Creating Music in Bitwig Studio: From Zero to Something

Tutorial | Sep 09, 2022

In this video, I showed how to create a track in Bitwig Studio. I started with the Poly-Grid and added a pitch module, oscillator, merger, reverse, and the trigger module. I then added a sample and hold, transpose, chorus, filter, and reverb. I then used dice modules and added a kick drum, hi hats, and an arpeggiator. I then added a vocal sample, reverb, and a recorder. Lastly, I added a cool force to the master and a limiter to finish the track.

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 Inside Bitwig Studio? #

Inside Bitwig Studio is a digital audio workstation (DAW) designed to help create, record, and edit music. It is a powerful and versatile tool that can be used to create complex compositions, soundscapes, and audio effects. It features a wide range of features and tools for creating, recording, and manipulating sound, including a modular interface, audio routing, and automation capabilities.

What are the features of Inside Bitwig Studio? #

Inside Bitwig Studio features a modular interface for creating, recording, and manipulating sound. It includes a grid-based sequencer, a Note Editor, a modular synthesizer, an effect section, and a mixer. It also offers a range of audio routing options, automation capabilities, and the ability to add external plugins.

How can I use Inside Bitwig Studio to create music? #

Inside Bitwig Studio can be used to create music in a variety of ways. It can be used to create compositions with its grid-based sequencer, create sounds with its modular synthesizer and effects section, and manipulate sound with its audio routing and automation capabilities

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, welcome back. So today I thought maybe we create another track in Inside Bitwig Studio
[00:06.420] I think it's the best way to just show how we go from zero to something in Bitwig just to
[00:12.920] Inspire people to actually do something instead of you know going down to
[00:18.600] the grid and getting lost in complexity
[00:22.560] so maybe first year I increased the size of Bitwig Studio and
[00:26.760] And we start with the Poly-Grid of course because I really like to have some kind of background
[00:33.520] stuff going on in the scale of the
[00:37.200] Of the track. So here I'm taking a Poly-Grid and we maybe start here with the pitchers module
[00:45.520] Which gives us some some nodes and I put here some nodes into a scale
[00:51.840] Which is the D sharp minor scale, of course, you all know it. You all like it
[00:57.000] And
[00:58.400] So let's define you some some some nodes
[01:03.680] Okay, so now we hook this up here to the oscillator, of course dial this up and the pre-code is off now and
[01:12.400] Also, we want to change here the face input
[01:15.720] So we use a face in connect these two and disable this so we have exactly the same
[01:24.000] Thing as before and then we use a merge
[01:29.240] And we connect this here also so we can switch between different inputs here. Maybe we increase here this to three
[01:38.840] And we use a mirror
[01:40.840] Yeah, so we can switch between different face signals and maybe what else
[01:47.080] Let's let's use a reverse here
[01:49.720] So we want to reverse or play this in reverse. So then we use a value
[01:55.320] here on top
[01:57.360] And just switch between the inputs and maybe go into interpolation to nearest so we can have a stepped switch
[02:04.840] When we switch it to mirror, we can see it's now playing back and forth
[02:08.360] Because we have a mirror in there and the reverse thing also place this in reverse, of course
[02:16.760] So we have three options here how to play this right and then we maybe
[02:23.800] Take this one here put this over there and also connect these two
[02:28.840] And maybe use triggers trigger modules here
[02:32.920] Duplicate these three times
[02:34.920] And to dial in of course your different trigger sizes, maybe six, seven
[02:40.440] Maybe nine something odd because I like to have groovy
[02:44.920] And to use a clock quantizer here
[02:49.320] And another trigger small tool whoops
[02:52.840] And connect these two and let's
[02:56.680] Let's synchronize this to 16 nodes here
[02:59.320] And now we can switch between different
[03:07.560] Different triggers here and also different phase signals phase input signals at the same time. Okay, and then we use this, of course to
[03:15.720] Trigger here the output of the or trigger the envelope actually
[03:33.960] Okay, so now that we have this we also need probably here a sample and a hold
[03:42.840] To get rid of these glitches between the nodes these bands these note bands
[03:50.040] Let's listen to this
[03:55.640] We also maybe need a transpose on octaver here. We want to probably change the octave
[04:06.840] Okay, that's also nice
[04:08.840] And what else can we use?
[04:14.440] Maybe we put here also a chorus in there chorus plus
[04:20.360] And switch it to eight voices
[04:23.080] Let's listen to this
[04:25.160] It's more like an unison
[04:32.680] There's a bit of diffusion kind of you know diffuse signal
[04:37.000] Maybe we put this here also in unison
[04:44.040] 16 voices and
[04:51.560] Maybe it would be nice to have an filter here. Maybe we go for a mook filter
[04:57.640] And we use a different envelope here
[04:59.800] And open up here the filter what we do this instead of with the
[05:07.000] With the modulator out here, we just take the signal out and put this here into the cutoff modulation amount
[05:12.120] Okay, so we are at 110 maybe we slow this down to not 66 85
[05:36.760] Okay, so now that we have this we switch the Poly-Grid here into voice stacking mode
[05:49.000] Three voices because we have here three options
[05:52.520] Use the voice deck modulator
[05:54.520] And for the first voice we stay on the first thing here. The second voice goes goes to the second input. So that's what you're latest
[06:06.920] And also the second input
[06:15.800] Maybe we switch it the second voice also one octave higher
[06:18.920] And the third voice one octave lower
[06:24.520] And maybe we slow this down so we select your Poly-Grid and go to the device length and maybe choose two
[06:45.080] Maybe disable also the pre-chord for the for the envelopes. So now that we have this we probably want to create some kind of reverb. So
[07:00.600] Um, we don't want to create a reverb, but I create a reverb. I pretty much like it instead of just using a
[07:08.200] default reverb or maybe use an
[07:10.200] Supermassive nowadays. So I'm going for fx grid here
[07:16.280] And inside of x grid here we use a split for instance a stereo split and the merge
[07:24.040] Want to treat the left and the right channel a bit differently
[07:28.840] Um, so we connect these two and here we hook up some all pass devices
[07:34.360] Um, something like this. This could be interesting
[07:43.480] Um, maybe
[07:48.920] Maybe a second
[07:53.000] Second block here of this
[07:55.000] So I feel like this
[08:03.000] Okay, so now in between these two blocks, we can also use maybe a chorus pretty slow modulated chorus
[08:23.000] Okay, then we maybe want to
[08:33.480] Here's some kind of feedback. So I'm using a long delay
[08:38.200] Going out into the long delay here maybe choosing
[08:42.840] Not here. Um pretty slow or pretty fast
[08:46.200] In delay time, I am probably going for three 16 notes of us delay and then I'm using a blend
[08:56.200] Oops blend here
[08:58.520] And then I'm blending in basically the output here into the input and this is more or less my feedback knob here
[09:05.240] So I can call this um
[09:07.640] feedback
[09:09.640] Um this input one, okay, let's let's see how this sounds
[09:18.760] Okay, so maybe we need here some high pass and low pass things before we go back
[09:27.400] Um high pass low pass, let's see maybe 300 or 500 here, okay not that steep
[09:36.680] Um, maybe feedback here a bit less
[09:41.240] Let's see
[09:49.240] Okay
[10:20.200] It's way too blurry a bit too blurry
[10:26.040] We'll mix in here the reverb
[10:31.000] Okay, so I need this more more lush
[10:33.800] Let's see what we can do. Maybe we can introduce here some more blurring with an all pass
[10:51.560] Um, maybe svf here an svf filter
[10:57.320] Um disable it the pre-chord
[10:59.080] And we have um let's see we we are in your we have a scale of d-sharp minor right so we can tune
[11:09.320] The the reverb to that so maybe go to c1 here use a pitch quantizer
[11:18.120] Dial in the scale of d-sharp minor
[11:20.120] Connect this here to the input of the svf so we are on the on the frequencies of the scale basically
[11:29.640] Use a value
[11:33.480] And then also use here a voice stacking to duplicate basically this voice multiple times so maybe let's
[11:39.880] go to five so we duplicate this five times and on each voice we tune this to a different note
[11:47.640] So let's go to um voice stacking here
[11:54.680] Um zero to one
[12:00.600] Okay use your macro because we can now increase here the resonance for all voices
[12:07.880] This works nice and maybe we can also randomize a bit to the pitch drift
[12:22.040] Um polyphonic yeah and we slowly modulated the cutoff just a tad
[12:40.200] And maybe you can also use a delay here and create some kind of modulation in there
[13:02.840] I take the same
[13:03.800] And maybe here the feedback is still too much
[13:17.240] Oh yeah we can also use the voice stack to change some
[13:20.840] all-pass delay settings here maybe we take this one here and just slowly increase
[13:34.040] So every voice basically has a different all-pass delay setting here
[13:37.880] Yeah let's go to 500 here
[13:53.080] 700 okay
[14:01.880] Yeah and maybe low pass high pass here at the end
[14:32.840] Something like this
[14:41.080] It's maybe not the best reverb but kind of works
[15:02.280] Could also introduce here a bit of movement see how this sounds
[15:17.480] Yeah randomize
[15:34.120] Synchronize this to maybe too fast half notes
[15:40.680] Uh maybe you can switch this here to xp and use your different bandpass filter
[15:51.880] And put a straight normal delay two here at the end nice
[16:11.080] Let's see how this sounds when I slow this even more down
[16:22.840] Of course we have so many notes here playing and there's so much reverb between the notes
[16:27.400] so maybe slow this down into four so we can also change here a bit of the envelope settings
[16:41.720] Go down to eight
[17:04.280] Okay so now that we have this we can use dice or two dice modules
[17:09.560] And every time we trigger the notes here we trigger also these dice modules
[17:17.240] And then we change the envelope settings
[17:23.240] Boing
[17:23.640] Maybe this is the fastest setting here and then we open up delay times
[17:34.360] Or maybe use a different set just so we have different combinations
[17:51.000] Nice
[18:07.800] Can also introduce some bit of pitch shift here
[18:11.000] That's the random module eight notes
[18:19.000] Bipolar three quarter notes okay let's see and let's see when we change the wavetable
[18:43.080] how this sounds
[18:53.080] I think it sounds nice so far for nice background drone maybe too fast already too many notes but
[19:14.600] Okay pull this down here a bit loudness wise
[19:32.120] Okay so this is the drone
[19:38.120] And that's the first track maybe go to Polysynth here and bring in some kind of pedal down
[19:44.440] or the root note basically of the track let's go to multiple
[19:52.520] Go to loop mode
[20:00.440] Um let's go for reverb chorus
[20:16.440] So
[20:29.080] Let's bring in here the dominant in the fourth
[20:33.400] And spring in some modulation
[21:03.560] So
[21:15.000] Okay
[21:20.120] There's a pet sound
[21:29.400] Maybe a bass sound so use for most polymer
[21:40.520] It's probably also the root note
[21:46.600] But this time instead of I'm a bit lazy here with a bit of notes
[21:49.800] Make it a smaller bolt so we use a repeater maybe use here the Euclid mode
[22:02.120] This is a monophonic mode so we don't have overlapping notes
[22:32.440] So
[22:50.200] Maybe unison here for the upper tones
[22:54.440] Or maybe speed this up a bit here
[23:25.000] Yeah randomize this
[23:38.520] And every time we hit a note here we hold this we don't need to have this polyphonic
[23:44.760] And maybe a bit of delay
[24:14.760] So
[24:28.200] Let's push this here to the edge
[24:29.480] Go to minus three
[25:00.440] That's too fast
[25:10.920] Maybe an arpeggio
[25:17.560] And go to phase four
[25:22.200] And use the same note
[25:23.400] This time we use multi notes to create more notes of that so maybe suspended
[25:53.400] And delay too
[26:23.960] So
[26:35.720] Three and pretty slow modulation not polyphonic
[27:06.520] Slide it to tune here the oscillator so we have a stereo effect
[27:22.040] And maybe we pitch this one off the fire
[27:53.000] And this is the arpeggio arpeggiator
[27:58.200] So nice um what else you can introduce your kick drum
[28:09.000] Maybe you can also use the um notes repeater here for this
[28:13.480] So we go for repeat note repeats
[28:23.720] And the quantizer
[28:24.760] And tune it until it sounds good
[28:35.640] Nice so a bit of sound design here for the kick drum
[28:49.240] Let's filter out here the midfiles of the kick
[29:02.840] Okay some hi-hats
[29:22.440] Just to set the same technique here just a bit faster
[29:44.680] And use some heavy randomization here maybe we go for a step step mod
[29:49.880] So we have the same sequence
[29:59.960] Oops this was wrong
[30:06.360] I've always bit problems with moving things around in bitwig and then bitwig
[30:10.680] collapsing different things and then I put it on something else and so on
[30:15.080] Something like this right I move it over here see it now it collapses this this bottom one and then
[30:23.480] I put it somewhere else so it's a bit yeah a bit strange sometimes
[30:32.440] Okay what else can we modulate this one here
[30:34.680] Maybe a second or a third one
[30:48.440] Oh yeah resonance is always nice
[31:00.280] Very much a legit frequency
[31:09.240] And different lengths here so we don't have overlapping sequences
[31:13.640] Maybe something there
[31:43.640] If you have the diffusion here down the zero gives you this nice
[31:59.960] It sounds almost like a grain delay but it's probably just all pass delays
[32:15.880] Can we bring in some more repeaters
[32:26.600] So a step mod at the end from the sequence here
[32:44.040] Okay let's bring in some
[33:14.520] Okay a bit longer 32 notes 32 steps
[33:24.760] Okay let's cut off here at the low end
[33:55.560] And maybe some real hi-hats here maybe go for xo
[34:03.880] And such some hi-hat samples
[35:03.880] And something like this
[35:19.880] Maybe a bit quieter
[35:24.600] So we have a nice little background loop here already already a bit
[35:36.360] modulating all the time so we got different
[35:38.840] Yeah different combinations and different alterations a lot of variation in there
[35:55.160] Maybe and bring in arcade bring in some vocals or something something organic
[36:11.160] Let's go to hooked here
[36:12.280] And choose something random maybe something like this download this
[36:27.640] You can switch this to minor and D sharp minor then trigger this from the keyboard
[36:40.120] Some reverb on it
[36:56.440] And tweak this I think there's just a playback setting here yeah off speed
[37:26.440] Maybe it's filled on there
[37:57.240] Lots of delays so no one hears what what's actually about
[38:16.760] Let me pitch this up here I think you have a octave
[39:16.760] Probably not the best idea but
[39:46.840] So maybe we bounce this before we fiddle around with this for hours
[40:04.920] I just bounce in place here probably the best we have the real effects on it bounce in place
[40:12.120] then I think we can disable this
[40:42.120] We need maybe a random mod here a pretty slow one bar maybe over six bars
[40:55.000] A slow fade of this envelope mod
[41:11.320] So sometimes the arpeggiator blends out and blends in over time pretty slowly
[41:41.640] Maybe we build a reverb for this FX grid
[41:52.120] Let's see let's use a recorder here
[41:59.720] Trigger
[42:07.640] And maybe use chance so we don't record all the time only sometimes
[42:37.960] A bit like it's a bit like a grain delay small one
[42:58.280] So we need to blend in and blend out here probably to get rid of this click
[43:02.280] Maybe instead of using these triggers I use a phase module here and use a scaler
[43:18.200] Get a faster phase output here maybe to eight and then use a logic operator
[43:25.000] Every time this is not zero we have here a trigger
[43:40.040] So basically every time this is zero or not zero which is 99% of the times
[43:47.320] we have a trigger out here and only when the phase signal is at zero we have an off switch off
[43:56.840] so we have recording all the time and then at the start of the sequence we slowly or fast switch off
[44:05.240] Okay so we have this and you can bring in the chance here again
[44:08.920] So it's not happening all the time but the playback is happening all the time
[44:18.040] Let's see how this sounds
[44:48.840] I think we need to
[44:56.040] retrigger this here probably so when this is zero then retrigger maybe something like this
[45:26.920] Okay
[45:37.240] Probably you have to use a constant here for some reason
[45:39.720] Yeah, now we get the signal here.
[46:04.600] Recording is delayed. I think this is always a proper material. Let's use a logic delay here.
[46:10.600] But this makes no sense that it stops here basically in the middle of the sequence.
[46:38.040] And then we use a mirror here and continue it so we can slowly fade this in and out.
[46:51.400] This was the main idea. And then maybe switch this here to logarithmic so it's on all the time
[47:02.040] or mostly on and goes very fast back to zero. Only for the click.
[47:13.400] So okay, we have this.
[47:34.840] I don't know how it works when we have more of this.
[47:38.440] Let's go for a super nice feature just for test.
[47:51.880] What goes for the quality?
[48:07.560] Because of the mix here.
[48:13.320] Maybe we can use it for different things, different settings.
[48:44.280] What a different setting here.
[48:55.880] There is the slow machine.
[49:25.880] Nice. Yeah, we can try this in the context.
[50:25.880] And just play some notes.
[50:56.040] So also with Bitwig we can of course use your human eyes
[51:08.760] and change a bit the timing of the notes, also the chance
[51:12.360] and maybe randomize the velocity here.
[51:43.320] Okay, we randomize here this one too.
[51:55.800] And all the track needs is probably a clap.
[52:55.880] Not so not happy with the arpeggiator.
[53:07.160] So now I can see that the kick drum is peaking out a bit but it's
[53:10.920] you know that's what the kick drum used to do.
[53:14.600] Maybe bring this down here to the root of the track. I don't know. I have it on G.
[53:26.440] I think it's okay.
[53:33.880] What you can do is maybe put the cool force here on the master.
[53:36.680] Get rid of some resonances.
[53:48.360] Just put the TB meter on here. We want to have maybe for this type of stuff minus 12 or minus 10
[53:55.560] loops. Analyze this a bit. So we add around minus 12.5 which is exactly nice.
[54:12.520] And then we drive this just into an elevate. Multi-band limiter here.
[54:17.240] With the input gain of zero we end up exactly with minus 12 loops. Momentary max.
[54:27.960] You can see some of the kick drums are a bit limited as expected.
[54:42.760] Yeah and all it needs now is kind of an arrangement but I'm too lazy for this.
[54:53.240] So I'm saving this and maybe at some point I do something with it.
[54:59.640] Okay that's it for this video. Thanks for watching guys.
[55:03.240] Have fun on the weekend with Bitwig and see you on Monday. Have a nice weekend. Bye.
[55:13.880] Oh yeah this track I'm uploading this to Patreon of course. If you want to download this then make
[55:18.360] sure you subscribe there.