Tags: posts polarity-music Bitwig ControllerScript

Bitwig Piano Text Editor

Tutorial | Apr 11, 2025

In this video, I introduce a fun script called TextMaker for Bitwig that lets you write text melodically in a note clip using scales like natural minor. You can experiment with different settings like text width, height, and gap to create unique note arrangements, although it's primarily meant as a humorous project. Let me know if you'd like me to expand on it or explore other creative ideas for the piano roll!

You can watch the Video on Youtube

Summary

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

In this video, I'm sharing a fun little experiment you can try over the weekend, using a script I created for Bitwig called TextMaker. It's nothing serious, just a humorous way to play with music.

Here's how it works: In Bitwig, you can create a note clip and open it. With TextMaker, you can choose a musical scale, like D# natural minor, and then type some text into the arranger. For example, you might type "Bitwig is cool." You can set the starting octave, the gap between each letter, and the text's width and height. When you click "write," the text is converted into notes in the note clip.

This idea was inspired by something I've seen in Jacob Collier's videos, where he does this live on a keyboard, but here you can simply type it in. You can also clear the text and write something new, or overwrite existing text. For example, you could type "Hello World" and then move an octave higher to write something on top. You can write multiple texts into the note clip this way.

The text is written using the chosen scale, so it forms a melody, though it might not sound great due to the stacked notes. You can alter this to make it more interesting, like writing in italic, which gives an ascending line effect. You can also adjust the text height to stretch it out more, or change the text gap to bring letters closer together or further apart.

I had fun experimenting with different styles, like making it bold or adding outlines, but I didn't want to spend too much time on just a joke. If enough people find it interesting, I might expand on it. For those curious, the script involves defining a font with each letter of the alphabet and placing them within the piano roll using X and Y coordinates.

If you want to try this out, you can download the script from the link in the description. Just put it in your controller scripts directory in a sub-folder, especially if you're on a Mac. Then, add it in the controller settings in Bitwig.

I'm open to feedback if you'd like me to build further on this concept. It's just a funny extension for the piano roll, and maybe it could be a cool party trick for a video or stream. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and don't forget to like and subscribe if you enjoyed it. Have a great weekend, and goodbye!

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] So on this Friday, I want to give you something funny
[00:00:03] to experiment with on the weekend.
[00:00:05] It's nothing serious, but it's kind of funny.
[00:00:09] So in Bitwig, you can create here some kind of note clip
[00:00:14] and go into the note clip.
[00:00:17] And then with my new script called TextMaker,
[00:00:22] you can choose a scale, maybe natural minor, D#, right?
[00:00:28] And then you can write into the arranger
[00:00:30] and you can type in some kind of text.
[00:00:33] So you can say Bitwig is cool, right?
[00:00:37] Octave start where you want to start the text,
[00:00:39] text gap, which is the gap between each letter
[00:00:44] and then text width and text height, right?
[00:00:47] Then you say write, then it writes the text
[00:00:51] into the note clip.
[00:00:53] So like I said, nothing serious.
[00:00:57] It's more like a funny experiment.
[00:01:00] If this is possible, I always wanted to do something like this.
[00:01:03] And you can also see it in some kind of Jacob Collier videos
[00:01:07] where he just does this live on the keyboard.
[00:01:11] But here you can just type it in.
[00:01:12] You can also clear this and write something else.
[00:01:18] And you can also overwrite.
[00:01:24] So if you click write twice, right?
[00:01:27] You just overwrite what you just written here.
[00:01:30] But you can also say hello world
[00:01:34] and then go one octave higher, right?
[00:01:37] And then write, then you write something on top.
[00:01:39] So you can write multiple times into the note clip.
[00:01:44] When you press write, there is no clear
[00:01:47] with all my other script.
[00:01:48] I basically combine a new generation with the clear,
[00:01:51] but here you can clear separately
[00:01:54] and write multiple things into the piano roll note clip.
[00:01:59] Octave two, right?
[00:02:05] It looks like this.
[00:02:07] And we can also see it from the outside,
[00:02:09] from the arranger.
[00:02:11] If you maybe want to use it to make videos more fancy
[00:02:14] or you want to write yourself a text or I don't know.
[00:02:18] It's maybe a funny joke, party trick.
[00:02:21] I don't know how you want to call it.
[00:02:23] Of course, all of these things are in a scale, right?
[00:02:29] So this is a melody, right?
[00:02:34] And then you can add here maybe in synthesizer to it.
[00:02:48] Convolution and delay.
[00:02:51] Right, it doesn't make any sense.
[00:03:01] It doesn't sound good.
[00:03:03] But for this, I thought, okay, this makes no sense
[00:03:12] because you have all these notes stacked
[00:03:14] on top of each other, right?
[00:03:15] So you have this massive big class.chord.
[00:03:19] So you can make some changes here to it.
[00:03:20] You can clear it and then you can say,
[00:03:23] I want to write instead of normal,
[00:03:24] I want to write it in italic.
[00:03:26] So a bit tilted.
[00:03:29] So it looks like this.
[00:03:31] So now you have at least an ascending line.
[00:03:34] Or maybe an octave lower.
[00:03:45] (upbeat music)
[00:03:47] You can also write normal.
[00:03:54] And then you can say,
[00:03:55] I want to increase the text height, right?
[00:03:58] Three semitones.
[00:04:00] Looks like this.
[00:04:01] So it's more stretched out.
[00:04:03] Can still read it in a way.
[00:04:06] Or maybe write this one octave lower.
[00:04:13] (upbeat music)
[00:04:15] Clear, italic, right?
[00:04:18] (upbeat music)
[00:04:21] Then we have your text width.
[00:04:31] Three, right?
[00:04:38] So you can stretch out all the individual gaps
[00:04:41] here between the nodes if you want to.
[00:04:43] Text height, I showed you this text width, text gap.
[00:04:47] So this is, let's bring this down here.
[00:04:50] Make this normal.
[00:04:54] This is the gap between each letter, right?
[00:04:58] So if you bring this down,
[00:05:00] you can see all these letters are more closer together.
[00:05:05] You can also spread them out a bit more.
[00:05:08] (upbeat music)
[00:05:11] So I could do all kinds of funny things with this.
[00:05:14] I make it bold or maybe create some outlines to it
[00:05:19] or maybe add the density.
[00:05:23] So when you stretch it out here, text height, right?
[00:05:28] Add some nodes between here.
[00:05:32] So you can see the lines more clearly, stuff like this.
[00:05:35] But I didn't want to invest too much time
[00:05:39] into this funny joke, right?
[00:05:41] So, but if you say so, this is pretty dope,
[00:05:44] please make it, then I probably do it.
[00:05:47] But I think that's, you know,
[00:05:52] it's enough just for this joke, in my opinion.
[00:05:55] So if you want to look at the script here, maybe,
[00:06:00] I had to define some kind of font.
[00:06:05] So this is each letter in the alphabet, right?
[00:06:07] Also, here's some numbers and some, yeah, signs.
[00:06:12] So this is the letter A, right?
[00:06:17] So this is all the X and Y coordinates for each letter.
[00:06:21] And then I just place it inside of the piano.
[00:06:24] So it's actually not super complicated,
[00:06:27] but I could make it more complicated, right, more.
[00:06:32] But, you know, in my opinion, it's enough for this joke.
[00:06:37] So this is called text maker.
[00:06:39] Yeah, I put this in the description below.
[00:06:43] If you want to download it, just download the zip file.
[00:06:45] As always, put it into your controller scripts directory.
[00:06:50] Make a sub folder for a lot of people on Mac.
[00:06:52] It works better when it's in a sub folder for some reason.
[00:06:55] And then you go to your controller settings here, right?
[00:06:59] And then you add it down here, add generic use polarity,
[00:07:03] and then choose text maker, add.
[00:07:06] And then it should pop up on the right side here.
[00:07:10] I think that's it.
[00:07:14] Yeah, let me know what you think.
[00:07:16] If I should extend on this,
[00:07:18] I have also a lot of other ideas for the piano roll
[00:07:20] I'm working on at the moment.
[00:07:22] So this was just a funny joke I always wanted to do.
[00:07:25] Maybe it's funny to you.
[00:07:28] Maybe you can do something with it, something serious.
[00:07:30] Maybe it's a nice party trick for a video or for a stream.
[00:07:34] I don't know.
[00:07:36] Let me know what you think in the comments down below.
[00:07:38] Leave a like, leave a subscription,
[00:07:40] and have a great weekend. Bye.