How to Build Bitwig Grid Patches From Scratch

[00:00:00] (upbeat music)
[00:00:02] Hey folks, welcome back.
[00:00:10] So some people want to know
[00:00:11] how I actually built these grid patches here.
[00:00:15] And it looks like super complex,
[00:00:17] but it's actually not.
[00:00:18] It's just multiple instruments in here,
[00:00:20] playing different sequences.
[00:00:22] And some of these instruments
[00:00:24] have also some audio effects on it,
[00:00:27] like reverb or delays and so on.
[00:00:29] And it gets pretty complicated very fast.
[00:00:32] And it looks even more complex
[00:00:34] because I'm just taking these modules here in the end
[00:00:38] and just putting them closer together
[00:00:40] so they look like this compact square form here,
[00:00:44] just for the video.
[00:00:45] But it looks more complex than it actually is.
[00:00:49] And some people want me to dissect this
[00:00:51] and say, oh, this is actually doing this
[00:00:53] and this is doing that.
[00:00:54] And it's, even for me, it's not easy to do
[00:00:57] because I don't, some of these modules here,
[00:01:00] you know, are cross-referenced across the whole patch.
[00:01:03] So it's not easy to read more or less.
[00:01:07] It's just made compact for the video.
[00:01:10] But there's also something like,
[00:01:13] let's use this something different.
[00:01:16] I made something that is more like,
[00:01:21] let me open this up here.
[00:01:24] Generative party time.
[00:01:27] Yeah, this is more like a techno tune here.
[00:01:29] And here you can see it more clearly.
[00:01:34] We have here the kick drum,
[00:01:35] we have here a bass sound,
[00:01:38] arp and some hi-hats
[00:01:40] and an additional sound sequence, whatever.
[00:01:44] And you can see it more clearly what happens here
[00:01:46] because it's more spread out.
[00:01:47] But they can also, you know, take this
[00:01:49] and move this closer together
[00:01:51] and it looks more complex than it actually is.
[00:01:54] But what I want to do in this video
[00:01:56] is I want to create something from scratch
[00:02:00] and just to take you on the journey here, what I do.
[00:02:06] But it's very straightforward, actually.
[00:02:09] What I need here is a pulley grid.
[00:02:10] So it starts with this, right?
[00:02:14] And what we need to do is we need to put this here,
[00:02:16] of course, into a voices mono mode.
[00:02:19] So we have one active voice.
[00:02:22] And so if this is on mono, we have one active voice.
[00:02:25] And this grid patch runs for itself.
[00:02:29] So you don't need to press a key on the keyboard
[00:02:31] to activate actually one voice.
[00:02:33] Voice stacking is off.
[00:02:36] The vice phase here is exactly one bar, which is okay.
[00:02:40] So we want to start here by creating a kick drum, right?
[00:02:43] We can do this by starting pretty simple.
[00:02:47] We can use maybe a segments,
[00:02:50] not the curve segments, amplitude here
[00:02:52] or envelope, amplitude envelope.
[00:02:56] And we want to put this here on one shot.
[00:02:58] And we want to say this kick drum is probably one 16 note long.
[00:03:03] So in this mode here, one 16 note, right?
[00:03:07] This thing from here to here is basically
[00:03:09] exactly one 16 note long.
[00:03:12] So it depends also on the BPM, right?
[00:03:14] So one on 25 BPM, this is a different size
[00:03:17] than on one on 20 or one on 30 and so on.
[00:03:21] But here we have timing and we can say
[00:03:25] this is my kick drum.
[00:03:26] So maybe we use this here for the volume shape.
[00:03:31] Instead of using this like this.
[00:03:37] And we want to use pitch input.
[00:03:43] So we want to say our kick drum ends on maybe G zero.
[00:03:50] And then we can start and trigger this already.
[00:03:55] So four triggers for each bar, which is exactly four to the floor.
[00:04:00] And you have already some kind of kick drum here.
[00:04:05] It's not the best kick drum so far, but it can hear it,
[00:04:10] how it ends up.
[00:04:11] Okay, so now we need a pitch envelope.
[00:04:16] We can just duplicate this here.
[00:04:19] We also want to trigger this, of course.
[00:04:21] And here we need something different.
[00:04:23] We want to have a high pitch here
[00:04:24] and then we come down to the lowest, which is then G zero.
[00:04:29] And what I do sometimes, you can just put this here
[00:04:32] into the phase modulation thing, right?
[00:04:34] And you get something like a pitch envelope.
[00:04:45] But what I like to do is I don't care so much
[00:04:49] for having a phase consistency.
[00:04:52] I'm just, I care for the kick drum actually sounds good
[00:04:57] in the first place.
[00:04:58] So I'm using add here.
[00:05:02] So I'm using the pitch signal here, which is on G zero.
[00:05:06] Goes into the sign and the sine wave, of course, place G zero.
[00:05:10] But then I add here my segments thing.
[00:05:15] And this should sound like this.
[00:05:20] So what I know, or can hear already is that the pitch
[00:05:27] in here is maybe too fast, right?
[00:05:29] And that's the problem with using this
[00:05:31] for the pitch envelope.
[00:05:34] The best sounding kick drum sound
[00:05:35] like when you have this here on the edges, right?
[00:05:39] Which is not really what I like.
[00:05:42] So what you can do there is you can use a band here.
[00:05:47] So you can scale this kind of curve already
[00:05:55] and it's more like this when you have this on, right?
[00:05:59] So you can scale it in a different way.
[00:06:01] So you don't need to go here to the corners
[00:06:04] to get the right pitch.
[00:06:05] (mouse clicking)
[00:06:08] So this already sounds a bit better.
[00:06:24] Maybe you can also put here some kind of wave shape on that.
[00:06:29] (mouse clicking)
[00:06:33] (mouse clicking)
[00:06:36] So right, this here already sounds not good on the tail,
[00:06:42] but in the beginning on the attack phase.
[00:06:46] So we can maybe use this here already, make a modulation.
[00:06:51] (mouse clicking)
[00:06:53] So this is not only at the pitch,
[00:06:57] but when the pitch is high,
[00:06:58] we also have more wave shaping.
[00:07:02] (mouse clicking)
[00:07:05] It gives you maybe a better sound
[00:07:27] and maybe also replaces here for something else.
[00:07:29] It gets a different sound.
[00:07:33] (mouse clicking)
[00:07:36] Rectifier, heat.
[00:07:40] (mouse clicking)
[00:07:42] That's okay.
[00:07:48] All we can use the modulator output here
[00:07:52] and use the scaled curve instead of the real curve.
[00:07:57] (mouse clicking)
[00:08:00] Replaces again here with the push.
[00:08:04] (mouse clicking)
[00:08:07] Yeah, that's okay.
[00:08:08] (mouse clicking)
[00:08:10] So we already have here a nice kick drum.
[00:08:15] (mouse clicking)
[00:08:19] Pretty dope.
[00:08:20] So then we move on and maybe introduce here some hats.
[00:08:23] So we go for noise.
[00:08:25] (mouse clicking)
[00:08:27] And you can make it,
[00:08:30] I usually start simple always use here a second output.
[00:08:36] So you can see we don't use a mixer here.
[00:08:38] And the reason for that is I'm just want to keep it spread out
[00:08:41] and separate.
[00:08:42] Maybe in the end I to do just a normal mixer
[00:08:45] and then combine everything into one output.
[00:08:47] But here for the moment, I just use this.
[00:08:49] (mouse clicking)
[00:08:52] (mouse clicking)
[00:08:55] Right, so with this, we can now go to eight.
[00:08:58] (mouse clicking)
[00:09:01] Or 16 notes.
[00:09:03] (mouse clicking)
[00:09:06] Maybe again.
[00:09:11] (mouse clicking)
[00:09:15] So we can pull this down and allow this.
[00:09:17] So now we want to modulate here the hi-hats.
[00:09:19] We want to have certain hi-hats longer
[00:09:22] and certain high-hats shorter.
[00:09:24] So we can do this maybe here with the transport.
[00:09:28] (mouse clicking)
[00:09:30] So the transport also outputs here some kind of ramp.
[00:09:35] And we can say 16 notes and the length is four 16 notes.
[00:09:43] So we have a repeating pattern going up
[00:09:46] over exactly four 16 notes.
[00:09:50] So we can take this and modulate here the length of the decay.
[00:09:55] (mouse clicking)
[00:10:00] Right, so we like this.
[00:10:01] So now the end is basically on the kick drum.
[00:10:07] So the highest point is on the kick drum,
[00:10:09] but I want the highest point to be the offset.
[00:10:11] So between the two kick drums, so I can offset this here.
[00:10:15] (mouse clicking)
[00:10:19] (mouse clicking)
[00:10:22] Right, so just with this offset,
[00:10:25] we have now this peak here in the middle
[00:10:28] of two kick drums, which is kind of better for me.
[00:10:33] (mouse clicking)
[00:10:35] You can also maybe use your band, make this more.
[00:10:40] (mouse clicking)
[00:10:43] (mouse clicking)
[00:10:46] (mouse clicking)
[00:10:48] (mouse clicking)
[00:10:51] (mouse clicking)
[00:10:53] Maybe this is better.
[00:10:55] (mouse clicking)
[00:10:57] (mouse clicking)
[00:10:59] Yeah, this is better.
[00:11:00] (mouse clicking)
[00:11:03] (mouse clicking)
[00:11:05] And we want to maybe use some high pass on that.
[00:11:10] (mouse clicking)
[00:11:12] Let's try it out all the sounds, or the other way around.
[00:11:35] Okay, let's make a clap sound, maybe you can take the same noise source and do the same thing
[00:12:01] let's use the transport here and audio out. I think I take eight notes here.
[00:12:18] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:12:22] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:12:25] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:12:28] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:12:56] Yeah, it's unsanquerized.
[00:12:58] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:13:05] And maybe also filled on that peak filled on.
[00:13:08] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:13:12] I really love the peak filter of the XP.
[00:13:14] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:13:31] Better groove.
[00:13:32] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:14:00] OK, so we have already a nice, small groove.
[00:14:05] And because the grid here also uses shuffle,
[00:14:08] we can bring in the global shuffle.
[00:14:10] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:14:14] OK, so now we need the base.
[00:14:16] And I start by using maybe a saw.
[00:14:19] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:14:22] And to use some triggers here, maybe two triggers.
[00:14:27] 16 nodes, and a clock quantizer, just to make it simple.
[00:14:31] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:14:34] And a three, and then using an 80.
[00:14:37] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:14:40] Audio out.
[00:14:41] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:14:48] And we need the pitch.
[00:14:50] Maybe also an output gain.
[00:14:53] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:15:03] So maybe I'll just use here some pitches.
[00:15:06] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:15:21] So if I like this, maybe put it an octave lower.
[00:15:25] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:15:29] And maybe a low pass.
[00:15:32] We use the selling key filter.
[00:15:34] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:15:39] Maybe a different envelope.
[00:15:42] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:16:00] So what we can do now here is also
[00:16:02] to try and offset this pattern.
[00:16:06] So I'm using-- I start with just using the phase input here.
[00:16:14] Instead of using the pre-code I'm using here, the connection,
[00:16:17] then I'm using a shift.
[00:16:20] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:16:25] And move this 50% to the right.
[00:16:28] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:16:36] And this is here on C. Maybe I want to go lower.
[00:16:40] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:16:48] And then we want to stick to a minor.
[00:16:50] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:17:08] And because we have the kick drum here--
[00:17:12] that's the kick drum here-- we have the real shape
[00:17:15] of the amplitude of the kick drums.
[00:17:18] So we can just take here this automation output
[00:17:22] and just modulate the volume of the bass.
[00:17:27] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:17:54] Or maybe use a rectifier here, or a different kind of saturator.
[00:18:02] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:18:28] So what I can try now is to bring a bit more variety
[00:18:31] into the bass line here to say use a transport.
[00:18:38] And transport puts out the phase over two bars.
[00:18:45] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:18:51] So let's go.
[00:18:52] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:18:55] All right, instead of having here phase over one--
[00:19:02] can I change the output color?
[00:19:06] So it's a different length, more or less.
[00:19:10] So with this, I want to change the trigger speed.
[00:19:19] Or maybe I use a band.
[00:19:23] It could be also interesting to change the shift here back
[00:19:29] to zero.
[00:19:30] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:19:39] And here it's a completely different groove.
[00:19:43] So before-- [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:20:03] That is a bit the longer.
[00:20:04] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:20:11] Maybe I use the kick drum also to duck the hi-hats.
[00:20:15] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:20:45] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:20:48] I'm not happy with the curve.
[00:20:52] It's OK.
[00:20:53] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:21:04] So this is already a much, much better groove than before.
[00:21:09] We maybe need to add here some arps.
[00:21:14] So I do sign because it doesn't have too many overtones.
[00:21:22] And maybe we go here for the same--
[00:21:25] use the same thing as you use a pitch quantizer.
[00:21:28] Pitch quantizer is actually not needed
[00:21:30] if you want to go in here and paint the right notes.
[00:21:34] But I'm too lazy most of the time.
[00:21:36] So I'm just sticking here with the pitch quantizer
[00:21:40] because it's just faster for me.
[00:21:43] Let's switch this off here.
[00:21:44] So when you hit the keyboard, it doesn't shift the pitch.
[00:21:49] Use an add here.
[00:21:54] And we do maybe the same trick here with this.
[00:21:58] Maybe it's kind of the same groove.
[00:22:02] We also have here a volume and output.
[00:22:09] Nice.
[00:22:12] See how this sounds.
[00:22:13] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:22:18] Ah, we want to have this maybe a noctifier.
[00:22:20] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:22:24] Oh, we need a sample and hold.
[00:22:25] You can hear the pitch is sometimes shifting.
[00:22:30] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:22:50] It's a bit boring, so we need to add some delay, of course.
[00:22:55] Or maybe make it more interesting
[00:23:00] by using a second sign and make face modulation.
[00:23:03] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:23:12] And maybe do the same trick here with this.
[00:23:15] That's not what we need.
[00:23:16] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:23:20] But here we go for three bars and change this up.
[00:23:26] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:23:35] Right, you can hear that the melody changes then
[00:23:37] after two bars.
[00:23:38] It gets a little bit different, so it doesn't sound like it's
[00:23:42] just one bar all the time looping.
[00:23:44] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:23:49] So we want to build a reverb, so we do some all pass stuff here.
[00:23:56] Actually, it's just better to just use here one line connecting
[00:24:01] these two.
[00:24:02] We use a blend.
[00:24:03] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:24:16] Maybe a chorus.
[00:24:17] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:24:24] And more all pass.
[00:24:25] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:24:34] So this is basically here the reverb.
[00:24:38] Right, and then we do a delay, a mod delay.
[00:24:42] And we do a separate thing here, use a blend.
[00:24:46] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:24:54] Maybe a high pass in there.
[00:24:56] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:25:18] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:25:42] So, and I like that it switches basically one octave higher
[00:25:46] and then an octave lower.
[00:25:47] So we can use a latch here and say transport.
[00:25:53] Give me a trigger every four bars and then trigger here
[00:26:01] the middle thing.
[00:26:01] And the middle things switches between zero and one.
[00:26:04] So one back to zero, zero to one.
[00:26:08] Every time we have a one, we pitch it up here by one octave.
[00:26:14] Every time we have a zero, we are back to our original.
[00:26:17] So we switch every four bars, one octave higher,
[00:26:20] and then we switch back one octave lower.
[00:26:21] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:26:36] Maybe switch this to a saw wave.
[00:26:38] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:26:44] And the filter on top.
[00:26:45] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:26:50] Whoops.
[00:26:50] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:27:03] And here, the filter basically stays on C3 all the time.
[00:27:10] And we move up the filter when the envelope here is triggered.
[00:27:15] But sometimes, I really like to have here this exactly
[00:27:19] on the pitch.
[00:27:20] So I can take you the pitch that we use to drive the oscillator
[00:27:24] and just put it also here on the filter, which means--
[00:27:31] let's see here if we have a spectrum analyzer.
[00:27:39] I pull this down, 4.5.
[00:27:48] Maybe a resolution a bit higher, huge.
[00:27:52] So you can see we have here these fundamentals, right?
[00:27:56] And when I put this on the pitch of the oscillator,
[00:28:01] what this means is when this filter is at this position,
[00:28:04] we filter basically exactly all the overtones
[00:28:06] and just leave it with the fundamental.
[00:28:09] And you can see this also here, right?
[00:28:12] We only have the fundamentals.
[00:28:13] Maybe open up here the filter, we have all the harmonics.
[00:28:16] So the filter moves with the pitch,
[00:28:21] so which means we can open up or drive here more or less
[00:28:26] the resonance to get more of the fundamental.
[00:28:30] It's more like a sign then.
[00:28:32] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:28:35] But I also want to open up the filter,
[00:28:38] so I do the same thing as with the kick drum here.
[00:28:40] I use an add and then put this here.
[00:28:45] And then we want to change, of course,
[00:28:46] how much you want to open up, so we can't use this anymore
[00:28:49] because it's needed for the pitch here.
[00:28:52] So we use an attenuator, maybe here.
[00:29:01] So you can change here the filter amount.
[00:29:10] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:29:15] So we have basically pitch tracking off the filter
[00:29:17] and we can open up the filter with an envelope at the same time
[00:29:22] without losing anything.
[00:29:23] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:29:33] But in my opinion, the amplitude envelope
[00:29:37] should always be a bit different than the filter envelope.
[00:29:43] So I'm using a separate thing.
[00:29:45] Just call it filter.
[00:29:48] This amp.
[00:29:52] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:29:59] .
[00:30:03] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:30:32] Maybe put just some kind of, what's the name, squash.
[00:30:37] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:30:41] Like an OTT, a peak limiter, that's OK.
[00:30:46] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:30:51] Maybe a clipper.
[00:30:52] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:31:09] And then you can place something on top, I don't know.
[00:31:12] Maybe use here.
[00:31:24] Let's transpose this, six up.
[00:31:40] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:32:08] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:32:13] That doesn't fit, but you can place something on top
[00:32:16] to make it more interesting.
[00:32:17] So you don't need to do everything inside of the grid.
[00:32:21] But that's not what I want to show actually in this video.
[00:32:26] So what I do then, most of the times,
[00:32:28] maybe we also should use here free run when stopped.
[00:32:31] Switch this off so when we stop, it actually stops.
[00:32:36] Oh, there's a snare still playing.
[00:32:38] What's happening there?
[00:32:39] Oh, it's using here to transport.
[00:32:43] So maybe use there, select maybe or toggle.
[00:32:54] Or we use just to playback, transport playing and select.
[00:33:08] So I feel like this.
[00:33:09] OK, so when we play.
[00:33:11] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:33:22] I actually kind of like it.
[00:33:23] So what I do then for the video,
[00:33:25] I try to find here certain things where I can move this closer together.
[00:33:30] So it makes sense or it looks cooler or more compact.
[00:33:35] So I can actually put it on the screen because I have to scroll around here all the time.
[00:33:41] So it's not easy to film or easy to make a movie out of it.
[00:33:45] So just move this here a bit closer together.
[00:33:51] Maybe just remove this.
[00:33:55] And this is sometimes also art in itself how to put this and to rearrange it in a certain way.
[00:34:06] And then it looks super complex and people are impressed.
[00:34:10] But it's not that impressive.
[00:34:12] It's just it looks impressive most of the times.
[00:34:20] Maybe remove this here.
[00:34:26] Maybe put this here, just there.
[00:34:31] There's a bit of room.
[00:34:33] Oh, we have some delays here.
[00:34:40] So it's more compact then.
[00:34:45] There's something else.
[00:34:47] No, it's just that.
[00:34:50] So yeah, this takes a while sometimes to rearrange this in a certain way.
[00:34:57] I wish there would be there.
[00:34:59] There were something like where I can hit or rearrange this in a certain way, right?
[00:35:04] So automatically rearrange it so it makes sense.
[00:35:08] But it's yeah, it's not there.
[00:35:10] But that's usually what I do then for the video.
[00:35:13] And when you have then a square, then it looks nice and you hit play.
[00:35:19] And even sometimes when I have these gaps in here, right, I just take some something like an oscilloscope, which is not really needed.
[00:35:27] But it looks nice and it can fill up some space.
[00:35:37] And here you can switch this sometimes too fast.
[00:35:42] And then use the trigger here to trigger the oscilloscope.
[00:35:46] So you get each sound for each trigger.
[00:35:59] Yeah, and that's that's basically it.
[00:36:02] So I put this on my GitHub.
[00:36:04] I also rearrange this now for maybe two hours or maybe add something on top and save this preset.
[00:36:12] Also put it on my GitHub and maybe make a video for the weekend on my other music channel.
[00:36:17] I also put you the link in the description below if you're not subscribed.
[00:36:20] So you can download this for free.
[00:36:23] I also made a video about my process.
[00:36:26] It's hopefully not too long.
[00:36:28] It's hopefully not too complex.
[00:36:30] This can get, you know, even more complex.
[00:36:35] You saw my other grids and if I just, you know, put enough time in it, I can find a lot of ideas and certain sounds that play at certain times.
[00:36:46] But this is basically the process that I'm using for these type of grids.
[00:36:52] So it's not super complicated.
[00:36:54] It's just putting all my knowledge in there, how to make sounds, how to sequence, how to make audio effects, you know, how to tweak pitch signals and so on.
[00:37:05] So everything basically comes together.
[00:37:07] Also how to rearrange or how to, yeah, how to arrange tracks, what's needed, when to put certain sounds and how to EQ them.
[00:37:18] So everything basically comes together.
[00:37:20] So it's probably a bit of helpful if you already know how to make music than just starting with this.
[00:37:33] I would say modular is kind of easy to get into, but it's also hard to master.
[00:37:40] So yeah, that's probably my thinking about this.
[00:37:46] Anyway, that's it for this video.
[00:37:48] Leave a like, leave a subscription.
[00:37:50] Let me know what you think.
[00:37:51] Maybe you want me to elaborate more on certain things.
[00:37:55] Maybe you want to have longer videos about this.
[00:37:58] I don't know if this is maybe, maybe it's boring for most of you.
[00:38:01] I have no idea.
[00:38:02] Let me know in the comments down below.
[00:38:04] Thanks for watching and see you in the next video.
[00:38:07] Have a nice weekend.
[00:38:08] Bye.
[00:38:09] Bye.