Creating Sweeps and Risers in Bitwig Grid from Scratch

Tutorial | Mar 20, 2023

In this video, I show how to create a sweep or riser from scratch using the face module in the Bitwig Grid. The face signal is perfectly synchronized with the BPM and allows for easy modulation of volume and other parameters. I also demonstrate how to use the trigger and dice modules to generate different sounds on the fly, as well as how to use a gate signal to make the riser playable as a clip. Finally, I discuss the ability to use different face tools and effects to customize and create unique risers.

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 the purpose of creating a riser in Bitwig Grid? #

The purpose of creating a riser in Bitwig Grid is to generate a ramping up signal that can be used to transition from one sequence to another in a track. Instead of using pre-made riser samples, users can create their own customized sweeps or risers using the tools available in the Bitwig Grid. The advantage of this is that it allows for high generativity, as users can change the sound on the fly by pressing a button.

How can the phase signal be used in Bitwig Grid to create a riser? #

The phase signal can be used in Bitwig Grid to create a riser by ramping up the volume or changing the intensity of a sound over time. Users can use the face tool in the grid to create a perfectly synchronized signal that is ramping up and synchronized to the BPM. By changing the phase device in the grid, users can adjust the timing and duration of the riser to create the desired effect. Additionally, users can use face tools such as the band module to create interesting fades and slopes in their risers.

What are some ways to customize a Bitwig Grid riser? #

There are several ways to customize a Bitwig Grid riser. Users can modulate the volume and filter modulation over time, as well as use LFOs to change the resonance and create different frequencies. Additionally, users can use the gate signal to let audio pass through only when there is a gate input, and use the reverb to add more depth to the sound. Furthermore, users can modify these parameters using the dice modules, which allow for the creation of randomized outputs that change over time.

How can a Bitwig Grid riser be saved and used in a track? #

A Bitwig Grid riser can be saved as a preset and used in a track by recalling the saved preset. Users can create a new sequence patch using a face tool and other modules available in the Grid, and save the patch as a new preset. This preset can be used in future projects by simply recalling the saved preset and adjusting the parameters as necessary. Furthermore, users can also use automation to adjust the volume and sequence of the riser in their track, allowing for more control over the transition 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] Hey folks welcome back in the last video we created this track here from scratch
[00:05.440] and we will continue on this one also in a future video but in today's video I
[00:12.120] want to create some kind of sweep or riser from the scratch in the grid and
[00:20.280] also you can change this how it sounds on the fly by just pressing a button so
[00:26.000] it's also highly generative. I wanted to show you how this track sounds here right
[00:52.480] so we have here this first sequence and then the second sequence and we want
[00:57.640] to transition from this sequence to that sequence and what you usually do
[01:02.120] sometimes you use these kind of riser samples so you go to a library sample
[01:08.600] library and you you know get some riser you like and then you put it in here
[01:13.760] in front of the job right we drop here at 33 mark and then we put in some
[01:20.200] riser here to ramp up the intensity and then drop into the next sequence and I
[01:26.400] want to show you how we can create this here with a kind of grid preset so
[01:32.200] here I created something and I want to show you the end result to this so
[01:36.560] let's enable this here
[01:58.560] let's we create this kind of riser sound here and it's perfectly in time it's
[02:09.120] also in the right place it's synchronized to the BPM and you can generate
[02:14.600] different sounds we can hit here this generate button and see how this sounds
[02:18.920] now or something different
[02:38.920] right so it's always kind of a different sound different riser sound and it's
[02:45.800] perfectly synchronized and you can also bounce this so if you want to have
[02:52.680] here a sample for instance or at this place here just go to bounce and create
[03:00.520] some kind of riser sample also you can see it's it's doing with both these so
[03:09.560] here we have now a sample we can use or maybe treat differently right and then
[03:16.600] you hit your generate and then you generate a new one so you can create nice
[03:24.560] little oh it's actually it's muted so you can create some samples you can use
[03:32.920] maybe also on a different project
[03:48.920] so okay so we all know now what what I mean when I say riser right so it's
[03:56.640] ramping up of a signal and yeah I show you how we create this in the grid so just
[04:02.600] mute this here or maybe you to use to go to a different empty project here and
[04:09.840] inside of the grid let's take a bully grid yeah you have a nice little tool
[04:18.200] and that's the face in here and I take also you an oscilloscope and the face
[04:25.680] signals are perfectly made yeah signal exactly for that because it's
[04:32.160] ramping up and it's synchronized with the BPM right so it's perfectly in sync
[04:38.720] with the transport and we can also click here on an empty space and we can say
[04:43.600] we want to have the signal instead of one bar we want to have it over the
[04:47.400] cross of two bars and now this one is longer you can see the ramping up take
[04:52.240] some time and it's exactly what we need we need this for the volume modulation
[04:58.880] and maybe also for changing the intensity of the sound or changing up this LFO
[05:05.920] BPM or speed setting over time right so it's a perfectly nice signal we also
[05:13.320] have some tools in the face category of the grid so we can take here the band
[05:18.080] and say we want to have here some kind of slope on the fade in as you can see
[05:25.120] now we slowly ramp up here the signal so this is also possible to use these
[05:30.440] face tools to create some more interesting things we can also say instead of a
[05:35.800] riser we want to have an impact so we can reverse the signal so now we start
[05:43.160] with the impact and then slowly going out here in time okay so we can create
[05:50.000] these kind of modulation signals here easily inside of the grid just with
[05:55.240] three of these modules can also say we have a select here and we use this one
[06:02.040] here and this one here so we can use a button and switch between these two
[06:08.960] inputs and can say this is here the direction and when it's on it's it's an
[06:17.360] impact and when it's off it's an riser right so now we have a riser and this
[06:26.480] one is an impact and so we can see we have impact here and then we slowly
[06:30.720] fading out over time and we have also a band signal so we can also create your
[06:37.240] macro and call this maybe modulate it by one create this kind of shape
[06:51.280] you can also use a button here modulate direction call this direction and now we
[07:08.160] have a riser and this one is an impact okay so easily to configure this
[07:17.800] stuff okay what else so maybe band pull this down because I like to have this
[07:23.920] small little slope on there so now we have this we can create some kind of
[07:31.120] sound so we start probably with the noise white noise we can also make the
[07:38.080] stereo if you want to maybe a filter SPF and the SPF is nice because we can
[07:45.760] switch between band pass low pass and high pass pretty easily can also disable
[07:52.200] here the key input because we want to modulate this anyway so we can take
[07:56.120] here already the signal of this and can change the frequency of the filter
[08:00.480] maybe pull this down into let's say we want to start at 80Hz or maybe C1 64
[08:08.320] hertz here maybe also put down the resonance and we can now use the noise in in
[08:15.400] here also the output go to band pass
[08:25.720] okay so now we have the filter modulation and we also want to change the volume
[08:42.240] probably so we want to mute this in this stage I want to mute the audio so
[08:47.800] we just take a multiply here and take the output of this so we have zero here
[08:52.240] zero multiplied with a signal equals basically yeah it's muted so there's no
[09:01.120] volume there so now we have this so we have this nice volume modulation and
[09:16.360] also filter modulation over time it's like exactly what we want so now we can
[09:21.480] concentrate basically on some of the fancy aspects of this yeah riser tool we
[09:30.040] can also say if the playback is stopped right what it is at a moment we want
[09:38.160] to mute the signal so we use a select here put this output into the second
[09:44.080] input and then we use a play transport play module here so this only gives
[09:50.360] our the gate when the transport is playing so every time the plan transport
[09:55.160] is at stop status then yeah no signals passed and when we hit play yeah for
[10:08.400] signal so now we can increase here maybe the resonance to get some nice
[10:12.200] sweeps for this okay so when we now go here to the grid and just bounce this
[10:28.400] out post-fader we are exactly nothing for some reason so we probably oh it's
[10:49.400] wait right here okay so we have to take this long something like this you can see
[10:57.200] it's perfectly in sync here because of the face signal so the face signal takes
[11:02.520] care of all the synchronization basically if you say well this is I think
[11:09.080] the sweep here is way too short or it happens way too often you can go back
[11:14.120] here to the grid and you can say I want to have this over the cross of four bars
[11:17.320] now so now we have two sweeps here but over a longer cross of time you can see
[11:26.320] the sweep itself is longer and also the synchronization is basically a bit
[11:31.960] yeah it's not that often it's stretched out I can also say your eight bars now
[11:39.200] it's even longer so you can decide what kind of riser or sweep you want to
[11:48.800] have and we can also take here this band and maybe use a second one which
[12:00.400] bands the band even more so now it's for some longer time you're quiet and
[12:09.880] then suddenly it rises takes a bit of time so maybe bounce this out you and see
[12:19.640] how it looks like see now we have this shorter time frame here where it rises up
[12:33.200] if you kind of like the sound it's shorter but still it's still over the
[12:39.400] cross of eight bars here or two eight bars or 16 bars so all I wanted to say is the
[12:49.160] phase signal is taking care of all this stuff of making it synchronize to the
[12:54.360] grid and it's pretty easy to do just by changing the device phase of the grid
[12:59.800] itself so we have now here the sweeping thing maybe what we also can do is
[13:04.920] maybe bring in here an LFO and LFO itself can also be quantized here to the grid
[13:11.800] right 16 out grid and we can maybe modulate your the the resonance over time
[13:21.040] right maybe pull this down to two bars again get something like this
[13:38.280] that's also nice or we can use different LFO to change maybe the frequency
[13:49.480] something like this eight notes let's hear the sounds all right you get the
[14:00.480] different kind of feel for the riser and then what you do in the end you create
[14:06.000] all these kinds of possibilities and you then go in use trigger and the dice
[14:13.640] module and you get the idea also modulator and then you modulate your
[14:21.400] basically the speed settings maybe instead of what we have here 16 out we start
[14:26.480] maybe at half note and then we go to down then we can trigger this and end up
[14:37.480] on something different quarter note half note yeah and trigger this again then
[14:45.000] we end up here on half note eight note and so on so maybe go for okay and the
[14:54.160] different here and also change this for that here we start on half note also
[15:02.320] go down for every time we trigger this we have a different setting for these
[15:08.200] LFO settings right maybe you can also say here instead of modulating this
[15:16.240] directly pull this down and pull this down and then you use an attenuate
[15:27.960] output here and here then use a modulator out for that and you modulate here
[15:42.120] this one by 48 simitons this one goes up to 100% yeah one okay and now we
[15:57.120] can change also here two dice things the modulation amount of the frequency
[16:04.720] and also modulation amount of the resonance here by the dice so every time
[16:09.040] we press this we get different settings right and a different sound okay press the
[16:26.160] button right then we can also decide here to use a button for that so we call
[16:37.280] this general oops call this generate right can also use a button for maybe
[16:52.800] change this from pink noise or from white noise to pink noise so we call this
[17:00.560] pink so we can switch here right can also use a button to change the
[17:06.920] noise to stereo stereo noise and so on so you can create all kinds of buttons
[17:17.520] here to change up the flow of this can also give it a try now here again
[17:25.640] different sound I need to I need to change actually this to a button to trigger
[17:54.720] this yeah that's the that's a big drawback here we don't have actually a
[18:00.400] trigger button as a macro or as a modulator here we have to rely basically on
[18:06.120] a two-state buttons we have click once and the second time to actually trigger
[18:11.680] something so now we can generate here okay so we can also use your EQ at the
[18:30.040] end to maybe low cut because with pink noise you get the whole spectrum of
[18:34.640] sound so we maybe only want to have here basically the upper half of the
[18:43.440] frequency spectrum this is something you could do maybe use a microphone for
[18:52.480] that start at c1 and then we go up here to whatever 1k so let's go back to
[19:04.080] 48 round number so we can change that what we also can do is inside of the
[19:12.080] grid here maybe go to the chorus to make this spread out a bit wider or make
[19:18.240] a make the stereo even wider or use phaser why not
[19:40.840] so you can also use dice here for that you change how much the phaser is
[19:53.120] changing the signal maybe also here the speed setting and maybe also the depth of
[20:02.280] this maybe the color to let's use let's use a different one in the color and the
[20:13.160] feedback and I mean why not the the algorithm here for that also nice yeah so
[20:27.720] now every time you press to generate we also change the phaser setting okay
[20:51.520] so you get the nice riser sound every time you press the button here it's
[20:56.880] perfectly in sync you just open up basically here the preset you call this one
[21:01.920] riser whatever save riser tutorial tutorial I'll put this also on my
[21:16.400] patreon fx fast creates risers or impact yeah let's try to impact I mean it's
[21:27.280] not really impact that needs to be some some kick drum in there for impact but
[21:32.840] it's just a direction we change it's actually there if you don't want to
[21:52.240] bounce it's an only one to have basically a riser at a certain point in your
[21:56.440] arrangement you can use the automation that's why what I usually do because I'm
[22:03.240] lazy so I'm saying I'll put the volume down here everywhere I don't need it
[22:08.160] and just put it up here right so this is something you could do we can also
[22:12.840] just say instead of using display button here so we mute the audio every time
[22:20.240] you hit stop you can also say we want to use a gate signal gate in so we only
[22:27.560] let audio pass through this whole sequence when there is a gate input so what
[22:33.800] we need to do is to create some kind of clip and some note to actually make
[22:42.600] this audible right here and then we have to see if you actually change
[22:48.800] somewhere here the pitch with a pre-cord no it's actually everything is to say
[22:54.560] oh we need to disable this so so I just look here for pre-cord the disabled
[23:01.600] pre-cord so the gate or the pitch doesn't change anything okay that's it
[23:11.840] and you can see here now it's muted because there is no gate there's no
[23:16.040] note there so you can change through the note where you want to play this
[23:19.520] riser and it doesn't matter which which pitch you use it's just that it is
[23:29.080] at least some note in there and this note then triggers here basically
[23:34.280] it's gate this gives out a one as you can see here and switches the output one
[23:38.360] and then you can hear something you can also use here maybe a reverb on the
[23:44.200] on the post fx maybe you want to have it a bit more dry to ring out a bit
[23:49.160] better give it a bit more depth
[23:58.600] all right something like this and then you had safe safe as a pre-cord you can
[24:07.640] see it's not really that complicated you basically just have here a small
[24:12.960] sequence patch where we use the face input as a signal to kind of change the
[24:20.760] loudness and some of the parameters in here or the sequence it basically we
[24:26.800] have a direction thing here where we can switch between reverse and you know
[24:30.760] the normal ramp signal we have some bent things in here we can bend the
[24:35.320] signal to make it a bit more yeah slowly fading in or faster fading in of
[24:43.600] course you can use much more of these face tools here right there is much
[24:48.320] more you can also use a mirror here to make multiple of these to have kind of
[24:54.360] these kind of sweeps here in between so there's all kinds of stuff you can do
[24:59.320] you get creative with this and then here down here we generate noise we
[25:04.280] modulate the noise with LFOs and also the output here with the phaser and then
[25:09.680] we use here this randomizing battery of dice modules to modulate all these
[25:15.920] parameters and we also make sure to stay in sync here by just modulating
[25:22.640] you know the quantizing timings here from half note to I think 32 note grid
[25:30.320] so everything is in sync even though you randomize heavily right and you can
[25:36.520] create this nice kind of sweeps and put them in your tracks or maybe create
[25:40.480] a sample library or whatever and sell it for 20 bucks and get rich but that's
[25:47.120] not what I want to do I want to share these nice little helper tools here on
[25:51.400] Bitwig and on YouTube for Bitwig so you can create this for yourself so you
[25:58.160] can see it's not really complicated to create this save it as a preset and
[26:02.320] every time you need a riser or an impact you just recall this preset and use it
[26:07.400] in your track so you can go back here to this and maybe use our new this one is
[26:15.280] actually better than my old one was probably lazy
[26:21.200] to use this riser here oh we need to put in here at least one note right
[26:36.920] maybe put a pic in the middle here to make this learner generate something new
[26:51.040] also here I'm using basically the full frequency range right we modulate
[27:10.320] basically from here all the way up to here which is maybe too high for the
[27:15.200] endpoint of the of the riser maybe pull this down to here so we only go to that
[27:24.400] to 1k where we you know it's the sweet spot for the ears
[27:31.640] and it's maybe also a bit too fast so we go to 4 bars maybe 8 bars
[27:48.240] much we bought
[28:07.440] so I think this is pretty nice to use so let's bounce this
[28:30.000] so we have sweep one here and then we can say we want to use this not here we want to
[28:36.480] use this maybe there at this position right and here we create another one a
[28:42.880] different riser
[28:55.920] so here we have this one also bounces out
[29:01.440] so you can use different risers at different positions in your song to get
[29:08.360] some variety in there maybe at the end here so want to put this tutorial
[29:17.520] basically in the middle from creating this track now we creating these risers
[29:22.360] because it's something I really like to do instead of using random sample
[29:28.080] libraries I create this from scratch here with my own presets
[29:46.240] I probably also have to bounce out here a bit of the end because there's a ring
[29:51.600] out here from the reverb or tail from the reverb small one so yeah and then you
[30:01.240] can remove the preset are completely and just you know you see samples maybe
[30:09.960] on one track here call this risers and then put it in the background
[30:40.440] save okay so I just want to show you this how you can do this in the grid
[30:46.240] easily like I said I shared this preset you're also my old preset and on
[30:52.440] petrience you can download this and can try it out for yourself or you can
[30:56.440] rebuild it from this video it's I mean it's just a tutorial and it's not hard to
[31:00.400] do it's not that complicated and it's also nice practice to get you know to
[31:08.520] get used to using the grid for these kind of things okay that's it for this
[31:13.960] video thanks for watching guys leave a like if you like the video if you like
[31:17.800] the outcome of this if you have some questions of course leave it in the
[31:21.400] comments thanks for watching subscribe to the channel and thanks for watching
[31:24.760] bye