I know instantly that when I change or alter your setting the gain for the first band
[03:21.040] I'm changing the fundamental frequency okay. So when I set here a second band and go for
[03:26.880] double frequency which is in this case here C4 it's exactly double frequency of 262 it's 523
[03:37.360] so this is the first harmonic and every time I load this up because it's an init preset I know
[03:43.280] exactly if I go to the second band here I'm changing first harmonic I can remove it I can add
[03:51.120] something and so on. So I'm adding all the different harmonics until I'm basically yeah I run out
[03:59.520] of three bands here but in my init case basically I have three slots three so I can add
[04:09.920] yeah some low cut or high parts here at the at the end when I want so I'm setting up your basically
[04:16.000] just some some the first harmonics so this should be C5 that's the third harmonic or second
[04:27.680] harmonic. So now when I play the saw wave here I can remove the harmonics
[04:44.880] or the fundamental oh yeah there's one missing I think that's G4 so it's G4 and then I have
[05:04.240] for the third harmonic that's 5 I think. So I can remove all the harmonics as you can see here
[05:25.600] and just maybe just add some bit of the fundamental. So every time I load this up I know exactly I have
[05:38.320] all my bands here these are the harmonics and I can remove them or amplify them. So the problem now
[05:45.360] is that when you change the note all the frequencies are changing so I make this here
[05:50.560] this clip a bit longer go to G2
[06:06.320] so you can see the EQ is now completely off all the harmonics I wanted to remove are still in
[06:11.680] because yeah the frequencies and harmonics are completely different and that's where I add
[06:19.600] here in key track so the key track keeps track of the pitch or of the notes that are currently
[06:24.800] played and I have here down below a spread of 64 steps so I'm using here the modulator handle and
[06:31.760] dial in exactly 64 steps 64 so now when I play this this G G note here G2 then the frequency
[06:48.240] or the frequencies then the bands are changing so you can see the modulation applies here some
[07:02.240] yeah some shift some offset to all the bands and now the fundamentals exactly where the fundamental
[07:07.920] of our G note is when I change back to C3 the Q also changes back right so let's go to slow
[07:20.880] so the EQ is always on point for the right frequencies for the grandly played note which is
[07:40.800] pretty nice the downside is this only works for monophonic sound so when you have polyphonic
[07:48.080] sound it doesn't work so well so you have to use monophonic sounds and for bass sounds this is
[07:55.440] perfect basically so the next thing is we have in our clip here a so-called micro pitch expression
[08:05.360] so when you click this small little simpler down below you have now some lines here applied
[08:10.880] and you can click there to create some points and basically create pitch band girfs okay
[08:22.320] and the benefit of this is the key track also keeps track of these pitch band
[08:29.960] pitch band girfs so when we play this back here we can see the EQ now slightly moves from one
[08:39.600] from one frequency to the other it's basically a nice transition
[08:56.720] so even though we are changing the notes and we have pitch band applied the EQ plus with the key
[09:04.000] track on it always amplifies the right frequencies for the right note that we are playing so this is
[09:13.200] pretty nice and I basically saved this as an init preset so when you move this here and
[09:19.200] go to EQ plus you can see the default init setting is this setting and I can go just in here and
[09:25.680] say well let's amplify my bass or my fundamental and you can see it's completely off
[09:36.560] and that's because I have here the init setting for shift to set to minus 12 so one octave below
[09:43.280] but again go near to zero and then it's completely right and you may be asked why do I have
[09:59.520] minus 12 on the shift setting here and that's because I usually tend to use the bass for you
[10:09.040] and I make bass sounds with the phase 4 and I usually dial in here the ratio for the first oscillator
[10:16.320] to two which is one octave below so you can see now it's off and when I dial in your minus 12
[10:29.120] so it's basically my preferred setting because I know I use the EQ plus possibly on phase 4 a lot
[10:37.120] and I use it for designing bass sounds and most of my bass sounds are basically here with the ratio
[10:44.080] 12 to God knows why but that's basically my preferred setting for everything so yeah so this way
[10:54.240] you can see you can set up the EQ plus for pitch tracking or note tracking pretty nice and pretty
[11:02.240] easy all you have to do is to apply here the key track remember that you have to apply here
[11:09.280] the steps 64 when you have spread of 64 here and dial in the EQ settings for the key of c3
[11:19.600] and then when you change the notes basically the whole EQ plus shift everything around and you
[11:26.880] always on point and yeah that's a nice trick for monophonic sounds bass sounds or monophonic sounds
[11:35.680] in general to remove harmonics dial in harmonics and of course the EQ plus here
[11:41.520] as a pretty steep cue curve so when you go on maybe to the second harmonic and make the cue pretty high
[12:01.680] you can kind of use it as a resonator bank with pitch tracking so it's basically the same as using
[12:08.160] resonator bank here with the key track on 100% it's kind of the same okay so this is what I've
[12:19.120] done in my soulmate project I showed you on my Instagram account this is how it looks and how it
[12:26.720] sounds so let's load up here the plugins and this EQ plus as you can see is on the bass track so
[12:36.000] there's also a lot of pitch tracking custom pitch tracking happening and yeah the EQ plus on the
[12:46.400] bass track is following in all this as you can see I'm removing basically the first harmonic to
[13:11.600] make a bit of room for the kick drum which is basically an octave above the bass note so it's
[13:24.480] roughly the same spot in the frequency spectrum yeah maybe bring in the kick drum as a reference
[13:54.640] as you can see when I'm removing the first harmonic it's exactly the place where the kick drum hits
[14:10.960] around one or the third so perfectly nice it keeps track of the notes of the bass sound and
[14:18.320] it sounds just fine so this gives you hopefully a nice trick in your toolbox you can apply to
[14:25.200] EQs and some other instruments to basically use the key track to make changes to a device
[14:34.400] accordingly to the currently played note so thanks for watching if you have some questions then
[14:40.560] please leave a comment and subscribe to the channel think about the subscription or bomb
[14:45.040] pattern helps a lot and if you like the video then of course please like it thanks for watching
[14:50.480] and I'll see you in the next one bye