Auto Volume Match for Bitwig
Tutorial | Mar 10, 2025
In this video, I demonstrate a simple and straightforward method to maintain consistent volume levels when using an EQ on a track, by using a grid patch with a follower to match the input and output volumes. I also showcase how this technique can be applied creatively across multiple tracks to dynamically modulate volumes or match frequency curves using band-splitting. Lastly, I emphasize the versatility and practicality of this approach for enhancing mixes and provide a preset download for convenience.
You can watch the Video on Youtube
Summary #
Maybe you don't watch the video, here are some important takeaways:
In the video, I introduced a straightforward yet powerful technique for managing audio volumes in music production, which is particularly useful when applying effects like EQ to drums or other audio tracks. I demonstrated the process using a simple drum and bass track as an example. Initially, I explained how adding EQ to drum tracks usually involves manually adjusting the output volume to compensate for frequency boosts, which can be tedious.
To simplify this, I introduced the concept of using a "Chain device" with a "learn" feature that matches the input and output volumes, although it still requires manual adjustments when EQ settings change. Then, I presented a more efficient method using a grid patch, which involves creating an FX grid patch with audio input and output, and utilizing a "follower" to extract the volume envelope from the audio input. By normalizing the signal (dividing the audio by its envelope), I demonstrated how to maintain consistent volume levels even when frequencies are altered by the EQ.
I showed how to separate the normalization and volume restoration processes, employing a sidechain technique to match the volume input from before the EQ, ensuring that volume is consistent no matter how drastically EQ settings are changed. This setup allows users to hear the effect of their processing without fluctuations in volume, enhancing the precision of audio crafting.
Further, I delved into creative applications of this approach by applying the grid patch to the bass track. I showcased how it could be used to make the bass volume fluctuate in sync with the drum volume, creating a modulation effect and even mimicking the groove of the drums on the bass. Adjusting the fall time allows for control over the aggressiveness of the modulation, providing flexibility in sound design.
Moreover, I explained how this method could be used for matching bass levels to drum levels in a mix, introducing offset to maintain relative dB differences. This technique is adaptable for use in auto-EQing scenarios, where I demonstrated how you can match the frequency levels of one drum loop to another by splitting the audio into bands and applying separate volume matching to each band. This results in a coherent blend of frequencies between different tracks, offering a useful tool for mixing and achieving desired tonal balances.
Additionally, I recommended unlinking stereo channels for better mono signal matching, thereby reducing fluctuations caused by stereo imbalances. I emphasized that while more bands provide a more accurate match, a few bands are generally sufficient for achieving the desired frequency curve.
Overall, the video presented a versatile tool for dynamic volume management and frequency matching in music production, showcasing its effectiveness in simplifying work while enhancing control over audio processing. I concluded by offering the preset for download, encouraging viewers to try the technique themselves, and inviting feedback and engagement in the comments section.
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, I want to show you something today that's very simple and very straightforward,
[00:00:05] but very useful in multiple situations.
[00:00:09] And it's not complicated, so please stick around, okay?
[00:00:12] So here in the background, I have some kind of track, and it's actually not important
[00:00:16] how it sounds.
[00:00:17] It's just a very simple drum bass track here.
[00:00:26] Some drums, bass and here kind of a stab sound, and you want to focus here on the drums first.
[00:00:36] So let's say you want to add an EQ to this, to these drums, right?
[00:00:39] So you put an EQ here, EQ 5, and then you push some frequencies.
[00:00:46] And then of course, the volume changes, you increase the volume because you push a lot
[00:00:50] of frequencies here.
[00:00:51] So usually you compensate for this here with the output volume, right?
[00:00:57] It's very tedious.
[00:00:58] You need to do it by ear manually.
[00:01:01] So what do you do?
[00:01:02] You usually go for the new Chain device and put the EQ in there, and then you use the
[00:01:09] learn button here.
[00:01:21] And now the input volume matches the output volume, right, cool.
[00:01:30] So you can use the Chain device for this, and you can use the learn wet gain feature
[00:01:36] for this.
[00:01:37] But it's a bit tedious because you have to push it every time you change the EQ setting
[00:01:42] here, right?
[00:01:43] So you need to match the volume again.
[00:01:46] So another example would be instead of using here the Chain device, which is perfectly
[00:01:52] fine.
[00:01:53] You can do this.
[00:01:55] My idea was actually to use a grid patch for this.
[00:01:59] So just disable this here for a moment, and we create here an FX grid patch.
[00:02:05] And please stick around, it's not complicated at all.
[00:02:09] We have an audio input and audio output here.
[00:02:12] But then we use a follower.
[00:02:13] So we want to extract the volume envelope here from this audio input.
[00:02:21] We pull the rise down and we double click here to put this on 100 milliseconds.
[00:02:26] It's actually not important.
[00:02:28] And then we use maybe an oscilloscope so we can see what's going on.
[00:02:32] Put this to slow.
[00:02:41] You can see the volume shape here or the envelope in the oscilloscope.
[00:02:46] Perfectly fine.
[00:02:47] So the first step is to actually normalize the signal.
[00:02:51] And maybe you saw the video about my auto leveler, we just divide the audio signal by
[00:03:01] the audio envelope which leaves us kind of with the normalized signal, which means the
[00:03:13] signal tries to be at 0 dB at all times.
[00:03:17] Perfectly nice.
[00:03:22] But that's not what we want.
[00:03:24] We actually want to restore the initial volume back with the multiply.
[00:03:33] So now the input signal is exactly the output signal.
[00:03:47] No difference.
[00:03:48] So that's cool, but not very helpful.
[00:03:51] So the interesting part now is that we can separate these things and we just disconnected
[00:03:57] this from the multiplication and we duplicate the follower, give it a different color and
[00:04:03] we also use a sidechain.
[00:04:05] So different audio input, right?
[00:04:07] So for the division, we use the audio signal input here.
[00:04:12] So we normalize our incoming audio signal to 0 dB.
[00:04:18] And then we apply a volume or different volume from a different signal and we do this by
[00:04:24] using a tool device in front of the EQ5, right?
[00:04:29] Just a tool device here just to grab the signal drums master tool out.
[00:04:36] So here we get the volume from the tool device and here we get everything from after the
[00:04:42] EQ5.
[00:04:43] So now we just use here the follower output for the multiplication and we maybe go also
[00:04:48] here into the oscilloscope so we can see the difference.
[00:04:54] So the moment it's just the same because the EQ5 here is disabled.
[00:04:59] So just enable this here.
[00:05:03] So now we can EQ and the FX grid compensates for the volume so it matches the incoming
[00:05:09] volume from before the EQ5.
[00:05:14] Maybe do this your drastically by using a low cut, right?
[00:05:28] It matches the volume.
[00:05:29] The volume stays the same.
[00:05:31] So I can disable this here for a moment so you can hear how it sounds without.
[00:06:00] You can also increase the output volume of the EQ5 and you probably don't hear any change.
[00:06:24] So a very simple setup, sidechain input, let's actually give this a different color.
[00:06:31] Sidechain input is the volume you want to use and this is your incoming audio signal
[00:06:37] and then you match the volume from this to this, right?
[00:06:42] So it's a volume matcher and you can use this for VSTs.
[00:06:45] You can use this here for processing chains and if you apply this, you actually keep the
[00:06:51] volume straight all the time and you can hear actually the effect of your process instead
[00:06:58] of having a volume going up and down.
[00:07:01] So it's very useful to use it on just one track to match the volume of multiple effect
[00:07:10] processes here.
[00:07:12] So that's just one thing you can do.
[00:07:16] Maybe add here, we can also use here, let's say, I don't know, a little plus, maybe increase
[00:07:23] here in saturation.
[00:07:26] Yeah, the interesting part about this is that you can change the fall time here and make
[00:07:40] it more aggressive or less aggressive.
[00:07:54] I think the best result is when you keep the fall time here, the same here and here,
[00:08:00] right?
[00:08:01] Just match this.
[00:08:05] Okay, so that's the first idea, you can match basically here effects with the volume.
[00:08:16] We can also do something different.
[00:08:18] We can use this grid patch here, maybe also delete it and put this on the bass.
[00:08:26] So now on the bass, we want to analyze the loudness of the drums.
[00:08:31] So let's use your drums master post and then actually remove the offset for a moment.
[00:08:47] So now the bass matches the volume of the drums, which means when I pull down the drums
[00:08:52] here in volume, also the bass goes down.
[00:09:01] It's a bit slowly here, maybe make this a bit faster.
[00:09:19] You can hear the bass is fluctuating in volume.
[00:09:23] That's because we have here 100 millisecond of fall time and you can make this more drastic
[00:09:29] if you want to.
[00:09:30] So you can use it more creatively, pull this down, right?
[00:09:41] So the envelope follows the drums more closely.
[00:09:44] It's more like amplitude modulation or audio rate modulation.
[00:09:47] If you pull this all the way down here, do we really audio rate modulated the bass with
[00:09:57] the drums, which is probably not what you want.
[00:09:59] So you slow this down here.
[00:10:03] You can maybe use some musical values here.
[00:10:06] So let's say here 173, I think that's a quarter note.
[00:10:13] That's a bar, 346 milliseconds.
[00:10:23] So we have more like a musical value here.
[00:10:34] So then it takes a while until the bass goes down because you have 346 milliseconds of delay
[00:10:40] or average timing or that's actually the average time window of the analyzing part.
[00:10:58] But it matches the volume.
[00:10:59] But like I said, you can also use this here more creatively and pull this down.
[00:11:03] Maybe 178, I think that's a eight note.
[00:11:22] So you now kind of apply the groove of the drums to the bass volume modulation.
[00:11:29] So like I said, you can use it in different ways.
[00:11:33] Of course, if you want to use this on pads sounds, on lead sounds, melodies, and so on,
[00:11:37] you probably want to have more relaxed all time instead of applying modulation, but it
[00:11:45] depends.
[00:11:46] But you can also use it for pads if you want to.
[00:11:50] So with this, we have kind of a mixing tool.
[00:11:52] So every time the drums go down in volume, also the bass follows kind of the drums.
[00:11:58] And you can also apply here an offset so you can say, I want to have the bass always the
[00:12:03] same volume as the drums, but always an offset by minus 3 dB.
[00:12:11] So the bass sound is always minus 3 dB compared to the drums in this situation here.
[00:12:24] Okay, so you can use it for effects on one track.
[00:12:28] You can use it on multiple tracks for mixing to match different tracks to other tracks in
[00:12:34] volume or make them follow in a certain modulated way.
[00:12:41] But we can also use it for kind of auto EQing things.
[00:12:46] So let's say we put this here back on the drums.
[00:12:51] And here I have a second audio drum loop.
[00:12:59] And this is my drum loop.
[00:13:07] And we want to match actually the frequencies from this drum loop to my drum loop.
[00:13:12] So this is also kind of possible by just using this in different band splitters.
[00:13:19] So let's use here an FX3.
[00:13:24] The band splitting is here the OTT splitting frequencies 88.3 and 2.5K.
[00:13:31] And we put this here in the low band, mid and high, very simple.
[00:13:39] And on this drum loop, we also use the same splitting frequencies here to 88.3 and 2.5.
[00:13:48] And we put the tool divides in each of these bands so we can grab this in here.
[00:13:55] We go to low and then we grab here from the drum loop FX low tool out, mid is mid tool
[00:14:08] out and this one is high.
[00:14:16] So now we match individual levels from each of these bands from this drum loop to this
[00:14:21] drum loop.
[00:14:26] Which means you can only hear this drum loop but when I put an EQ on here on this drum
[00:14:32] loop which you can't hear and just EQ here at the top away, you can hear that also here
[00:14:38] at the top end is missing in this drum loop.
[00:14:50] So we match different frequencies from another track to this drum track here which is pretty
[00:14:56] dope and of course it gets more correct the more bands you use at the moment we just use
[00:15:03] three bands but most of the times it's just enough.
[00:15:07] But you can use the frequency split if you want to have let's say four bands or you can
[00:15:13] use my X split presets I made a while ago.
[00:15:18] You have one, two, three, four, five different bands or more.
[00:15:25] But in my opinion you just you know you want to only roughly estimate the frequency curve
[00:15:32] anyway.
[00:15:33] I don't want to have that precise so a few bands or enough.
[00:16:03] Ah it's probably better to also include here disconnect or unlink the stereo channels
[00:16:25] right to only follow the mono signal.
[00:16:36] Probably better this way because sometimes you have volume fluctuations from the left
[00:16:41] and the right channel and then you copy this because I can hear some fluctuations on the
[00:16:45] left and right channel and it's probably better so a very useful trick in my opinion
[00:17:04] where we can match volumes from different sources from the same track to just match
[00:17:11] from in front of your big process that adds volume and you can match the volume there
[00:17:19] or you can use it to follow the volume from another track with here with drums in the
[00:17:25] bass you can also use formalities and pads and so on or to use it as an auto EQ to match
[00:17:33] actually the frequency curve roughly from a different track and in my opinion it's a
[00:17:39] very dope trick and you can see it's not very complicated if you remove the oscilloscope
[00:17:45] it's just a few devices very straightforward and it kind of works and you can influence
[00:17:51] the sound you have at the full time at the rise time or maybe switches to rms here and
[00:17:57] have different outcomes very dope trick in my opinion I put you the reset in the description
[00:18:04] below if you just want to download it but yeah it's not very complicated I hope you
[00:18:10] liked it please leave a like if you liked the video subscribe to the channel let me
[00:18:14] know what you think in the comments down below and I'll see you in the next video bye
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