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MOOG DFAM in Bitwig

Tutorial | Aug 05, 2024

In this video, I demonstrate the sounds of my PFAM, a replica of the Moog DFAM, inside Bitwig Studio. I explain the layout and modifications I made to the original device, showcasing its percussive capabilities and versatility as a techno sequence generator. The preset is available for free download and I welcome feedback and suggestions for future devices.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

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In this video, I introduce PFAM, my Moog DFAM replica inside Bitwig Studio. It’s designed to function as a percussion synthesizer, useful for creating kick and snare drums, and here's an overview of its features and modifications.

Feel free to download the preset from the description, and let me know if you have any questions or ideas for new devices!

Questions & Answers

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

How does the Moog DFAM replica inside of Bitwig Studio sound?

The Moog DFAM replica inside of Bitwig Studio sounds great. It is a percussion synthesizer that is also useful for creating kick drums and snare sounds. The video demonstrates its sound capabilities with a variety of musical examples.

What are the key features and modifications of the DFAM replica in Bitwig Studio?

The DFAM replica in Bitwig Studio has three eight-step sequences for gates, velocity, and loudness. It also features pitch and mod sequencers, which are added modifications that are not part of the original DFAM. There are two main oscillators with selectable waveforms, a mixer, two envelopes for pitch and amplifier, and various modulation options.

Why does the video not include a patch bay inside of the grid?

The video explains that adding a patch bay inside the grid of Bitwig Studio doesn't make sense because the grid itself serves as a big patch bay. The original DFAM has a limited patch bay, but with Bitwig Studio's grid, you have the freedom to route anything to anything, making a separate patch bay unnecessary and CPU-intensive.

How does the DFAM replica compare to the original in terms of sound and usage?

While the DFAM replica in Bitwig Studio may not offer the physical experience of touching the knobs like the original, sound-wise it comes pretty close. It is a fun and straightforward device to play around with and can produce a variety of sounds and sequences. It can be used for percussion sounds, techno sequences, and more.

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] In this video it's about the PFAM, my Moog DFAM replica inside of Bitwig Studio and this
[00:00:07] is how it sounds.
[00:01:03] - It's more or less a percussion synthesizer.
[00:01:05] It's also useful for kick drums and snare
[00:01:09] or very basic snare drums.
[00:01:12] That's the original idea.
[00:01:14] So the layout is pretty straightforward.
[00:01:17] We have three sequences, eight step sequences
[00:01:20] for gates or velocity or the loudness of each step.
[00:01:25] The pitch and mod sequencer I added,
[00:01:29] which is not part of the original.
[00:01:31] So this is my modification to the DPM.
[00:01:35] And also we have two main oscillators
[00:01:38] and I chose to use your wave table oscillators
[00:01:41] so you can switch between sine, three and poles and saw.
[00:01:46] And on the original we have only poles and dry.
[00:01:52] Then we go into a mixer.
[00:01:53] We have two envelopes for the pitch and the amplifier.
[00:01:57] And we can change the filter here.
[00:01:59] We have envelopes here for the filter and amplifier.
[00:02:03] You can change the oscillators also in VCO decay,
[00:02:08] which is the pitch decay.
[00:02:11] So you can create kick drums with this if you want to.
[00:02:14] We can change the wave form here, the tuning
[00:02:18] and also FM amount here.
[00:02:20] This is more like less like a specialty of the DFAM
[00:02:26] that you can FM oscillator one with oscillator two.
[00:02:31] We also have noise in here, like a normal noise output.
[00:02:35] You can mix in the noise and you can also use the noise
[00:02:39] here to out your rate and modulate the filter frequency,
[00:02:43] which is very nice to do on the original.
[00:02:46] This is how it looks like here on the original.
[00:02:50] And sometimes when I do these devices inside of Bitwig,
[00:02:55] there are some comments or some questions
[00:02:57] about the patch bay on the right side.
[00:02:59] Polarity, can you please also do the patch bay
[00:03:02] inside of the grid?
[00:03:04] In my opinion, this doesn't make any sense
[00:03:06] because the grid itself is a big patch bay.
[00:03:10] So we replicate a limited patch bay
[00:03:13] inside of a bigger patch bay,
[00:03:16] while also using a lot of CPU power just for this.
[00:03:24] And it doesn't make any sense because inside of the grid
[00:03:26] you can route anything to anything, right?
[00:03:29] They don't need to limit yourself to this type of patch bay
[00:03:33] here on the right side.
[00:03:35] With this patch bay, what you usually do is
[00:03:37] you switch off this pitch knob or this pitch line.
[00:03:41] We go here to the DFAM and then use here
[00:03:44] this sequencer pitch mod knob.
[00:03:46] You switch this to the middle position
[00:03:48] to, or disconnect this pitch value
[00:03:53] from this oscillator so we can't change the pitch anymore.
[00:03:57] And then you freed up more or less this knob here
[00:04:00] for a value and then you go to the pitch output here
[00:04:04] of the sequencer and then you route it to something else.
[00:04:09] So let's say it cut off, right?
[00:04:11] So you open up the cutoff on the sequence here
[00:04:14] on different points by different amounts.
[00:04:17] So I thought in this preset here,
[00:04:19] I just add a third sequencer called Mod Sequencer.
[00:04:23] It's also eight steps and you can dial in
[00:04:26] for each step here a different value
[00:04:28] and then you use this modulator output here
[00:04:30] and then you can modulate anything inside of this preset.
[00:04:35] So here I used to modulate the filter decay
[00:04:39] and the EG amount.
[00:04:40] You can also use this to open up the filter rhythmically, right?
[00:04:43] But the sequence here.
[00:04:46] (upbeat music)
[00:04:49] And then change the pitch here for each step
[00:05:01] and the loudness or the velocity for each step.
[00:05:04] (upbeat music)
[00:05:07] So with the left side, you more or less change the gate
[00:05:11] or when something triggers,
[00:05:14] but it's actually just a velocity for each step.
[00:05:16] (upbeat music)
[00:05:19] And yeah, this knob here,
[00:05:31] that's the one oscillator one, two FM amount.
[00:05:35] That's pretty interesting because it gives you these nice
[00:05:38] type of percussion sounds of the D-Fam.
[00:05:42] I really love this knob here.
[00:05:43] It's, I mean, everyone loves FM, typical FM sound, right?
[00:05:48] And you can do this on the D-Fam pretty well here.
[00:05:52] There's also hard sync knob here to sync VCO2 to VCO1
[00:05:58] if you want to.
[00:05:59] And here you can see VCO2 and VCO1 only
[00:06:04] and use pulse and try in the original.
[00:06:08] This is here the noise level.
[00:06:10] This is the mixing knob here for VCO1 and VCO2.
[00:06:14] And here's also the VCF noise mod.
[00:06:17] So you can change with the audio rate or with noise,
[00:06:21] the filter cutoff here.
[00:06:23] So it's a pretty interesting device.
[00:06:25] It's also fairly simple,
[00:06:27] but you get a lot of sounds out of it
[00:06:29] that are useful for percussions.
[00:06:32] So this is the main use for this,
[00:06:35] but you can also use it of course as some kind of,
[00:06:38] let's say techno sequence generator.
[00:06:43] A lot of people do this.
[00:06:45] I saw this on YouTube,
[00:06:47] but yeah, you get a lot of different sounds
[00:06:49] and sequences out of this.
[00:06:50] It's really fun to play around with
[00:06:52] because it's so simple and straightforward.
[00:07:38] If you use my subharmonicon preset with this
[00:07:41] or the labyrinth preset with this,
[00:07:44] you can probably create whole techno sets with this,
[00:07:49] I guess, I have no idea.
[00:07:51] So I try to replicate this as close as possible
[00:07:55] to the original.
[00:07:57] And I also own one of these defense here.
[00:08:00] It's right beside my PC.
[00:08:03] And I use it all the time.
[00:08:04] It's pretty fun device to play around with.
[00:08:07] And yeah, this is not like the original, right?
[00:08:11] The fun of the original is that you can touch the knobs.
[00:08:15] Sound wise, I think it comes pretty close.
[00:08:20] And if you create songs with this
[00:08:22] and you bury it down in the mix
[00:08:24] and you use a lot of filters
[00:08:26] and then limit us at the master and so on,
[00:08:29] probably no one can say if this is the original
[00:08:33] or the fake one, I guess.
[00:08:36] At least untrained listeners, right?
[00:08:39] It doesn't matter.
[00:08:42] This preset is completely free.
[00:08:44] The download link is down in the description.
[00:08:46] So you don't need to pay anything.
[00:08:49] Have fun with this.
[00:08:50] Hit me up with the comments with the questions
[00:08:53] or maybe some ideas for new devices
[00:08:56] or maybe some updates for this.
[00:08:59] Maybe you want something different here
[00:09:01] or you think something is wrong in this preset.
[00:09:05] Let me know.
[00:09:06] Okay, I'm open for feedback.
[00:09:08] Thanks for watching.
[00:09:09] Leave a like if you liked the video.
[00:09:10] Subscribe to the channel
[00:09:12] and I'll see you on the next one.
[00:09:14] Bye.