Implementing Thresholds in the Bitwig Grid
Tutorial | May 21, 2021
In this video, I demonstrate how to implement a threshold using the audio grid in Bitwig Studio. I use a random drum loop as an example and show how to analyze the signal using a follower and a constant. I then subtract the constant from the follower to get the threshold line, which is then used to trigger a gate signal. I finish by showing how to adjust the threshold value and make sure the audio is in mono.
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Questions & Answers #
Maybe you dont watch the video, here are some important takeaways:
How do I use a threshold in Bitwig Studio? #
You can use a threshold in Bitwig Studio by creating an FX grid, then adding an oscilloscope, a follower, a constant, a min max module, and a logic/comparison module. Connect the oscilloscope to the audio in and out to get the audio signal, then use the follower to analyze the signal. Set the constant to the desired threshold value, and then use the min max module to check which value is higher. Subtract the threshold value from the max value, and then use the comparison module to trigger something when the value is greater than zero.
What is the easiest way to generate a threshold? #
The easiest way to generate a threshold is by using an oscilloscope, follower, constant, min max module, and a logic/comparison module. Connect the oscilloscope to the audio in and out to get the audio signal, then use the follower to analyze the signal. Set the constant to the desired threshold value, and then use the min max module to check which value is higher. Subtract the threshold value from the max value, and then use the comparison module to trigger
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] There are some situations inside the grid of Bitwig studio where you need to implement some kind of threshold
[00:05.960] I think where you want to have certain peaks of your audio material triggering something
[00:13.440] versus some don't and
[00:16.440] Yeah, you need to come across this problem that you need to implement some kind of threshold and I want to show you this
[00:22.480] really quick how this works inside the grid. Yeah, I have here some kind of random drum loop
[00:31.120] And there are a lot of peaks in it and we want to kind of use the threshold to
[00:37.120] trigger some
[00:38.800] Maybe synth with with this, but only certain peaks. So I'm using an fx grid
[00:45.040] Um, and inside the fx grid we get you the audio with the audio in and we also get the audio without the audio out and
[00:55.320] what we need is an oscilloscope so we can show you what's going on actually
[01:02.000] So we have this audio material here
[01:06.640] And then we need the follower of course we need to
[01:09.280] Analyze the signal. Maybe we want to implement
[01:15.600] Influence
[01:17.600] Yeah of the shape of the envelope basically with this one here and then we get this it's right here
[01:24.480] You can see it's perfectly
[01:27.680] Getting us a signal or a shape of the envelope of the audio signal and then we
[01:33.760] Need to implement some kind of threshold value. Maybe I'll go for a constant and the constant is one and one is basically the
[01:43.200] Top line here in the oscilloscope
[01:46.400] So when we hope this up here can see it's a white line at the top and zero
[01:51.760] Is the middle line
[01:54.000] So let's leave this at one here for the moment and now we need to check basically
[02:00.000] um if our threshold or
[02:04.080] Our audio material exceeds the threshold line. So this is the next step basically
[02:09.360] So we get this by using a min max
[02:13.280] Module which gives us basically the bigger value of the two on the input checks
[02:19.680] So we need our follower here and our constant and then we get the output here
[02:24.720] um, so we get the maximum value from these two inputs
[02:28.400] And at the moment it's the constant because the constant is at one and there's no bigger value on the follower here
[02:36.400] So when we lower this basically go down to maybe zero dot four
[02:45.120] So you can see we get sometimes the value of this follower because it's bigger than this constant
[02:51.200] And then sometimes we get this zero or this zero dot four line here because that's the bigger
[02:57.440] bigger values of the two getting into this min max module
[03:02.800] So now we get we need to get this down to the zero line because we don't want to actually
[03:08.560] Yeah, move this line here around
[03:11.440] um
[03:13.520] And I show you this in a minute how this looks um, so we need to subtract these two
[03:19.280] So we need to subtract basically the the bigger value of these two from the constant which is one
[03:24.720] This gets us a zero line
[03:29.200] And when we play back here the audio
[03:32.720] And lower the volume the value of the constant you will see that we get more and more peaks from the audio signal
[03:39.280] And
[03:51.840] And the constant of zero basically gives you the shape
[03:56.320] As we get it from the follower because everything from the follower is bigger than zero
[04:01.280] Okay, so this is like you
[04:05.440] This is how you implement basically a nice little
[04:08.320] Um, threshold
[04:10.960] Um, yeah patch
[04:13.120] Um, you can also go here for attinuate and just leave this at one and then
[04:18.720] paid basically between zero and one so i can call this here um
[04:27.120] The threshold
[04:29.120] So
[04:36.560] So we get some of the peaks over here because only certain peaks um exceed this uh threshold line
[04:43.520] And now we need to compare this if you want to figure out actually something we go for logic here
[04:49.520] And bigger than
[04:52.000] Greater than this one here
[04:54.400] So we just need to put this into here
[04:57.040] So this value
[04:59.760] Every or every time this value is bigger than zero because we have no input here
[05:04.960] Which is always zero when you have no input at zero
[05:08.400] Um, everything that's bigger than zero
[05:12.320] Um, generate some gate signal
[05:15.120] So
[05:24.800] And when we get the audio signal here from before
[05:29.120] You can see all these certain peaks in here uh, generate a gate signal
[05:36.320] And when we lower the threshold value here, we get more and more peaks into trickle actually the
[05:41.760] um, yeah, the gate
[05:53.120] Until we have a complete trickle signal because everything triggers um
[05:58.560] Triggers um the gates
[06:08.080] Yeah, maybe you can use your
[06:10.080] Sign
[06:12.320] oscillator maybe an ad
[06:16.000] And use this to trick or something
[06:20.960] Use an blend
[06:26.240] Blend this in here maybe use an um volume
[06:30.080] so
[06:36.160] So maybe you can also create here
[06:47.840] Threshold now we have a nice little device
[06:51.280] And you can change the threshold and decide
[07:02.080] When or which peaks are triggering this device
[07:12.960] So now we have this problem here that we have stereo signal maybe you should
[07:16.400] You could put this here to mono so I'm using a stereo stereo split in here
[07:26.880] Go in here and just use the mono output
[07:41.840] So whenever I whenever you need some kind of threshold method
[07:45.200] Um, this is the easiest way
[07:47.920] Just analyzing the audio signal into a follower maybe do you see a mono split
[07:53.280] Um, then using the max value from
[07:57.280] From the threshold value and the follower
[08:00.320] Subtracting the threshold from the from the max value
[08:04.240] And then using a comparison module to trigger
[08:07.840] Something if you want or you can do something else with it
[08:10.160] So this is basically the easiest way to generate a threshold
[08:16.640] Uh inside the grid and I would just want to show you this
[08:20.240] To have
[08:21.520] You maybe to use it in whatever you want to use it in the grid right
[08:26.240] So um
[08:28.320] Yeah, that's it for this video. Thanks for watching leave a comment if you have some questions of course and uh
[08:32.880] Leave a thumbs up if you want and I'll see you in the next video. Thanks for watching and bye