Tags: posts polarity-music Bitwig Tutorial

Gate1 and Time1 - Free Volume and Time Shaper Plugins

Tutorial | Apr 25, 2025

In this video, I recommend two open-source, free plugins: Gate1 and Time1. Gate1 is great for shaping volume with precision, offering features like waveform visualization that you won't find in similar tools. Time1 allows you to manipulate delay time for creative effects like halftiming or simulating turntables.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

Summary

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

Hey everyone, welcome back to another video! Today, I’ll be sharing two awesome plugin recommendations that I think you’ll really enjoy. First up, let’s check out the track playing in the background. You can hear the strum loop along with a kick and snare. Now, I’ve added a plugin called Gate1 to this track. This is the first recommendation, and it's comparable to plugins like ShaperBox’s Volume Shaper, LFO Tool, or Bitwig’s Segments Modulator. However, the standout feature of Gate1 is that it’s an open-source clap plugin, which means it’s free! Plus, you can see the audio waveform in the background, which is super useful.

I’ve sampled one bar of the drum loop here, but you can also display two bars if you want. With this plugin, you can manipulate the volume curve using options like Line and Snap, or even change the grid to something like 16. By holding the right mouse button, you can easily draw in a curve. In this demo, I’ve isolated some hi-hats and left out the kick and snare.

If the result sounds too drastic or clicky, you can smooth things out with the attack and release settings. You can even adjust the phase and define multiple volume shapes. The interface is a major plus point for me; I find it much more user-friendly than ShaperBox. Whereas ShaperBox 3’s interface can feel sluggish to me, Gate1 is lightweight and straightforward. It also doesn’t require any logging or payments.

Interestingly, despite having no presets, you can load random shapes, which is pretty innovative. It offers options that ShaperBox doesn’t, such as triggering from a different MIDI channel and seeing the waveform in the background, which is something Bitwig’s tool lacks.

I’m also recommending Time1, a plugin that focuses on shaping delay time. It has a similar interface to Gate1. By drawing in shapes, you can manipulate the time or delay time on your master bus. You can create effects like halftime or simulate turntable effects. You can even create glitchy effects by using random shapes. It provides various options and is also free.

Both plugins are available as clap plugins or VSTs and can be found on GitHub. They’re developed by the same individual who made Rippler X, a fantastic physical modeling synthesizer.

That’s all for this video. If you found it useful, please like and subscribe. Enjoy experimenting with these plugins, and I’ll see you next time!

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] Yo, folks, welcome back to another video. I want to give you two nice plug-in recommendations today and
[00:00:06] First up I show you here the track in the background sounds like this
[00:00:10] We have the strum loop here in the background
[00:00:26] And there's a kick in a snare in there, right? So I put here this plug-in on there. It's called Gate1
[00:00:32] So that's the first recommendation and it's something that you can compare can compare to
[00:00:37] Shaper pox volume shaper or LFO tool or you can do this in bitwig with the segments
[00:00:46] Multilator, but the big benefit of this one here is first and foremost, it's a clap plug-in
[00:00:52] It's open source. It's free and you can see the audio waveform in the background
[00:00:57] Right, so we can see a drum loop in the background. I have
[00:01:00] Here one bar that I sample we can also use two bars so we can see two bars of the
[00:01:07] drum loop in the background
[00:01:10] Then you can act here with this curve in terms of shaping the volume
[00:01:15] So we can say line and we can use snap eight
[00:01:20] Or we can also change the grit here to maybe 16
[00:01:22] Right, then I use the right mouse button and hold it down and I can draw in here
[00:01:28] nice curve
[00:01:31] let's go to
[00:01:33] Or actually I want to have only eight. Maybe let's use eight
[00:01:37] Um, I have to remove this
[00:01:40] Um, so I want to have this hi-hat in here
[00:01:44] right
[00:01:47] And maybe these two hi-hats here
[00:01:49] And
[00:01:51] I leave out the kick and the snare of the drum loop
[00:01:56] And if you think this is drastic or maybe you have click and pops in there
[00:02:00] You can choose and ease out here the attack and release of these, um volume shapes
[00:02:07] You
[00:02:09] Can also move the face pretty nice
[00:02:22] We can define multiple shapes multiple volume shapes here
[00:02:27] All right, you can do something different something like this here. Um, I think you can also change at the rate. Maybe no
[00:02:36] The rate is always globally defined. Um
[00:02:39] Right only the kick
[00:02:45] Or we can say uh saw down and then right click and paint it in
[00:02:53] And then instead of, you know, just taking this here and move everything manually you can use tension here
[00:03:02] And do something like this
[00:03:05] So
[00:03:07] The interface in my opinion is much much better than shape a box
[00:03:18] Let's call it up here. Um shape a box three. Uh, what's the name volume shape here?
[00:03:24] I never liked how this worked here for some reason. I always found that the interface is too cpu heavy or gpu heavy
[00:03:33] Um, I kind of had always this luggage feel to the interface. I don't like how here the
[00:03:39] Segments editor work. I mean, it's it's cool. It it works
[00:03:43] I can get my head around it, but I never found it really inspiring or
[00:03:48] I didn't like it for some reason. I have no idea. It's just me probably
[00:03:52] um
[00:03:55] So, um, this one here works great for me. It's very, um
[00:04:00] Lightweight in a way. It's a it's clap plug in base. It's open source. There's no i log. There's no look in
[00:04:06] It's no money. You have to pay. It's just open source. It's just there. You download it and it works
[00:04:12] Um
[00:04:14] Resizing works, um, there are some options in here that are kind of interesting. You have here some for for some reason
[00:04:21] No presets, but you can load here something like random. So it does a random shape
[00:04:29] That's maybe interesting
[00:04:31] Triangle is something like this and we have sign
[00:04:34] Okay, for whatever reason, maybe there is a option in the future to have some presets
[00:04:39] You can also clear this up here and then we can
[00:04:43] Um paint something like this and say, uh reverse
[00:04:47] Then it's reversing the shapes. So a lot of things in here you can't find in shape a box
[00:04:53] Um trigger channel. So if you want to trigger actually the midi
[00:04:58] From a different midi channel. It's 10 for some reason
[00:05:01] Um, I have no idea what this is here probably how the shape behaves
[00:05:06] In word also there
[00:05:10] Yeah, so a lot of things
[00:05:12] A lot of features in here you can't find an LFO tool or shape a box, um, you know
[00:05:17] Without paying money and like I said, the big benefit of this here is that you can see in the background
[00:05:24] Audio waveform, um compared to bitwig if you want to just use the tool device here and use the segments
[00:05:31] Segments modulator you can of course change the shape here, but you can't see
[00:05:37] The waveform in the background
[00:05:40] And sometimes it's important because you want to pull down the volume of certain elements
[00:05:44] Maybe only the hi-hats. Maybe only the kick drums
[00:05:46] I mean, you can manage it to make it happen inside the segments if you know where the kick drum is
[00:05:52] But it's better sometimes to see it
[00:05:54] Um, so yeah, it works flawlessly. Um, the website looks like this. It's just a github
[00:06:01] Repository
[00:06:03] Um with the segments editor 12. Yeah, you can download the vsc 3 and the clap version here
[00:06:10] And if you want to you can also compile it yourself on linux, maybe
[00:06:15] And make some changes to it if you want to so completely open everything
[00:06:21] And the next plug-in I want to show you is the
[00:06:24] The brother or sister plug-in
[00:06:27] Called Time1. It's the same thing you shape here the delay time
[00:06:32] It also looks kind of the same
[00:06:35] Maybe let's put this here. Let's go back here to
[00:06:39] erase
[00:06:43] Or let's use line actually
[00:06:51] Let's use this and this
[00:06:53] So this is now the time shaper or Time1 on the master bus
[00:07:10] And we can do the same thing we can use line here and just draw in something
[00:07:16] And what you do here is not you don't shape the volume you shape the time or the delay time
[00:07:21] I'll maybe erase this and use a curve
[00:07:32] Something like this. I think this is speeding up. Maybe you snap
[00:07:43] Oh, it's better to slow it down. I think this is halftime
[00:07:46] Also here you can use different presets you can change the sample time
[00:08:02] You have something for the left mouse button here, right?
[00:08:08] Or that's the no, that's that's the paint. So right click and you paint here a shape
[00:08:13] With the grid size
[00:08:18] Okay, so up
[00:08:23] Or you can use your random also
[00:08:34] So you can shape delay time, so that's the point of this whole plug in so you can make halftime stuff
[00:08:51] You can slow down you can assimilate turntables
[00:08:54] Whatever you want to do you can also do some glitchy stuff here with the random
[00:09:00] Random shape. Yeah, all kinds of things
[00:09:03] Also here reverse invert clear so all kinds of options presets
[00:09:09] Yeah, that's it. It's also free available as a clap plug in or vst
[00:09:15] Link is in the description below. It's basically the same developer
[00:09:20] For rippler x here it might also video about this a while ago
[00:09:26] It's this physical modeling synthesizer also great
[00:09:29] So link is in the description below
[00:09:32] That's it for this video. Thanks for watching. Leave a like leave a subscription. Have some fun with this
[00:09:37] I really like these plug ins. So see you next time
[00:09:41] [BLANK_AUDIO]