Creating Interesting MPE Polyphonic Sounds with Zenzel Moff and Glitch Preset for Bitwig Studio

Tutorial | Dec 11, 2020

In this video, I'm showing off the Zenzel Moff and the nice Glitch preset I built for the grid in Bitwig Studio. This Glitch preset is multi-functional and can be used to repeat parts of an audio stream, use multiple keys at the same time to change different settings, and create lead and pad sounds from an audio import. It's free so anyone can use it to create some cool MPE polyphonic sounds. I explain how to use it, including how to use the Ultra Reservoir, the controller input, the comp filter, and the pitch shifter. I also describe the features of the preset, such as the resonator and source gain knobs. I'm excited to share this preset with everyone so they can play around with it in the grid of Bitwig Studio.

You can watch the Video on Youtube - support me on Patreon

Questions & Answers #

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

What is the Zenzel Moff and how does it work? #

The Zenzel Moff is a multi-functional MPE polyphonic preset for the grid in Bitwig Studio. It was created by the YouTuber and allows the user to import an audio stream from a different channel and then repeat certain parts or bits of the audio. It also allows the user to use multiple keys at the same time on their MPE controller to change different settings or multiple Glitch sounds or ‘Glitch things’. The preset also includes a comp filter, allowing the user to generate lead sounds or pad sounds from the imported audio.

How do I access the Glitch preset? #

The Glitch preset is free and can be accessed by loading it onto an instrument track in Bitwig Studio. Once the preset is loaded, the user can select which track they want to import from the NoteFX box and then play around with the MPE controller.

What are the features of the Glitch preset? #

The Glitch preset features several advanced features, such as the ability to change the speed of the Glitch or repeater with the Timber control, the ability to change the loudness

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 the Zenzel Moff and the nice Glitch preset I built for the grid in
[00:06.000] Bitwig Studio and you can also use of course different MPE controllers and this Glitch preset is
[00:12.160] basically something where you can import an audio stream from a different channel and then you
[00:17.840] can repeat certain parts or bits of this audio stream and you can also use multiple keys at the
[00:24.240] same time on your MPE controller to change different settings or multiple Glitch sounds or
[00:31.360] yeah, Glitch things at the same time and there's also a comp filter in the preset so you can use
[00:39.120] your audio stream or your audio imports to generate some kind of lead sounds or pad sounds from it.
[00:46.640] So it's yeah, it's a multi-functional nice MPE polyphonic preset for the grid. Sounds pretty
[00:55.040] interesting and it's also for free. So it's not something like you have to subscribe on Patreon,
[01:00.960] it's completely free because soon it's Christmas and I want to give you some nice things to play
[01:07.920] with inside the grid of Bitwig Studio. So let's start the video and I'll show you how it works.
[01:21.680] So how does this work? We are in Bitwig Studio here and you can see this Glitch preset or my
[01:27.920] Glitch preset is actually on this track here down below it's an instrument track and normally most
[01:35.040] of these Glitch devices are audio effects. But this time I chose to use an instrument because now
[01:47.520] we can just select here down in the NoteFX box with this Ultra Reservoir. We can choose which
[01:55.440] track we want to import or we want to use to create these Glitch effects. So in this case here
[02:03.600] I go for yeah this music bus here in this group there is a drum loop and some kind of yeah music
[02:14.800] loop and I just use the group output of this one here. So let's go to music, music master and yeah
[02:27.200] maybe go for a post. So the big benefit of using this as an instrument is of course that we get
[02:33.040] the controller input for free. We don't need to create some kind of hybrid track where we have
[02:38.960] controller input. So all we need to do now is to press play and play around on our MPE controller.
[02:47.600] And I made it so when you press basically here at the end or use the Timber control where we
[03:07.760] can slide from the start to the finish of our key we can change the speed of the Glitch or of the
[03:17.600] repeater. The pressure actually changes the loudness of the effect.
[03:40.000] And by default there is no shifter involved so when we move in here the shifter with this knob here
[03:49.760] with this remote control we apply here some pitch shifters at the end of the post output and we
[03:57.840] can use the pitch band effect of the MPE controller.
[04:13.440] So this is one way of using it. If you pull down the shifter and select the MPE polyGlitch device
[04:31.120] itself you can switch it to polyphonic mode maybe 24 voices and then we can bring in the resonator
[04:40.880] on the comp filter which then gives us the possibility to create some kind of your notes or
[04:49.360] music informations out of the drums for instance maybe I'm muting here this track.
[05:04.560] So at the start of the key there's basically just a repeater, a slow repeater
[05:08.640] then we increase the repeating speed and we also increase the loudness of the comp filter.
[05:19.520] And because now we have polyphonic mode active over 24 voices we can actually use multiple
[05:27.040] yeah keys.
[05:44.400] So this is actually pretty fun and yeah that's the main functionality of this plugin or this
[05:53.920] preset so we have a comp filter where we can create tonality from drums or other sound sources
[06:01.680] and there's also your resonance knob or remote control where we can also increase the resonance
[06:11.680] then we have here the shifter functionality where we can apply some pitch shifting in the post
[06:17.520] effect section and there's also your source gain where we can increase the loudness of the input
[06:25.120] or of our audio receiver input and then we can choose to have multiple audio inputs at the same
[06:33.440] time so for instance we have your source remote control and this means when this is at zero
[06:40.720] this audio receiver is used here at the end to get audio informations but we also can go into
[06:46.800] the patch itself go to the top where we have sources and you can see here this is basically what
[06:52.560] we get from the audio receiver here but you can also change the source to a different yeah setting
[06:58.560] here maybe to an audio sidechain where we can get in some audio informations from other tracks so
[07:06.880] maybe you have an yeah a trackle sound as you can see here we have a noise sample on the first track
[07:14.880] and then maybe the drums if you want separated and also the music loop separated and then you can
[07:23.440] switch between the inputs here what you want to use by just using this knob source knob right
[07:30.160] what you can also use here velocity to source which means when you have multiple inputs selected
[07:38.400] here you can choose by how hard you press the key on the keyboard you can choose which input is used
[07:47.680] so every time you press a key and change the velocity for this key you can change the input
[07:55.360] the input source which can also gives you a nice effect when you have different sound sources
[08:03.360] when you look at our patch here you can see the repeater actually is synced to this gates module
[08:10.320] so every time you change the repeater speed it's always synced to this gates module
[08:19.920] so you are never out of sync actually I think it's 32 snows so
[08:26.720] you should always be in some kind of beat crit matching your current ppm of your song
[08:36.240] so yeah I won't give you basically just a quick overview of this preset I made over the last
[08:42.160] two days and I think it's not finished yet but it's in a state where I can give it away
[08:48.080] and people can try it out so maybe leaving some comments maybe you'll find some better solution
[08:53.680] some better settings for this preset or maybe you have some questions about the plugin house
[08:59.840] something works inside of my preset then also leave me a comment ask questions it's not a problem
[09:07.760] for me to answer them all so yeah that's it for this video thanks for watching leave a thumbs up
[09:14.800] if you liked the video leave me a comment if you have some questions subscribe to the channel
[09:19.040] and I see you in the next video thanks for watching and bye