Circulating Chords: Easy Music Creation with Bitwig Studio 5.1

Tutorial | Oct 26, 2023

In this video, I demonstrate how to create a chord progression tool using Bitwig Studio 5.1. By utilizing the pitch bus and node grid, I show how to easily create melodies, chords, and inversions while staying within a specific octave range. The preset used in the video is available for download in the video description.

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Questions & Answers #

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

What is the main purpose of the video? #

The main purpose of the video is to demonstrate how to create chord progression tools using a pitch bus in Bitwig Studio 5.1. It shows how to create a node grid and use the pitch bus to easily progress in certain intervals, allowing for the creation of melodies and chords.

What are the steps involved in creating chord progressions with the pitch bus? #

The steps involved in creating chord progressions with the pitch bus are: inserting a Polymer device and using a convolution reverb, delay 2, and peak limiter, creating a node grid instead of nodes, using the pitch bus to progress in certain intervals (such as semitone steps), using a value knob to scale the signal, and using a round module to round the signal to the nearest integer.

How can the pitch bus be used to stay within a specific octave range? #

The pitch bus can be used to stay within a specific octave range by using a multiply and divide module, along with a wrapper module. By multiplying the pitch signal by a constant (such as 10), then using the wrapper to wrap the signal back into the desired range, and finally dividing it by the constant again, the pitch signal can be controlled to stay within a specific octave range.

What other techniques and features can be used to enhance the chord progressions created with the pitch bus? #

Other techniques and features that can be used to enhance the chord progressions created with the pitch bus include using different intervals (such as thirds, fourths, or fifths), switching between major and minor chords, using inversions to keep all the notes within the desired range, adding a base note to extend the chords, and using additional modulation tools like step sequencers or clock dividers to make the chord progressions more interesting and dynamic.

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.

[00:00:00] So we want to create something new inside of Bitwig Studio 5.1 and I really promise this
[00:00:06] time for real I keep it super simple, very simple, very easy to follow, so stick around,
[00:00:13] okay?
[00:00:14] So we insert here a Polymer device, insert a Polymer device and use a convolution reverb
[00:00:20] in there.
[00:00:23] We also use delay 2 and maybe also peak limiter.
[00:00:31] Okay, I think that's it for now.
[00:00:36] So this is our sound device, sound creation device and instead of nodes we are creating
[00:00:41] a node grid.
[00:00:45] Inside of the node grid we don't need the node in but we want to use the pitch bus
[00:00:49] which I roughly explained in some of my last videos and you can use this to easily progress
[00:00:55] in certain intervals and in our case we use 7 semitone steps, so 5th steps and we want
[00:01:04] to also use here instead of using a constant which we can't modulate here, we use a value
[00:01:11] knob but the value knob has a problem, it only ranges from 0 to 1 and this one takes
[00:01:19] in inches 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, right?
[00:01:22] So we need to scale this signal up here by using a multiply and by using a constant and
[00:01:32] I want to multiply this by 12 maybe, okay?
[00:01:35] So this is now 0 and this is 12, okay?
[00:01:38] So now we can put this into the pitch bus and this goes out here to the node out and
[00:01:43] we can trigger this with a trigger module just to test here what's going on.
[00:01:48] So we have kind of something, some node.
[00:01:52] We can also use here a virtual node, virtual keyboard.
[00:02:01] So you can see we play C3 at the moment, right?
[00:02:03] And then we increase the value.
[00:02:06] So we go up in 7 semitone steps but not really because we are using floats here.
[00:02:20] So if you use here readout, you can see, right?
[00:02:25] We have floats but we need integers so we can do this by just using a round module that
[00:02:31] rounds everything up and down to the next integer.
[00:02:34] So now we have here 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on, right?
[00:02:39] We can also put this here on bipolar mode so we can go down.
[00:02:42] We negative the range, okay?
[00:02:44] Sounds like this.
[00:02:53] So we can now circle around the circle of fifth with this.
[00:02:55] We step up and down in 7 semitone steps because of the pitch bus which is really neat.
[00:03:01] The only problem is that we exceed the current octave here pretty fast.
[00:03:05] You can see we go up here, then we are on G3 and then the next node is D4, right?
[00:03:12] So we are out of this octave between C3 and C4.
[00:03:15] We want to stay in this range.
[00:03:17] And we can do this by easy, or you can do this easily actually by using a multiply.
[00:03:25] So we multiply the pitch signal here.
[00:03:27] We also divide the pitch signal after that and we use a wrapper in between.
[00:03:33] And we use a constant and we do multiply this by exactly 10 and divide it by 10 here after
[00:03:41] the wrapper.
[00:03:42] Which means the wrapper works basically in the range of minus 1 to plus 1.
[00:03:47] And when we exceed this range, then it wraps the signal back into the range again.
[00:03:54] But because the pitch signal is a bit different, the pitch signal range is also between minus
[00:04:00] 1 and plus 1.
[00:04:01] But plus 1 is basically the highest octave which is C13 or C7 or C8 or something like
[00:04:08] this.
[00:04:09] So way too high.
[00:04:11] So we increase this by 10.
[00:04:13] So now one octave ranges between minus 1 and plus 1.
[00:04:18] Then we use the wrapper to wrap everything inside back into this octave.
[00:04:24] And then we divide again by 10 to bring it back to the original scale.
[00:04:29] I hope this makes sense in a way, but this sounds like this.
[00:04:38] You can see we never go out of the range of C3 to C4.
[00:04:42] We always stay in this range.
[00:04:44] But we still get all the notes from the circle of fifth.
[00:04:47] So the first one is C, next one is G, then D, then A, then E and so on.
[00:04:57] So we can circle around the circle of fifth while staying in one octave.
[00:05:03] So we can make nice melodies with that.
[00:05:05] I can use a step sequencer here, put this on random, modulate the value thing here,
[00:05:13] hit play, change the rhythm or maybe use a clock divider here to make it a bit more
[00:05:23] interesting.
[00:05:24] Go to 16 notes.
[00:05:33] Instead of using seven or seven semitones or fifth, we can also go to fourth and use
[00:05:39] five semitone steps.
[00:05:48] This also kind of works.
[00:05:51] So melodies are a bit boring or making a melody is not that interesting, right?
[00:05:55] So we can extend this to make some chords with this.
[00:06:00] So to make chords, all you need is basically a root note, what we already have here.
[00:06:05] And then we create three additional notes and use a transpose here.
[00:06:13] We go up three.
[00:06:14] This is a minor third.
[00:06:15] This is the fifth of the chord.
[00:06:20] And then it sounds like this.
[00:06:23] So you can circle around with chords.
[00:06:33] In this case here with minor chords around the circle of fifth, right?
[00:06:37] The problem is when you have some notes, let's say here a sharp, you can see all the chord
[00:06:43] notes exceeding basically the range of C3 to C4, right?
[00:06:48] But we want to keep them here in the range.
[00:06:50] We want to create kind of inversions of these chords automatically to keep all the notes
[00:06:55] within this range here.
[00:06:58] So what we have to do is we have to take this out here and use this for each note individually.
[00:07:04] So let's put this over here.
[00:07:08] So this is the first one.
[00:07:10] This is the root note.
[00:07:12] Then we put this here.
[00:07:17] Also here.
[00:07:20] This goes in here.
[00:07:22] This goes there.
[00:07:23] This goes in here.
[00:07:24] This goes there.
[00:07:25] So we take now each note and try to wrap this note inside of the C3 to C4 range.
[00:07:32] And it sounds much better because now we have kind of automatic inversions.
[00:07:53] That makes sense.
[00:07:55] And on the circle of fifth, if you want to switch to the relative minor, parallel minor,
[00:08:01] I think it's the relative minor.
[00:08:03] You have to go back three semitones and change the chord type.
[00:08:07] So we can do this here with the button and the modulator, right?
[00:08:14] And you use this here to switch to minor.
[00:08:19] And this one is already minor here because we have a minor third in there.
[00:08:22] So we switch this to major.
[00:08:24] We modulate this here to minus one.
[00:08:30] And we also need a transposer.
[00:08:35] Go to the relative minor.
[00:08:37] You have to go three semitones back.
[00:08:40] So we have C major and then the relative minor is A minor.
[00:08:44] Or C major is then A minor is the relative minor.
[00:08:48] So you have to go back always three semitones.
[00:08:52] So we do this here with the modulator, of course, minus three.
[00:08:57] So now you have major chords.
[00:09:00] You can circle around in major.
[00:09:05] Then you can switch to relative minor.
[00:09:10] I hope this makes sense.
[00:09:24] And we can also extend this by using, let's say, another root note here.
[00:09:29] But this root note is two octaves lower.
[00:09:33] So it's a base note, basically, minus two.
[00:09:37] And you can see now we are extending basically here.
[00:09:40] We keep all the important notes within C3.
[00:09:44] But the base note here is two octaves lower.
[00:10:00] And it sounds always nice because you just circle around the circle of fifths.
[00:10:04] So it makes it really easy.
[00:10:07] So we have here a third, a major third.
[00:10:10] We have here the fifth.
[00:10:11] We can also extend this to seventh.
[00:10:13] So we go to 10 here, or maybe 11.
[00:10:17] And then for minor, we have to also go back here one.
[00:10:21] That's one.
[00:10:24] Make the major seventh a minor seventh.
[00:10:29] Just like this.
[00:10:48] So just with the addition of this pitch bus, you can make now easy chord progression tools
[00:10:55] by just using, abusing pitch bus basically to step up in certain intervals.
[00:11:00] You can also change this, of course, to thirds, maybe, or minor thirds, or major thirds, or
[00:11:07] like I said, in fourth, or fifths.
[00:11:12] It's also a nice way of stepping up.
[00:11:17] So yeah, this is basically the idea I had here.
[00:11:19] I want to show you.
[00:11:20] Like I said, it's really simple.
[00:11:22] I put the preset in the description below so you can download it.
[00:11:26] So you don't have to rebuild it.
[00:11:28] But this just as a small inspiration for you next time if you want to create some chords,
[00:11:34] again, just use this.
[00:11:36] Also always when I show something like this, people ask me how do I can record this, right,
[00:11:41] into a MIDI track or a note track.
[00:11:44] So all you have to do is to create your new instrument track.
[00:11:48] Learn that and use your tracks, polymer, note grid output, right?
[00:11:53] It's important that you go here to tracks down there, note grid, and then you just can
[00:11:58] record everything that you play here in this thing, right?
[00:12:04] You can see it here in the background.
[00:12:07] Then cycle around here with the snob.
[00:12:11] And because we're using it to trigger us with the clock quantizer, you can't, you know,
[00:12:14] you can change this as fast as you want.
[00:12:18] Only thing you have to be, you have to take care of is basically that you stay next to
[00:12:25] the last circle of fifth position, right?
[00:12:31] If you go from here to here, then it sounds not so pleasant.
[00:12:34] So you have to always keep this on the move smoothly.
[00:12:40] So yeah, we can record this to a different track here and then cut out certain things
[00:12:46] you like or whatever you want to do with that.
[00:12:49] As you can see, this is how it looks like.
[00:12:52] Oh, we have some, we have some pitch bands in there.
[00:12:57] We probably have to use, in here, we have to use, let's put this in, sample and hold
[00:13:06] this.
[00:13:13] I think this works better.
[00:13:17] And we have to use here all the triggers.
[00:13:31] And that's it.
[00:13:32] Okay.
[00:13:33] So then we can also do stuff like changing the length of the, of the gates here, put
[00:13:39] this down to 10 milliseconds.
[00:13:41] So they are really short bursts.
[00:13:44] And then on the oscilloscope, it looks like this now.
[00:13:48] So we have just short burst here, but we want to invert this and use a knot.
[00:13:56] So it looks like this.
[00:13:57] We have long gates and some interruptions in between.
[00:13:59] So we can use this for longer sounds.
[00:14:02] So we can use the sustain here.
[00:14:25] We could also use instead of minor, we can also use your maybe suspended.
[00:14:37] Suspend modulates the thirds here by minus four.
[00:14:41] We are basically only at two or end up on two.
[00:14:51] And we need to disable this.
[00:15:12] Yeah.
[00:15:13] It's a nice way of coming up with some chord progressions.
[00:15:15] Maybe I have no idea.
[00:15:17] I just want to show you this example here and how to use pitch bus and how to make some
[00:15:22] interesting note devices with this or note grid devices.
[00:15:26] Like I said, I saved this as a preset, put it down in the description below so you can
[00:15:29] just download it and have some fun with it.
[00:15:33] So if you liked the video, please leave a like, leave a subscription.
[00:15:36] Thanks for watching this video.
[00:15:38] As I said, it's very simple.
[00:15:41] And see you in the next video.
[00:15:42] Bye.
[00:15:43] [BLANK_AUDIO]