Tags: posts polarity-music Bitwig Tutorial Preset

BND Wavecycle Bender - Creative FM/PM Audio Effect

Tutorial | Aug 18, 2025

I'm sharing a free Bitwig preset called BND Wave Cycle Bender, inspired by Colugo's BND device for Reaktor, which applies pitch-tracked phase modulation to audio for unique distortion effects. This tool allows you to add new harmonics and character to your audio samples by tracking pitch and modulating them with a sine oscillator, with adjustable delay and modulation settings for creative results. You can download the preset from my Patreon or GitHub and experiment with it on your own sounds to discover interesting textures and effects.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

Short Overview

Today I'm sharing a new Bitwig preset that's been on my hard drive for quite some time, inspired by the BND device from Colugo. This preset uses pitch tracking to drive a sine oscillator, applying phase modulation to audio files for unique, pitch-tracked distortion effects. It's a creative way to add new harmonics or textures to your sounds, whether you're working with basslines or ambient samples. You can download it for free and experiment with it right away to discover some fresh audio possibilities.

Introduction

Today I am sharing a new preset that I have had on my hard drive for quite some time. I am not sure why I haven’t released it earlier, but it is an interesting effect inspired by another device from Reaktor. The preset is completely free to download and you can use it in your own projects.

The Problem: Adding Top-End to Bass Sounds

In Bitwig, I often find myself with a bassline or bass sounds that sound a bit muffled and lack top-end sparkle or texture. Normally, to add some high-frequency content back in, you might use distortion or layer in noise samples.

My Solution: Using Textures and Modulation

One approach I use before is layering texture samples and using amplitude or ring modulation to merge noise with the original signal. I filter out the low end from the modulation path so only the upper frequencies of the bass affect the noise layer, making the top end more reactive and lively without constant noisy artifacts from the sub-bass.

The New Preset: BND Wave Cycle Bender

Instead of using standard distortion, I created a device called the BND Wave Cycle Bender. This effect applies phase modulation or frequency modulation to audio files. The core idea is to use a sine oscillator, whose pitch is dynamically tracked from the incoming audio, to modulate the phase of the original sound. You can set the oscillator to various ratios of the detected pitch for creative control, producing a pitch-tracked distortion effect and generating new harmonics.

Pitch-Tracked Distortion Explained

Pitch-tracked distortion means the modulator (in this case a sine wave) tracks the incoming sound pitch, resulting in modulation that feels harmonically "locked" to the original note or sound, unlike typical distortion which can introduce unrelated harmonics.

Practical Use Cases

I demonstrate the preset using a bass sound and show how it adds harmonics and livens up the top end. The effect works dynamically, so you can automate when and how much of it is applied. This opens up a lot of sound design possibilities where you bounce down fresh audio variations directly from processed samples, rather than constantly resynthesizing with a synth.

Inspiration and Origins

This device is inspired by the BND effect by Colugo, a Reaktor user who also appears to be developing a new DAW called Blockhead. The original BND Reaktor device is, as far as I can tell, no longer available online. I’ve had it on my hard drive since its 2016 release. My Bitwig version is influenced by this device but uses different algorithms for pitch tracking and modulation.

How the BND Wave Cycle Bender Works

The device detects the pitch of the incoming signal and uses this value to drive a sine oscillator. It then modulates a delay line with this oscillator for phase or frequency style distortion. If you feed it MIDI notes directly (from an instrument track), it switches to using the note data, which is more accurate than pitch tracking from audio. There are parameters to control delay time, modulation depth, and the ratio of the modulating oscillator.

Technical Concepts

Phase Modulation: The instantaneous phase of the signal is shifted by a modulating signal, creating complex, harmonically rich distortion.

Pitch Detection: The incoming signal’s fundamental frequency is tracked, usually by analyzing zero crossings or spectral peaks, so the modulator can follow the musical content.

Delay Line Modulation: A small buffer delays the signal, and moving this buffer’s read point with a modulator creates both pitch and timbre variations.

Tips and Creative Possibilities

Availability and Download

This preset is completely free to use and can be downloaded via the link in the description or from my Patreon or GitHub. I encourage you to try it on different sounds, experiment, and see what textures and harmonics you can create.

Conclusion

I am excited to finally share this sound design tool with everyone. It provides a new way to generate harmonically rich and dynamic textures from any audio source using pitch-tracked FM-style processing. Give it a try, let me know what you think, and consider joining my Patreon for more presets and support. Thank you for watching.

Full Video Transcription

This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by Whisper, 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.

Click to expand Transcription

[00:00:00] Hey folks, welcome back. So today I want to share a new preset with you guys, which is on my hard drive for quite some time
[00:00:06] I have no idea why I haven't shared this before
[00:00:09] It's an interesting one and it's inspired by another reactor preset. I show you this in a minute and
[00:00:16] It's completely free, of course
[00:00:19] You can download this and put it in your preset folder and you have some fun with it. Okay, that's how it goes
[00:00:24] So in bitwig, it looks like this here. I have some kind of baseline or work on some baselines here
[00:00:31] And for instance this sound here
[00:00:33] Need some top-end sounds like this
[00:00:37] So some kind of base sound and it misses some top-end it's a lot of muffled here around this region
[00:00:48] Right, but here not so much so I need some top-end and what you usually do is you put distortion on it or maybe
[00:00:55] Some noise samples here. I use textures, which is also a preset of mine
[00:01:01] So it uses some texture samples and then uses amplitude modulation ring modulation to put some noise on top
[00:01:09] Right, it's just a sample here and then amplitude modulated with the initial bass sound
[00:01:17] And then I use here on the pre-fx box. I use an EQ 5 and take all the bass out
[00:01:22] So it doesn't react the envelope follower doesn't react to the bass to the sub
[00:01:28] Right which makes it much more noisier because there's a lot of
[00:01:37] There's a sub always on right when the sub is always on the envelope follower follows all the time and you get noise all the time
[00:01:45] So taking this out here
[00:01:47] It only reacts to the top-end which is the interesting part for me and then I put this on top
[00:02:03] Bit of pink noise to that and then you get a nice
[00:02:11] Yeah, a texture top, but but that's not the the preset. I want to show you this is an old one just an example here
[00:02:17] so and then you usually put some
[00:02:20] let's say
[00:02:22] Distortion on top and instead of distortion. I use here this one which is called
[00:02:26] BND wave cycle bender. Okay, and this one does basically a
[00:02:32] Face modulation or frequency modulation on audio files. So it sounds like this here with this on top
[00:02:39] so
[00:02:41] Oh
[00:02:43] , oh
[00:02:45] , oh
[00:02:47] , oh
[00:02:49] , oh
[00:02:51] Oh
[00:02:53] . Okay
[00:02:55] (air whooshing)
[00:02:58] Okay.
[00:03:25] So it does basically, yeah, face modulation
[00:03:28] on audio files, which is the idea about this.
[00:03:33] But here it's not just a sine oscillator
[00:03:35] modulating the delay time of the audio.
[00:03:39] The sine oscillator actually follows the pitch
[00:03:42] of the incoming audio signal.
[00:03:44] So it tries to pitch detect what's going on in here.
[00:03:47] And then it uses this pitch to drive in sine oscillator.
[00:03:51] And then the sine oscillator,
[00:03:52] you can use your different ratios,
[00:03:55] but here this is half the frequency of the detected pitch.
[00:03:58] And this is twice the frequency of the detected pitch.
[00:04:02] So you can kind of ratio, decide which kind of ratio
[00:04:07] you want to use for the sine oscillator
[00:04:09] to then face modulate the audio signal.
[00:04:13] So it gives you some kind of pitch tracked distortion effect.
[00:04:18] And sometimes it gives you exactly what you want.
[00:04:21] So this is here on the bass sound.
[00:04:23] It kind of sounds nice to me, actually.
[00:04:26] (air whooshing)
[00:04:29] So we can modulate this here, or maybe automate this
[00:04:36] and say we want to have this only on the end here,
[00:04:39] something like this, maybe here.
[00:04:41] (air whooshing)
[00:04:46] Right, instead of this.
[00:04:49] (air whooshing)
[00:04:52] (air whooshing)
[00:04:53] So this could be something that you can use,
[00:04:56] and then you bounce it out to a new audio file
[00:04:58] and they have a new kind of sound.
[00:05:01] Instead of just using a synthesizer
[00:05:03] and replicating the sound and doing something else here,
[00:05:07] you can just use an audio file, put this on top,
[00:05:10] and you get some new harmonics.
[00:05:13] So this one is on my hard drive for quite some time.
[00:05:16] And I should also show you how it looks like here.
[00:05:19] It's very simple, actually.
[00:05:21] And it's inspired by, what's the name?
[00:05:26] Colugo.
[00:05:28] It's inspired by the effect device called BND by Colugo.
[00:05:32] And I think Colugo is also the same guy
[00:05:34] who makes actually the, what's the name?
[00:05:38] Blockhead, a new DAW currently in development.
[00:05:42] So yeah, this one here is made or inspired by this guy's
[00:05:47] device called BND.
[00:05:48] And you can download this effect here as a reactor.
[00:05:52] Let me see if I find that reactor on Fx.
[00:05:58] I think this one, open file recently, this one here.
[00:06:03] Yeah, so this is how it looks like here in reactor.
[00:06:09] It sounds a bit different
[00:06:10] because there's a different pitch tracking algorithm,
[00:06:12] I guess, and a bit of different things here,
[00:06:15] but it does the same thing.
[00:06:17] (keyboard clacking)
[00:06:20] So it sounds a bit different.
[00:06:38] There's a different sound to it,
[00:06:42] but it's inspired by this device.
[00:06:46] I looked it up.
[00:06:46] This one is not online anymore for some reason.
[00:06:49] I haven't found it in the reactor user library.
[00:06:52] I don't know why, but I have this here on my hard drive
[00:06:56] for quite some time here.
[00:06:58] It says here it's released on 2016.
[00:07:02] So it's quite old.
[00:07:04] So yeah, this was inspired by this.
[00:07:07] So the WaveBender thing here is completely free.
[00:07:12] You can download this of course in the description below
[00:07:15] or on my Patreon if you want to.
[00:07:17] And yeah, like I said, pitch tracking is in here.
[00:07:21] And then I use this to drive a sine oscillator
[00:07:24] and then use then the output here
[00:07:27] and alter rate, modulate, delay time.
[00:07:29] If there is a node incoming, as you can see here,
[00:07:34] if you want to use this on an instrument track,
[00:07:38] you use then basically the nodes.
[00:07:40] So this switches then automatically to using the nodes
[00:07:44] instead of using pitch tracking here,
[00:07:46] which is much more accurate, right?
[00:07:49] So I can show you this here maybe on an ambient drone here.
[00:07:54] Let's loop this here for a moment.
[00:07:58] So there's a node in here, right?
[00:08:02] There's a node clip and then driving the sampler.
[00:08:04] And then we have this audio here
[00:08:06] and then you put this BMT wave cycle banner on there.
[00:08:10] And then in here, you can see it uses basically
[00:08:15] the node information coming in from this node clip.
[00:08:22] (engine revving)
[00:08:24] . (engine revving)
[00:08:29] (engine revving)
[00:08:32] So yeah, that's the preset for you.
[00:08:58] Also you have here some kind of different bass sound.
[00:09:01] (engine revving)
[00:09:27] Also play around here with the delay time.
[00:09:29] Delay time is basically this one here.
[00:09:32] So if you have to set zero,
[00:09:34] the output audio is not delayed at all,
[00:09:37] but I need some kind of delay buffer here.
[00:09:39] So you need to dial in something.
[00:09:42] If you push this up here, the band,
[00:09:45] which increases basically the delay time modulation,
[00:09:47] as you can see here.
[00:09:48] So you need a bit of wiggle room, right?
[00:09:50] So you need to have a higher delay time here.
[00:09:53] But if you don't use that
[00:09:56] and you just use here a small amount of bands,
[00:09:59] as you can see the modulation here is not that high
[00:10:04] or the range is not that high.
[00:10:06] So you can pull this down.
[00:10:07] So there is not, you know,
[00:10:09] there's not a big offset between the incoming signal,
[00:10:13] the outgoing signal.
[00:10:14] Sometimes it sounds also a bit different.
[00:10:17] (upbeat music)
[00:10:19] (upbeat music)
[00:10:22] So you can play around with this on audio files.
[00:10:41] Sometimes it's very nice to have this,
[00:10:44] instead of, you know, like I said,
[00:10:45] pulling up a synth, replicating the sound
[00:10:47] and doing a different sound.
[00:10:49] Here you can just put this on an audio sample,
[00:10:52] a play around with it and, you know, see what it does.
[00:10:57] And yes, the pitch tracking is not that accurate
[00:11:01] inside of Bitwig here,
[00:11:03] but it does its job actually very well, in my opinion.
[00:11:06] Also you have with the filter
[00:11:08] before going into the zero-crossings module.
[00:11:11] And also sometimes you get some weird artifacts,
[00:11:15] some weird things because the pitch tracking breaks down,
[00:11:19] which also gives you some kind of random output.
[00:11:23] And sometimes it sounds cool.
[00:11:24] So try it out, it's completely free.
[00:11:26] I never shared this before.
[00:11:28] I put it on my Patreon in my GitHub
[00:11:30] and then you can just download this and have some fun.
[00:11:35] That's it for this video.
[00:11:37] I hope you enjoyed this thing.
[00:11:39] Let me know what you think and that's it.
[00:11:43] Leave a like, leave a thumbs up, subscription.
[00:11:45] Thanks for watching and bye.
[00:11:47] [BLANK_AUDIO]