EDM from Scratch in Bitwig
Tutorial | Sep 17, 2024
In this video, I dive into creating music in Bitwig Studio with a BPM of 127, starting with laying down some basic chords and building up the track from there. I demonstrate how to make a bassline, add percussion, and enhance the sounds using various effects and modulators. Finally, I group and tweak the elements to achieve a cohesive track, offering tips and insights along the way.
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Summary #
Maybe you don't watch the video, here are some important takeaways:
In today's video, I decided to focus solely on music production within Bitwig Studio. I wanted to avoid reaction content and instead dive right into creating some pure music, keeping things straightforward and simple. I started out by setting the tempo to a comfortable 127 BPM, which seemed like a good fit for what I had in mind.
To kick things off, I laid down some chords using a synthesized saw sound. I activated the unison mode, detuned it, added some spread and low-cut filtering, and configured the LP2 (low pass filter). I decided to use an arpeggiator to give the chords a bit of movement, setting it to an up pattern, which I frequently use.
Next, I opened a note clip and began creating the chord progression. I started with the root note on channel one, added a fifth, and then introduced a minor third and a seventh. Right-clicking allowed me to change the note channels and see different colors for each channel. I made the sequence slightly longer and created a basic, yet effective chord progression.
I then experimented with changing the chords around, adding some minor seconds and major thirds, creating a slightly dissonant sound which I found interesting. I used a step modulator with three steps to add some rhythmic variation, making it faster and adding some reverb to smooth things out.
With the chords in place, I focused on creating a bassline. Using the Polymer synthesizer, I set up a receiver to get note information from the chord channel. I added a channel filter to isolate the bass notes, transposed them down two semitones, and made the sound monophonic. An arpeggiator helped me add rhythm to the bass, and I used a step modulator with five steps to give it some variation. Some distortion and convolution helped to achieve the gritty texture I wanted, and I ensured there was a proper sidechain to the kick drum to keep the mix clean.
I then built the drum section, starting with a kick drum using a preset I often use. I adjusted its length and pitch to fit the track, then moved on to hi-hats, using a default preset with some velocity randomness for a more human feel. A simple clap on the 2nd and 4th beats with convolution reverb was added, programmed to have reverb only occasionally using a chance module in the FX grid. This added some dynamic unpredictability, which is a nice touch.
Then, I grouped the kick and hi-hats into a drum bus, EQing and compressing it to give more presence. I tweaked the global macro to adjust the modulation amount dynamically, ensuring the modulation fit well with the evolving track.
For additional complexity, I introduced percussive elements from XO, which I low-cut and added a peak limiter to control the dynamics. I also bounced some white noise sweeps and impacts, reversing and pitching them to add tension and release moments in the track.
I fine-tuned the mix, adjusting levels, and applying a slight swing for a more natural groove. Finally, I applied some final touches with an OTT (Over The Top) compressor and adjusted the modulation on the hi-hats and arpeggiator to make them evolve together.
Overall, I created a track foundation that you can download from my Patreon. You can tweak it, add effects like sweeps and crashes, and take it in various creative directions. On the master channel, I suggested using a basic limiter and compressor to finalize the track.
I'm satisfied with how it turned out. On my headphones, it sounded great, though I'd recommend checking it on speakers too. If you enjoyed the video, found it educational, or want more like this, please leave a like, subscribe, and comment. Thanks for watching, and see you next time.
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] [Music]
[00:00:22] Hey folks, welcome back. Today we are gonna do some music in Bitwig Studio, plain and simple.
[00:00:27] It's not complicated. We want to go back to music, no reaction content, nothing, just pure music
[00:00:33] inside of Bitwig Studio. And I'm gonna start here with using a very nice BPM 127 for some reason.
[00:00:44] And I want to start here by laying down some chords as you do. Opening up here, audio clip,
[00:00:52] loop on, and here I go to saw, maybe unison on, 16-fet, detuning on, spread, voice spread on,
[00:01:02] a bit of low cut here, LP2, that's what I want. And maybe I use an arpeggiator here in front,
[00:01:11] I use, plus some up, because I use this all the time for some reason. And then we go here into
[00:01:17] the note clip, and we start by disabling here the preview, because it's annoying. We put down here
[00:01:26] a root note. So this is the root note. The root note gets channel one. Then we go to one, two,
[00:01:32] three, four, five, six, seven, to the fifth here, and this gets the number five. Then we switch
[00:01:39] with right click here to note channel. So we can see different colors here for each channel.
[00:01:46] So this is the seventh, then one, two, three, it's the minor third. We'll go up here one octave,
[00:01:54] right? So this gets the channel three. Sounds already pretty nice. We probably want to do this here
[00:02:05] a bit longer. Then we do a longer sequence, this two, two, two, two. Okay. So let's lay down here
[00:02:16] some basic chords. So we go maybe down one, two, three, four, maybe a major third down.
[00:02:31] One, two, three, minor third down. Then to the fifth here. Could be something very basic.
[00:02:42] That's very basic, but I don't care for now. At least my idea is to show you how
[00:03:00] you can create something very generic and then you apply your creativity and go into
[00:03:07] different directions. So it's probably pretty generic what I do here. Oh, here we can exchange
[00:03:12] this. So we have here a combination. Nice. Always good. Maybe I bring in here what's this one,
[00:03:20] two, that's a minor second. Let's give this here the channel number two.
[00:03:27] And here we go for minor second, minor third, major third. What's this? Augmented? No, it's not
[00:03:40] augmented. It's sus four or something like this. Doesn't matter.
[00:03:52] And here we go again for minor second because I really like the sound of this.
[00:03:58] What's this here?
[00:04:02] Can we go here maybe?
[00:04:05] That sounds shit.
[00:04:20] Let's go for minor second again.
[00:04:27] That sounds a bit, you know, more dissonant.
[00:04:34] Minor second, third, third.
[00:04:50] Okay, so then we use here a step mod. Step mod goes to three steps because I like three
[00:04:57] steps against four. It's always sounds kind of nice to me. A bit polyrhythmical.
[00:05:04] And we need to go faster.
[00:05:07] And we put here a reverb. This is just something that denies me a bit. Like also all the time.
[00:05:19] Or basically here at the end, you can't scroll further because there's no device here. Then
[00:05:24] you insert the device and then it's here hidden. So you have to move over there, right? Then you
[00:05:30] put something in here and a cue, a cue to and then again, you have to move it. And then there's
[00:05:36] this problem with the modulators here. Do a step modulator, right? And then it
[00:05:41] opened this up and then you have to move it there and then you close it down and then it's like
[00:05:46] this and you have to move it constantly around. I don't know. Could be better.
[00:05:51] Delay two here again. I have to move it.
[00:06:12] Oh, this one here. This and this is actually not on the scale. So it's probably...
[00:06:17] Oh, this sounds too heavy.
[00:06:22] Not sure about this.
[00:06:38] [Music]
[00:06:47] I bring this here. So it's...
[00:06:49] That's probably better.
[00:06:56] So then here we bring in... Let's call this here a chord. Let's call this base. So we want to
[00:07:08] create a base from this. Oh, I start here also with the polymer.
[00:07:14] Base. So in here I use a receiver, a note receiver and a receive note from the chord
[00:07:22] channel here. And I probably don't want to receive here these arpeggiator sounds because
[00:07:29] when you choose your chords, this channel gets the notes from the arpeggiator for some reason.
[00:07:37] In my opinion, you should only get... When you select this, you should only get the notes from
[00:07:41] the piano roll. Right? So you get the arpeggiator notes. So to receive actually the notes in front
[00:07:49] of this arpeggiator here, you have to use a device velocity curve here. It doesn't change
[00:07:53] the notes at all. But I just need this device to basically select it here. And now I get a pure chords.
[00:08:03] Right? So in here I use a channel selector or channel filter. And I only select channel one
[00:08:11] because we have here channel one for the bass notes. So we have bass in here.
[00:08:16] Right? And then we have to transpose it down.
[00:08:20] Note transpose two semitones down. We have a bass. We want to have a saw.
[00:08:29] And we have a monophonic.
[00:08:32] Right? And then we have this kind of sound. Only just one hit. So I use here an arpeggiator again.
[00:08:42] Let's select four notes.
[00:08:49] Pull this down. Or maybe eight steps. Do the same here. And here I want to have this 12 semitones higher.
[00:09:13] So we get a nice bass line here. Or three.
[00:09:16] Again we use a step modulator here.
[00:09:23] Three steps. Or maybe let's say five.
[00:09:27] Modulate here this amount.
[00:09:32] It's a bit faster.
[00:09:37] We go to LP two because I like the sound. Maybe in here we use some kind of distortion.
[00:09:45] The old.
[00:09:47] That's too much acid.
[00:10:05] But to get a bit of grit in there.
[00:10:07] There is still fine.
[00:10:12] But we can also do the convolution.
[00:10:24] Let's cut here the low frequencies away.
[00:10:28] And a bit of delay too.
[00:10:34] And we probably need here some kind of sidechain at some point. I mean we don't need the sidechain
[00:10:46] because we have here no, we just play no notes when the kick drum hits, right?
[00:10:52] But sometimes you have reverb in there and it sounds a bit better in my opinion.
[00:10:56] So this is more like a stylistic choice.
[00:10:59] And you want to select, oh there's no kick drum so far. So we have to implement here kick drum first.
[00:11:08] So use my melodic kick drum preset here. It always fits kinda for some reason.
[00:11:15] No preview.
[00:11:21] It's shorter.
[00:11:22] It's longer.
[00:11:25] So now we have here a kick drum we can select.
[00:11:29] A lot of the kick output and then we can modulate here the volume just a tad.
[00:11:49] Okay so now we need here some some hi-hats.
[00:11:51] So my e-hat device.
[00:11:54] I have here a default preset looks like this.
[00:11:56] I don't know what I did here exactly. I have no idea what I did something.
[00:12:03] At some point I thought this is a good idea.
[00:12:06] This is a nice default preset.
[00:12:08] I don't know why.
[00:12:09] So we lay down here some basic hi-hats, bit of velocity offsets here.
[00:12:18] And I have a swing in there to pick at this multiple times.
[00:12:21] Oh that's a bit of ring.
[00:12:26] Ringy.
[00:12:27] Okay here I hear it.
[00:12:30] So we have a nice group going there.
[00:12:58] It may be a clap here.
[00:12:59] Give me the clap.
[00:13:02] Two and four.
[00:13:05] Maybe a reverb on that.
[00:13:26] So we want to have this clap here in the reverb not all the time.
[00:13:30] So what I usually do is here a chain device with this convolution reverb in there.
[00:13:35] Mix 100% tool device in front.
[00:13:38] Pull this down.
[00:13:39] Mix here is maybe let's say 50% and then we use what do we use?
[00:13:45] Oh no let's actually not use this.
[00:13:51] Use here maybe an FX grid.
[00:13:53] FX grid.
[00:13:56] Bam.
[00:13:56] And we only let this pass.
[00:14:01] Do I have your gate information?
[00:14:06] We have gate information.
[00:14:09] And use your chance button or chance module.
[00:14:14] So let's go for 50% chance that this one is triggered here.
[00:14:20] When this is triggered we just let you the sound pass into the convolution reverb.
[00:14:26] And delay at the end here.
[00:14:39] Bam.
[00:14:41] Bam.
[00:14:42] So we have sometimes reverb on the clap not all the time.
[00:14:58] Um I call this reverb.
[00:15:02] Bam.
[00:15:04] Bam.
[00:15:05] [Music]
[00:15:14] [Music]
[00:15:20] [Music]
[00:15:30] [Music]
[00:15:42] So we can implement here maybe a global macro like the sound better.
[00:15:48] So this global macro changes this one here.
[00:15:57] So this is basically this going here right.
[00:16:00] So I changed the amount with this.
[00:16:01] So at the moment here there's no modulation happening.
[00:16:04] Now it's the full modulation happening.
[00:16:07] So this is basically a scalar.
[00:16:09] It scales the modulation amount from this to this.
[00:16:20] [Music]
[00:16:31] [Music]
[00:16:42] [Music]
[00:16:52] [Music]
[00:16:56] [Music]
[00:17:01] So we can scale this here with this pretty easily.
[00:17:04] Maybe do two iterations of this quad progression here.
[00:17:08] Then scale it slowly up.
[00:17:11] Maybe so then down again.
[00:17:14] Then up again.
[00:17:17] Here it goes then to the full extent.
[00:17:23] And then we can let's see how this sounds when I pitch this down.
[00:17:30] [Music]
[00:17:36] Now I can start here basically this with one octave lower.
[00:17:42] And then I just switch this back up to one.
[00:17:55] [Music]
[00:18:10] Okay so let's put here the kick and the add some to group and call this drums.
[00:18:14] And let's use an EQ5 on that and boost a bit here of this kick drum frequency
[00:18:21] and a bit here of this 1k to 2.5k area to give it a bit of something fancy.
[00:18:32] [Music]
[00:18:38] Let's compress this here and this auto leveler only compresses everything so it peaks at 0 dB.
[00:18:44] Basically an auto leveler and it makes sure everything is you know up to the ceiling.
[00:18:50] [Music]
[00:18:53] Maybe a bit of swing not too much.
[00:18:56] [Music]
[00:18:59] Mitch Bob is now I think the sweep up is too much.
[00:19:02] [Music]
[00:19:06] [Music]
[00:19:16] And I think you can use XO or some
[00:19:19] or some percussion stuff.
[00:19:24] [Music]
[00:19:36] I don't know.
[00:19:37] [Music]
[00:19:58] Maybe AB and AB.
[00:20:10] [Music]
[00:20:15] And low cut here right.
[00:20:16] [Music]
[00:20:27] Do another low cut here just to make sure.
[00:20:30] [Music]
[00:20:34] The peak limiter.
[00:20:34] [Music]
[00:20:38] Then we bounce this.
[00:20:39] [Music]
[00:20:44] We boost another.
[00:20:46] [Music]
[00:20:48] So we don't need your XO.
[00:20:49] [Music]
[00:21:05] Yeah I think that looks great so far.
[00:21:06] [Music]
[00:21:10] Okay so all we need now is some additional effects so we can
[00:21:17] introduce some rides we can introduce crash symbols or sweeps or whatever.
[00:21:22] So I can use your maybe or let's use the test tone here.
[00:21:28] Test tone.
[00:21:31] Can use here a white noise bit of filtering.
[00:21:37] I actually use your EQ5.
[00:21:39] [Music]
[00:21:48] All right so we can use your macro.
[00:21:50] Bring this in.
[00:21:52] [Music]
[00:21:57] Then bring this up.
[00:22:00] [Music]
[00:22:12] I don't know something like this.
[00:22:13] [Music]
[00:22:15] [Music]
[00:22:31] So we can modulate this in.
[00:22:34] [Music]
[00:22:43] And a bit of free drop on it.
[00:22:45] [Music]
[00:23:11] All you need just low cut here.
[00:23:16] [Music]
[00:23:21] We can bounce this.
[00:23:22] [Music]
[00:23:30] Bounce post.
[00:23:31] [Music]
[00:23:34] Yeah yeah yeah.
[00:23:35] [Music]
[00:23:38] Impact I don't know how it's called.
[00:23:40] It's actually just a sweep.
[00:23:42] [Music]
[00:23:45] I think you have this percussion layers too loud.
[00:23:47] [Music]
[00:24:07] [Music]
[00:24:18] So we can reverse this and maybe pitch it up.
[00:24:21] [Music]
[00:24:35] [Music]
[00:24:43] [Music]
[00:24:55] [Music]
[00:25:03] Loud I am.
[00:25:04] [Music]
[00:25:07] We probably have to put some kind of OTT.
[00:25:11] [Music]
[00:25:20] Yeah the drums probably.
[00:25:21] [Music]
[00:25:23] Let's use your the original one.
[00:25:25] [Music]
[00:25:26] Well that's a big scale.
[00:25:28] [Music]
[00:25:49] We can also use this here on here.
[00:25:53] [Music]
[00:25:56] Let me just move this.
[00:25:59] Yeah it's still intact.
[00:26:00] So we can use the op scale here also for the hi-hats.
[00:26:05] And bring out here the decay.
[00:26:06] [Music]
[00:26:18] Let's hear what this sounds like.
[00:26:19] [Music]
[00:26:28] Right so this not only modulates now here the
[00:26:31] arps it also modulates the hi-hats.
[00:26:34] It feels kind of nice.
[00:26:35] [Music]
[00:26:36] I still think the hi-hats are a bit too loud.
[00:26:39] Maybe the clap is also a bit too loud.
[00:26:41] [Music]
[00:26:43] We love.
[00:26:45] [Music]
[00:27:15] [Music]
[00:27:26] I don't like the sounds percussion.
[00:27:28] [Music]
[00:27:52] Hey that's not the peak limit on the master.
[00:27:54] No!
[00:27:55] [Music]
[00:28:11] On my headphones it sounds great.
[00:28:13] It probably sounds shit on speakers.
[00:28:15] I don't care.
[00:28:16] I put this on my patreon so you can download it if you want to.
[00:28:20] And you know tweak it in all kinds of directions.
[00:28:22] Or just take this video and rebuild it or re-create it from scratch.
[00:28:28] And there's so much stuff you can do here with this.
[00:28:30] Like I said you only have to do some sweeps and crashes and FX sounds.
[00:28:38] And you'll be fine.
[00:28:39] I would say.
[00:28:41] And on the master you just put some I don't know.
[00:28:44] Another OTT no.
[00:28:47] Just some limiters.
[00:28:50] Maybe you compress out the new compressor plus or something like that.
[00:28:53] I think it already sounds fine.
[00:28:56] [Music]
[00:29:21] Yeah that's okay.
[00:29:23] Okay I think that's it for this video.
[00:29:24] Thanks for watching.
[00:29:26] I hope you learned something.
[00:29:28] Leave a like.
[00:29:29] Leave a subscription.
[00:29:30] Leave a comment.
[00:29:31] Thanks for watching.
[00:29:32] See you next time.
[00:29:33] Bye.
[00:29:33] [BLANK_AUDIO]