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Note FX in Bitwig 6 are very powerful

Tutorial | Sep 23, 2025

In this walkthrough of Bitwig Studio 6, I demonstrate how to use the new global scale feature to create dynamic and interesting sequences by combining a variety of note effects and MIDI processing tools. By relying on note FX like arpeggiators, randomizers, and quantizers, you can quickly generate complex basslines, melodies, and pads that always stay in key, making generative and experimental music workflows much more accessible. This approach allows you to break out of repetitive habits and explore fresh melodic ideas without being tied to manually drawing notes, harnessing the power of modulation and scale quantization for creative results.

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Short Overview

In this video, I explore how to get the most out of Bitwig Studio 6's new global scale feature, showing how it can make creating interesting drum and melodic sequences easier and more musical. I walk through building a beat with kicks, claps, and hi-hats, then demonstrate how to use note effects and arpeggiators along with the global scale to generate creative basslines and melodies, all while keeping everything in key. The workflow opens up new possibilities for generative music and fresh ideas by letting modulation and randomness become musical, instead of unpredictable noise. If you want to break out of repetitive patterns or try something new in Bitwig, this feature is definitely worth exploring.

Introduction to Bitwig Studio 6’s Global Scale Feature

In this video, I introduce how to make use of the new global scale feature in Bitwig Studio 6 to create interesting musical sequences. My aim is to demonstrate how this new feature lets you experiment with note effects, sequencing, and creative modulation workflows, especially for generative music or fresh idea generation.

Setting Up the Groove: Drums and Grouping

I start by setting the BPM to 125 and laying down a basic drum kit. For the kick, I use V0 and set it up as a one-bar loop. I then add a V1 clap on an instrument track and place it rhythmically with the kick, bringing its volume down slightly for balance. Next, I introduce V8 hi-hats with a very short loop, varying the velocity settings to generate a more lively rhythm. I use Bitwig’s expression automation to make the hi-hat decay modulate with velocity, resulting in more dynamic hi-hats. Each drum element is processed and volume-leveled, and all drum parts are grouped for easier control and layer management. I also apply a peak limiter, both on the individual tracks and on the drum group bus, to ensure the levels never clip.

Creating a Bass with the Global Scale

For the bass, I use Bitwig’s Polymer synthesizer set to monophonic mode by reducing the voices to one. This prevents overlapping or "leaking" notes when using arpeggiators. I insert a long, sustained note into a note clip and let note FX transform this, starting with Note Transpose. I set the global scale to E flat minor using Bitwig’s new feature, ensuring all pitches snap to the scale. To create rhythmic movement, I add an arpeggiator with a three-step pattern, shifting the pitch of the last step. Thanks to the global scale, every arpeggiated note remains harmonically correct.

Synthesizer Sound Design and Signal Processing

I further shape the bass sound by experimenting with different waveforms and filter settings, using both Bitwig’s FX box for more saturation and another peak limiter for safety. For rhythmic movement and mixing clarity, I apply audio sidechain ducking so the bass volume dips whenever the kick hits. I also automate the filter to open more with higher note velocity, using the velocity signal strictly for modulation (not for amplitude changes).

Building a Melody and Layering Arpeggiators

Following similar steps, I create a melody line, again using Polymer. I set up a single root note and use Note Transpose and an arpeggiator, both quantized to the global scale. Layered synthesis comes into play here: I group two arpeggiator lines, each with different step lengths and offsets, assigned to different MIDI channels within the layer. I use channel mapping so one layer gets its modulation applied in a unique way (like changing wavetable position or opening the filter more), while both remain harmonically consistent with the global scale.

Advanced Note FX: Pads, Randomizing, and Quantization

For pad textures, I use another instance of Polymer, combined with Bitwig’s Note Repeat FX, Quantizer, and Randomizer. The Quantizer locks the repeated notes onto a 16th note grid, while the Randomizer (also using the global scale) creates pitch randomness that always fits the musical key. Humanize and chance devices add further rhythmic and textural interest, ensuring that notes do not sound robotic.

Creative Note Effects and Generative Possibilities

With the global scale feature, nearly every note FX device in Bitwig benefits. Arpeggiators, transposers, randomizers, and more can all be pushed to extremes, since the incoming note data is always constrained to your chosen scale. Previously, more effort and extra devices were needed to avoid dissonant results with random or transposed pitches. Now, creative accidents and complex modulations stay musical, greatly enhancing generative and experimental workflows.

Workflow Philosophies and Conclusion

I conclude by highlighting how painting notes manually in the clip editor is often limited by muscle memory and can sound repetitive. Playing on a MIDI keyboard or using note FX chains with the global scale feature introduces chance and fresh movement into your melodies and harmonies. This is particularly powerful for breaking out of creative ruts or finding unexpected musical inspiration.

The global scale feature in Bitwig Studio 6 opens up new horizons for creative sequencing, layering, and generative techniques. Whether you are into electronic production, idea generation, or advanced modulation, this update is a significant step forward in music creation workflows. If you are interested in more deep dives like this, let me know. There are countless ways this feature can be incorporated, and this demonstration is just the start. See you in the next video.

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. I want to give you some input for Bitwig Studio 6 and how you can use
[00:00:05] or utilize the new global scale feature here for creating some interesting sequences, okay?
[00:00:12] So what we want to do here in Bitwig 6 is we want to increase here maybe the BBM to 125
[00:00:18] and we want to create here a kick drum. We use V0 because I like it for some reason.
[00:00:27] Maybe make this one bar long. So we have already a nice kick drum. We don't need the audio track
[00:00:34] here. We use a new instrument track. We want to create here maybe a clap. So I use here V1 clap.
[00:00:43] Yeah, this one is pretty cool. So we just clone here this one and we put the clap here.
[00:00:51] I don't know if this makes sense. Yeah, this makes sense. Okay, then we use V8 hats.
[00:00:58] Also here very short loop just this one. And we also want to use here different velocity settings
[00:01:10] something like this. And to use of course the expression settings here and to use the velocity
[00:01:20] to increase the decay time here of the hi-hats. Right, something like this.
[00:01:26] And maybe also increase here the noise.
[00:01:31] I think this is better. Maybe here the clap sound goes a bit quieter maybe minus five.
[00:01:39] That's okay. On the master we put the peak limiter just to make sure
[00:01:48] and we put here the kick the clap and the hi-hat we put into a group. So we use control and G
[00:01:54] and we just call this drums. And we want to close it down. So these are the drums for now.
[00:02:01] Also peak limiter on the bus. Cool. So we want to create now here a bass sound. So we use a
[00:02:09] polymer and this polymer is monophonic. So I pull down here the voices from 12 to mono.
[00:02:16] It's very important because we have a lot of arpeggiated sounds and we don't want to leak
[00:02:21] one of the notes with the tail into you know the new notes. So we create here a note clip
[00:02:29] and with this note clip we just put one note in there. One long note like this.
[00:02:37] And we maybe instead of pulling this up and down we just use a note transpose here.
[00:02:45] So we utilize a lot of note FX basically to transform the MIDI notes coming from the
[00:02:50] the clip here. So it's just one note on the root note and we probably want to dial in here also
[00:02:57] the scale just E flat minor. So we are on E flat here. This is the root note and yeah it doesn't
[00:03:05] give us anything. So we want to create the bass. So we probably go down here two semitones.
[00:03:11] Let me see how this sounds. Yeah this is a bass sound and we want to arpeggiate this. So we use an
[00:03:17] arpeggiator here and we use a very short sequence let's say three steps and the last step goes maybe
[00:03:23] up four semitones and we use the global scale feature so it always lands on a scale note of
[00:03:31] E flat minor right. So we use the global scale here we just dialed in.
[00:03:37] And you probably want to use saw and we open up here the filter.
[00:03:41] And we also want to maybe use the loop feature here. I don't know why this doesn't go back
[00:03:55] here to the beginning but I guess that's how it is. So maybe on the FX box we want to use a filter plus
[00:04:08] and to increase here the saturation and maybe at the end we use a peak limiter.
[00:04:15] So let me see maybe we just use a bass like this.
[00:04:22] Yeah we use here also the envelope from the filter for the filter in the note FX box or in the FX box.
[00:04:46] That's cool. We also want to use here some ducking so we use an audio sidechain
[00:04:54] audio sidechain and we bring in here the kick drum the post.
[00:05:00] So this is the kick drum and we use the kick drum to duck here basically the volume of the
[00:05:08] synthesizer. So we have a reduction in volume.
[00:05:23] Maybe we can use the velocity here. Yeah that's that in different velocities.
[00:05:36] So here's high velocity low velocity but we don't want to change the volume of the bass so we use
[00:05:41] here this velocity sensitivity slider and pull this down to zero which means there's no influence
[00:05:47] from the velocity to the loudness of the sound. But we still receive here the expressions a signal
[00:05:55] for velocity and we use this then maybe to open up here the filter maybe a bit more.
[00:06:00] So right so this velocity setting here opens up the filter so we can control the filter
[00:06:12] with the velocity steps instead of the loudness. I hope this makes sense.
[00:06:23] We can maybe also can we do something a bit more interesting. I just
[00:06:40] trying to figure out here maybe
[00:06:44] yeah maybe use a second arpeggiator here.
[00:06:53] This doesn't work but maybe we switch this here to let me see
[00:07:03] can we actually change this here to something else? No.
[00:07:11] There's no advance. Okay we just leave it at that. It's okay.
[00:07:14] So this is the bass. Call this bass and then we maybe use melody or actually polymer first.
[00:07:24] We call this melody and we do the same trick here. We just pull this down. We have the same
[00:07:32] note in here. So we use a note transpose again and we leave this here. This is minus two because
[00:07:38] it's a bass. This is maybe minus one. And then also an arp here. Also use the global scale.
[00:07:50] Maybe you have to go to zero here. It's probably better. And then we paint in some offsets and
[00:07:56] because we have here the global scale feature enabled this always lands on a scale note right.
[00:08:06] Maybe use convolution and a bit of delay.
[00:08:14] So
[00:08:24] so
[00:08:52] maybe use unison here. 60 voices.
[00:08:58] So now the interesting part is we can put this here into a layer with using control and g
[00:09:06] and use just two arpeggiators if we want to. So we use here another one. We could just
[00:09:13] duplicate this but I want to use a different one. So here I use instead of 16 notes I use eight notes
[00:09:21] and go up maybe five.
[00:09:23] Seven. Just use three and also note transpose and push everything here just one octave higher
[00:09:33] right. So this is this octave here zero and then this is plus one.
[00:09:49] Then we can pull down here the velocity on this layer or maybe on this one too.
[00:09:54] And then we can say we want to use a channel map. So we receive notes here from this note clip
[00:10:11] but just channel one right. So we can say channel one goes into this layer and also this layer but
[00:10:19] here we want to use channel one and put it on channel two. So we just map channel one to channel
[00:10:24] two but only on this layer on the second layer right. So when we disable this here. So this
[00:10:31] layer goes to channel two and this layer here goes still to channel one. So we can decide what to
[00:10:44] do with these channels on the device itself. So we can use a channel map or channel 16 here.
[00:10:48] You can see we receive two medium or two channels here. One and two of course. So with channel two
[00:10:56] we want to change maybe the index of the wavetable to a different position.
[00:11:00] Or maybe open up the filter a bit more.
[00:11:06] And we also enable here of course the global scale feature. So with this
[00:11:26] we don't need to use this here. So with this we can now change also here the notes
[00:11:34] to different positions inside of the note clip. So we make this a bit longer here.
[00:11:40] Here we go to different positions. Let's see how this sounds.
[00:11:58] So
[00:12:09] what we don't need to do that. It's okay just to stick to one note.
[00:12:37] So
[00:12:48] also here we can just clone
[00:13:17] this one paste and just duck here this melody.
[00:13:33] So
[00:13:44] okay. So this is some kind of ARP melody or however you want to call it.
[00:14:12] Another idea is we can just take here again this thing. Use transpose.
[00:14:23] No transpose. Plus one maybe. Again polymer synthesizer. Just solo this and use a repeater.
[00:14:34] Note repeats.
[00:14:51] And then we use a quantizer to actually quantize all the
[00:15:02] outcoming notes here to the beat grid which is a 16 note grid.
[00:15:06] So just quantizing this gives you nice rhythms.
[00:15:18] We can maybe use a randomizer here.
[00:15:30] This device we can also use a global scale and just randomize the pitch.
[00:15:44] So
[00:15:57] it's more like a pad sound.
[00:16:27] Maybe humanize and chance. So the note does not play it all the time.
[00:16:53] So.
[00:17:05] So.
[00:17:22] So.
[00:17:48] For this pad.
[00:18:07] So yeah I would use sometimes just one note
[00:18:16] and then apply a lot of note effects and because we have now this global
[00:18:20] scale feature here you can play around with all the offsets.
[00:18:24] Also using multiple layers and pulley rhythms.
[00:18:29] You can even try to use again here what's the name stepwise.
[00:18:33] I haven't used actually this in a while.
[00:18:36] This one here plays some different notes then you know use a quantizer on it.
[00:18:44] What's the name key filter plus now.
[00:18:46] This one bring it back to the scale.
[00:18:51] So a lot of devices actually benefit from this global scale feature because you can
[00:18:57] quantize everything to the scale and you can go crazy with modulations on arpeggiators
[00:19:05] on transposers on these randomizers here.
[00:19:10] This one was pretty useless before I would say because you just get random pitch sounds
[00:19:15] and then you had to use the key filter probably after that to constrain it to a scale.
[00:19:23] But now this is here included.
[00:19:25] You can just use randomized without the key filter and just go crazy and get some random
[00:19:29] pitch sounds.
[00:19:30] You can record everything then to a new instrument track.
[00:19:33] So a lot of new possibilities there.
[00:19:36] So instead next time that you go into the note clip here and paint notes and try to find a nice
[00:19:44] melody and paint stuff in which is always not in my opinion it's not good.
[00:19:49] Melodies you have to play on the keyboard in my opinion.
[00:19:53] You have to play on the keyboard or you get some accidents here with these note effects.
[00:19:57] But painting in notes it always leads to the same results in my opinion if you ask me.
[00:20:04] Maybe it's different for you but I always try to find ways out of my usual
[00:20:10] muscle memory rock flows.
[00:20:13] And this is a great way of doing this if you ask me.
[00:20:16] Just modulating stuff and then using the notes, the global notes scale feature
[00:20:24] to quantize everything to a scale.
[00:20:26] So it's pretty dope to have this for this type of workflow.
[00:20:30] Generative music or idea finding and so on.
[00:20:36] So that's my take on it.
[00:20:37] Maybe if you want to see more of this stuff let me know.
[00:20:41] There are so many things you can do actually with this.
[00:20:43] So this is just the beginning.
[00:20:46] I hope everything was clear.
[00:20:48] I wasn't too fast but I also tried to make it a bit faster not people are not getting bored.
[00:20:53] Let me know what you think.
[00:20:55] Leave a thumbs up, leave a subscription and see you in the next video.
[00:20:59] Bye.