Tags: posts polarity-music Bitwig Bitwig-5.3b1 Preset Tutorial Note-Grid

Stepwise - Step Sequencer in Bitwig

Tutorial | Nov 28, 2024

In this video, I dive into Bitwig Studio's new Stepwise step sequencer, exploring its integration with drum machines and how it can be customized using Bitwig's modular system. I demonstrate various techniques to enhance its basic features, such as adding probability, velocity, and groove using modulators and note effects. Through experimentation and creativity, I show how Stepwise, though basic, can be a powerful tool for creating unique musical patterns.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

Summary

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

In this video, I delve into the new Stepwise step sequencer in Bitwig Studio. I start by admitting I need a haircut, but quickly shift focus to exploring what Stepwise is, how it can be used, and whether it can replace all VSTs. I break down its function and integration with other Bitwig features, demonstrating its capabilities and limitations.

First, I show what Stepwise looks like and how it's tied to the new drum machines and modules in Bitwig. I explain that it's designed to be an entry-level sequencer, simple and fun to use, primarily for creating drum patterns. I discuss why it’s not intended as a replacement for more advanced VSTs like Stepic, which offer richer features.

I demonstrate creating a drum pattern within Stepwise, highlighting its basic functionality. I also discuss common user concerns about its features. I point out its simplicity is intended to ease users into using step sequencers, especially with the new drum modules.

I move on to showcase how you can enhance Stepwise by integrating Bitwig's modulation system and node grid to add complexity. I explain how to use the Step Modulator for velocity changes, showing how to randomize and create variations in groove, adding elements like polymeters and probability modulations.

Next, I delve into implementing probability by using a combination of modulators, allowing certain steps to play or mute based on chance. I walk through the process of using Bitwig's random and step modulators to achieve this, explaining the math behind it for clarity.

I also touch on using Note FX to split lanes based on pitch, which allows for greater control and customization over individual rhythm or melodic elements. I explore the potential of integrating Stepwise with harmonic elements by harmonizing notes through a node grid.

Further, I discuss using note clips to extract pitches while using Stepwise for rhythmic patterns. I describe a technique of combining note clip pitches with Stepwise's gate information, demonstrating how it provides a flexible approach to creating rhythmically interesting melodies.

Throughout the video, I emphasize the importance of Bitwig’s modularity. I argue that while Stepwise is simple, it can be expanded through modulators and other Bitwig features, encouraging experimentation and creativity. I assert that this modularity should be a continued focus in Bitwig’s development.

Finally, I wrap up by encouraging viewers to see Stepwise not as a limitation, but as a starting point for creating unique sequences by experimenting and combining it with Bitwig's other features. I urge viewers to experiment, explore, and have fun with Stepwise, while inviting them to join my Patreon if they find the content valuable.

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In this video, I dive into Stepwise, the new step sequencer in Bitwig Studio. It’s designed as a simple yet powerful entry-level sequencer, great for creating drum patterns or melodic grooves. While it’s not a full-featured tool like Stepic, its integration with Bitwig’s modular system makes it highly customizable. I demonstrate ways to enhance its basic functionality with modulators, probability systems, and creative uses of the Note Grid, offering practical ideas for experimentation.

Key Points:

Overall, Stepwise pairs well with Bitwig’s ecosystem, and with a little creativity, you can achieve results far beyond its basic features. Let me know what you think and download the presets I shared in the description. Enjoy experimenting!

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 and yes, I need a new haircut, that's for sure.
[00:00:04] Thanks for letting me know.
[00:00:05] But this video is about Stepwise, the new Step Sequencer of Bitwig Studio.
[00:00:10] Why it's there, what it is, what it's not, can it replace all my VSTs, all these kinds
[00:00:16] of questions, giving you some inspiration ideas, some presets and so on, right?
[00:00:20] All these kinds of questions.
[00:00:22] So I would say let's dive right into the action of Bitwig Studio because it's very fun, okay?
[00:00:30] So here we have Stepwise, this is how it looks like, you all see this on the homepage of
[00:00:35] Bitwig Studio, probably you already tried it out, I don't know.
[00:00:38] Then we have your drum machine with some of the new drum modules in there, V8, clap, kick,
[00:00:45] snare, head, cowbell and so on.
[00:00:47] We have also a V0 and V1 and V9 and so on.
[00:00:51] So a lot of drum modules.
[00:00:53] And in my opinion, Stepwise was added because of that, because it's very fun to create patterns
[00:00:58] inside of Step Sequencer in front of a drum machine.
[00:01:01] I mean, that's how it is for decades.
[00:01:04] So let's put in here some kind of random pattern, some kick drums, some snare drums and maybe, yeah,
[00:01:13] 16 steps of hi-hats.
[00:01:15] This is how it sounds.
[00:01:21] And this is the cowbell here.
[00:01:23] So let's go full cowbell.
[00:01:25] That's too much cowbell.
[00:01:47] And you probably already did this 15,000 times in the last week.
[00:01:54] But the question is, where are all the features, right?
[00:01:57] Probably already people telling me this in forums and discords.
[00:02:02] Where's all the stuff?
[00:02:03] So in my opinion, like I said, this was added because of the new drum machines, drum modules.
[00:02:08] And it's more like an entry Step Sequencer for people that had never used Step Sequencer before.
[00:02:15] And this is like a starting point.
[00:02:16] It's very basic, but it's also very fun and very easy to use.
[00:02:21] So it's not overwhelming that a lot of features and lanes and stuff you can, you know, unfold and multiple layers.
[00:02:27] So it's not Stepic, right?
[00:02:29] It's not Stepic VST.
[00:02:31] Let me call this here Stepic.
[00:02:35] So Stepic is feature-rich, right?
[00:02:39] It has randomizations, a lot of different lanes here you can use.
[00:02:46] So it's like the non-plus-ultra of having a Step Sequencer with different Step Sequencers for different values.
[00:02:54] Not only gates and pitches, also velocity, randomization, probabilities, and so on.
[00:03:01] But with the Stepwise here, it's more like integrated into Bitwig and we also have the modulation system.
[00:03:08] And we also have the node grid so we can add stuff here and there and make it more interesting.
[00:03:13] So the first thing you can do is you can change the velocity.
[00:03:18] So here we have already some modulators on there, but I just deleted here for a moment.
[00:03:24] Let's start here with the Step Modulator.
[00:03:29] And the Step Modulator itself has also 16 steps by default.
[00:03:34] So these lanes have all 16 steps, so it matches perfectly from the default point of view, right?
[00:03:42] So by default, it matches.
[00:03:43] Nice.
[00:03:44] 16 steps, we also switch this here to 16 nodes because we have here these lanes running also on 16-node speed.
[00:03:51] And then we can dial in here some kind of curve and use this for the velocity here for the hi-hats, right?
[00:03:59] That's how it sounds.
[00:04:00] We can also randomize this.
[00:04:06] Perfect.
[00:04:15] We can also say instead of having 16 steps for the velocity, we just pull this down to two steps.
[00:04:21] Let's say every second step now is full velocity and the first step is no velocity at all or maybe 11% velocity.
[00:04:37] Oh, it's something like this.
[00:04:39] Different groove, right?
[00:04:44] Maybe pull down here the velocity of the cowbell.
[00:04:48] We can also switch this to three steps.
[00:04:52] So now we have some kind of polymeter running here.
[00:05:03] So kind of works.
[00:05:05] So we have now velocity added because there is no velocity sequencer in here, right?
[00:05:11] It's just pitches and gates.
[00:05:13] So it's very simple.
[00:05:14] But we have here the velocity and we have also timing.
[00:05:17] So instead of just modulating here the velocity, we can also change the timing.
[00:05:24] So we can, let's say, use an LFO, this one here, and use half note, so very slow, and then modulate here the timing of only the hi-hats, right?
[00:05:44] To bring in a small little groove, we can also modulate all the things here at the same time.
[00:05:51] So we have some kind of global groove.
[00:05:53] There is no global setting here for the stepwise, so we have to do it manually, right?
[00:05:59] So let's use here 0.2 maybe, and then use this in all kinds of modulations here.
[00:06:13] Same setting, something like this, and then we have here also the amount knob, right?
[00:06:19] So we can change the groove here, the groove amount with this knob.
[00:06:22] Maybe a bit faster.
[00:06:40] I'll maybe put this here to groove.
[00:06:41] So instead of using here the FO, we can also use, of course, the global groove setting, because we have here these global groove button knobs, right?
[00:06:53] And when you switch this on, you can then just use here from the play or from the transport this groove setting, the shuffle.
[00:07:01] And it's doing basically the same that we just did here with the LFO.
[00:07:04] There's an LFO running at 1.8 node speed.
[00:07:08] We can change the shuffle amount, which is this knob here.
[00:07:12] So you can decide if you want to add just a modulator and modulate different lanes or individual lanes, or you want to use the global groove, or you want to modulate with LFO all these lanes at once.
[00:07:26] So you can decide what you want, right?
[00:07:28] And you don't need to set this up all the time, like you usually do in Bitwig Studio.
[00:07:33] You can just save a preset and then recall it every time you need it.
[00:07:37] Okay.
[00:07:39] So this is here the shuffle.
[00:07:42] We don't need a global shuffle here for now.
[00:07:44] Let me switch this off again.
[00:07:47] Okay.
[00:07:47] So this is, yeah, the shuffle setting.
[00:07:49] The next idea or the next question is probably how can I implement some kind of probability, right?
[00:07:57] So I don't want to play all these steps all the time.
[00:08:00] And there's no additional lane you can use here for dialing in, yeah, the probability.
[00:08:06] Okay.
[00:08:07] So my idea for this is we can just use a modulator, like always.
[00:08:12] We use here a random modulator.
[00:08:13] We switch on sync, so it syncs with the transport.
[00:08:16] And then we use your speed setting, also a 16-node speed, because all these lanes here are on 16-node speed, right?
[00:08:25] So for every step, you get then a random value from 0 to 1.
[00:08:30] Okay.
[00:08:31] So what we do now is we modulate here some of these lanes, not by the full amount.
[00:08:37] We modulate here the mute knob, let's say for the hi-hats here, by exactly, let's say 0.49 or something.
[00:08:45] You can also use 4.
[00:08:46] It depends.
[00:08:48] I use here 4.9, which means the random modulator actually never, never, ever switches the mute button on, because in Bitwig Studio, the modulation amount to switch something on is 0.5.
[00:09:04] You need to exceed this kind of value to actually switch something on or off.
[00:09:10] So here we modulate this by, let's say, 0.49, right?
[00:09:15] So we never reach 0.5.
[00:09:16] If we reach 0.5, then sometimes when the value of the random modulator goes to 1, then we switch here this mute button on.
[00:09:26] I hope this is clear.
[00:09:27] So I want to pull this a bit down to 0.49.
[00:09:31] We never, ever switch the mute thing on just with a random modulator alone.
[00:09:37] So now comes the idea.
[00:09:39] So let's play this here first.
[00:09:40] So you can hear the hi-hats are playing.
[00:09:46] There's no mute activated or enabled at any time.
[00:09:50] So now again, we use a step modulator here.
[00:09:53] Again, we have 16 steps.
[00:09:56] 16 node.
[00:09:57] And now we can dial in here something or some of these steps.
[00:10:02] And we also modulate here the mute knob by, let's say, 0.5.
[00:10:07] Something like this.
[00:10:09] So maybe you can already do the math, right?
[00:10:13] So we have here this modulator dialing in values from 0 to 1.
[00:10:17] And we modulate this by 0.49.
[00:10:19] So we never reach the tipping point of 0.5.
[00:10:22] And then we have here the step modulator where we can just push some of these modulation values here over the edge of 0.5, right?
[00:10:31] So when we dial in here a bit of a thing, right?
[00:10:34] We have 0.1.
[00:10:36] And then this one here can generate actually a value that adds up to this value that brings it over 0.5 and then switches off the or switches on the mute knob.
[00:10:48] Does it make sense?
[00:10:49] So with this, we can kind of combine here a static value with a random value.
[00:10:57] And the more value we dial in, the lesser the value needs to be from the random modulator here to switch actually the mute button on.
[00:11:06] So with this, we can implement some kind of probability.
[00:11:09] So here, down here, the probability is 0 because this modulator never reaches 0.5.
[00:11:16] Here, there's a bit of chance to actually bring the random modulator over 0.5 because we add here 0.05 or something like this.
[00:11:26] And here, up here, the probability is 1.
[00:11:30] So the hi-hat is never played at the first position here, right?
[00:11:35] So if I bring this up here, you can hear there's no hi-hat playing whatsoever.
[00:11:40] And here, it's always playing.
[00:11:42] So now you can dial in here for certain steps, certain values to actually change the probability of not being played.
[00:11:53] You can also do this the reverse way.
[00:11:55] So you switch on mute and then you modulate in the other direction if you want to have here the probability of the notes being played instead of being muted.
[00:12:03] I hope this makes sense.
[00:12:05] I tried to explain it very clearly, but you have to combine a bit of math in your brain.
[00:12:13] So with this, you can implement probability.
[00:12:22] I don't like probability here with the hi-hats because the hi-hat makes the groove.
[00:12:26] What is probably more interesting for here, the cowbell, right?
[00:12:30] If you don't want to play it all the time.
[00:12:33] So let's do this here on the, yeah, that's the cowbell here.
[00:12:37] So let's use here 0.49.
[00:12:39] It doesn't need to be exactly 0.49.
[00:12:44] But the more you go down from 0.5, right, the more value you need to dial in from the steps mod here to push this over 0.5.
[00:12:56] Okay, randomize.
[00:12:58] Okay, it kind of works.
[00:13:13] So with this, we have now full control over velocity.
[00:13:17] We can change also the velocity in kind of different ways because we have here a step mod.
[00:13:23] We can change the step size.
[00:13:24] We can implement polymeters for this.
[00:13:26] We can also change the groove with the shuffle here with the LFO.
[00:13:32] You can also use a step mod if you want to.
[00:13:34] You don't need to use another LFO.
[00:13:36] We can also change here the groove with the global groove setting and this button here.
[00:13:41] And then we can also implement some kind of probability for each step.
[00:13:47] So it's already pretty feature-rich just by adding here four different modulators in Bitwig Studio.
[00:13:54] I mean, it's pretty dope to actually have this modular system in Bitwig Studio.
[00:13:59] And it can't stress it hard enough that we need to have this modularity in future devices in Bitwig Studio
[00:14:08] because it makes Bitwig Studio actually this powerful, this easy to use, and this customizable.
[00:14:15] You are not stuck with just, you know, a system.
[00:14:18] You can always add stuff and combine stuff and then make it more than it actually is.
[00:14:27] So another idea we can do here with this probability system, instead of just muting here this, let's say, cowbell,
[00:14:36] we can also say, let's instead of playing this cowbell, play this clap, right?
[00:14:43] So we can do this here and modulate, let's say, the pitch here.
[00:14:48] So we have D-sharp one and then we want to switch up to E1, right?
[00:14:52] So we modulate this here instead by one semitone.
[00:14:55] We also modulate this by 0.449, something like this.
[00:15:02] And we call this here probability for the heads.
[00:15:07] And then we pull this down and say this is probability cowbell.
[00:15:15] And here we modulate also this one by 0.5.
[00:15:21] Yes.
[00:15:25] This is not probability heads, it's probability cow.
[00:15:34] And this is probability cow to clap.
[00:15:37] So when we want to switch to a clap instead of cowbell, right?
[00:15:41] So here we do the same thing.
[00:15:44] We make dial in some probabilities.
[00:15:47] Something like this.
[00:15:50] I don't care.
[00:15:51] Okay.
[00:15:52] Then we paint in here more values for the cowbell.
[00:15:55] Right?
[00:16:02] So you can hear sometimes the clap is playing, even though we have no step here selected for the clap, right?
[00:16:09] So we switch then from the cowbell one semitone up to the clap.
[00:16:14] And then it plays here a clap with the same kind of position inside of the pattern.
[00:16:21] So it's also nice.
[00:16:25] So you don't need to paint in here for each of these steps.
[00:16:28] You can also switch up by a probability amount to the next lane and then play this other instrument the lane above.
[00:16:37] So let's say you have here, let's say a tambourine or something like this or a shaker.
[00:16:45] And you want to switch to a different shaker sound here and there.
[00:16:48] So you can do this with this kind of probability setting here.
[00:16:52] Again, same idea.
[00:16:54] We use a random modulator by using here the value of 0.49.
[00:16:59] So it never switches up one semitone.
[00:17:02] And then we use here a step modulator to switch it or to push it over the edge to 0.5.
[00:17:09] So it switches up sometimes here and there to the next lane.
[00:17:13] So very nice, actually.
[00:17:14] And again, you can save this as a preset if you do this all the time.
[00:17:18] And in my opinion, the drum machine here, if you have a lot of drum presets, they are mostly set up in the same way.
[00:17:27] So the kick is always in the same cell.
[00:17:29] The snare is in the same cell.
[00:17:30] Head is in the same cell.
[00:17:32] In my opinion, maybe Bitwig should use here some names so we know actually the default cells or what goes in there.
[00:17:42] So we can create these kind of constant kind of drum modules that have the same sound in the same cell.
[00:17:54] So with this here with the stepwise, it's also tailored to the drum machine and you have always the kick drum in the lowest lane.
[00:18:01] So it's always the same.
[00:18:02] So you can call up some stepwise presets and some drum machine presets and they always work together.
[00:18:11] So if you do this, then it's pretty easy to come up with some nice presets for these two modules here and they work very well together, in my opinion.
[00:18:22] So that's that another idea is actually to use the note grid after the stepwise.
[00:18:29] So instead of using here a modulator, we use a note grid, right?
[00:18:35] And you have sometimes here the problem that you have multiple steps playing at the same time and you maybe don't want that.
[00:18:45] Maybe you use it for more like a melody or you want to play here a synthesizer with this.
[00:18:49] Here we just use the drums, but I can explain also the same idea about this.
[00:18:55] So what we do inside of the note grid here is we use a pulley to mono, hook up here the pitch and also the gate, right?
[00:19:06] And then we switch this to min and also min.
[00:19:10] And then we use here on the note grid, very important voices, maybe eight voices because we have eight lanes here, right?
[00:19:19] So all these different lanes are different notes going into the note grid and the note grid is then playing in a polyphonic kind of way.
[00:19:30] So multiple voices at the same time.
[00:19:32] And what we do in here, we use the lowest note, lowest signal level used, or maybe that's what we don't need here.
[00:19:43] Or maybe sure we need it, not really sure at the moment.
[00:19:48] So yeah, we use the lowest note, which means the lowest note has priority.
[00:19:57] So when the kick drum plays, nothing else plays, right?
[00:20:03] And when the kick drum doesn't play, then the snare drum can play, but nothing above.
[00:20:10] So always the lowest note going into the note grid at the same time only plays.
[00:20:16] This sounds like this.
[00:20:17] Maybe switch off here the shaker or the groove for a moment and just disable this.
[00:20:40] We can hear the hi-hat switches off when the snare plays and the hi-hat switches off when the kick drum plays.
[00:20:46] So it's kind of choking, some kind of MIDI choking in a way.
[00:20:52] So yeah, so if you don't want to play multiple sounds, multiple pitches at the same time, this can be an easy patch actually to implement to just play the lowest note.
[00:21:04] So let's say we have here all kick drums, all snare drums, all hi-hats, only the kick drum should play, right?
[00:21:13] So it's the lowest note.
[00:21:15] When the lowest note is missing, then it plays the next lowest note, which is the snare.
[00:21:22] And when the snare is missing, then it plays here the hi-hat, right?
[00:21:28] So it always prefers the lowest note.
[00:21:30] So some kind of, yeah, if this, then only play that kind of way.
[00:21:36] But it's easily implemented here by just using poly-mono and using only the lowest signal.
[00:21:42] I think this doesn't make any sense here.
[00:21:45] I probably can delete this because we only want the pitch to have to, or we want to separate on the pitch because the lowest pitch is used, yeah.
[00:21:56] Yeah, that's how we want to use it.
[00:22:00] Okay, so this is an idea you can do.
[00:22:04] Probably helpful for some producers, for some musical styles, genres, I don't know.
[00:22:12] So another idea I had was that we can separate all these lanes here after the stepwise modulator.
[00:22:20] So let's delete this here.
[00:22:22] And by the way, I give you some presets down in the description so you can just download all the stuff here.
[00:22:27] So we have a stepwise, let me see here, stepwise split, right?
[00:22:34] So that's a preset here.
[00:22:35] It's actually just a NodeFX layer kind of thing.
[00:22:40] But we separate here all these lanes into different layers.
[00:22:43] Right, we have C1, C-sharp 1, D1.
[00:22:49] So this is here the kick drum.
[00:22:50] This is the snare and this is the hi-hat.
[00:22:52] Let's bring in here a bit of funky funkiness.
[00:23:06] Oh, there's a mute here.
[00:23:08] Maybe delete this for a moment.
[00:23:09] Yeah.
[00:23:15] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:23:17] This is funky enough.
[00:23:19] Almost too funky for YouTube.
[00:23:21] So yeah, we have to clap, right?
[00:23:25] So what we can do now is we can put some NodeFX on certain type of lanes, right?
[00:23:32] So you can just use NodeFX on the kick drum or on the snare drum, right?
[00:23:40] So this is the snare drum here.
[00:23:41] It's separated just with the note filter.
[00:23:43] Pretty easily done.
[00:23:44] So it's not very complicated.
[00:23:46] And it's playing on Node 1 or on MIDI channel 1 because the stepwise also features here on
[00:23:56] the left side, use MIDI channels.
[00:23:58] If you switch this on, first lane is channel 1, channel 2, channel 3 and so on.
[00:24:04] So you can also use MIDI channels later on if you want to.
[00:24:07] But for now, we don't need it here.
[00:24:09] I just separate these lanes by using a note filter because we have here very distinctive
[00:24:16] note or pitch settings, right?
[00:24:25] So we can use here maybe a repeater or something like this.
[00:24:29] Something like this, right?
[00:24:40] What we also can do is maybe let's exchange the drum machine now finally for synthesizer, right?
[00:24:53] Because we have here just typical pitches, right?
[00:24:59] So C1, it's just chromatically going up from C1.
[00:25:03] So this is the kick drum.
[00:25:06] It's obviously not very nice to hear.
[00:25:08] But we can just use NodeFX here, a transpose, no transpose.
[00:25:15] Just pitch it up two octaves.
[00:25:19] And now we are in an audible range, kind of.
[00:25:22] Let's use it this way.
[00:25:26] And we can also change the notes to, let's say, a scale.
[00:25:31] D-sharp minor, for instance, because it's a very good scale.
[00:25:34] But instead of this, we can make ourselves the life a bit easier and just use a diatonic transposer
[00:25:42] and see what comes out of it.
[00:25:44] D-sharp minor.
[00:25:46] D-sharp minor.
[00:25:46] Something like this, right?
[00:25:54] And then you say, oh, well, actually, C1 and C-sharp 1 and D1, it's actually just one semitone apart.
[00:26:01] And I want to spread it more out, right?
[00:26:04] I want to have here C1 and then here maybe E and then maybe here G and so on.
[00:26:09] So what we can do is we can use maybe here also again a NodeGrid.
[00:26:16] NodeGrid is pretty fun.
[00:26:18] And just use an amplitude on Amplify here for the pitch and just spread it out, which means
[00:26:25] everything that's above C3 is pitched higher up or transposed higher up.
[00:26:32] And everything below C3 is pitched lower, right?
[00:26:36] So we spread everything much, much broader apart.
[00:26:42] It doesn't work, it doesn't work, of course, because I need to hear multiple voices probably.
[00:26:47] It still doesn't work.
[00:26:52] Let me see.
[00:26:54] But this kind of works.
[00:26:56] Maybe you need something different.
[00:26:59] Let's use a multiply.
[00:27:01] Actually, constant.
[00:27:07] It should work.
[00:27:08] Yeah, we don't need to.
[00:27:19] It kind of worked like before, but I amplified it too much probably.
[00:27:33] Maybe I use it after the NodeTranspose because here we are over C3, so we pitch it higher up.
[00:27:38] Right?
[00:27:46] And then the key filter here takes care of the rest of the stuff.
[00:27:50] And then we can.
[00:28:02] Okay, so this kind of works.
[00:28:04] We can also say some stupid stuff here.
[00:28:08] You can see down here the lowest Node, right?
[00:28:11] This Node here.
[00:28:13] Maybe delete this here for a moment so I can make my point clear.
[00:28:18] Right?
[00:28:20] It just placed here and here and it triggers basically a Node, so how it is.
[00:28:27] And we have this on this lane.
[00:28:29] So we can use here on this lane a latch device and save it as toggle, which means we switch
[00:28:40] with this node on and then we hold the node.
[00:28:44] So the node is on until we reach this step.
[00:28:48] And here we switch the node off again.
[00:28:51] And to actually show you this, I need to use your sustain and maybe an open filter, maybe a saw, maybe make this a bit wider.
[00:29:01] Switch on, off.
[00:29:07] Do you see what I mean?
[00:29:08] So this is then a latch.
[00:29:10] So the latch holds basically a note.
[00:29:12] And when you switch this here to toggle, then one or the first step switches it on, the next switches it off.
[00:29:20] So you can make your multiple lengthy notes.
[00:29:24] You can also use your, like I said, use MIDI channels, but I also use here on this preset this channel map.
[00:29:45] So you can see we get here the lowest note on channel one as every lane.
[00:29:51] But we can also say we want to put this here on a different MIDI channel, right?
[00:29:59] Five, for instance.
[00:30:00] So now the lowest note here is playing on channel five.
[00:30:05] So, um, we can say we use a channel modulator here and use channel five, which is not active for some reason.
[00:30:19] Uh, but let's, let's, let's keep it this way.
[00:30:29] Oh yeah, I think we kill here the, right?
[00:30:37] So channel five here, uh, channel five does basically the sustain or brings up the sustain.
[00:30:42] And yeah, we make the note longer and all the rest of the notes are just kind of, uh, plaques kind of a way.
[00:30:51] And here we more or less kill, uh, the notes we probably need to use here this.
[00:30:57] Yeah.
[00:31:00] So without this, we kill the channel information.
[00:31:07] and we also want to maybe use here an open filter.
[00:31:11] Okay.
[00:31:22] I hope this kind of makes sense.
[00:31:24] So you can, um, shape or transpose or make notes longer.
[00:31:30] You can bring in, um, a probability and velocity changes because we can also use here humanize, right?
[00:31:38] On Bitwig.
[00:31:40] So with Bitwig, we can change the timing only on this note, the velocity and the chance only of this note, right?
[00:31:47] So you don't need to use here the probability system.
[00:31:50] If you don't want to, you can also just use this here, uh, with this stepwise split, split every lane based on the pitch.
[00:31:58] Put this on each of these lanes, and then you can apply here note FX differently, uh, in all kinds of ways, right?
[00:32:07] So I also put this, uh, preset here down in the description so you can download it to split actually here based on the pitch.
[00:32:16] Okay.
[00:32:17] Um, then here again, no transpose, put it up two octaves to get it in more in like in an audible range.
[00:32:24] Um, then use the note grid to split the notes further apart so you don't need to, um, change here the note, uh, pitch in itself.
[00:32:33] If you don't want to, you also don't need to use this.
[00:32:36] It's just an idea, right?
[00:32:37] You can also just go in here and change the pitch to something different.
[00:32:41] Um, then again, if you want to use this for melody generation, um, does, does it work here?
[00:32:49] Wait a minute.
[00:32:50] Wait a minute.
[00:32:50] Um.
[00:32:52] Yeah, you can use here a random modulator and just say, uh, maybe, uh, actually not here, maybe in here.
[00:33:12] Um, use a transpose in here, um, no transpose and then switches only this, this lowest note.
[00:33:22] Sometimes.
[00:33:23] And, um, then switch it up, let's say, um, one octave or so.
[00:33:34] Um.
[00:33:35] Um.
[00:33:36] Um.
[00:33:37] Thank you.
[00:34:07] So it's just an idea.
[00:34:17] So you can transform this in all kinds of different ways with a stepwise split here and some transpose action.
[00:34:25] We can also, let me see, let's remove this here, we can also dial in here the use MIDI channels on the left side.
[00:34:41] So this is now channel one, channel two, channel three, and so on.
[00:34:45] And then dial in here the notes we like to use, or actually what's the 60th, D#3.
[00:34:54] You can also dial in here, I think the note name, this should block two here, then F4 maybe here, F#5.
[00:35:08] That's very nice to use actually in bitwig that you can type in the name.
[00:35:15] Then we can do instead of this, this, this.
[00:35:29] We do something like this here.
[00:35:36] And then every step is a bit shorter.
[00:35:44] That's what people like to see in videos because it looks nice.
[00:35:49] We need to hit the same speed setting.
[00:35:52] Sixteen.
[00:35:53] Sixteen.
[00:35:53] Sixteen.
[00:35:54] Sixteen.
[00:35:55] Thank you.
[00:36:25] In the beginning you have all these notes playing at the same time and here we can use the
[00:36:38] same trick as before.
[00:36:41] So we never play actually a chord, right, if this makes sense, because you don't want
[00:37:03] to play all the notes at the same time, because maybe it sounds shit to you.
[00:37:11] So now when you have here a situation where all the notes play at the same time, only
[00:37:19] the lowest note plays.
[00:37:38] Once we have here the MIDI channels active, so we can again use here a channel modulator.
[00:37:49] And here we kill again the channels, so let's connect this.
[00:37:56] I think this is here the first one.
[00:38:07] Oh no, it's not the first one for some reason.
[00:38:15] This one here.
[00:38:16] Yeah.
[00:38:16] Yeah.
[00:38:17] Yeah.
[00:38:17] Yeah.
[00:38:18] Um, then maybe here.
[00:38:48] Here, again, randomizer, we switch randomly to octave, maybe note, and hold.
[00:39:11] So, with this here you get polymeters if you have the same speed setting, also if you have
[00:39:36] different speed settings, but I like to use it this way and it looks nice.
[00:39:41] Every lane is a bit different in length and yeah, you get these nice patterns, it also
[00:39:46] sounds nice.
[00:39:48] It's a bit like, what's the name, Harmony Bloom, but in a kind of different visual way, right?
[00:39:56] And on the Bitwig Discord, I saw someone post a video of, I think it was the user Exhibit.
[00:40:03] Maybe I'm wrong, but Exhibit did some kind of video about using the Stepwise for selecting
[00:40:11] notes from chords from the piano roll.
[00:40:14] Right?
[00:40:15] And it did some kind of preset and I think it's a nice idea.
[00:40:18] I also put the link to the video in the description below if I can find it.
[00:40:22] Um, but I did something similar, but in a different way.
[00:40:26] So, you can download his preset, it's a bit different than my preset.
[00:40:31] Um, so let's disable this here for a moment and let's search for Stepwise chords.
[00:40:40] Okay.
[00:40:41] So, this preset tries to get the pitch information from the note clip.
[00:40:49] So, if you have some chords in a note clip, right, it takes the pitches, but the gate information
[00:40:55] is coming actually from the step modulator that combines a clip and, uh, the Stepwise pattern.
[00:41:04] So, you don't need to change the pitch in here, you change the pitch in the note clip, but the
[00:41:09] gate information comes from the step modulator.
[00:41:11] So, I show you this here, uh, maybe I find I have somewhere, some kind of note clip.
[00:41:19] Um, uh, let me see a chord, uh, chord progression.
[00:41:25] Yeah.
[00:41:26] Let's use this one here.
[00:41:28] I don't, I don't know how it sounds or it's actually only three notes.
[00:41:31] Um, yeah, let's use this for a moment here.
[00:41:36] Um, so we have this chord progression here and then I, all you have to do is select this note
[00:41:44] clip here and then go to the left side and choose channel 16.
[00:41:48] Uh, because I use channel 16 to extract basically the pitches and then the rest of the stuff
[00:41:54] here is.
[00:41:55] is, um, yeah, using the gates.
[00:41:56] Let me see if this rocks doesn't rock.
[00:42:00] I probably have to disable here.
[00:42:02] Um, this one.
[00:42:05] there's some pitch information coming.
[00:42:06] There's some pitch information coming.
[00:42:08] So we have to select something.
[00:42:10] I'm not really sure.
[00:42:12] Yeah.
[00:42:13] It's not working.
[00:42:15] Of course.
[00:42:16] Um, I did this yesterday.
[00:42:17] there.
[00:42:18] Oh yeah.
[00:42:18] I see the problem.
[00:42:19] I use here, um, the keys or let's, let's say the pitches here of the stepwise.
[00:42:28] So you have to, you have to add default, uh, values.
[00:42:35] I'll bring this, uh, back here.
[00:42:48] So I'm also using the velocity setting of the notes of the note clip into the pitch.
[00:42:56] But the gate information here comes, um, actually from the channel one, which is the stepwise
[00:43:06] and, um, all the other information is like the pitch and the velocity is coming from channel 16.
[00:43:11] So I'm combining, like I said, combining the pitches of the note clip and the gate from the stepwise, uh, sequencer.
[00:43:18] Okay.
[00:43:19] Um, so this kind of roughly works.
[00:43:22] You can paint in here, the notes, and then you can use here, um, uh, the step sequencer to make some poorly written or interesting patterns with it.
[00:43:32] Uh, maybe also combine this here with my note grid, um, yeah, kinda works.
[00:44:01] So with this, you can more like create interesting melodies and then use the step modulator just to make the pattern rhythmically interesting.
[00:44:17] Um, so you don't need to change here, these pitch informations in front of the lanes.
[00:44:23] So I think that's it for this video.
[00:44:25] I'm already 40 minutes in for some reason.
[00:44:28] Um, but these are my ideas so far, uh, with the step modulator.
[00:44:34] Um, there are probably a thousand things more you can do with this, right?
[00:44:38] Um, I probably also do some more videos on this.
[00:44:42] Um, but it's not like, um, let's say it's not that big step sequencer that gives you all the features.
[00:44:50] It's again, a typical Bitwig device, very simple, very basic, but you have to combine it with the modulation system, with the note FX, with the note grid or with the pulley grid or, uh, use modulations on the synthesizer and combine it with different channel informations.
[00:45:08] So you have so many options to combine this in interesting ways.
[00:45:12] It's not just one device that gives you everything.
[00:45:15] You know, in an interface, you have to think for yourself, what you want to do, how you want to do it and how to implement it.
[00:45:21] And it's also for, for me and my channel, I can give you inspirations.
[00:45:25] It's a lot of nice content I can show you because I like to experiment with this.
[00:45:30] And, um, I wished some of the things in the step modulator would be maybe a bit different.
[00:45:38] Um, I also didn't show you this here.
[00:45:41] Um, you can see here, you have this small little, uh, handle.
[00:45:45] He can open up this here and can modify, um, some of the step patterns, flip it around, invert it, randomize it.
[00:45:54] But you probably already found this out.
[00:45:56] This is not easy to, uh, not easy to miss in my opinion.
[00:46:00] Um, so it's not like, I want to give you a clear explanation how this device works.
[00:46:06] I want to give you more like inspirations, how we use these, um, devices.
[00:46:11] Um, so yeah, clearly you can come up with 5,000 feature requests and some people already did some big feature requests, implement this, implement that.
[00:46:23] Right.
[00:46:24] But it's always fun to have these kinds of limited devices sometimes, and then make it more rich with modulations and, um, play around experiment in my opinion.
[00:46:33] And this is the direction Bitwig should go in the future with all these kinds of devices.
[00:46:38] Um, so yeah, I kind of feel like Bitwig kind of missed the point with some of the earlier updates in terms of modularity.
[00:46:50] So I want to see something like this coming back.
[00:46:52] So for instance, in the beginning of Bitwig Studio, we had this reverb, right?
[00:46:56] The default reverb of Bitwig Studio.
[00:46:59] And a lot of people complained that it's not an, it's not a nice reverb and it misses some features.
[00:47:05] It doesn't sound nice and so on.
[00:47:07] And then back in the day, I saw it always.
[00:47:09] You have to use a tank FX box, right?
[00:47:12] You have to put something in there and the feedback loop.
[00:47:15] Builders, chorus, additional reverbs and so on to build your own reverb.
[00:47:21] But people back then weren't very used to this kind of workflow.
[00:47:26] They are used to loading in a VST plugin and then you have a set feature, right?
[00:47:31] LFOs are in there.
[00:47:33] Everything is wired up.
[00:47:34] Everything is for you already there.
[00:47:36] You have a lot of nice presets you can call up and you don't have to think about anything, right?
[00:47:41] And if you don't like the reverb, how it works, you just load a different reverb plugin.
[00:47:47] But in Bitwig, you have like these small little building blocks.
[00:47:50] You combine it and then you get very nice, interesting devices that are unique to you and how you work and how your sound is.
[00:47:59] But you have to come a bit out of your shell and experiment a bit because that it's actually the fun side of making music,
[00:48:06] and experimenting and doing new things and exploring and having these kind of gotcha effects, right?
[00:48:15] So this is how it works.
[00:48:16] Nice.
[00:48:17] It sounds really dope.
[00:48:19] Showing it to your friends, right?
[00:48:20] Or showing it to people on the Discord.
[00:48:23] So there's a lot of things you can do with stepwise modulator, stepwise sequencer, in my opinion.
[00:48:30] It's a very nice fit for the drum modules, for the drum machine.
[00:48:36] And it works very well with all the rest of the stuff, perfectly.
[00:48:40] Anyway, that's it for this video.
[00:48:42] Thanks for watching.
[00:48:43] Leave a like, leave a subscription.
[00:48:45] Go to my Patreon, subscribe there if you want to.
[00:48:47] If not, then I hate you.
[00:48:49] No, I'm just kidding.
[00:48:50] It's just fine.
[00:48:52] Yeah, have fun with this.
[00:48:53] Let me know what you think in the comments down below.
[00:48:55] See you next time.
[00:48:56] Bye.
[00:48:57] Thank you.