Discovering a New Way to Browse and Export Samples with XO in Bitwig Studio

Tutorial | Feb 17, 2022

I recently discovered that you can use XO as a sample browser in Bitwig Studio. By holding control and dragging samples out of XO, you can put them in samplots, drum machines, tracks and clips. You can also use a drum sequencer with the same mapping as XO and export the entire drum hit or individual samples. This makes it easier to review samples, select the right sample and quickly drag them into Bitwig. It's the missing sample browser I always wanted and makes for an efficient workflow.

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 XO? #

XO is a drum sampler developed by XO and audio. It works as a sample browser to select samples and drag them out into Bitwig.

How can I use XO in Bitwig? #

You can use XO in Bitwig by placing it on a return track and using it as a sample browser. You can then hold control and drag the samples out into Bitwig wherever you want.

What is the export overlay in Bitwig? #

The export overlay in Bitwig is an option that allows you to export the rock hit and all the individual samples from a drum machine. You can then track the handle over to get all the samples into Bitwig.

What are the benefits of using XO in Bitwig? #

The benefits of using XO in Bitwig include having a nice overview of all your samples, the ability to drag samples out into Bitwig quickly and easily, and having the same mapping for all your samples so you don't have to change the notes.

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] Hey guys welcome back to another video, did it ever happen to you that you used a tool
[00:05.560] maybe for let's say a year or more and it just recently discovered something new that
[00:12.160] changes completely everything or everything completely.
[00:17.520] Not everything, I mean I still live in the same place but it just makes some tasks much
[00:23.920] much easier and more fluent so let's have a look.
[00:29.480] So let's imagine you have here on track one, an instrument which is called XO and you
[00:35.160] probably already know XO which is a drum sampler by XO and audio.
[00:41.920] The drum sampler and this sampler has this nice overview over all your samples right?
[00:47.600] All your samples on the keyboard are mapped on this map here, mapped on the map and you
[00:52.360] can scrub through all the samples here neatly and then put it on a cell here for instance
[01:03.040] this kick on this one here, on this one there right?
[01:07.320] So this is nothing new but what I discovered is that you can actually hold control on
[01:16.280] a sample here, hold control, then just drag out the sample into bitric itself.
[01:22.280] So this works pretty neatly so this is why I tried to have this XO already open all the
[01:30.160] time as a sample browser or a second sample browser because it's so nice to browse through
[01:36.000] your samples and just drag them out, boom, ready, pretty nice.
[01:47.000] So this is the first thing I recently discovered is that you can hold control and while holding
[01:53.160] control just drag the samples out into bitric, it just works.
[01:57.160] You can drag it into samplots, you can drag it into drum machine cells, you can drag it
[02:01.640] onto the track, into a clip, everything works pretty fine out of the box right?
[02:08.440] So this is the first thing.
[02:11.800] Then we select here maybe a preset, let's go for this one.
[02:18.880] So we have now pre-mapped here all the cells, oh this one is actually not good, right?
[02:27.840] So everything is in place, the kick is always on C1, kick 2 is always on C sharp 1, snares
[02:34.160] always on D1 and so on so it's always the same mapping that XO uses.
[02:41.160] And what we can do now is we can put in front of XO here a drum sequencer we just built
[02:46.440] or I built, the triggers, the kick drum always on C1, the kick 2 always on C sharp 1, snares
[02:57.080] always on D1 so you don't need to change basically the notes, that's what I want to say.
[03:01.640] We can just apply or load the preset which is called drum sequencer in front of XO and
[03:08.960] it will always trigger the right cells when you hit play on the transport here.
[03:17.200] You can also exchange here the preset, you can also use a sample compiler here, exchange
[03:33.960] all samples randomly, right?
[03:39.080] You always get the right cells triggered by the drum sequencer, no problem.
[03:44.280] So now to the second part, you can also use a drum machine from Bitwig itself, maybe
[03:51.880] you can also use an able to drum rack, probably walks the same way and then you have this
[03:58.280] export overlay here and down below you can export basically the rock hit but also all the
[04:07.440] individual samples so all you need to do is track this handle here, over here.
[04:14.200] So now you have all the samples in here that we have in here, but it's a nice block flow
[04:19.760] basically to get samples out of XO into Bitwig audio rock station, I don't know.
[04:28.240] So quick way of doing that.
[04:30.600] So we can move XO here, that's what I do recently onto an effect track and only because of that
[04:37.520] because I don't use return effects at all in Bitwig, I only use inserts on the track
[04:43.160] itself and I don't use these tracks here.
[04:46.880] So we can use this as a dummy track to have XO open all the time maybe on a second screen
[04:51.800] or something you have XO ready to select the sample, drag the samples out into another
[04:59.480] application, another drum machine or another track for instance, so we can have this ready.
[05:07.280] And on this track here, we just have Bitwig stuff right, we have the drum sequencer here
[05:11.880] with the note grid and drum machine.
[05:13.880] So we can have this open on the second screen and maybe use different samples here, select
[05:19.800] the random and then drag this out again to the first cell, you can see we exchange all
[05:26.600] them to the cells here automatically.
[05:30.320] And the good thing is the mappings are also exactly right, so this is C1, this is C sharp
[05:36.480] one, this is D1 and so on.
[05:59.040] So to sum this up as use XO here on a return track if you don't use return tracks and only
[06:05.880] use it as a sample browser, maybe put this on a second screen here, you can also increase
[06:10.720] to your eye scaling to make it super big and nice to see and you can review your samples,
[06:21.840] select the right sample, hold control, drag it into Bitwig wherever you want and use
[06:27.040] the sample there.
[06:29.320] I didn't know that that you can actually drag stuff out directly from the space which
[06:33.680] is super neat and super nice to do and it's for me it's the missing, yeah the missing
[06:39.720] sample browser I always wanted.
[06:43.920] So I tried this out for the next weeks if this actually works nice but I want to show
[06:49.040] you maybe you didn't know that also, it's a nice workflow and also you have the export
[06:55.680] option that works neatly with the drum machine in Bitwig studio.
[07:01.920] Big tip for today, thanks for watching.