Bitwig5.3 Beta 2 New Features

Tutorial | Dec 05, 2024

In my recent video, I highlighted the new features and improvements in Bitwig Studio's 5.3 Beta 2, including a dedicated Frequency Shifter Plus device and updates to the stepwise feature. I also discussed enhancements to the bounce workflow, offering more customizable audio bounce options. Overall, the update brings some great additional features, improvements, and fixes that enhance the user experience.

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Summary #

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

In this video, I discuss the newly released Bitwig Studio 5.3 Beta 2 and highlight some of the new features and improvements it brings. One of the biggest changes is the introduction of a dedicated Frequency Shifter Plus device for the chain, which was previously available only as a module in the grid. This new AudioFX device provides similar sound quality with the same oversampling, but it lacks some features found in the grid module, such as key track modes, stereo signal ports, and polyphonic capabilities. The device does not have options for polyphony or voice stacking in the inspector, unlike the Filter Plus device.

I also cover updates to the stepwise feature, where new trigger modes allow users to send out pulses or play continuous notes using gate mode, enhancing note control. Another addition is the accent boost, which influences velocity through accent steps, creating more dynamic musical expressions.

Global actions have been enhanced, allowing users to remove or randomize all steps at once. While the randomize option fills steps more than necessary, my suggestion is to have a slider to control the amount of selection, catering to creating meaningful patterns for drums or melodies.

I touch on GUI changes in the Frequency Shifter Plus module, explaining new hertz, kilohertz, and note values for shifting, and the introduction of time-based frequency shift effects. Another feature added is the hold option, which allows for direct control over shifting oscillator via the phase input.

Regarding the bounce workflow, a new bounce in place option is introduced, enabling audio files to be created directly on the same track instead of a new one. Bounce in place options include pre-fx, pre-fader, and post-fader variations, each affecting the inclusion of effects and fader settings in the bounced audio.

I mention minor improvements and bug fixes, like smoother automation for the arpeggiator device and correct latency compensation for instruments on return channels. Some rare crashes were also addressed, enhancing the overall stability of the software.

Overall, I find Beta 2 to bring great additions, improvements, and fixes, such as the polished audio system and enhanced Frequency Shifter Plus functionalities. I encourage viewers to download it, explore the features, and share their thoughts in the comments.

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] Yo folks, what's up? Bitwig Studio just released 5.3 Beta 2 and we have new features, also some
[00:00:06] new improvements. I want to show you this quickly here what's different. And the biggest change
[00:00:11] or the first change is that we have now a dedicated Frequency Shifter Plus device for
[00:00:15] the chain. So it's not only a module in the grid anymore, we have now a dedicated AudioFX
[00:00:21] device. It's all the same sound, it uses the same oversampling here as it says, but there
[00:00:29] is, there are some differences. So here it says the module is unique for, and they mean
[00:00:34] here the grid module, I guess. So the grid module is unique for key track modes, stereo signal
[00:00:40] ports for face in and right in, and the option to work polyphonically, which means this is
[00:00:45] only available in the grid. It's not available for the device. And when you look at the device
[00:00:52] here, this is how it looks like. There's also dedicated help here. You can see all the same
[00:00:57] parameters, but here it's missing more or less the key tracking mode or the snob from the grid
[00:01:03] module here. But all the stuff is kind of the same. And also when you select the device, you
[00:01:10] can see here on the left side in the inspector, there is no, no settings for polyphony or for
[00:01:16] voice stacking, which is a bit weird or yeah. Strange because the filter plus device here is also some
[00:01:27] kind of extended grid module for the chain here, right? It's, yeah, it's kind of the same as in the
[00:01:34] grid. But here you can choose on the left side, the voices, you can change voice stacking. You have all
[00:01:40] the options here. You already know from the grid containers. It's all the same thing. But when you
[00:01:47] selected the frequency shifter plus, you can see nothing. Maybe they change this in the future in the
[00:01:53] coming releases and the coming beta versions. Maybe it, you know, stays this way. I have no idea.
[00:02:01] So yeah, that's, that's how it is. Then they also added here the stepwise, some features to that. You can
[00:02:10] see on the left side, we have now, yeah, trigger mode, we can send out pulses. This was here in
[00:02:16] before this was the default. So we can send out or like, let's actually use here different nodes. We can
[00:02:23] send on different pulses, right? And then we can switch this to gate mode. And then this becomes just one
[00:02:30] continuously playing note. We have to use to sustain for a moment.
[00:02:35] Pulse. Gate. So this allows you basically to play notes or longer notes with this here or shorter notes.
[00:02:50] You can select your multiple steps and then just combine them.
[00:02:58] Right. So pretty dope. Then we have also your accent boost. So we can change how much we want to
[00:03:05] influence the velocity here by using these accent steps. So let's actually use this here for
[00:03:12] opening the filter. And then we have to use pulse.
[00:03:22] right. So these accent steps here open up the filter pretty much, very, very much because of the
[00:03:31] accent boost here. So we can change then how much velocity we want to apply.
[00:03:39] So that's basically it. But pretty dope to have this in here. Then we have some global actions.
[00:03:45] We can remove all the steps at once. We can also randomize all the steps at once. I think this was my
[00:03:52] first criticism. When I made the stream, I said this needs some kind of randomize all button. Now we have it.
[00:04:00] But now the problem is, in my opinion, randomize all fills all these steps way too much. So way too many steps are here selected.
[00:04:11] It's almost like the opposite of having everything empty. You have everything empty. Then you select
[00:04:18] tediously all the steps, right, to create some kind of pattern, which is okay.
[00:04:26] But then when you use randomize all, you have too much selected. And then you need to tediously
[00:04:32] deselect all the stuff, which is also okay. So it's already pretty dope to have these buttons, in my
[00:04:40] opinion. And flip, you can just invert the selection or invert all the steps. Also nice. So nice to have these
[00:04:49] things. But it could be even better if you had some kind of slider and you can change how much you want to
[00:04:56] fill these steps, right? Just a few steps, maybe more steps or make it just completely full like this
[00:05:04] randomize all button here. So it could be nice to tweak this algorithm maybe a bit better. So it makes
[00:05:12] more sense, more musical sense. I mean, this is also not something you want to send into a drum
[00:05:17] a drum rack, right? That's not a beat. So it could be also nice to use some kind of probabilities
[00:05:25] for this to have more like patterns that make sense for drums or make sense for melodies.
[00:05:34] It could be also nice to tweak this. You know, you know how it is. I make a lot of generator stuff. So
[00:05:42] you want to tweak the probabilities of how much here some of these steps are selected when you hit
[00:05:48] randomize. Could be nice. But I don't want to, you know, don't want to cry about it. It's already pretty
[00:05:55] dope to have this here in there, right? Let's go back here to the thing. So I showed you here the stepwise
[00:06:03] with the new gate and pulse modes. Then we have your stepwise buttons, clear all lanes and bolt all lanes,
[00:06:10] randomize all lanes. Pretty dope. And it randomizes every step per lane roughly one half res, three eight
[00:06:19] normal nodes and one eight extended. So they have already some kind of algorithm in place, I guess,
[00:06:28] or some probabilities in place. Maybe let us tweak this kind of thing, right? It would be nice.
[00:06:34] Master recording improvements. No longer audio previews, just recorded file. I never had this
[00:06:41] problem actually. I don't know what it is. Master meter. No longer sometimes paint atop notifications.
[00:06:47] No longer show notifications when a previewed file is deleted. Okay. So improve text display and so on. So
[00:06:54] small little improvements here. Then the frequency shifter plus module, grid module, various GUI help
[00:07:01] improvements to clarify the various frequency shift unit options and potential uses. So we have
[00:07:08] hertz, kilohertz of our regular frequency units for shifting. And then note values like bar, eight note,
[00:07:15] triplet, quarter note, offer time synced values for rhythmic effects. So this is pretty dope. I show you this
[00:07:21] here in the grid. So let's use a Poly-Grid here. Let's use a sign. Let's use an ad to trigger this, put this into
[00:07:33] a frequency shifter plus device. And then we need here an output, something like this. And maybe use this
[00:07:43] stepwise here. And randomly randomly, randomly fill this here with patterns.
[00:07:54] So now we can switch here from hertz. So here it is maximum 0.1 hertz, right? And this is -0.1 hertz, I guess.
[00:08:04] So we can switch here to 8th note. And then we have here, I guess, one 8th note or two 8th notes. And then
[00:08:16] we can shift this down exactly in the time of two 8th notes, I guess.
[00:08:25] Right. Or two 8th notes. Wow, that's too loud. Let's use a peak limiter here.
[00:08:31] Or 16th note. Or two 16th notes. One 16th note.
[00:08:50] So yeah, you get pitch shifted rhythmically or rhythmic pitch shift or frequency shift effects.
[00:08:56] So yeah, pretty dope. We have this now here. Time-based frequency shifter. Never heard of this before.
[00:09:05] Then we have hold now. So if you switch this to hold, the internal sign oscillator is switched off.
[00:09:12] And you have to use here this phase input. I guess you have then to use your sign oscillator or something
[00:09:20] like this. And you put this in. And then it's your 100%. I think this is right. Hold disables
[00:09:28] the center shift controls, giving you direct control over the shifting oscillator via
[00:09:33] the phase input and phase control, the inspector panel. So this stuff here, right. So now you can
[00:09:41] yeah, phase shift with some external audio rate signals here via this phase input. And you can see
[00:09:55] this here. This is the GUI change. It disables basically the knob. So you're not confused that you
[00:10:01] actually have to change something here. Then the key track also changes slightly here. It looks a bit
[00:10:07] different, right? It changes graphically. But it works kind of like before. But then you have
[00:10:16] here, this button is gone, I guess. Yeah. The key track switches this off. You can still use here the key track input.
[00:10:27] And then you change here. And then you change here in percentage how much you want to apply it.
[00:10:32] Um, let's see. Key track uses incoming node pitches via pre-cord or all nodes reaching the grid device. Okay.
[00:10:39] So this is basically this here, this pre-cord.
[00:10:41] The relatively adjust shifting and the big frequency shift amount knob becomes the big frequency shift amount knob.
[00:10:47] Now becomes the only attenuator for the rate in port. So the big frequency shift amount knob becomes the only attenuator for the rate in port. So, um, I guess this input here then. Phase in, rate in. Yeah. So here you go in then with the pitch, uh, thing.
[00:11:09] Something like this or something like this, right? Which would be the same as using the pre-code, I guess.
[00:11:16] Uh, but you can't define, um, how these nodes reach here, the frequency shifter. And then this is here an attenuator.
[00:11:25] Uh, we can see shift amount 100% or minus 100%. So pretty easy to get, I guess. Uh, then there are something new here, um, or the bounce workflow.
[00:11:38] I don't know why they changed this here, but it's nice to have. I really like this here. So we have now, um, the bounce dialogue has now an optional toggle, uh, to execute the bounce in place.
[00:11:52] So, um, maybe select your something and right click and can say bounce, right? This is what I use all the time.
[00:11:59] It creates more or less a new track, uh, with the audio stuff on here as an WAV file in a new track.
[00:12:08] I use this all the time post fader 32 bit, but now we have your in place, right? So instead of having then like before a new audio track here with this WAV file, we can also say bounce and choose in place.
[00:12:25] And instead of creating a new audio track with the WAV file on it, we create it in place or in, yeah, on the same, on the same track.
[00:12:33] Um, so yeah, nice to have.
[00:12:36] Then we have also here, um, bounce in place pre-fx. This is just renamed. So it's yeah, like before bounce in place.
[00:12:46] Um, this is also pre-fx. So, which means everything after the instrument, which in this case here is this Poly-Grid.
[00:12:54] So all the effects are not in this, um, yeah, bounce in there. So maybe let's use your reverb.
[00:13:02] So when we select this here and say bounce in place pre-fx.
[00:13:09] In here, there's no reverb in this WAV file, even though we have to reverb on there.
[00:13:21] And this is useful when you just want to bounce the instrument and you want to keep the audio effects
[00:13:28] live on this audio track then. So yeah, sometimes you need this. I don't need it most of the times,
[00:13:37] but sometimes it's, it's handy to have. And then they add also added here some, um,
[00:13:43] some shortcuts you can define or bounce in place post fader and also pre-fader, I guess. Bounce in place pre-fader
[00:13:56] and bounce in place post fader. Um, so let me see here in the shortcuts. I haven't looked for this.
[00:14:09] Bounce in place pre-fader pre-fader pre-fx. This is the normal bounce in place.
[00:14:14] And this one is new pre-fader. I guess this is, um, with the fx in there. So with reverb,
[00:14:23] uh, what was the shortcut here? Control Alt and B. Okay. Let me see. Control Alt and B.
[00:14:30] So now the reverb is in there. Nice. So this is pre-fader, which means it doesn't matter what kind of
[00:14:37] um, volume you dial in with the fader here.
[00:14:43] Control Alt and B. So it's the same loudness and the fx is, is in there. And then the other one is,
[00:14:52] post fader. Control Shift Alt and B. Okay. Control Shift Alt and B.
[00:15:00] So this one now has also the reverb in there, but it's, you can see here, the volume is way down because
[00:15:09] it's post fader. So after the fader change, right? So this is more or less to change. Um, we have, um,
[00:15:17] here, which is pre-fx. Then the fx comes in and then here we have pre-fader and then we have the fader
[00:15:25] and then we have post fader. So we have three different, uh, positions. You can bounce now the audio
[00:15:33] with the in place or the, with the in place bounce feature, which is pretty dope to have. I don't know
[00:15:40] why this is only available here. Um, why we have only pre-fx here in the dropdown and the rest is more or
[00:15:49] less as an, uh, shortcut. Maybe they add this in the menu here would be nice to have also in there and then
[00:16:00] see the shortcut for that because I always can't remember some of these shortcuts because I don't
[00:16:07] use them all the time. But I would say beta two already delivers some great, uh, additional features
[00:16:15] and improvements and also some fixes here for the audio system, some problems with the kick drums. Um,
[00:16:25] frequency shifter plus here now uses a longer buffer fade time when delay length changes to reduce
[00:16:32] abrupt energy buildups with high feedback levels and so on. Uh, I kinda liked it in the, in the beta stream.
[00:16:39] You have these screaming, uh, feedbacks, but I guess it's better to have this, um, yeah, in a controlled kind of way.
[00:16:48] Um, the appreciator device automation of time rate parameter for millisecond seconds now results in a
[00:16:56] smooth gradual curve. Nice. Drum machine device latency compensation is now working correctly for
[00:17:03] instruments on return channels when receiving audio. So very nice fixes here. Also some crashes,
[00:17:10] fix the rare crash when activating or deactivating able to link. We, who uses able to link, right? I mean,
[00:17:16] okay, so this is more or less beta two. It's available for download. I think pretty great changes so
[00:17:24] far. Um, let me know what you think of the comments down below and thanks for watching. Leave a like,
[00:17:29] leave a subscription. See you next time and have fun exploring, right? Bye.