Tags: posts polarity-music Bitwig Replace VST Reverb Tutorial VST-Plugin Bitwig-5.1

Reverb Shaper by Cableguys replaced in Bitwig

Tutorial | Nov 16, 2023

In this video, I share my experience with replacing VST plugins and discuss how companies don't actually hate me for it because of the advantages offered by certain plugins. I demonstrate how to replicate the features of a reverb shaper using a chain device, tool device, and convolution reverb in Bitwig Studio. Additionally, I explore the unique effects that can be created using the fade mode in the Delay Plus device.

You can watch the Video on Youtube - support me on Patreon

Hey everyone, welcome back to my latest video. Here's a summary of what I discussed:

Download Reverb Shaper: https://bit.ly/40H6gRe

Questions & Answers

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

What is the video about?

The video is about replacing a VST plugin and exploring alternatives within Bitwig Studio. The presenter discusses the advantages of using plugins in terms of GUI and presets, and showcases the features of a specific plugin called "Reverb Shape-Up."

How is the Reverb Shape-Up plugin used in Bitwig Studio?

The presenter explains that the Reverb Shape-Up plugin can be used to modify the amount of audio sent into a convolution reverb, as well as adjust settings such as volume, decay, size, dry/wet, and band-splitting. They demonstrate how to set up the plugin on a dry drum loop and provide tips on automating and modulating the effects.

How can the Reverb Shape-Up be replicated in Bitwig Studio?

The presenter suggests two methods for replicating the Reverb Shape-Up plugin in Bitwig Studio. The first method involves using an FX channel and the ascent effect, while the second method involves placing the plugin on the main channel and using a chain device and tool device to control the audio input and volume. They also mention the ability to replicate the volume shaper effect using the same techniques.

Can unique effects be achieved using Delay Plus in Bitwig Studio?

The presenter demonstrates how to use the Delay Plus device in Bitwig Studio to create unique effects by changing delay time without altering pitch. They show how to adjust the settings to avoid pitch changes and utilize curve modulators to manipulate the delay and feedback chain. The presenter also mentions the possibility of sharing presets for these effects on their Patreon page.

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] Hey folks, welcome back to another video.
[00:00:03] And today I want to replace again another VST plugin and I don't give up until every
[00:00:09] plugin company on the planet hates me, but I don't think companies actually hate me for
[00:00:15] that because with these plugins you still have an advantage over Bitwig Studio because
[00:00:21] of the nice, you know, GUI and the presets, you know, it's also a sleek bundle and sometimes
[00:00:28] most of the times people still own a shape up box before everything and then, you know,
[00:00:33] they add additional modules like here, the reverb shape up and the reverb shape up works
[00:00:38] like this.
[00:00:39] You have a line, you draw in a line here and this line represents basically the send effect
[00:00:46] and it changes the amount of audio you send into a convolution reverb.
[00:00:53] You can change the convolution settings in here, change how the reverb sounds basically
[00:00:58] and then this one here changes the amount of send effect.
[00:01:03] There are also some additional things.
[00:01:05] You can change the volume, decay settings, your size, dry and wet and so on.
[00:01:09] There's also here a band splitting effect, I think, I guess you can remove the lows here
[00:01:17] from the reverb and so on.
[00:01:18] So pretty usual stuff.
[00:01:22] And this one is pretty cheap, two year, 40 bucks for me.
[00:01:27] If you own shape up box, it's, I think it's automatically included with all the other
[00:01:33] effects here.
[00:01:34] But like I said, sometimes you can just do these things here like drive, noise filter.
[00:01:40] I think you can replicate everything in Bitwig Studio pretty much.
[00:01:46] So yeah.
[00:01:47] In Bitwig Studio we have here a dry drum loop.
[00:01:57] So first idea is of course you put the convolution reverb on that.
[00:02:07] But here again, everything goes into the reverb and even when we modulate you to mix basically.
[00:02:15] If you pull up the mix after we stop the audio, you can still hear audio ringing out because
[00:02:25] everything still goes into the plug-in, right?
[00:02:28] And is processed even though you pull down the mix knob to zero.
[00:02:33] So the mix just mixes basically the wet and the dry signal and the wet signal is always
[00:02:38] there.
[00:02:39] Everything goes into the plug-in.
[00:02:41] So you can do this by or you can prevent this by using the convolution reverb on an FX channel
[00:02:48] here, right?
[00:02:49] Something like this.
[00:02:50] Put this on one on percent and then on the main channel, you use basically on the left
[00:02:55] side the ascent effect.
[00:03:04] So this is something you can do.
[00:03:07] So you automate or you can use then a curve modulator and maybe modulate this here on
[00:03:13] the project panel, right?
[00:03:16] Use a curves modulator here and then just modulate this.
[00:03:21] This is something you can do.
[00:03:23] But I don't like to use here FX return channels most of the times.
[00:03:29] So what I do is I just put this back here onto the main channel where we have the drum loop
[00:03:36] and on here I keep the mix at one on percent and I add one chain device.
[00:03:41] It's just a simple container here.
[00:03:45] I put this convolution into the chain device and inside of the chain device in front of
[00:03:50] the convolution reverb, I use a tool device.
[00:03:54] And here I pull down the volume to zero.
[00:03:56] So now we basically add off the convolution reverb from the audio input, right?
[00:04:04] You can't hear anything because the audio goes into the chain.
[00:04:08] The chain itself is mixed one on percent and here basically tool device cuts off all the
[00:04:13] audio.
[00:04:14] So we go here to 30 percent so we can still hear the dry signal and we can use now a curve
[00:04:23] modulator here.
[00:04:25] Put this into groove mode, unipolar mode, then one bar, right click reset and then we
[00:04:37] want to feed basically the snare into the reverb.
[00:04:41] So we modulate here the tool with that and now we feed basically only the snare into
[00:04:50] the reverb.
[00:04:53] Then you put the key limiter at the end.
[00:05:10] You can see every time the snare comes in, we open up here the tool device and the tool
[00:05:15] device then pushes the audio into the convolution reverb.
[00:05:19] Of course you can change here the convolution setting also.
[00:05:24] You don't have access to all the convolution presets of the reverb shape or what you have
[00:05:32] other options to.
[00:05:35] So this is something you can do.
[00:05:37] It's an easy setup.
[00:05:40] And if you just put the tool device here and duplicate this here, let's put this here.
[00:05:49] And just modulate here the tool by this.
[00:05:55] It's basically now the volume shaper, right?
[00:05:58] Now you put this here into 8.
[00:06:10] So this is the volume shaper basically for you.
[00:06:12] So you can replicate the volume shaper and here the reverb shaper pretty easily inside
[00:06:17] of Bitwig Studio.
[00:06:19] Another thing you can do, let me just remove this here again, is if you use the Delay
[00:06:25] Plus device and put this here into this free delay time mode, 100%, we don't need blurring
[00:06:34] here.
[00:06:35] Let's see how this sounds.
[00:07:01] So when you change the delay time, of course you change the pitch.
[00:07:07] If you don't like that, you can go to the left side here of the Delay Plus and you can
[00:07:12] see on changes, we pitch and put this into fade.
[00:07:15] Crossfades when changing delay times.
[00:07:18] So now if you change the delay time, it doesn't change the pitch.
[00:07:35] So now if you use a curve module here on that, module later, groove, unipolar, bar,
[00:07:45] reset.
[00:07:46] And put this maybe into 8.
[00:07:56] Something like this and then you change the delay timing.
[00:07:59] You have something unique that's probably not possible with time shaper nor with reverb
[00:08:06] shaper because I don't think with reverb shaper you can change delay time.
[00:08:17] So it's also kind of a unique effect without having the pitch changed over time.
[00:08:41] So this is something you can do with Delay Plus.
[00:08:44] Put this into fade mode.
[00:08:47] You can also leave it in repitch if you like the effect.
[00:08:52] There's more like a turntable.
[00:08:54] Scratch effect.
[00:09:09] So the update rate is basically how fast you update between these modifications here and
[00:09:14] you change between different Delay Plus settings.
[00:09:18] So you can play around here with the update rate.
[00:09:20] It has also an effect sometimes on the sound.
[00:09:32] Okay so this just as a side note because I played around with Delay Plus the recent times
[00:09:40] pretty often.
[00:09:41] I also want to give you here an idea for melodies.
[00:09:47] So let's use here polymer and I just paint in here just a random melody.
[00:09:52] It's not about the melody.
[00:09:59] Something like that.
[00:10:00] And we put a lot of reverb on that so it sounds a bit nicer.
[00:10:08] And maybe delay.
[00:10:14] So we have this melody.
[00:10:27] So we have this melody and at the end here we use Delay Plus and I did some presets here.
[00:10:36] I'll probably share on my Patreon soon.
[00:10:40] So let's say Delay Plus halftime reverb.
[00:10:44] So I tried to do a halftime plug in just for Delay Plus.
[00:10:47] It's not possible because every time you jump basically here with the Delay Unit Scalar back
[00:10:54] to the original position here you get some kind of artifacts.
[00:10:58] And I try to remove these artifacts by using your Curve Modulator and every time the jump
[00:11:04] happens here you can see I pull down basically the high end.
[00:11:08] But it's not really working but it's still sounding nice.
[00:11:27] You can hear it sounds one octave lower.
[00:11:29] It's pitched down one octave lower.
[00:11:33] But every time we basically jump from here to here we have the small little click artifact
[00:11:38] that goes into the reverb and it gives you the special sound.
[00:11:43] But I kind of like it sometimes but it's not really clean actually.
[00:11:59] So this works basically by using here quarter notes, eight quarter notes and then I'm using
[00:12:06] here a classic LFO with the ramp to one and I'm modulating here basically Delay Unit Scalar
[00:12:12] by 50% and then I'm using a Curve Modulator where I pull down here the high end every time
[00:12:22] at the beginning here in the end.
[00:12:24] You can see this here basically to remove the artifacts before going into the Delay
[00:12:31] Feed or Feedback Chain.
[00:12:36] So this is basically something I want to show you.
[00:12:39] Put these presets probably on my Patreon I think.
[00:12:45] There's also double time, half time.
[00:12:48] Yeah, that's basically half time.
[00:12:50] This is just without having the plural amount here.
[00:12:56] But it does basically the same.
[00:13:02] You can hear the effect right there, the glitch here.
[00:13:17] But sometimes on melody lines or on pad sounds it doesn't even matter that much.
[00:13:22] You just want to have the same sound, one octave lower to layer it below it to have some kind
[00:13:28] of ambient effect.
[00:13:31] Yeah, so like I showed you you can replicate basically the reverb shaper from Gable Guys
[00:13:40] pretty easily inside of Bitwig Studio just with a chain device, a tool device and a convolution
[00:13:46] reverb and you can use Delay Plus in the fade mode also with some curve modulations
[00:13:56] and modified time and delay time and reverb time and create some interesting effects with
[00:14:04] that.
[00:14:06] And I think it's not possible with the reverb shaper.
[00:14:09] I haven't actually bought this and I haven't tried it out but I think you can also, you
[00:14:14] only can change your basically the send effect.
[00:14:16] I'm not sure maybe you can change the decay time here.
[00:14:20] And I think there's also something like when you go down with the volume of the reverb
[00:14:26] it chokes the feedback or it clears the feedback buffer or something like that.
[00:14:32] That's not really possible with Bitwig.
[00:14:35] But maybe give this here a try.
[00:14:36] I think there's probably a trial version up on the website.
[00:14:39] I put the link in the description so no one is actually angry on me.
[00:14:46] That's it for this video.
[00:14:47] Thanks for watching.
[00:14:48] Leave a like if you like the video.
[00:14:50] Subscribe to the channel and I'll see you in the next video.
[00:14:53] Bye.
[00:14:53] [ Silence ]