Exploring the New CLAP Format with Bitwig Studio Beta 6

Tutorial | Jun 16, 2022

I recently tried out Bitwig Studio's new CLAP plug-in format and it was really cool! With this new format, I was able to modulate parameters polyphonically, as well as use random modulators which are polyphonic by default. I was also able to use an MPE controller to open up the cutoff for each note I pressed differently. There are also some other features in the CLAP format such as communicating metadata to the host and CPU multi-core performance improvements. If you're interested in trying it out, there are links in the description below to download the beta versions and information on how to develop CLAP plugins.

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Questions & Answers #

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

What is CLAP? #

CLAP stands for Creative Live Audio Bus. It is a new plug-in format developed by UHE and Bitwig Studio and officially announced yesterday. It is intended to improve the communication between the plug-in and the host, allowing for better performance and integration.

What can you do with CLAP? #

CLAP allows users to modulate parameters polyphonically, use random modulators, and also use MPE controllers. It makes it easier for plug-in developers to communicate with the host, allowing for better performance and integration.

How can I try out CLAP? #

You can try out CLAP by downloading Bitwig Studio beta 6 and UHE's beta synthesizers from KVR. You can then load them into Bitwig and try out the new features available with CLAP.

What are the benefits of CLAP? #

The benefits of CLAP are that it makes it easier for plug-in developers to communicate with the host, allowing for better performance and integration. It also allows for polyphonic modulation of parameters, use of random modulators, and use of MPE controllers. All of

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 folks, today it's about CLAP, the new CLAP plug-in format and UHE and Bitwig Studio officially announced CLAP yesterday on their websites.
[00:10.000] And I link in the description below so you can read everything if you want to.
[00:15.000] And also a link to KVR where UHE posted beta versions of their synthesizers, which you can try out now in Bitwig beta version 6 in the new CLAP format.
[00:29.000] So here we are in Bitwig Studio beta 6 and I can load here Hive by UHE.
[00:38.000] This is how it looks like. And you just saw here, maybe let's go to Diva.
[00:46.000] You can see we have now here this smaller CLAP symbol as you can see Diva here is also available in VST3 with these small little dashes here.
[00:57.000] So yeah, this is how it looks like in Bitwig Studio. So we can load up CLAP here.
[01:03.000] And with this new CLAP format, we have some new possibilities inside Bitwig Studio available now.
[01:10.000] There are some features missing in the implementation right now because it's everything is in beta, but you can still try it out.
[01:17.000] So also these plugins here by UHE are in beta versions, so they have some problems.
[01:26.000] There are also some debugging mechanisms implemented.
[01:29.000] So sometimes it crashes or it hangs, but this is kind of intended.
[01:33.000] At least that's what I read in the forum post.
[01:38.000] So now with this CLAP format, we can modulate just some parameters polyphonic.
[01:44.000] So maybe just in a tier patch, we have a sawtooth and we create here some nodes.
[01:53.000] So just start here with one node.
[01:57.000] Or maybe I go to D sharp.
[02:02.000] So now we can modulate here, maybe the cutoff or we can just move the cutoff knob here, which is nothing special.
[02:11.000] But we can use now here a random modulator.
[02:16.000] And these random modulators inside Bitwig Studio are polyphonic by default, right?
[02:21.000] You can also switch this here to bipolar, so it goes in the positive and negative range.
[02:27.000] And we can also smooth here the modulation itself and we maybe go to eight nodes.
[02:34.000] We can see what's going on.
[02:36.000] So when we touch here a parameter inside the hive, turn this here up and down.
[02:41.000] You can see it also moves to the top part of this device container.
[02:47.000] We can easily modulate now here the cutoff knob and just hit play.
[03:00.000] So nothing special really.
[03:10.000] But now we can add more nodes to that here.
[03:19.000] So we have now four nodes.
[03:23.000] And each of these nodes gets now its own random value for the modulation.
[03:31.000] So you can see on these dots.
[03:34.000] So each dot represents basically a voice and each voice gets its own modulation value to this knob, to this cutoff knob.
[03:46.000] And if you do this here a bit more subtle, then yeah, it brings the sound to life basically.
[04:00.000] So now we can just duplicate here this random modulator and maybe modulate the panning of this first oscillator.
[04:10.000] So we touch your panning modulators here and then we go to nodes.
[04:19.000] So each time we press a note, the random value is generated and then we hold this value.
[04:24.000] So every time we have a note on with the notes here, we generate a random value on this random value, then transmit the value to this panning position.
[04:36.000] So every time I press play, you can see we have a different value here, which represents basically the panning position.
[04:49.000] You can also make this move around, maybe a bit slower, maybe four bars, maybe too slow.
[05:10.000] So now we can also dial in your unison, of course, 16 voices, so each note gets 16 voices of unison.
[05:22.000] Little bit of detuning, vibrate a little bit, maybe bring here also a sign and sub.
[05:45.000] And maybe switch it to wavetables so we can move the wavetable position.
[05:51.000] So I'm using here four man's park box, maybe so we can switch you through the wavetable.
[05:58.000] And because this is now polyphonic, each note, each voice gets it on wavetable position, which is really nice.
[06:07.000] So we can move this here by pulling off because we started zero and you want only to modulate in the positive range, positive values.
[06:28.000] And as you can see now, also with clap format, it's now possible that you can move or offset these knobs without disturbing the modulation itself.
[06:38.000] I think before that we had a state for just one knob position.
[06:43.000] This knob position was also moved by maybe the automation and also the modulation and now it's all separate.
[06:51.000] So you have an offset to cut off knob, on top of that you have the modulation and then maybe also the automation.
[06:58.000] I'm not wrong.
[07:00.000] So you have multiple states inside the plug-in for each of these individual knob position modifiers.
[07:15.000] That's actually better down here.
[07:25.000] Maybe it's too fast.
[07:35.000] Ah, this one here.
[07:40.000] So slowly moving through the wavetable.
[07:49.000] Maybe we put in here some effects.
[07:53.000] Chorus.
[07:57.000] Reverb.
[08:04.000] Oh yeah.
[08:17.000] So I kind of like this, how it is.
[08:19.000] So we have also the panning here, of course, moving around, which is nice.
[08:24.000] Maybe you can modulate here also the vibrator a bit.
[08:28.000] Maybe take this one here, duplicate this.
[08:31.000] Just a touch.
[09:01.000] So now, here on my left side, I have an MPE controller and I think Hive 2 is also capable of using MPE.
[09:30.000] But you can also now use just an expression modulator of Bitwig Studio for this.
[09:36.000] And we have here the timbre, which is basically the position on the key of my finger, up or down.
[09:43.000] So I think it's Y, the Y-axis.
[09:46.000] So we can use this here also to maybe open up here the cutoff a bit more.
[10:01.000] And because this is now polyphonic, you can press multiple keys on your MPE keyboard slide up or down with each finger differently.
[10:12.000] And open up cutoff for each note you press differently.
[10:24.000] It brings everything to life, of course, because it's for each voice differently and it sounds very organic.
[10:31.000] So this is basically two or three features of the new clap format.
[10:36.000] There are more features, of course, that are more behind the scenes.
[10:42.000] So it's easier for clap developers to bring metadata to the host itself.
[10:49.000] So for instance, if you develop a sampler or something like this, you can communicate which kind of samples are actually loaded in the sampler to the host to your door.
[10:59.000] And the door then can grab these or take these samples and put it into the project folder to the right path so we can communicate better with the host.
[11:11.000] And also some CPU multi-core performance things are also implemented.
[11:17.000] I couldn't test these yet because I just downloaded this yesterday and played around a bit.
[11:23.000] But I wanted to show you that it's actually worth trying out.
[11:27.000] The links to these beta versions are in the description below.
[11:30.000] Also all the information about the clap.
[11:33.000] And if you are interested in developing clap plugins, there are also links in the description below where you can download some frameworks and some basic information on how to develop these things.
[11:47.000] So that's all for this video.
[11:49.000] Thanks for watching.
[11:50.000] Try it out, give me some feedback if you tried it out already, if you have some fun with these new clap format.
[11:57.000] Let me know and I'll see you in the next video.
[12:00.000] Thanks for watching and bye.