Tags: posts polarity-music Ambient Bitwig Bitwig-5.2b7 Generative Tutorial Sampling

Dark Ambient in Bitwig with the Grid

Tutorial | Jun 17, 2024

In this video, I explore creating new sounds using the Bitwig Grid. I start by sampling different instruments and then manipulate the samples using various modules such as triggers, quantizers, and modulation. The result is a unique and atmospheric ambient sound that can be further customized and experimented with.

You can watch the Video on Youtube - support me on Patreon - Download Generative-2024-06-17-Dark-City-Scapes

In this video, I explore creating new sounds using Bitwig's Grid by sampling random instruments and processing the samples for a unique ambient effect. I sample notes, manipulate octaves, and integrate effects like reverb and randomization to achieve a dynamic soundscape.

Key Points:

By the end of the video, I create a rich, ambient atmosphere and provide downloadable content for viewers to experiment with.

Questions & Answers

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

Can you explain the concept behind this video?

In this video, I wanted to explore the idea of sampling random instruments and creating atmospheric sounds in Bitwig's Grid. I sampled one octave or a pentatonic scale and recorded it into an audio track. Then, I used the samples inside a sampler in the Grid to create different melodies and textures.

How did you manipulate the samples in Bitwig's Grid?

I used modulation modules like trigger, transport, and dice to control the playback position and modulation of the samples. I also added effects like reverb, chorus, and delay to shape the sound further. Additionally, I used other modules like sine waves, FM synthesis, and filters to add depth and variety to the overall sound.

What were the challenges you faced during the video?

One of the challenges I faced was ensuring that each trigger of the samples resulted in a different position to avoid repetition. I used the dice module and added a bias value to avoid triggering the same position repeatedly. Additionally, experimenting with different modulation settings and effects took some time to achieve the desired atmospheric sound.

What are some of the key takeaways from this video?

Through this video, I learned the importance of experimenting and exploring different techniques to create unique and atmospheric sounds. Using sampling, modulation, and effects in Bitwig's Grid allowed me to discover new possibilities for sound design. Overall, it was a fun and creative process that highlighted the versatility of the software.

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.
[00:00:01] So the day I thought maybe we create something new inside of the grid
[00:00:05] because I haven't done something like this in a while.
[00:00:08] So this is the idea at least for this video.
[00:00:11] Wait a minute. Oh, no, not this again.
[00:00:14] No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
[00:00:18] I want to sample some kind of random instrument.
[00:00:22] Maybe let's try out elements.
[00:00:27] And I want to sample actually one octave of a scale.
[00:00:32] So I use a note clip maybe a bit longer.
[00:00:36] And then I start with the root note.
[00:00:39] And then I sample only one octave.
[00:00:45] One octave, not one octave.
[00:00:46] That's too short.
[00:00:49] That's maybe okay.
[00:00:55] Or maybe I only sample the pentatonic scale.
[00:01:00] So maybe one more here.
[00:01:03] So only the five note scale basically.
[00:01:08] Let's hear the sounds.
[00:01:10] Okay, let's try this one.
[00:01:24] And then we go here for punch out.
[00:01:27] And then we record this into an audio track.
[00:01:30] So we mute the audio track and then audio in is the out of atoms out.
[00:01:35] So we just record the first track here.
[00:01:37] And I want to change the preset for each note.
[00:01:42] So let's try this.
[00:01:43] Let's actually try this again.
[00:01:51] Maybe I even add here some kind of reverb for it.
[00:02:04] Let's go for a super massive.
[00:02:07] Maybe not too much.
[00:02:11] Just to diffuse everything between the notes.
[00:02:16] So actually let's make this a bit longer.
[00:02:19] Scale it up 200%.
[00:02:20] Why is there everything recorded here?
[00:02:24] I have no idea.
[00:02:25] Recorded a lot of stuff for some reason.
[00:02:29] Can I delete all of this?
[00:02:33] Yeah, I can.
[00:02:34] It's actually everything is recorded nice.
[00:02:40] Yeah, make this a bit longer.
[00:02:46] Now let's do it again.
[00:02:48] Without this.
[00:02:49] Okay, and I want to use this inside of a sampler.
[00:03:15] But before I use this inside of a sampler,
[00:03:18] I want to record another bunch.
[00:03:21] But this time maybe a different octave.
[00:03:28] So one octave higher.
[00:03:29] Or maybe an octave lower.
[00:03:34] Very better.
[00:03:35] Okay, let's hit record here.
[00:03:39] Again.
[00:03:49] Okay, nice.
[00:04:08] So with this, let's call this lower octave.
[00:04:13] And then let's call up your Poly-Grid.
[00:04:27] And then it should be inside here.
[00:04:33] Not renamed.
[00:04:36] It doesn't rename here the clips, right?
[00:04:41] Because in there it's still named this way.
[00:04:44] Can I rename this?
[00:04:45] Oh yeah, can I rename this in here?
[00:04:46] So this is the lower octave.
[00:04:49] Let's see.
[00:04:56] Oh yeah, it names it actually in the files menu.
[00:04:58] This, that's nice.
[00:04:59] You can know this.
[00:05:00] Basically, I'm learning while I'm doing a tutorial,
[00:05:05] which is the best way of learning.
[00:05:06] Okay.
[00:05:10] Bam.
[00:05:13] Inside of the Poly-Grid, we use the lower octave here.
[00:05:18] And we use the C3 octave.
[00:05:23] And let's go for an ADSR here.
[00:05:28] Slow attack, long release.
[00:05:33] Same here.
[00:05:34] And we mix this.
[00:05:36] So I want to basically play back different parts of these.
[00:05:43] So I'm using a trigger.
[00:05:47] Do I use a trigger?
[00:05:51] Maybe I use a transport.
[00:05:52] Go for bar.
[00:05:56] 16 bars in length.
[00:06:00] And then it triggers basically a dice.
[00:06:05] Okay, this is muted.
[00:06:12] Maybe let's loop this here.
[00:06:14] So we trigger this here every 16 bars, I think.
[00:06:22] And then we use a modulator out.
[00:06:25] And we randomize.
[00:06:28] And we randomize here the playback position.
[00:06:33] So let's click this and then play back.
[00:06:38] So this is modulated maximum zero and one.
[00:06:44] So minimum is zero, maximum is one.
[00:06:46] So I guess I only want to go to 15% because I don't want to go to the end of the sample.
[00:06:57] And then I want to use textures mode and I want to go down to speed settings to 0%.
[00:07:02] Or maybe let's say 0.5.
[00:07:04] So it moves a bit.
[00:07:06] Trigger is also on.
[00:07:11] And we want to use this.
[00:07:14] And then the trigger here is probably pretty short.
[00:07:20] So it's at least not 16 bars long.
[00:07:24] Let me see if this works.
[00:07:35] The trigger is actually 16 bars long.
[00:07:42] No, it's probably 8 bars long.
[00:07:45] Yeah, it's basically 8 bars high and 8 bars low, I guess.
[00:07:52] So we make the high part pretty short.
[00:07:56] And then we reverse it.
[00:08:01] So now the low part is basically 0.1 milliseconds long.
[00:08:08] And the high part is 16 bars long.
[00:08:13] So that's what I want to trigger this.
[00:08:16] Oh yeah, I want to also put this here into textures mode and 0.1.
[00:08:22] Maybe grain a bit up.
[00:08:24] And then we probably want to trigger here these also.
[00:08:32] Slow, slow.
[00:08:38] And then I want to change it to startup position in this sample.
[00:08:45] But I never want to have the same position.
[00:08:49] So when I play here, I never want to play exactly the same position here
[00:08:54] because it's the same note.
[00:08:55] So I always want to have a different note here.
[00:08:58] So what I want to do is...
[00:09:00] So this is modulating basically at the lower part.
[00:09:05] The upper part here.
[00:09:08] Maybe it's modulating this by...
[00:09:18] Let's say also 50 maybe.
[00:09:21] And then we bring...
[00:09:31] Or actually, let's add something to it.
[00:09:36] How can we add something to it?
[00:09:39] Maybe with the bias.
[00:09:40] This makes no sense.
[00:09:46] So I always want to add something.
[00:09:49] So sometimes the dice module can spit out a 0.
[00:09:52] And I never want to have 0 because 0 means this is at the same position here.
[00:09:58] Let me see if I...
[00:10:00] Let me try this out.
[00:10:02] Let me cook.
[00:10:03] We have 0.
[00:10:05] Read out.
[00:10:07] It says 0.
[00:10:10] And when we add the bias to it, what happens?
[00:10:15] Yeah, we add something to it.
[00:10:17] So it's in...
[00:10:17] So we can add at least, let's say 50 to it.
[00:10:26] And we don't want to modulate this here by 50.
[00:10:29] So let's go for the half of it, 25.
[00:10:33] Does it make sense?
[00:10:38] I don't know.
[00:10:39] Maybe I'll go to 50.
[00:10:40] Or to 40, something like this.
[00:10:44] So let's see how this sounds.
[00:10:45] So I always want to have basically here this position,
[00:10:50] and then I want to have a different position here.
[00:10:53] I probably have to use a wrap here.
[00:11:00] So when I overshoot basically 1, I don't want to stick here.
[00:11:05] I want to go basically back here.
[00:11:07] Right?
[00:11:07] So I don't want to modulate or want to have the position at the end here.
[00:11:12] So I probably want to use a wrap.
[00:11:14] Okay, then we add a bit of motion.
[00:11:20] Yeah, then it's probably time to output this.
[00:11:24] So let's see how this sounds.
[00:11:26] Maybe 16 bars is too long.
[00:11:35] Let's go for 8 bars.
[00:11:37] Oh yeah, I'll put you also.
[00:11:38] Okay, so let's see how this sounds.
[00:11:40] So let's see how this sounds.
[00:12:05] Oh yeah, I'll put you also.
[00:12:06] Don't need key tracking.
[00:12:08] Sounds much better.
[00:12:17] So we add here of course a bit of reverb to that.
[00:12:25] Maybe you make this a bit shorter here.
[00:12:40] Or longer.
[00:12:43] Let's add the off face and make it a bit longer.
[00:12:46] Maybe, I don't know.
[00:12:47] How long is the release time here?
[00:12:53] Two seconds.
[00:12:54] So let's go for two seconds.
[00:12:57] Two seconds.
[00:13:00] It should be better.
[00:13:18] Gives you at least some kind of sound.
[00:13:27] So here we have basically the same position.
[00:13:33] That's not good.
[00:13:43] Okay.
[00:13:53] At least it gives you a nice background.
[00:14:11] Then we want to add something on top.
[00:14:14] Maybe some kind of sine waves.
[00:14:16] And I want to use for the sine.
[00:14:19] I want to use here the sine mode.
[00:14:21] And I want to use...
[00:14:24] Let's go for transport.
[00:14:28] Go in there.
[00:14:31] There we get something like this out of it.
[00:14:35] Attenuate.
[00:14:38] We can scale it.
[00:14:40] Then sample and hold.
[00:14:45] Maybe some triggers.
[00:14:50] Second module, 16.
[00:14:57] And then what's the name?
[00:15:02] Clock quantize.
[00:15:05] Go in here.
[00:15:09] Trigger this.
[00:15:18] And then we go also here in the output.
[00:15:30] And we want to quantize this.
[00:15:43] And transpose it up to the sharp.
[00:15:56] So the step mode should modulate basically the sine mode.
[00:16:23] So we get a different melody here.
[00:16:32] Okay, let's make this bit.
[00:16:46] And we can use the phase signal for the triggers.
[00:17:11] Maybe a chance module.
[00:17:24] And let's add some FM to it.
[00:17:45] Let's go for wave table.
[00:17:49] And the wave table has some kind of wave table or some kind of table with a lot of different
[00:18:02] shapes in it.
[00:18:03] Let's go here for...
[00:18:05] Maybe I use the chef table.
[00:18:08] And you randomize this.
[00:18:15] Or not chance, we use dice.
[00:18:33] Modulate the index here and we modulate the FM amount here.
[00:18:54] You can also modulate your attack time.
[00:19:07] You also modulate here a bit of the port.
[00:19:28] Maybe a filter to it.
[00:19:35] What's the name of the vocal filter?
[00:19:43] Bowels.
[00:19:45] What's the name?
[00:20:01] Let's go for you.
[00:20:10] Nice.
[00:20:22] So maybe we can pitch this down here.
[00:20:25] I think it's too crowded.
[00:20:31] Minus 50%.
[00:20:54] Does it actually change something?
[00:21:03] Maybe a simple low pass filter here.
[00:21:15] It's pretty dark.
[00:21:40] Okay, let's add here some filtering to the whole thing.
[00:22:01] Yeah, let's use another dice.
[00:22:22] Maybe an amp.
[00:22:36] I mean it's dark ambience.
[00:22:48] Let's exchange this here for the bitwig stuff.
[00:23:07] We use a convolution reverb and that reverb we use a chorus.
[00:23:13] Maybe a delay plus.
[00:23:20] The space algorithm.
[00:23:28] Delay two.
[00:23:43] Maybe I can add here my textures preset.
[00:24:10] Let's probably do this.
[00:24:42] ..."Piclimate at the end."
[00:24:57] Needs a base, huh? Sub-base.
[00:24:59] [sounds of heavy vapor]
[00:25:10] Maybe we can add something here with the...
[00:25:12] Hmm... a saw.
[00:25:22] So we want only maybe this note...
[00:25:27] Yeah, the main...
[00:25:28] The tonic notes here.
[00:25:35] Basically we want to have the same preset or the same...
[00:25:39] ...thing here.
[00:25:48] Maybe a different triggering.
[00:25:56] And everything just...
[00:25:58] Two octaves lower maybe?
[00:26:02] And then low pass.
[00:26:16] Out and an amplifier.
[00:26:25] Okay, and then we try others.
[00:26:28] [sounds of heavy vapor]
[00:26:40] Yeah, that's obviously too fast.
[00:26:43] [sounds of heavy vapor]
[00:27:07] Stimach noise.
[00:27:56] Yeah, it's triggering the same note at the same position here.
[00:28:00] [sounds of heavy vapor]
[00:28:17] Let's use also a step mode.
[00:28:45] And make the triggers short and also reversed.
[00:29:02] And maybe an LFO.
[00:29:05] Let's go for a random.
[00:29:15] And let's modulate the modulation amount.
[00:29:43] And yeah, we can maybe also randomize or bring in a chance here.
[00:30:12] It's pretty dystopian kind of cold, eerie ambient.
[00:30:20] [sounds of heavy vapor]
[00:30:27] Maybe I want to have the bass here a bit lower.
[00:30:30] [sounds of heavy vapor]
[00:30:35] Not this one, this one here.
[00:30:38] That's the low.
[00:31:12] Yeah, maybe I want to add a lag here to the dice.
[00:31:17] [sounds of heavy vapor]
[00:31:19] Because every time I trigger this dice module, I get basically instantaneously a new value.
[00:31:25] And the lag kind of smooths this transitioning a bit.
[00:31:31] This transition a bit.
[00:31:34] One second, maybe. One second.
[00:31:56] Bam, there it is.
[00:32:02] Here you can use Adams here on top of it.
[00:32:12] I have to switch on my keyboard.
[00:32:28] Okay, let's try it.
[00:32:52] So when this is too cold, we can also exchange basically these two samples with something else.
[00:32:59] So let's try this.
[00:33:01] Instead of Adams, I use here maybe something from the 80s.
[00:33:06] I use M1.
[00:33:11] And here, do the same thing basically.
[00:33:21] I'm still using the demo version here.
[00:33:24] I'm going for pad sounds here, synth pads.
[00:33:34] I also put the reverb on it.
[00:33:56] Audio track mute input is the output of the M1 post.
[00:34:06] And we just record this here.
[00:34:35] And I have to of course press record here.
[00:35:04] Nice.
[00:35:08] And we do another one.
[00:35:13] an octave lower.
[00:35:27] Okay, too late.
[00:35:55] Doesn't matter.
[00:35:59] I'm muting this and I go back here to the grid.
[00:36:03] And then I'm loading these two new samples into the sampler.
[00:36:13] So let's go for this.
[00:36:19] And no key tracking.
[00:36:22] Let's see all the sounds.
[00:36:54] That sounds similar.
[00:37:37] It's a kind of nice atmosphere.
[00:37:39] Kind of like it.
[00:37:42] I would say I put the patch and the samples in the description below so you can download it and experiment with it.
[00:37:50] But I just want to show you, I had this idea earlier that I wanted to use different samples inside of the grid and then trigger it differently in different positions to create some random atmospheres.
[00:38:02] But I think it's a great idea actually to create these kind of sounds.
[00:38:06] So I put the patch and the sounds in the description below so you can download it, have some fun with it.
[00:38:12] Thanks for watching.
[00:38:14] Leave a like if you liked the video and subscribe to the channel of course.
[00:39:40] That's it. Bye.