Tonal and Stereo Balance in Bitwig

Tutorial | Jan 27, 2025

In this video, I demonstrate an alternative method for matching frequency content and tonal balance in Bitwig Studio using native tools like FX3, peak limiter, and compressor. By analyzing and adjusting the frequency ranges, you can effectively match your mix to a reference track without the need for external plugins. It's a straightforward and insightful approach to help ensure your mix is balanced and comparable to professional standards.

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Summary #

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

In this video, I explore an innovative approach to achieving frequency balance or tonal balance in music production, specifically using Bitwig Studio. While there are already multiple methods to accomplish this, I present a new technique that aligns with my workflow and might resonate with others.

I start by showcasing a basic drum and bass tune of mine, alongside a reference track that has a frequency balance I admire. Typically, producers may use the EQ Plus in Bitwig Studio to compare the frequency spectra of their tracks with reference tunes, but I aim to demonstrate a potentially better or alternative approach.

The process begins by normalizing the reference track using a peak limiter to ensure it peaks at around 0 dB, or slightly below, like -1 or -1.5 dB. Next, I employ an FX3 device and adjust the crossover frequencies to match the OTT crossover settings commonly used by bass and EDM producers. This step splits the frequencies into bands, allowing for detailed analysis using peak limiters set in each frequency range.

As I measure the frequency content in each band, notes like the bass being around -3.5 dB are taken, providing a comparative baseline. Applying these measurements to my track allows me to use the FX3 as a rough EQ. By adjusting input gain and using additional EQ tools, I can visually and audibly match the tonal balance of my track to that of the reference.

I also suggest experimenting with combinations of compressors and peak limiters to refine the dynamic control over these frequency bands. This flexibility allows me to manipulate the balance as needed, providing "wiggle room" for compression dynamics.

To further enhance the matching process, the technique of mid-side splitting the reference track is employed. This provides insight into the stereo width and allows adjustments to ensure that my track is neither overly mono nor excessively wide compared to the reference.

The tools used here—FX3, peak limiter, EQ Plus, and mid-side splitting—are native to Bitwig, avoiding the need for expensive, CPU-intensive third-party plugins like Ozone. This approach not only helps in achieving a closer match to a reference track but also serves as an educational tool to understand frequency distribution better.

I elucidate that this process, while not extraordinarily precise due to its three-band limitation, offers a practical method to ensure tracks are within a similar frequency ballpark as professional references, especially important in genres like drum and bass where mix consistency is crucial.

Finally, I encourage viewers to adapt and modify this technique to fit their workflow, utilizing it either as a mix helper or as an analytical tool to ensure frequency balance. The approach is flexible and scalable, useful for both full mixes and individual elements like drum buses. I conclude by inviting feedback and promising future content on similar subjects.

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.
[00:00:02] And today I want to give you an idea or maybe an inspiration
[00:00:07] for how we can easily match the frequency content
[00:00:11] or balance your tonal balance or however you want to call it.
[00:00:16] There are multiple ways you can do this already in Bitwig Studio.
[00:00:20] This is probably a new way.
[00:00:22] And I haven't seen a tutorial about this.
[00:00:24] It's also not something you have to do all the time.
[00:00:28] It's just another tool you can use.
[00:00:30] And maybe it fits your workflow better.
[00:00:33] So this is what I do sometimes.
[00:00:36] I have here a drum bass tune of mine.
[00:00:38] It sounds like this.
[00:00:39] Pretty basic, just drum bass, bass and lead sound, nothing else.
[00:00:50] And then I have here a reference tune, this one here.
[00:00:52] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:00:55] It's a different tune, it's a different vibe,
[00:01:02] but I kind of like the frequency balance.
[00:01:06] So what you can do is you can, first and foremost, use the EQ plus.
[00:01:11] That's probably what you do already, but I show it here again.
[00:01:15] So use the EQ plus on your tune.
[00:01:19] You can see here the frequency spectrum.
[00:01:21] But you can also load in here a reference.
[00:01:24] This is then here our second tune.
[00:01:27] You can see in purple basically here this reference tune,
[00:01:32] so you can roughly compare it.
[00:01:35] In my opinion, that's good, it's fine.
[00:01:38] But I was searching for a different way of doing this.
[00:01:42] Maybe it's a better way, I don't know.
[00:01:44] So what I do then is I go to my reference tune
[00:01:49] and put a peak limiter on it, and then I try to normalize it.
[00:01:53] So I peak at 0 dB.
[00:01:55] Probably minus 1, 1.5.
[00:02:02] So now it's normalized, then I go into an FX3,
[00:02:12] and I analyze what's going on in these boxes.
[00:02:15] But first, I change here the crossover frequencies
[00:02:18] to the OTT crossover frequencies, 0.5.
[00:02:25] I think it's a nice way of splitting the frequencies,
[00:02:27] and more strong bass producers, dubstep producers, EDM producers
[00:02:31] use the OTT, so they have the same splitting.
[00:02:34] So I guess it's probably the same for everyone.
[00:02:37] And I kind of like the way of splitting this here.
[00:02:41] So now with this, this is 0 dB, this is 0, this is all 0.
[00:02:45] We can analyze what's going on in these boxes.
[00:02:48] And we use a peak limiter in each of these boxes here.
[00:02:53] 0 dB, this is also 0 dB.
[00:02:56] But this is just the bass part, the low part, everything
[00:03:04] from 0 to 88 hertz.
[00:03:06] And you can see it's not going up to 0 dB.
[00:03:09] Now we can measure this by just pulling this ceiling down
[00:03:13] until we have gain reduction here.
[00:03:15] So minus 3.5, OK?
[00:03:28] So that's the ceiling for the low part.
[00:03:30] We put this here also in the mid part.
[00:03:41] Maybe minus 1, maybe it's 0 even.
[00:03:46] Yeah, something like this.
[00:03:47] Then the top part.
[00:03:48] Minus 1.
[00:04:00] Oh, it's the same.
[00:04:01] Sorry.
[00:04:01] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:04:05] That's probably minus 1 here.
[00:04:19] So we have here 0, we have here minus 1,
[00:04:22] and low part is minus 3.5, OK?
[00:04:26] So we measure basically the content of each of these boxes.
[00:04:31] And all we have to do now is we put this on our track.
[00:04:35] So now, first and foremost, we can check on compare.
[00:04:38] Is there actually something different, right?
[00:04:42] So we can watch the low box.
[00:04:46] So you can see already here, it's pretty busy in our tunes.
[00:04:49] We can reduce the bass.
[00:04:51] So we can use the input gain, which
[00:04:57] means this FX3 is more or less now an EQ, a rough EQ.
[00:05:02] If you don't want this, you can put an EQ5 or EQ+ in front
[00:05:07] and just reduce the frequencies here.
[00:05:09] It does the same thing, right?
[00:05:12] You can then use this more like an visualizer.
[00:05:17] And you see, oh, I'm actually exceeding here
[00:05:19] my levels of my reference tune.
[00:05:22] What I'm just using here, the input gain most of the times
[00:05:25] because I don't change the gain too much.
[00:05:29] Something like this, then mid.
[00:05:38] I had-- or top end, right?
[00:05:53] And then the peak limit at the end.
[00:05:55] So-- oh, it's actually OK.
[00:06:01] So the good thing about this is you
[00:06:10] can learn what's going on in these boxes
[00:06:12] in each of these frequency ranges.
[00:06:15] Of course, you can see it pretty clearly.
[00:06:17] You can also then copy this over from your reference tune
[00:06:21] to your tune and use it as a guide.
[00:06:23] And you can clearly see when you exceed these levels here
[00:06:28] with the gain reduction.
[00:06:29] So it's very obvious.
[00:06:31] It also helps you when you use an EQ in front or some processing
[00:06:36] and you maybe push some frequencies too hard.
[00:06:39] The limiter counters that.
[00:06:42] And at the end of your chain, you can then
[00:06:45] see, oh, the mid part is actually pretty busy.
[00:06:49] And you can see a gain reduction of minus 6 dB.
[00:06:56] So you can see instantaneously something
[00:06:59] is more or less wrong in my chain before in front of this FX3.
[00:07:06] And then you can counter or maybe take some measures
[00:07:10] for that, I don't know.
[00:07:11] So it's more obvious, basically, that something
[00:07:14] is exceeding your levels or the levels of your reference tune.
[00:07:18] And you can match it more easily instead of just having
[00:07:20] an EQ plus here and see some lines going up and down.
[00:07:26] It's not that clear, in my opinion.
[00:07:30] So now that we have this here, we can also replace or combine
[00:07:33] the peak limiter in front of the compressor.
[00:07:36] You can say, I don't like the nature of the peak limiter
[00:07:42] because there's no attack and there's also no ratio.
[00:07:45] It's just a limiter.
[00:07:47] So we can say ratio all the way up and attack all the way down.
[00:07:50] So this is basically now a limiter here.
[00:07:53] And then say minus 1, this is then the threshold, minus 1.
[00:07:58] And we have input gain of basically nothing.
[00:08:01] So you can compress this here in front.
[00:08:14] Maybe leave a bit of wiggle room here with attack.
[00:08:17] Maybe go down to the ratio.
[00:08:18] I don't know.
[00:08:19] It depends on your tune.
[00:08:23] And then have the ceiling here at the end in place that always
[00:08:26] gives you kind of security.
[00:08:29] And then you can push or pull the gain here
[00:08:33] until you have the right kind of busyness of the peak limiter.
[00:08:37] You can also combine this at the end here maybe with an over
[00:08:40] clipper and then put in front of that a tool
[00:08:45] and push everything, the full band basically,
[00:08:47] into this thing here and make everything a bit more busy.
[00:08:51] And maybe it gives you the sound you're looking for.
[00:08:55] All kinds of ways you can use this.
[00:08:58] And that's how I use it, at least.
[00:09:01] So you can combine it.
[00:09:02] Or you can also replace the peak limiter
[00:09:04] and just go with over alone or only a compressor.
[00:09:07] That's it.
[00:09:10] It doesn't matter, actually.
[00:09:12] I'm only using here the peak limiter
[00:09:14] so you can see what's going on.
[00:09:16] So this is basically the frequency spectrum.
[00:09:18] So it roughly matches more or less
[00:09:36] the frequency balance, but the loudness is different.
[00:09:41] You can then use a limiter here.
[00:09:43] I'm using my clipper preset.
[00:09:46] This is one way of doing it.
[00:10:02] Then we can also do something like on the reference tune.
[00:10:07] We use a mid-side split.
[00:10:09] OK.
[00:10:10] And in here in the mid part, we also use a peak limiter.
[00:10:15] And we just measure the same thing.
[00:10:18] So minus 1.6 here, 1.5 side.
[00:10:30] Minus 3.5.
[00:10:39] OK.
[00:10:40] Then we put this here again on our tune.
[00:10:44] At some point, maybe in the beginning or here.
[00:10:47] So you can see the mid is way too busy.
[00:10:50] Pull this down.
[00:10:51] Side.
[00:10:57] Nothing happens.
[00:10:58] So we can increase this.
[00:10:59] At least we have content in the side.
[00:11:06] So it's not like you can make the mix wide
[00:11:09] if you have a mono mix.
[00:11:10] You need to have at least some reverbs at some point
[00:11:13] or maybe differences between the left and the right.
[00:11:17] But here you can roughly decide how wide
[00:11:21] you want to have your tune.
[00:11:23] And this helps you match it with your reference tune
[00:11:26] because the reference tune sometimes is super wide
[00:11:29] and your tune is super mono, kind of narrow.
[00:11:35] And it doesn't match.
[00:11:37] And here you can also match this.
[00:11:38] So frequency spectrum is matched.
[00:11:56] And the wideness and maybe the loudness also, in a way.
[00:12:01] Another thing you can do is you can put the mid side split
[00:12:05] here on the reference tune.
[00:12:06] Put tool devices in there.
[00:12:08] Then go to your tune.
[00:12:15] Also, again, mid side split.
[00:12:17] And then use in here an EQ plus.
[00:12:22] And then use as a reference AB, mid side, side tool out.
[00:12:28] You can see here in purple the spectrum of the side channel
[00:12:36] of your reference tune or the mid channel,
[00:12:39] if you want to then.
[00:12:41] So you can reference then here only the side channel
[00:12:45] from your tune.
[00:12:46] So you can mix and match basically everything.
[00:12:50] Or you can maybe cut out here some low end,
[00:12:54] increase this here, something like this.
[00:12:57] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:13:21] So this is something I do sometimes.
[00:13:24] Like I said in the beginning, it's maybe not the best way
[00:13:26] of doing this, but you only need native tools for this.
[00:13:30] FX3 peak limiter compressor and so on, very basic.
[00:13:35] And it works pretty well, in my opinion.
[00:13:38] You don't need to use Ozone or something
[00:13:40] like this, very expensive and very CPU intensive.
[00:13:44] And you also learn something because you
[00:13:46] can see what's going on in these boxes
[00:13:48] or in these frequency ranges.
[00:13:51] It's very straightforward.
[00:13:53] Just need a few devices here and combine it.
[00:13:56] Maybe you don't need to use everything I showed you,
[00:14:00] just some of the things.
[00:14:03] So everything is possible.
[00:14:05] So this is something I want to show you.
[00:14:08] Maybe you do this already.
[00:14:10] I have no idea.
[00:14:10] Let me know what you think.
[00:14:12] Maybe it's a stupid idea.
[00:14:13] I think it works kind of great.
[00:14:16] You can also replace the FX3 with something
[00:14:19] like frequency split or you use my X split presets, which are then--
[00:14:27] yeah, don't give you here the phase issues.
[00:14:30] For me, FX3 is completely fine.
[00:14:32] I have no problem to use this here on the master.
[00:14:36] It's pretty great.
[00:14:37] You can also use this for buses.
[00:14:41] So you can also compare, let's say, not only the full mix.
[00:14:46] Sometimes you have in the beginning,
[00:14:47] in the intro of the drum bass tunes,
[00:14:49] you have the kick and the snare singled out.
[00:14:52] And you can compare then how the drums sound in your reference
[00:14:56] tune and compare it with your drum bus.
[00:14:58] And then you compare also the full mix with your full mix.
[00:15:04] So you can really match this.
[00:15:07] And it's also not super precise.
[00:15:09] So it's not like you match every single frequency
[00:15:12] to your tune to your reference tune.
[00:15:14] It's more like rough because we have only three bands.
[00:15:20] And this is completely fine.
[00:15:22] You don't want to have this precise match.
[00:15:25] You just want to match it roughly.
[00:15:29] So you're on the same ballpark.
[00:15:31] You have the same top end, the same mids, the same lows.
[00:15:35] Because with drum bass and all the other dance floor tunes,
[00:15:37] it's pretty important when you mix the tune.
[00:15:39] You have a pretty nicely mixed tune.
[00:15:41] And then your tune comes in and nothing is there.
[00:15:44] There's no bass there.
[00:15:45] There's no mids there.
[00:15:46] And well, the hi-hats, everything is--
[00:15:50] you lose basically in the mix then.
[00:15:52] And with this, you can check your tune against a reference tune.
[00:15:58] So everything is really there frequency-wise.
[00:16:03] Yeah, that's it.
[00:16:04] And maybe you can also just use this as an analyzing tool,
[00:16:08] like I said before.
[00:16:09] Put an EQ in front, then you EQ everything.
[00:16:13] And then you just check here with the peak limiter
[00:16:16] if it's busy or not busy.
[00:16:19] And when you are good, you can then just delete this
[00:16:22] at the end of your mix down.
[00:16:23] So you can use it as a helper maybe.
[00:16:26] It's a more clearly visual helper for frequency balance.
[00:16:32] So yeah, that's it.
[00:16:34] Leave a like, leave a comment.
[00:16:36] Let me know what you think.
[00:16:37] Thanks for watching.
[00:16:38] See you in the next video.
[00:16:39] Bye.