Tags: posts polarity-music Bitwig Tutorial Bitwig-5.2b10

Midrange Bass Sounds in Bitwig

Tutorial | Jul 09, 2024

In this video, I demonstrate how to use the cycles mode in Bitwig's sampler to create bass sounds from random noise samples. By manipulating the harmonics and overtones, I show how to create rich and unique bass tones. I also explore different techniques such as using the sampler or the grid, applying effects like distortion and filtering, and experimenting with modulation to create diverse bass sounds.

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In this video, I show you how to create bass sounds using the cycles mode of the sampler in Bitwig, starting from a recorded voice sample. The process involves removing noise, emphasizing harmonics, and using various modulation techniques. Here's a summary of the key steps:

  1. Record a Sample:

    • Record a bit of your voice or any sound.
    • Noise and pitch are not crucial as cycles mode handles harmonics.

  2. Clean and Process the Sample:

    • Use loud split to mute quiet parts and isolate harmonics.
    • Apply auto level up with a short fall time to normalize the sound.

  3. Sampler Setup:

    • Use cycles mode with speed at 0% and formant at 0.
    • Enable freeze mode to maintain a consistent sound.
    • Utilize EQ and distortion to enhance harmonics.

  4. Alternative Methods:

    • Use the grid in Bitwig instead of the sampler.
    • Combine the sample with a sine oscillator and apply phase modulation.
    • Add filters, distortion, and noise for additional texture.

  5. Experimentation:

    • Modulate different parameters to explore various bass sounds.
    • Swap samples to discover unique overtones and bass characteristics.

Key Points:

Questions & Answers

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

How can I create bass sounds using the cycles mode in Bitwig?

To create bass sounds using the cycles mode in Bitwig, you first need to record a sample, such as your voice. Then, you can use the loud split tool to remove any unwanted noise and extract the harmonics. Next, apply effects like distortion and EQ to enhance the bass frequencies and adjust the sound to your liking.

What are some techniques for manipulating the sound and creating different bass tones?

Some techniques for manipulating the sound and creating different bass tones include using modulation, such as phase modulation or pitch modulation, to add movement and variation to the sound. Additionally, experimenting with different waveforms, filters, and effects like overdrive or notch filtering can also help shape the bass tones and create unique sounds.

Can I use the sampler or the Holy Grid module in Bitwig to create bass sounds?

Yes, you can use both the sampler and the Holy Grid module in Bitwig to create bass sounds. The sampler allows you to manipulate the sample using features like freeze mode and cycles mode, while the Holy Grid module offers additional options for modulation, filtering, and mixing in noise elements to add texture to the bass sound.

What can I do to further enhance and customize my bass sound in Bitwig?

To further enhance and customize your bass sound in Bitwig, you can experiment with different processing chains, such as adding further distortion or applying specific EQ settings to shape the desired frequency response. Additionally, trying out different modulation techniques, layering multiple instances of the bass sound, or using other sound design tools and plugins can also help you achieve your desired bass sound.

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 in yesterday's video I showed you how to use the cycles mode of the sampler to create
[00:00:05] nice pad sounds from random noise samples and someone in the comments suggested that
[00:00:10] this may be good for bass sounds.
[00:00:13] And it really is and I want to show you in this video how it works or how I do it inside
[00:00:18] of Bitwig, right?
[00:00:20] So what I want to do first is to record a bit of my voice.
[00:00:23] That's very, very important because we need the sample but you can use actually anything
[00:00:27] and it's not really important that you are in tune or in pitch.
[00:00:31] Like I showed you yesterday, the cycles mode basically takes care of this and we are only
[00:00:35] interested in some of the harmonics or overtones to create a bit of richness in the sound.
[00:00:41] So that's the main idea behind this.
[00:00:44] So what I do here is basically I just record a bit of my voice.
[00:00:52] It doesn't really matter what I do.
[00:00:55] And then what I want to do with this sound here is to actually get rid of some of the
[00:01:04] noise stuff here.
[00:01:05] I really like to do this here with the loud split just mute basically here the quiet parts
[00:01:11] or the bit of my voice or the bit of my voice.
[00:01:17] Now I use here this threshold to only let basically some of the harmonics pass.
[00:01:24] I only want to have some overtones here, some root, the fundamental and some of the overtones
[00:01:29] but I don't need the noisy parts right of my voice.
[00:01:32] Or the bit of my voice.
[00:01:36] And then I use here my auto level up basically with a short fall time.
[00:01:42] Or the bit of my voice.
[00:01:44] It doesn't really matter what I do.
[00:01:49] Or the bit of my voice.
[00:01:53] Something like this.
[00:01:55] And then I bounce this here 32 bits.
[00:01:58] You can see it's super loud right.
[00:02:01] Everything is yeah maxed out normalized right.
[00:02:05] There's a very high compression on that.
[00:02:09] But that's what I want because I want to have a consistent sound.
[00:02:14] And then instead of a sampler this time because you can do this in the sampler and then layer
[00:02:20] it with let's say a polymer and the sign partial.
[00:02:24] This kind of works.
[00:02:25] Maybe I can show it here to you so you can see what I mean.
[00:02:29] To use a sampler maybe we renamed this here to vocals.
[00:02:34] Put this in here and just remove this.
[00:02:39] And we use here the cycles mode speed is 0%.
[00:02:43] Formant is 0.
[00:02:46] Use the freeze mode and we can use the midi keyboard.
[00:02:53] .
[00:03:16] And yeah that's you can use this as a bass if you want to.
[00:03:21] Of course you can put a lot of distortion on this to get some of the harmonics better
[00:03:26] more in front up front.
[00:03:27] You can also use here let's say an EQ plus sometimes I do this.
[00:03:34] Put this here and use the center frequency of C3.
[00:03:39] Put the key track on there.
[00:03:41] And because everything is monophonic anyways because bass sounds are monophonic so you
[00:03:46] don't need to have here an polyphonic resonator so you can just use this.
[00:03:53] Then we shift this here by 60.
[00:03:57] So this is now here our bass the fundamental right so we use a high quality setting here
[00:04:03] and boost this.
[00:04:08] So we boost here the bass harmonic right the fundamental to get actually the bass out
[00:04:20] of the sound.
[00:04:21] And then we use here recently I use over a lot of times here with the soft knee which
[00:04:28] is just an overdrive or a soft clip off you want to call it this.
[00:04:43] So we have bass.
[00:04:53] We don't need this and we need the segments maybe here or let's use a ramp.
[00:05:00] I only want the rough ramp here and just modulate your cycle position or you can modulate this
[00:05:05] if you want to.
[00:05:06] It doesn't matter.
[00:05:08] When the freeze mode is on this one and this one is the same.
[00:05:38] Maybe we boost here also the second harmonic.
[00:05:49] This is then C4 probably.
[00:05:54] This is the second harmonic.
[00:06:06] It's the third harmonic it's probably G4 or G5 something like this.
[00:06:12] I'm not sure.
[00:06:13] It's probably wrong.
[00:06:14] It's probably G4.
[00:06:15] I don't know.
[00:06:16] So this is one approach you can choose just using the sampler here and then you can go
[00:06:35] do a wave table scan here with this position tool.
[00:06:40] You can put in here a very long sample if you want to but you have to know that the
[00:06:47] longer the sample is the resolution of this knob here goes down because you have only two
[00:06:53] floats two floating float points here.
[00:06:57] So the position goes down the longer the samples but you can in theory you can put in a very
[00:07:03] long sample and then scan through the whole sample and then get a different overtone all
[00:07:12] the time while scanning through this sample.
[00:07:35] Okay, so this is one method.
[00:07:45] What I usually do is to use this inside of the grid.
[00:07:49] So instead of a sampler here we use a holy grid and in here I use the same sample of
[00:07:57] course and use cycles use freeze.
[00:08:01] What else?
[00:08:02] That's it probably.
[00:08:03] And then assign oscillator as a carrier and then just face modulate here this one.
[00:08:12] It is our we probably want to have some kind of filter here.
[00:08:18] I just use let's say a low pass.
[00:08:23] Let's use an selfie.
[00:08:26] Maybe use it here.
[00:08:34] Let's see a bit of distortion here maybe.
[00:08:41] And then go to the output.
[00:08:47] And maybe you want to mix in a bit of noise.
[00:08:52] Noise is always good.
[00:08:55] White noise, stereo and let's say high pass, a bit of high pass here for the noise.
[00:09:02] Something like this.
[00:09:03] See how this sounds.
[00:09:06] That's too much noise.
[00:09:26] I can filter after distortion I don't know.
[00:09:49] So I really like to use face modulation for this most of the times or else you get more
[00:10:05] overtones out.
[00:10:22] Again let's use ramp here.
[00:10:24] And use segments or whatever you want to use.
[00:10:38] Let me use here static pitch in.
[00:11:05] So we use here the pitch from the keyboard.
[00:11:07] So let's use a static pitch here.
[00:11:13] So this gives you a different sound.
[00:11:23] Also interesting.
[00:11:33] Maybe not too late this is a different direction here.
[00:11:58] So you get bass sounds out of this pretty easily.
[00:12:02] It's just playing around with recordings or with samples.
[00:12:06] You can create overtones pretty fast.
[00:12:09] And then you use your usual processing chains like distortion, notch filtering is nice.
[00:12:19] Let me use here Xp with a notch filter.
[00:12:24] Just to play around with harmonics that's pretty important actually for bass sounds or
[00:12:28] midrange bass sounds.
[00:12:30] You don't need to have a long chain with a lot of processing like you see in most tutorials.
[00:12:38] It's just about the overtones.
[00:12:39] You have a fundamental which is your bass and then you have your overtones and then
[00:12:42] you play around with your overtones.
[00:12:45] This creates these nice bass sounds.
[00:13:12] Let's modulate this here.
[00:13:22] And maybe a bit of pitch modulation is awesome.
[00:13:26] Most of the time it's good.
[00:13:29] Let's just modulate this here.
[00:13:32] Before L.A.R.
[00:14:01] Yeah, and this is how we can create bass sounds with this.
[00:14:12] But you can see you have a lot of knobs you can turn and twist and see how it's changed
[00:14:18] changes the sound.
[00:14:20] But you have at least a lot of options with the sample here.
[00:14:23] And then sometimes you just exchange the sampler sound here for something else, for
[00:14:28] something random or you record something new and then you get totally different overtones,
[00:14:34] different bass sounds.
[00:14:36] And the fundamental here is taking care of with the sine oscillator and then you also
[00:14:41] can influence how much you want to disrupt basically this fundamental here with this
[00:14:47] phase modulation knob.
[00:14:51] You really just want to have a clean sub sound.
[00:14:55] You don't modulate the phase modulation amount here too much.
[00:15:15] It's really just about only the overtones with bass sounds.
[00:15:23] Huge bass sound fundamental on all the overtones here and then you try to bring modulation
[00:15:30] here in this area.
[00:15:55] It's really fun to play around just with the sound.
[00:16:28] Ah.
[00:16:40] Or maybe distortion here in the amount.
[00:17:09] Ah.
[00:17:19] Or maybe distortion here in the amount.
[00:17:48] Yeah.
[00:18:05] Lots of options there.
[00:18:07] Okay.
[00:18:08] That's it.
[00:18:09] Thanks for watching.
[00:18:10] Leave a like.
[00:18:11] If you like the video, subscribe to the channel.
[00:18:13] And see you in the next one.
[00:18:15] Bye.