EDM Chords with Bitwig's Note Grid

Tutorial | Sep 18, 2024

In today's video, I demonstrated how to create interesting harmonic ideas using Bitwig's note grid by setting up chords with a pedal tone and fifths, making it simple to form complex chords and EDM sounds. I also added elements like an arpeggiator, reverb, and delay to enhance the sound, and showed how to manage different channels for more intricate compositions. This technique allows for quick and easy creation of harmonies without the need for complex chord progressions.

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Summary #

Maybe you don't watch the video, here are some important takeaways:

In yesterday's video, I demonstrated how to create EDM or minimal melodic techno using Bitwig. Today, I want to delve into utilizing the note grid within Bitwig to share some intriguing ideas. Let's get started with a note grid and a piano tag, which we can play on the keyboard.

For a basic setup, we duplicate the note grid because we want to form three notes, essentially creating a chord. It's crucial to disconnect the first note, this will serve as our root or pedal tone. Let's set this root note to D#3, making it constant regardless of the key pressed on the keyboard. This means whenever we press a key, D#3 will always play as our root.

Next, we add a fifth by moving seven semitones up. When played, it sounds like a typical chord: we have the root note, the fifth, and our pedal tone. This functionality allows us to experiment with pitch changes on the keyboard, forming new chords while the pedal tone remains constant.

We can increase the polyphony to, say, two voices, allowing us to press two keys on the keyboard. By doing this, we get a chord with a fifth on top and our pedal tone in the center, opening up the possibility for more complex chord structures. This approach is especially interesting as it helps maintain a harmonic center, making it easier to explore various harmonic ideas.

To enhance this, I replace the note grid with an arpeggiator, setting it to a "plus some down" pattern. Adding effects like reverb (convolution) and delay, we can create more atmospheric sounds. For the sequence, I set it to monophonic temporarily and play around by adding the root note an octave lower for a bass line and potentially an octave higher for variation.

This method is particularly powerful for producing EDM sounds without needing elaborate chord progressions. You can start simply and build up layers by adding a few notes and tweaking settings.

For rhythmic variation, I add a kick drum, then use small deviations to introduce slight changes in the rhythmic pattern. To manage the bass notes separately, I send them to a different channel (e.g., channel 16), and then use a receiver on another instrument to handle this bass line.

For final adjustments, I add some transposing to the bass note to ensure it's within a suitable range and use a peak limiter to balance the output. This process simplifies creating harmonic structures, sticking mainly to fifths and a central pedal tone while achieving interesting harmonic interactions.

To wrap it up, I may share this setup on my Patreon for others to dissect and tweak as they wish. I always aim to keep things simple and structured, moving quickly through the initial phases of track creation to maintain the groove and ensure the project feels like it's developing into a solid track. Focusing on major elements first, I leave fine-tuning for later stages.

I hope sharing this approach helps others in creating harmonics and harmonies more effortlessly. If this sounds beneficial, consider subscribing to my Patreon. Make sure to leave a like, subscribe, and ask any questions you might have. See you next time! Bye.

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]
[00:00:11] So in yesterday's video I showed you how to make EDM or some kind of minimal
[00:00:15] melodic techno whatever inside of Bitwig and I thought today I used here the
[00:00:22] note grid for some interesting ideas I can show you. So let's start here with
[00:00:28] a note grid and a piano tag and we can play at this on the keyboard.
[00:00:35] Pretty normal but inside of the note grid here we just duplicate this because we want to create
[00:00:44] three notes so more like a chord. The first note here gets disconnected that's important
[00:00:52] and we dial in the root of the scale this is our pedal tone so when we always press a key on the
[00:00:58] keyboard we get the same note D#3 right. So this is the root note here so that's what we are pressing
[00:01:05] on the keyboard and this one here is the fifth so seven semitones up and it sounds like this
[00:01:13] like a normal uh normal chord here so we have the root this is the key I'm pressing this seven up
[00:01:22] and then this is here the pedal tone right so when we go down now with the pitch on the keyboard
[00:01:34] this note stays and now we completely form a new chord
[00:01:48] and this becomes interesting in itself but you can also increase here the voices to let's say
[00:01:55] two and then press two keys only two keys on the keyboard let's say this one here this this key here
[00:02:02] then we get here the the fifth on top and this is the battle tone right and then we play just another key
[00:02:18] and with these type of combinations you can create pretty complex chords
[00:02:33] and sometimes I really like to do this because you have the pedal tone you always stick to some kind
[00:02:44] of key center with this and it's pretty interesting to explore certain harmonic ideas with this
[00:02:52] okay we can now exchange here this for an arp
[00:03:04] plus some down or something like this or plus some up Polymer
[00:03:20] and we put a reverb on this here convolution
[00:03:27] and delay of course
[00:03:32] so
[00:03:56] I may switch this back here to a monophonic for now
[00:03:59] so with this we can now also go in and say this is the root here and you also want to have the
[00:04:08] root of the key of the note we are pressing and put this down one octave so this is the bass
[00:04:28] and the more notes we add also say octave one octave higher
[00:04:52] so you can create pretty easily EDM type of sounds with this without creating big chord
[00:05:01] progressions
[00:05:12] just a few notes
[00:05:13] and then go here
[00:05:26] yeah maybe here I don't know
[00:05:28] so those two fast content scaling 200
[00:05:48] so
[00:05:54] maybe lb2
[00:06:06] so
[00:06:17] I know you need to do is then add here melodic kick
[00:06:36] damn it
[00:06:46] so
[00:06:57] then maybe bring in here small deviations
[00:07:13] so
[00:07:24] okay
[00:07:33] and because we have to see on the note grid we can just take here the bass note and give this
[00:07:53] a different channel 16 for instance then go to a different instrument
[00:08:02] receive this here
[00:08:06] actually you don't need to use receiver I think you can also just use your audio in and then
[00:08:15] polymer note grid output and then barb here
[00:08:22] yeah we need the channel fitter or we don't need the channel fitter in this example
[00:08:35] we can just receive channel one and map it to channel one
[00:08:44] no my wrong same one one one let me see um oh yeah we need 16 sorry I was completely wrong
[00:08:57] 16 to 16
[00:09:11] it's a bit too too low
[00:09:14] what we can do here a bit of transposing no transpose so let's go up here by
[00:09:28] maybe five and also here
[00:09:38] [Music]
[00:10:07] [Music]
[00:10:15] And a peak limiter on top. So it's a bit easier than, you know, just creating all these complex
[00:10:22] chord progressions like I did in the last video. So I want to give you also here an idea how you
[00:10:28] can do it inside of the note grid with just very easy transpositionings here. Transposes.
[00:10:37] I don't know. So like you're only using fifths all the time and a pedal tone in the middle and then
[00:10:44] you create these nice, um, yeah, frictions between the notes.
[00:10:50] [Music]
[00:11:01] And we need of course here some kind of tool device.
[00:11:03] [Music]
[00:11:07] I probably also put this here on my Patreon if you want to just dive in and, you know,
[00:11:15] change it or dissect it.
[00:11:20] Kick.
[00:11:23] [Music]
[00:11:40] [Music]
[00:12:00] Maybe I'll add here.
[00:12:02] Just have a clean sound.
[00:12:07] Ah, that's all I need.
[00:12:12] [Music]
[00:12:39] [Music]
[00:13:04] I'll probably also need here.
[00:13:08] What's the name? Tool device here on that.
[00:13:11] [Music]
[00:13:17] Too much.
[00:13:17] [Music]
[00:13:29] Yeah, okay. So I put this on my Patreon so you can download this if you want to.
[00:13:35] Because yesterday someone wrote under my last video that I reminded him
[00:13:41] to keep it simple and that's absolutely true. I try to keep it as simple as possible.
[00:13:48] I try to move quickly through the track. I don't go into details pretty early.
[00:13:55] It's only stuff for later when you are half finished.
[00:13:59] So in the beginning I try to move quickly, you know, make it smooth and try to get the groove
[00:14:07] going basically or find the right settings for everything so it's a nice track or at least
[00:14:15] it sounds like it's becoming a nice track. So I'm focusing on the main things in the beginning.
[00:14:22] So this is a nice trick here of creating harmonics or harmonies pretty early on,
[00:14:29] pretty easy in a straightforward way. I think it's probably pretty helpful for you.
[00:14:37] Okay, so that's it for this video. Leave a like, leave a subscription,
[00:14:40] ask me questions. I don't know. Subscribe to my Patreon.
[00:14:45] See you next time. Bye.