How to Create a Transient Clicker Effect Using Only Bitwig Stock Devices

Tutorial | Sep 01, 2022

Recently I created a package of bass presets called Poly Bass and wanted to show the viewers how to create a similar sound using only Bitwig stock devices. I used the Transient Control device to modulate a Phase 1 oscillator and add clicks to the kick, snare and hi-hat. I also used the Ultra Fat preset to help balance the frequencies and make the drums louder. Finally, I showed how to use the Transient Control device to create a mid-range attack sound.

You can watch the Video on Youtube - support me on Patreon
So check the VST by monseur billy @MrBillsTunes
The Bitwig Preset: https://bit.ly/3Rw1tfQ
The Polibass Project: https://bit.ly/3cDRqq5

Questions & Answers #

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

What is the Transient Clicker preset? #

The Transient Clicker preset is a Bitwig Studio preset that uses Bitwig stock devices to emulate a sound similar to the Slap VST plug-in by Mr. Bill. It uses the Transient Control device by Bitwig Studio to recognize transients of the drums and then uses a Phase One oscillator to replace the attack phase of the sound with a click sample. It can be used to add some organic feel or a different attack sound to drums.

How do you use the Transient Clicker preset? #

To use the Transient Clicker preset, you will first need to add it to your track. Then you can use the modulator handle to adjust the length of the gate signal, which will determine how much of the transient is replaced with the click sound. You can also use the FX Grid to adjust the sound of the click, as well as the clip to increase the loudness of the click. Finally, you can use the select knob to switch between the click and the input signal, so that you can audition the effect.

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] So I recently made some bass presets for my patreons and youtube subscribers here
[00:09.600] Some whoop whoop bass lines bass sounds all collected in one package called Poly bass and
[00:16.620] Yeah, I started to make some dance floor stuff yesterday evening and it sounds like this
[00:33.220] So your usual generic, you know neuro funk, I don't know how to how to call dance floor drum bass and
[00:40.540] I thought maybe let's add some drums to the bass and that's what I did
[00:45.980] And I use here, of course also only Bitwig's dock devices to create a kick and
[00:52.460] the snare and the hi-hat here and I want to add some smack to these drums because they are synthesized and you know
[01:00.740] Normally you want to add some kind of samples on top some layering stuff to get some
[01:06.620] Organic feel to the drums or maybe just an different attack sound and I thought maybe there is this small
[01:14.020] VST black in by mr. Bill called slap and you probably already know this
[01:20.660] It looks like this and it just recognizes basically the transient of the drums in here
[01:27.740] and
[01:29.060] replaces all the
[01:30.900] Transients so the attack phase of the sound with a click sample on the left side here
[01:37.260] And you can change the click sound of course here differently to different what kind of sound you like basically or what you're going for
[01:45.460] And also some different categories there
[01:49.820] And just replace the start to give it a different tonality a different smack a different knock and there's also here
[01:57.700] small processing Shane with a transient shaper and some distortion overdrive
[02:04.500] Noise clap plug-in can add subs here also stereo field stereo
[02:12.620] Spray and also clip ID add. So this is basically this plug-in, but I wanted to stay
[02:20.220] Bitwig native or bitwig with bitwig stock devices. I wanted to just use only bitwig devices
[02:26.300] So I thought maybe we can do this inside of bitwig
[02:30.060] Maybe you just remove this here. Maybe you can do this inside of bitwig pretty easily or you can kind of
[02:37.740] Recreate it and that's what I did. So I created this preset here called transient clicker and
[02:44.620] It's on the snare. It's on the kick and it's also on the hi-hat
[02:47.660] So this is with the clicker and then I just move here the mix back and forth and you can hear how it sounds differently
[02:58.540] That's too long
[03:18.620] And
[03:20.500] Then everything goes here into a clip off course and you can change then how much you want to clip the shit out of this
[03:38.220] This is the click only
[03:40.220] That's basically what's added just in the transient phase. You can change the sound here
[03:53.700] It gives it just a small little
[03:56.820] different attack and the small little
[04:00.020] smack or knock to the to the drums it needs that you probably want to add with some samples on top
[04:07.340] So I show you how I have how I made this
[04:10.900] It's pretty easy actually
[04:12.580] I just used here a transient control device by bitwig studio because it recognizes the transients pretty easily
[04:20.060] And we have here these two modulator handles
[04:23.060] So you can see every time we have a snare playing it recognizes the transient and this light flashing up here
[04:32.580] Right so you can use this module modulator handle here and modulate something
[04:36.340] And I use an FX grid here in this FX grid. I just modulate
[04:43.300] this value knob here
[04:46.660] And it generates and gate signal and I can change here how long this gate signal is and this is basically
[04:56.660] How long the face you want to have or how much you want to replace of the transient
[05:02.700] So if you make this longer, then of course the transient phase is longer
[05:12.340] So right this is way too long, but you get the idea of what it does
[05:16.060] So every time you can hear now we have a snare drum playing
[05:19.340] I'm switching off the transient here with the select knob and switching down to this phase one oscillator
[05:26.260] And replacing basically the start attack phase of the sound
[05:34.060] With some kind of click sound and then you can modify your the phase one oscillator to
[05:39.220] Match the sound or the snare sound the kick drum sound so it gives or you get this knock that you want
[05:46.860] And if you don't like an oscillator here as an click generator, you can also exchange this maybe for a sampler here
[05:54.700] Is it actually available here? No, you can just drag drag in a sampler here and
[06:01.980] Then just use whatever click sample you want to use right so this is up to you
[06:08.500] But I want to stay here with them with the oscillator and see how it works
[06:13.100] And I also use here the gate input as a retrigger for the phase one. So you have this the same phase the same
[06:20.420] Position in the in the Wavetable or in the oscillator table and the cycle every time I trigger a sound
[06:29.300] So yeah, that's what I did here. So you can experiment with an oscillator
[06:34.300] You can also exchange it maybe for a sine oscillator for something else maybe a pulse
[06:38.940] To get some nice clicks you like
[06:41.180] Actually a pulse could be nice too. It's true. Maybe change this here. Yeah, this is actually also usable
[07:11.380] Yeah, it could be could be nice too, but let's stick here to phase one
[07:27.060] I think two milliseconds three milliseconds is the sweet spot and then of course there's a clip here just for the
[07:33.980] Click sound and again to increase the loudness of the click itself and then there's a button here to just mute the input signal
[07:43.460] And just leave the click sound
[07:51.260] So we can audition what you actually do to the click sound itself and it's pretty it works pretty well after say
[07:58.460] Maybe you have to experiment a bit more, but for now it gives the right field right
[08:06.460] Sonality to these snare sounds your kick drum sounds on itself on the bus itself
[08:13.020] I'm using a ultra-fat which is also a preset of mine where I use an
[08:18.780] multi-band FX 3 device here and
[08:22.900] in there there is a
[08:24.740] small little
[08:26.820] Compressor I built and the compressor is special in this these regards that it
[08:31.580] Actually amplifies the sounds until you hit the ceiling of 0 dB
[08:36.580] So it's increase increases the loudness of all of these bands here to 0 dB peak
[08:42.900] Which makes it also a frequency
[08:46.940] Balancer in some regards and this is also available on my patreon, of course
[08:50.980] It's a bit it's an older. It's an yeah, it's an I think last year or so older preset of mine
[08:58.700] but it works quite well off on these kind of drums here and
[09:03.820] Yeah, I want to show you this so yeah the transit clicker here is available also on my patreon if you want to just download this and
[09:10.740] I showed you also here the patch and how it works so you can rebuild it, of course
[09:14.900] For yourself, but I thought it's maybe interesting for you to know that you can actually do this and
[09:22.020] That you can use it on drums and then gives it maybe sometimes the right smack the right pop the right knock
[09:29.540] feel of these drums and it's exactly sometimes what you need on top of
[09:35.540] synthesized drum sounds and
[09:39.020] Yeah, that's how I did it bitwig only basically
[09:42.100] and
[09:44.700] Then
[09:46.980] That's it. I think that's it for this video and again and just a disclaimer
[09:52.820] This is something
[09:55.340] You can do you don't need to do this on every kind of drum sound you encounter, right?
[10:02.180] It's just when you feel you need that kind of knock or you need some
[10:07.700] Special addition to it. So it's it's very important for me because there are a lot of tutorials on YouTube where I think people think they have to
[10:16.860] Apply certain tricks on every tune on every occasion on every master bus on every drum bus or whatever
[10:25.060] So it's it's only for when you really need it and if you are maybe too lazy to
[10:31.860] At the big processing chain to get these knocks
[10:35.900] Or to amplify these transient sounds to get this knock knock sound
[10:42.060] That you can achieve this in multiple different ways, this is just one way of maybe thousand you can also just
[10:51.420] Maybe go here on the drum bus and say I use an FX3
[10:58.460] FX3 here and
[11:00.460] And only put here inside of the midbox and transient control
[11:06.620] And just amplify here the tech sound pretty short
[11:10.420] timing
[11:12.420] So basically make only the mid-range nocky and it gives also a nice little yeah addition to the drums sometimes
[11:27.540] It's way too much but just to amplify
[11:35.260] What you do here basically so this is also sometimes what I do just
[11:40.460] Use an transient controller for the mid part of the mid frequencies. It gives sometimes a nice little
[11:47.460] attack sound to the drums
[11:50.860] Okay, that's it. Thanks for watching leave a like if you liked the video subscribe on my patreon to get the
[11:56.420] The presets downloaded and also you can download of course all these nice little
[12:03.820] native
[12:05.100] Bass sounds here I made
[12:12.860] Yeah, but now presets will follow the next
[12:16.700] Next month the next weeks. I just pump these out. Hopefully over the next few weeks
[12:23.340] So thanks for watching leave a like if you liked the video subscribe to the channel and see you on the next video
[12:28.820] Thanks for watching and bye I