Bitwig 5.3 Beta4: Fixes, Bugs, and Key Switching

Tutorial | Jan 10, 2025

I made a video about the new Bitwig Studio 5.3 Beta 4 release, highlighting the significant fix in how Note FX Selector, InstrumentSelector, and FXSelector devices now switch to the correct layer before sending a note. I demonstrated the previous issue with note layers not switching correctly and encountered a new bug where the audio engine crashes, which I hope will be addressed soon. Despite the issues, I showcased how to switch between chord layers using key switches, though there's still a problem with note triggering that needs fixing.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

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Summary #

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

Hey folks, I have a small update video for you. Bitwig Studio 5.3 Beta 4 was just released yesterday evening, and I wanted to give you some insights into what's new. There are some small improvements, but there's a significant change that caught my attention: the Note FX Selector, InstrumentSelector, and FXSelector devices. Previously, when using note-triggered modes to switch layers, the system sent the note to the old layer or didn't play it at all. This has been addressed in the update, which is great, but there's still a small bug I encountered that might interest the developers.

I've been working with Polymer for note playing, entering some notes to play, and trying to change chords. I used a note repeater in Euclid mode to create a rhythm. With a Moody note, I played a minor chord, which initially worked fine. Then I added a Note Transpose and converted it into a Note FX Selector. This conversion is where the issue arises.

I tried setting up different semitones, like seven and fourteen, for a scale based on the circle of fifths. However, I experienced crashes ("terminal audio engine" errors) during the process, which hadn't happened before until I started recording this video. It's frustrating because it traps me in a loop.

To switch layers using key switches, I selected keys an octave lower and linked them to specific chords. It allows me to move through layers by pressing the corresponding keys. Previously, there was a delay in this switching, requiring manual adjustment, but thankfully, this update has resolved the timing issue.

However, while attempting to switch between minor and major chords using key switches, I ran into a new problem. The NoteFXSelector device blocks the MIDI learn process when switched on, preventing me from selecting the notes. The device's behavior is inconsistent—sometimes it triggers notes instead of switching layers.

I tested assigning different MIDI channels to each chord, hoping to resolve the issue, but it still didn't function as expected. Ideally, the correct MIDI channels should allow for smooth layer switching without triggering unwanted notes. This setup should let me stack multiple devices with key switches, each operating within defined ranges or channels.

Overall, this was a bug-focused update video, showing both improvements and ongoing issues. Hopefully, Bitwig will address these bugs in future updates, and we'll have a smoother experience with the selector devices. That's all for now—thanks for watching!

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, a small update video.
[00:00:02] Bitwig Studio 5.3 Beta 4 just released yesterday evening.
[00:00:07] And besides some small improvements,
[00:00:10] there's a big one here for me, actually this one here.
[00:00:13] Note FX Selector, InstrumentSelector and FXSelector devices,
[00:00:16] all note triggered modes now switch
[00:00:18] to the new target layer before sending their note.
[00:00:21] And this was a problem before when you tried to switch
[00:00:24] to a different layer with the keys
[00:00:26] and to also play at the same time a note.
[00:00:29] You know, the note plays on the old layer
[00:00:32] or didn't play at all.
[00:00:34] And they try to fix this here.
[00:00:36] And I show you also the problem with this.
[00:00:39] Because there's also a small little bug
[00:00:42] or I found additional bug maybe.
[00:00:45] So maybe also interesting for some developers
[00:00:48] if they watch this.
[00:00:49] So we have here a Polymer playing some notes.
[00:00:55] So I just type in here some notes I want to play.
[00:00:58] And I want to change the chords then.
[00:01:00] So maybe go a bit lower, something like this.
[00:01:03] Let's use a repeater, note repeater here.
[00:01:06] We use Euclid mode.
[00:01:07] So we have a small rhythm here.
[00:01:11] Okay, so now we use here a Moody note
[00:01:22] and we play let's say, yeah, just a minor chord.
[00:01:28] (upbeat music)
[00:01:30] Kind of works.
[00:01:35] And then we use a note transpose in front of that
[00:01:38] and put this into a note of X layer, right click.
[00:01:41] And then say we say here convert to note of X selector.
[00:01:44] And this is the problematic device here.
[00:01:47] And this is the root chord.
[00:01:49] And then we go here maybe seven semitones higher.
[00:01:52] So we go to the next chord or the next scale
[00:01:56] on the circle of fifth.
[00:01:59] Then we go here to 14, which is seven semitones higher,
[00:02:04] maybe an octave lower.
[00:02:07] And then here 21, which is also seven semitones higher.
[00:02:11] Something like this.
[00:02:13] So now we can switch here.
[00:02:14] Oh, it's already crashing, okay.
[00:02:19] You can see, terminal audio engine.
[00:02:22] So there's a problem here.
[00:02:24] I'm not sure if it's my problem.
[00:02:26] (upbeat music)
[00:02:29] It's already crashing.
[00:02:33] Yeah, I don't know what the problem with this is.
[00:02:40] I haven't had this yet before.
[00:02:42] I played around for some time,
[00:02:46] never occurred to me just when I press record,
[00:02:49] something like this occurs.
[00:02:51] Anyway, so I can't even get out of the loop here.
[00:02:54] So we have one layer here, zero, seven and 14.
[00:03:02] So we want to switch between the layers
[00:03:04] with the key switch mode here.
[00:03:08] And then we can use additional keys
[00:03:10] to switch between the layers.
[00:03:11] And we can say base keys here, C minus two,
[00:03:15] but we don't want to use that.
[00:03:16] We want to use here the notes one octave lower.
[00:03:21] So this one, so I click MIDI learn, and I click D.
[00:03:24] And then I have your D2 to F2, right?
[00:03:29] So I can switch between the layers
[00:03:32] by just using this one, this one, this one, this one.
[00:03:35] You can see we switch through the layers, right?
[00:03:38] So we can go here always.
[00:03:43] Yeah, one step in the circle of fifth higher.
[00:03:46] This kind of works now.
[00:03:57] So we can align these notes.
[00:03:59] And sometimes before you had like this note
[00:04:02] and this note playing together,
[00:04:04] you sometimes end up on the old layer, right?
[00:04:07] So this was a bit delayed,
[00:04:09] or the switch to the new layer
[00:04:12] was a bit delayed.
[00:04:13] So you had to delay these notes lightly,
[00:04:16] so they are triggered on the new layer.
[00:04:19] So this is now obsolete kind of works, or it's fixed,
[00:04:22] but we have additional problems like I showed you.
[00:04:24] I have some audio hanging there sometimes.
[00:04:27] It's a beta version, right?
[00:04:29] That's why it's there.
[00:04:30] So we call this here fifth, maybe.
[00:04:37] So we switch now here this with this octave here,
[00:04:41] or D sharp to F sharp,
[00:04:44] but we can also maybe put this here into an FX layer
[00:04:48] and convert to note FX,
[00:04:50] and convert to, yeah, selector, note FX selector.
[00:04:55] And we call this maybe minor.
[00:04:59] Duplicate this, and we make here
[00:05:03] a major chord out of this, something like this.
[00:05:06] Now we want to switch between minor and minor
[00:05:08] also with some key switches, right?
[00:05:11] This should work, in my opinion.
[00:05:13] So here we select now one octave lower, this one here.
[00:05:17] And you can see we don't get the notes here, right?
[00:05:23] We can't, we have to switch this off,
[00:05:27] and then we can learn.
[00:05:30] So this device is kind of blocking these learn modes,
[00:05:35] or learn notes, or whatever you want to call them.
[00:05:40] So there's a problem already there.
[00:05:42] So we can now go here,
[00:05:45] and now we trigger the notes instead of switching.
[00:05:49] Right, if you switch this on.
[00:05:52] Now we trigger the notes.
[00:05:56] It kind of works when you say instead of channel all,
[00:05:59] we go to channel three for this one here,
[00:06:03] and select here channel three.
[00:06:04] And this one is channel two.
[00:06:10] So we select channel two here.
[00:06:12] It also doesn't work, but when I hit play,
[00:06:19] sometimes it works.
[00:06:23] But it doesn't here.
[00:06:31] It should work, in my opinion, if you ask me.
[00:06:34] So they should do so these notes pass,
[00:06:40] and you select with the defined channel, the right device,
[00:06:45] because here we want to receive channel three,
[00:06:48] here we want to receive channel two,
[00:06:51] but you can see these notes are not triggering here.
[00:06:53] The key switch, they trigger the notes itself,
[00:06:57] which shouldn't happen.
[00:06:58] In my opinion, it should work this way.
[00:07:03] So you can stack up multiple devices here
[00:07:05] with multiple channels, or even the doubt using the channels,
[00:07:09] using different key ranges,
[00:07:12] and then you trigger different devices
[00:07:13] here with different key things.
[00:07:15] This is how it should happen, or how it should work.
[00:07:18] Okay, that's it, a short update video.
[00:07:24] It's more like a bug video, probably,
[00:07:29] but also an informative video,
[00:07:31] so you can see the big change here,
[00:07:33] what the problem was with this, maybe,
[00:07:35] and how we can use also, or you should use,
[00:07:39] or you can could use this in the future,
[00:07:42] like I showed you here, if they fix this.
[00:07:45] Okay, that's it, bye.
[00:07:46] [BLANK_AUDIO]