Bitwig Studio 5.2 Beta2: Tempo Detection Fixes & Wavetable Improvements

Tutorial | May 15, 2024

In this video, I discuss the new features and improvements in Bitwig Studio 5.2 Beta2. I focus on the issues and improvements in tempo detection, highlighting the need for it to work in raw mode and suggesting the inclusion of pitch settings in the "Repitch" mode. Additionally, I showcase the new wavetable oscillatum, which allows for the removal of the fundamental frequency and the integration of a sub oscillator.

You can watch the Video on Youtube - support me on Patreon - Removing Wavetable Fundamentals with Serum

In the latest Bitwig Studio 5.2 Beta2, there's a focus on improving tempo detection, which faced issues in the initial beta. Here’s a breakdown of the process and current challenges:

1. Tempo Detection Issues: The tempo detection does not update in raw mode; users must switch to repitch mode to get an accurate reading. While some tracks correctly identify tempo in raw mode, others require a mode switch, suggesting inconsistency in the tempo detection functionality across different modes.

2. Pitch Adjustment Limitations: In repitch mode, pitch adjustment features (like changing by semitones) are not accessible, limiting users to adjusting pitch via tempo changes. Ideally, direct pitch controls should be available in repitch mode, similar to how one would manipulate a vinyl record.

3. UI and Functionality Enhancements: The suggestion to add a button for directly applying detected tempo to the project transport indicates a need for more streamlined workflow options within the DAW.

4. Wavetable Oscillator Updates: The new wavetable oscillator includes features to remove DC offsets and the fundamental frequency from waveforms. However, the implementation via pop-ups contradicts Bitwig's typically pop-up-free environment, raising concerns about UI consistency.

Overall, these updates aim to refine Bitwig’s functionality but also highlight areas needing further improvement, especially in ensuring consistent tool behavior across different modes and enhancing user interface intuitiveness.

Questions & Answers #

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

Tempo detection improvements in Bitwig Studio 5.2 Beta2 #

Q: What are the new features and improvements in Bitwig Studio 5.2 Beta2?

A: The focus in this beta version is on tempo detection. There have been some problems with tempo detection in previous versions, and this update aims to address those issues. The update also includes other new features and improvements.

Q: How does tempo detection work in Bitwig Studio 5.2 Beta2?

A: Tempo detection can be accessed by right-clicking on a track and selecting "Detect event tempo." However, in the raw mode, the tempo detection does not work as expected. Only when switching to the "Repitch" mode, the correct tempo is detected. It would be ideal for tempo detection to work in raw mode as well.

Q: Can samples be pitched up or down in Bitwig Studio 5.2 Beta2?

A: In the "Repitch" mode, the pitch settings are disabled, making it impossible to pitch samples up or down using the pitch knob or buttons. To change the pitch, the tempo setting has to be manipulated, which is a workaround solution. Adding pitch settings in the "Repitch" mode would be a valuable addition.

Q: What are the new features in the wavetable oscillator of Bitwig Studio 5.2 Beta2?

A: The wavetable oscillator now includes options to remove the DC offset and the fundamental frequency of a waveform. The fundamental frequency can be replaced with a monophonic sub-oscillator, allowing for more flexibility in creating bass or lead sounds. However, the use of pop-ups for these new features may not be the most user-friendly approach.

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] Bitwig Studio 5.2 Beta2 just dropped yesterday,
[00:00:04] and we have some new features and some new improvements.
[00:00:07] And I want to focus first on the tempo detection
[00:00:12] because there are some problems around it
[00:00:15] and also some things that finally work
[00:00:18] because in the first beta,
[00:00:19] there were some problems in tempo detection.
[00:00:22] So I want to show you this here.
[00:00:23] This is, let me see, Beta2.
[00:00:27] So we are on the correct version, right?
[00:00:29] And I want to drag in here some kind of track I made.
[00:00:32] So this one.
[00:00:34] So now this track here is actually in raw mode
[00:00:39] on the left side.
[00:00:40] You can see the tempo here.
[00:00:41] It's one of the 10 ppm, which is not correct.
[00:00:44] It's just the tempo of the project.
[00:00:47] So this is in raw mode.
[00:00:49] So in raw mode, it basically does no pitch.
[00:00:51] You can't change the pitch or anything.
[00:00:54] It's just a raw sample.
[00:00:56] So I want to right click here and say,
[00:00:58] "Detect event tempo," right?
[00:01:00] So we get this pop up now here.
[00:01:03] We can change the tempo range from 80 ppm to 160 ppm
[00:01:06] just to narrow down the possibility
[00:01:10] or the possible ppm settings.
[00:01:13] Also, "Detect tempo changes" here and beat marker density.
[00:01:17] So everything is pretty fine, pretty cool.
[00:01:19] And I hit OK.
[00:01:21] And you can see down there on the tempo section,
[00:01:23] nothing really happens.
[00:01:24] It stays on one of the 10 ppm.
[00:01:28] In my opinion, this should change,
[00:01:30] even though it's grayed out.
[00:01:31] So what I have to do here in this case
[00:01:33] is I have to switch these two different modes.
[00:01:37] So let's say, "Repitch."
[00:01:39] So now this becomes available.
[00:01:40] And I have to go to here and say, "Detect event tempo."
[00:01:44] The same settings hit OK.
[00:01:46] And now it detects 130 ppm.
[00:01:49] So in my opinion, it should be also possible
[00:01:52] to do this inside of raw mode
[00:01:54] because you can also drag in sounds here.
[00:01:59] Let's say a different one.
[00:02:00] So let's use this one and drag this in.
[00:02:06] And this is also in raw mode.
[00:02:08] But here it detects already 172 ppm.
[00:02:12] And this is completely correct.
[00:02:13] It's not 110 like this one here.
[00:02:16] It's 172.
[00:02:17] So it detected rightfully so the right ppm setting
[00:02:21] and brought it here into this input field,
[00:02:24] even though it's grayed out.
[00:02:26] So here it was wrong.
[00:02:29] And I hit right click, right detect tempo.
[00:02:31] Didn't do anything.
[00:02:32] I had to switch it to "Repitch," then "Detect" again.
[00:02:35] And then it's correct.
[00:02:36] So in my opinion, it should be working also in raw mode.
[00:02:43] OK, so this kind of roughly works.
[00:02:48] Then there's another problem here.
[00:02:49] And this is, let's say, in from the start of Bitwig Studio.
[00:02:53] So the "Repitch" mode here works kind of nice.
[00:02:56] We have this correct tempo of 130 ppm.
[00:03:01] Maybe I can set event tempo.
[00:03:05] No, we have to go here and say 130 ppm.
[00:03:10] Would be nice to have also here some kind of button
[00:03:12] to say just apply this tempo from this thing
[00:03:16] to the transport or something like this.
[00:03:18] Not sure if this is neat.
[00:03:19] Maybe this could be a button here on the left side.
[00:03:22] Just apply this tempo to the transport
[00:03:26] or to the project or something like this.
[00:03:29] So now this place here, perfectly fine.
[00:03:33] OK, so let's say I want to use "Repitch" mode,
[00:03:46] because I like "Repitch" mode.
[00:03:48] I want to use this like a vinyl record.
[00:03:50] And I want to pitch it down to octaves or, let's say,
[00:03:53] two semitones.
[00:03:55] It's not possible.
[00:03:56] We have gain here, the gain knob,
[00:03:57] but the pitch is grayed out and these buttons are grayed out.
[00:04:01] So we can't use these pitch modes.
[00:04:05] So if you want to pitch this down to semitones,
[00:04:07] you have to calculate basically the difference in bpm.
[00:04:10] So we can pitch it down with the tempo setting here.
[00:04:13] [CAMERA CLICKING]
[00:04:15] Right?
[00:04:21] So it's pitched down, but we had to use basically
[00:04:29] the tempo setting.
[00:04:30] So it would be nice to have this pitch setting here
[00:04:32] available in "Repitch" mode.
[00:04:35] I mean, it's "Repitch" mode, so why not have pitch available?
[00:04:38] And then we can push it up one semitone
[00:04:41] and or down two semitones or something like this just
[00:04:44] to make it fit the scale of the project.
[00:04:47] Because sometimes I want to drag in drum sounds or maybe
[00:04:50] lead sounds or bass sounds or something like this.
[00:04:54] And then pitch it up or down and make melodies with the samples
[00:04:59] without using stretch mode or granular stretch or multi-band
[00:05:06] stretching or these kind of spectral stretching modes.
[00:05:10] I want to just pitch the sample up or down
[00:05:12] like I used to inside of a sampler.
[00:05:15] So pretty basic, actually.
[00:05:17] And I guess this is not a very hard thing
[00:05:20] to implement inside of the DAW to calculate here
[00:05:24] the correct tempo setting if I hit "Pitch Up" or "Pitch Down"
[00:05:28] here with these buttons or just dial in some kind of semitone
[00:05:32] change.
[00:05:33] So this would be neat to have inside of this beta period
[00:05:38] as a feature because we just touch all these kind of settings
[00:05:42] here.
[00:05:43] "Tempo," "Set Tempo," "Detect Tempo," "Change Event Tempo
[00:05:48] Settings," and apply it here to the master tempo change.
[00:05:53] And so basically touch everything around this.
[00:05:57] So it would be nice to get this inside of this beta period
[00:06:01] because I already needed this multiple times.
[00:06:05] And I also know a lot of people who
[00:06:07] want to use the "Repitch" mode and these pitch settings here.
[00:06:11] So I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be available
[00:06:16] inside of Bitwig.
[00:06:17] So make this available.
[00:06:18] This would be nice to have.
[00:06:19] So that's that.
[00:06:23] I also tried this with some drum loops.
[00:06:25] It works pretty well.
[00:06:26] The tempo detection, for me at least.
[00:06:31] Sometimes there's a problem where
[00:06:33] it detects just half time speed.
[00:06:36] So let's say this is 170 BPM.
[00:06:39] And then it shows me here then 85 BPM.
[00:06:42] Then I would just want to double the BPM or just half time
[00:06:48] the BPM.
[00:06:49] So it would be nice to have a button here.
[00:06:52] Put it in half and times two.
[00:06:55] So two buttons here to just increase the tempo setting.
[00:07:00] So like I said, sometimes the BPM detection just
[00:07:04] detects the half time speed because there's a snare missing
[00:07:07] or I make some wacky stuff with the rhythm.
[00:07:09] I don't know.
[00:07:10] Would be nice to have.
[00:07:13] OK, that's that.
[00:07:14] And the other thing is here the wavetable oscillator.
[00:07:18] So I made a video actually about this I think a month ago
[00:07:23] where I showed you how to remove the fundamental in a wavetable
[00:07:29] with the serum wavetable editor.
[00:07:32] So you don't need to do this now anymore
[00:07:34] because it's now integrated in the wavetable oscillator here.
[00:07:39] We have this small little pop up.
[00:07:41] Looks like this.
[00:07:42] And then we have here this remove DC offset thing
[00:07:46] and remove fundamental.
[00:07:48] So if I put this here, if I use a spectrum analyzer,
[00:07:54] just hit the note.
[00:08:00] So we have all the harmonics here, all the overtones.
[00:08:03] And we have here this fundamental.
[00:08:04] And we can just remove this from the oscillator.
[00:08:08] It's gone.
[00:08:11] And with this now, we can replace the fundamental here
[00:08:19] with a sub oscillator.
[00:08:21] Put this on zero on sine and then bring it in.
[00:08:24] And the benefit of this is that the sub oscillator is
[00:08:28] monophonic, so it makes sure you have just one single
[00:08:32] monophonic sine wave down there for the base.
[00:08:35] And then you can use the unison setting here
[00:08:38] for all the overtones and make it fly and very spread out
[00:08:43] and stereo and so on.
[00:08:45] But the fundamental stays rock solid.
[00:08:48] I think we can also, instead of unison, use here the spread
[00:08:56] setting.
[00:08:58] So this is just one.
[00:09:00] Put this on and then just to tune it.
[00:09:02] Or maybe use only three and fat.
[00:09:14] [AUDIO OUT]
[00:09:16] Then replace here the fundamental with the monophonic base.
[00:09:29] So it's nice for bass sounds and for lead sounds
[00:09:33] where you want to have this very static and monophonic
[00:09:41] fundamental frequency.
[00:09:42] So you don't need to use a wave table editor anymore.
[00:09:45] You can just use here this pop up.
[00:09:47] Also, I'm not sure about this pop up here to have this in there
[00:09:50] because we have already a lot of pop ups in Bitwig.
[00:09:54] And I already-- or I enjoy actually this pop up free
[00:09:58] environment in Bitwig because we have here a window area
[00:10:03] for all kinds of things.
[00:10:04] And everything moves to the side.
[00:10:06] And having pop ups, it's never a good solution.
[00:10:10] Also, when I did web design, pop ups were like a no go.
[00:10:15] No one likes pop ups, actually.
[00:10:17] So we have here this pop up now, right?
[00:10:19] Then you have this pop up.
[00:10:20] And then you have this thing in the background.
[00:10:22] And you have to move things to the side.
[00:10:24] And you have to move this here.
[00:10:25] And I don't know.
[00:10:27] So I want to see this probably more or less here
[00:10:32] on the left side and the inspector.
[00:10:34] But then you have this problem that you can't select
[00:10:37] actually these individual devices inside of the Polymer.
[00:10:42] So you have to select the Polymer.
[00:10:44] And then you have to put probably all these settings here
[00:10:47] on the left side in the inspector.
[00:10:50] But yeah, I'm not sure if the pop up here is the best solution.
[00:10:54] But it's probably the fastest solution for now in the beta 2.
[00:10:58] They just maybe implemented this and tried it out
[00:11:00] if this is actually something you want to have.
[00:11:03] Then we have here this remove DC offset thing.
[00:11:06] That's also new.
[00:11:08] And at first I thought it's just a low pass or a high pass
[00:11:14] integrated inside of the oscillator into the wave shape.
[00:11:18] But it looks more like here like a centering.
[00:11:21] So they take the highest positive value
[00:11:26] and the lowest negative value and then center it
[00:11:30] around these two values.
[00:11:32] So it's more or less like in the center
[00:11:33] to remove the DC offset.
[00:11:35] It's probably how it works.
[00:11:36] So at least it reads this way offsets the signal output
[00:11:41] to center around 0.
[00:11:42] This can transform wave tables made for modulation such as LFO
[00:11:46] as the quantizer into interesting audio sources.
[00:11:48] So instead of wave tables here, you can also use them here.
[00:11:53] I don't know.
[00:11:55] Different things here.
[00:11:57] I'm not sure if I have here some LFO in sequences here.
[00:12:05] Something like this.
[00:12:06] It's not made for usage inside of a wave table.
[00:12:11] So you can see it's just positive and then goes completely
[00:12:14] to negative here.
[00:12:15] So it's not really usable.
[00:12:17] So with this you can make it more usable.
[00:12:20] Not really sure if I show this right here.
[00:12:30] But yeah.
[00:12:31] So there's also a new feature here inside of the new beta.
[00:12:37] So that's it.
[00:12:38] That's what I want to talk about actually.
[00:12:41] I hope we get these fixes here for the repitch mode
[00:12:47] like I showed you earlier because this kind of annoyed me
[00:12:52] from the beginning, from the start of Bitwig Studio.
[00:12:54] And it actually made me use the sampler for certain things
[00:12:57] because I just want to pitch up or down some sounds
[00:13:00] I dragged in.
[00:13:02] And this would be really nice to have.
[00:13:04] And I think it's not a big of a feature
[00:13:10] or it doesn't need to be--
[00:13:12] it's probably not complicated to integrate.
[00:13:14] That's what I want to say.
[00:13:16] OK.
[00:13:16] That's it for now, I think, for this video.
[00:13:18] Thanks for watching.
[00:13:19] Leave a like if you liked the video.
[00:13:20] Subscribe to the channel.
[00:13:21] And I hope to see you tomorrow on Super Booth in Berlin.
[00:13:24] Thanks for watching.
[00:13:25] And bye.