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Bitwig releases 5.3 beta 5 - release soon?

Tutorial | Jan 16, 2025

In my video, I discussed the new features and improvements in Bitwig Studio 5.3 Beta 5, including enhancements to the audio system and fixes for issues like infinite loops in the audio engine. I demonstrated how to use note FX selectors effectively with key switches and channel filters for layering and transposing notes. Finally, I expressed hope that this would be the last beta version before the stable release and encouraged viewers to download and try it out.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

Summary

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

In this video, I provide an update on the latest release of Bitwig Studio, specifically the 5.3 Beta 5 version. I express my hope that this will be the final beta release before Bitwig Studio transitions to a stable version, speculating that the stable release might occur on an upcoming Friday or possibly a Monday. I dive into the new updates and improvements made in this beta version, paying particular attention to the changes in the audio system.

One significant update is the option to prevent notifications concerning newly discovered audio interfaces from reappearing for specific devices. I express a desire for this feature to be expanded to all notifications, citing the persistent notification about installing factory presets as an example of where improvements could be made.

I discuss personal experiences with audio system issues, noting that I haven't encountered significant problems myself. However, I acknowledge that others have previously mentioned issues such as the "how to play" functionality in the file browser tab, which has now been fixed. I also address a problem with presets sounding incorrect on initial load, which, while not something I've personally experienced, is glad to see resolved.

A notable fix in this beta version involves preventing the Node FX selector, instrument selector, and FX selector container devices from entering an infinite loop in the audio engine—a problem that caused a crash in a previous video I created. After testing these features, I'm pleased to find they are now functioning correctly.

I then provide a tutorial demonstrating how to use Bitwig Studio's features to create chords and switch between different FX using key switches. I detail the steps, including setting up a multi-note for creating chords, using a note FX selector, and duplicating layers with different settings to achieve a seamless switch between minor and major chords.

To further illustrate the flexibility of the software, I demonstrate chaining note FX selectors and adjusting transpositions to achieve different musical effects. I explain a workaround I discovered for managing channel selections using a channel filter to refine which notes pass through specific layers without triggering unwanted chords.

I conclude by inviting viewers to download and try the latest beta version from the Bitwig Studio website, encouraging feedback through likes and subscriptions, and signing off with a farewell until the next video.

Changes in Bitwig Studio 5.3, Beta 5 [released 16 January 2025]

Improvements

Fixes

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.
[00:00:01] Bitwig Studio just released 5.3 Beta 5.
[00:00:04] And I hope this is the last beta release before they go stable.
[00:00:08] Probably, I guess, on Friday.
[00:00:10] For some reason, they tend to release on Friday.
[00:00:13] Maybe it's on Monday.
[00:00:15] I have no idea.
[00:00:16] So they made some improvements here in Beta 5 for the audio system.
[00:00:19] And it says here at this point, when an audio interface is discovered while
[00:00:24] the program is open, the notification now has an option to don't show again
[00:00:28] for that particular device.
[00:00:30] And I wished we have this option or we had this option for all the
[00:00:34] notifications on the top right here, because there are sometimes when you
[00:00:39] install Bitwig Studio for the first time, it next you actually do download
[00:00:43] or to install the factory presets.
[00:00:45] And sometimes you don't want to do that, but there's no way to get rid
[00:00:49] of this notification.
[00:00:50] It stays there until you install all the factory presets.
[00:00:54] So I wish we had this also for all the notifications here.
[00:00:58] Then also you have some audio system fixes.
[00:01:00] I actually never experienced some problems with the audio system for myself.
[00:01:06] It was pretty fine to me.
[00:01:07] Then I also saw someone here on the Discord talking about this
[00:01:11] how to play functionality works again in the file browser tab.
[00:01:14] So this was a problem.
[00:01:15] Then here presets were sometimes sounding incorrectly on initial load.
[00:01:20] I also never experienced this for myself in the beta, but nice that it's fixed.
[00:01:25] But this one here, I showed you in the last video.
[00:01:28] Node FX selector, instrument selector and FX selector container device no
[00:01:32] longer enter an infinite loop in the audio engine.
[00:01:34] I guess this was my problem with the crash in the last video.
[00:01:38] So they fixed this here.
[00:01:39] And I also tested this and it kind of works.
[00:01:42] I also showed you something in the last video about chaining these
[00:01:47] node FX selector devices.
[00:01:49] And yeah, I made some kind of mistake there, of course.
[00:01:54] But I want to show you this here again and some thinking that went behind it.
[00:01:59] Right.
[00:01:59] So let's say we have a multi note and we want to create your chords.
[00:02:03] So we go into the note clip and we use here something C3 to C4.
[00:02:08] Yeah, let's do something simple here.
[00:02:15] Just some chords.
[00:02:22] Okay, so we play some chords here and put this into a note FX layer.
[00:02:26] All this minor because this is a minor chord.
[00:02:30] And then we switch this here to a note FX selector.
[00:02:33] And we duplicate this and say this is major.
[00:02:37] So we raise this here and then we say this is just to pull this down.
[00:02:42] Okay, so now we want to switch between these chords FX here with key switches
[00:02:50] from let's say C1 to C2.
[00:02:54] So we can use your key switches and then use MIDI learn and press just C1.
[00:03:00] So now we have your C1 to D1.
[00:03:03] So C1 is the first layer.
[00:03:05] C# is the second and D is the third layer.
[00:03:09] So now we can paint this here in.
[00:03:13] And just select a different layer.
[00:03:17] It works flawlessly.
[00:03:23] There's no delay.
[00:03:24] It's not like that it sometimes selects the wrong layer.
[00:03:27] It works neatly and tight.
[00:03:29] I'm pretty happy about this, to be honest.
[00:03:32] Then I showed you to show you something to chain these note FX selectors here.
[00:03:38] Let's say with transpose and no transpose here.
[00:03:45] And yeah, let's call this zero, zero.
[00:03:49] Convert this here to note FX selector, duplicate.
[00:03:55] And here we say this is plus seven, so a fifth higher.
[00:03:59] And here again, another fifth higher, so 14, and maybe an octave lower, also an octave lower.
[00:04:11] So now we want to use here, let's say the notes from C0 to C1 as a selector, right?
[00:04:19] So we go here also to key switches.
[00:04:21] And then we use MIDI learn and then we go here or press C0.
[00:04:30] So this also works.
[00:04:32] You can see we switch here between the layers, but we also play a chord.
[00:04:39] And the reason for that is that we also pass through these layers here.
[00:04:45] This note selector or FX selector note, right?
[00:04:50] So this first note FX selector only uses these notes here.
[00:04:55] Or prevents these notes to go through the FX here because we selected here the base key.
[00:05:05] And yeah, basically the base key.
[00:05:07] So it uses these notes to select the layer and all the rest of the notes to actually
[00:05:13] pass the notes through the layer and through this note FX device.
[00:05:18] So it also uses then these keys down here, right, because they're not part of these notes.
[00:05:27] So this is just a problem.
[00:05:28] So having this note down here, it actually creates a chord.
[00:05:32] So we can see this here, virtual keyboard.
[00:05:37] Right, we basically a chord.
[00:05:46] We not only play C0, what we need to select here, we also play all the other notes.
[00:05:51] So that's a problem.
[00:05:54] Or actually, it's not a problem, but for this kind of setup, it's a problem.
[00:06:00] So my solution for this is to actually use channels.
[00:06:05] So we want to say to select the first layer here, we want to use channel two.
[00:06:14] And here we want to choose channel three.
[00:06:18] And this is channel one.
[00:06:20] I have no idea why this is three by default.
[00:06:23] But this also doesn't work.
[00:06:30] It selects your different layer, but you can hear this one triggers and chord.
[00:06:36] So I want to prevent actually these notes to go into these layers here.
[00:06:42] And I do this by using here this channel selector.
[00:06:46] No, it's called channel selector.
[00:06:48] It's maybe channel filter.
[00:06:50] So we only want to use channel one.
[00:06:53] I think this is enough one to same.
[00:07:00] So now only notes with the channel one go through these note FX layers here.
[00:07:09] That's the first goal.
[00:07:11] But now we are missing here kind of this.
[00:07:17] Yeah, this note, because this is on channel three.
[00:07:20] So it's not going through these layers.
[00:07:22] So we need to open up here another layer.
[00:07:28] We put something on there, something random.
[00:07:31] Past channel three, that's the goal, the task of this layer.
[00:07:42] So here we say we only want to have channel three go through that.
[00:07:51] And then it works.
[00:07:57] I know it's a bit complicated to set up and it probably gets more complicated.
[00:08:03] If you want to chain three of these devices, but it kind of works.
[00:08:08] I wish we could actually have some filters in here or let certain channels pass
[00:08:16] or something like this.
[00:08:17] So we don't have to do this here, but this kind of works.
[00:08:21] So now these two notes select these layers here.
[00:08:26] And also go one higher.
[00:08:27] And channel one goes through here, through this layer and then through this layer.
[00:08:36] But it works and it's tight.
[00:08:43] It's not a problem or anything at all.
[00:08:46] So this kind of works.
[00:08:48] And it was like my mistake in the last video that I actually thought this
[00:08:53] should work, but it's a bit more complicated than that.
[00:08:56] So this set up works.
[00:08:58] I want to show you this and also inform you that beta five is available.
[00:09:02] So head over to bitwigstudio.com or bitwig.com and download the newest beta version.
[00:09:09] That's it for me.
[00:09:10] Leave a like, leave a subscription.
[00:09:12] See you in the next video.
[00:09:13] Bye.
[00:09:14] [BLANK_AUDIO]