[00:00:00] So today I want to show you how to create a nice percussion generator in Bitwig Studio.
[00:00:04] Pretty easy, pretty simple, because sometimes I open up your Bitwig and I want to load the drum
[00:00:10] machine. And I'm too lazy to actually select a bunch of samples. So I go for generator. So
[00:00:19] we do this here by using a polygrid. And we have here an oscillator, we have an amplitude envelope
[00:00:26] and output. And you want to exchange this for maybe this type of envelope, because we only want
[00:00:32] to have attack and decay. Sine oscillator and the sine oscillator we can disable, hit the pitch
[00:00:37] input, the pre chord, because we want to use the keyboard. And we don't want to change the pitch
[00:00:43] when we change the key on the keyboard, of course. Okay, so what we want to do is we want to generate
[00:00:48] random values with the dice module here, and maybe trigger module like this. So every time we press
[00:00:56] the trigger, we generate a new number between zero and one. And we want to drive here the sine
[00:01:02] oscillator pitch input with this all the way up. And we also want to enable here the bipolar
[00:01:08] icon. So we generate numbers between minus one and plus one. I hope this makes sense. So now every
[00:01:16] time we press this button, we generate a new value, the new value then is interpreted as a pitch.
[00:01:23] And we get the random pitch out of it. It's pretty random. We also want to have your peak limiter.
[00:01:33] So no one gets mad. Anyway, so let's use here an oscilloscope, and we can see the random number
[00:01:41] here is between minus one and plus one. Every time I press this button here, we get
[00:01:46] a lot of different pitches. So we can control this a little bit with an attenuate.
[00:01:53] Just pull this down, let's say here, and then when you generate, it's only between minus and plus
[00:02:00] zero or two, right? So it's a smaller range. So we can call this range.
[00:02:06] I can control this with that. So now every time we press this, we have a pitch around C3.
[00:02:18] Now we can also use a gate input here. Every time we press the key on the keyboard, we create a gate
[00:02:25] and then we trigger the trigger to trigger the dice. We get a random value in a specific range.
[00:02:29] We get the random pitch out of the sinus slider.
[00:02:31] Nice. So yeah, with the range, we can control the range, of course, and we can also use
[00:02:43] what's the name, bias. So this is the bias, or we can call it offset or maybe type.
[00:02:51] Because with type, we can influence where this middle line is. At the moment, it's C3,
[00:03:00] but when we want more like generate kick drums or bass sounds, of course, this type needs to go down.
[00:03:06] So now the randomization happens more like in the lower end, the lower spectrum. We go up,
[00:03:14] randomization happens more like in the upper pitches. So it's more like for snare sounds or hi-hat
[00:03:18] sounds. Okay, cool. So yeah, that's that's the whole idea. And instead of just using a sinus
[00:03:30] slider, we could use maybe a wavetable. But with the wavetable, we only have a selection of waveforms
[00:03:36] here. It's also just linear. So we go from one waveform to the other waveform. It's a very old
[00:03:44] technique of using different waveforms, wavetable. So yeah, we don't want to use that as we go back
[00:03:52] to science. What we want to do instead is we want to duplicate the sinus slider. We go for
[00:03:56] FM or here PM. So we can, yeah, modulate the first oscillator with audio rate, and we get
[00:04:07] nice overtones, random overtones. What we also want to do is we want to use a different bunch
[00:04:13] of modules here for the dies. We have a different random value here for this oscillator. And you
[00:04:22] can also change the range in the type. Again, we can control how it sounds. So this is more for
[00:04:30] controlling what's coming out of the random noise generator. We can completely remove this here.
[00:04:37] And it's very random. So now you get more like type of kick drum sound. Sometimes you get the metallic
[00:04:43] sound. Sometimes you get more like a percussion sound out of it. So it's very random. So let's
[00:04:48] try this for a moment. Let's go for 100. So it's all over the place. Let's bring this back.
[00:05:04] 100%. We can more like control what's happening here.
[00:05:10] Okay, then we maybe add another one like this.
[00:05:19] Also again, 100% here. And here we want to have more like low frequencies. So it's
[00:05:27] more like an LFO that modulates everything that's below it. That's how I imagine it.
[00:05:35] So it's more like an LFO or like an envelope, a random envelope.
[00:05:39] But here it's PM, which is okay. You can do this. But a better sound sometimes is to use here an
[00:05:56] add for the pitch itself. And then use this here. So this is more like exponential FM,
[00:06:07] which gives you more random percussion sounds.
[00:06:23] Okay, so the problem here is that we modulate all the time to the full extent. So we can duplicate
[00:06:33] here the attack, not the attack, the envelope for that. Put this in there. And also maybe here.
[00:06:44] So we have now control over when these LFO, when these oscillators modulate the oscillator below
[00:06:52] in what kind of envelope. So this is more like percussions, right? So we can define here, oh,
[00:07:00] we want to have only this modulation in the first part of the sound in the attack phase.
[00:07:16] So why not randomize this also, right? So we duplicate here the dice. Use a modulator out.
[00:07:23] And we want to disable the bipolar option because we want to only modulate upwards, right? We want
[00:07:30] to modulate into the longer phase. We don't want to make it shorter. So this way we can define what's
[00:07:36] the shortest amount of the decay. And then every randomization happens upwards. So it makes it longer,
[00:07:43] but not shorter. So this is why we disable here the bipolar option.
[00:07:47] And the same thing we want to do here for this decay.
[00:08:10] Maybe you can do this also here for the, no, I think it's better to leave it manually so we can
[00:08:17] decide how long the percussion sound is, the global amount or the global envelope.
[00:08:26] Okay, so now that we have this, we can also go for a bit of noise.
[00:08:32] So this is more or less the body maybe of the percussion, but then we want to create a bit of
[00:08:39] noise on top as we go also your phone decay or feel like this. And we want to use a filter.
[00:08:49] I go for an XP filter because here we have the very nice peak filter.
[00:08:55] And we don't want you to pitch tracking. We start by at two kilohertz. So two kilohertz is nice for
[00:09:08] the snare top or for the for the percussion top noise. Don't want to have noise below that.
[00:09:13] And we have a nice resonance here. So what do we want to do now is we want to duplicate here again
[00:09:19] the dice. Oh, that's that's moving. Have to hold control. Okay, we want to modulate here upwards
[00:09:28] like this maybe 24 semitones also want to randomize the resonance up to nearly 100%
[00:09:38] self resonating want to make maybe make the stereo and we want to use distortion
[00:09:45] at the end and we want to mix this in. We can change blend between the body and the noise part
[00:09:55] and we can kind of mix it a bit a bit better and then we distort everything together. So let's
[00:10:01] hear the sounds. Okay, maybe we can also change the amount. So let's use a gain or maybe attenuate
[00:10:26] attenuate is better. So we want to change the amount of the FM modulation here. Maybe we start
[00:10:34] with 20% at least. And we duplicate us here go to 100% 0.75 also here. Something like this.
[00:10:58] So every time we randomize, we also get a random modulation amount.
[00:11:14] And we need to randomize the length here of this noise maybe we start very short.
[00:11:30] Maybe too much distortion.
[00:11:39] Okay, so then we want to randomize also here the detuning. So the left channel
[00:11:46] to the right channel we want to detune this slightly so we get a stereo feel.
[00:11:50] Not too much. And you maybe want to restart all the oscillators.
[00:12:00] So it produces the same sound. We also disconnect here the gate for a moment.
[00:12:09] So building this patch is actually not that complicated and you can throw in a lot of modules
[00:12:21] and push this in every kind of direction. The hardest part is actually tweaking this.
[00:12:27] So finding the right values, the right parameter ranges and so on. And this is
[00:12:33] then where your experience with sound design comes in. So we know exactly what to do and what to add
[00:12:38] to get a nice sound out of it. So we can also attenuate and we can say every time this body
[00:12:49] places envelope here, right? So this is the body envelope. You want to remove the noise entirely.
[00:12:58] So the body ducks the volume of the noise part on top. So you have a clean noise,
[00:13:04] clean body in the beginning. And then the noise comes in afterwards when the decay time is longer
[00:13:10] than this body here, right? That's the important part.
[00:13:13] Yeah.
[00:13:23] We get some interesting sounds out of it. Like I said, you need to tweak it.
[00:13:34] Okay. Another idea is let's go back here to the pulley grid to put an EQ in the post-fx
[00:13:42] box here of the pulley grid and go maybe for a low cut. And we want to use some DICE modules here
[00:13:54] for the EQ. Let's say the second band here and we start at 120 hertz. And we want to randomize the
[00:14:06] gain up to 20 dB. We make this very small.
[00:14:13] Let's randomize this here.
[00:14:24] Yeah. And we need to randomize the frequency, of course, up to 24 semitones.
[00:14:31] Maybe more dB.
[00:14:38] Nice. We do the same thing
[00:14:48] for band 3, 120 hertz. We start there until I hear this. This is by 36.
[00:15:00] We have the same kind of, the same kind of ballpark. The pitch.
[00:15:12] Oh yeah, we need to change the cue.
[00:15:19] And then we have another one. 120 hertz.
[00:15:25] Duplicate this to up to...
[00:15:33] This is 35.
[00:15:43] And the frequency goes up to also 35.
[00:15:47] And the IQ. And then we go into an over to clip everything.
[00:16:13] Okay. That's that. The best noise generator ever. We disconnect this here again.
[00:16:29] So we have a nice little percussion generator already. And we can add more things here. Like,
[00:16:36] I don't know, sometimes I use to add the phaser plus something like this, which is also just a
[00:16:43] filter. And you can use then dice here for instead of the LFO, the internal LFO, which goes down to
[00:16:57] 0.01 hertz. So it's still moving all the time. But when you feed it here, some kind of signal
[00:17:03] into it, it just takes the signal to move the internal oscillator around. Like the stereo.
[00:17:14] Gives you a different feel.
[00:17:34] But maybe at the end, we want to also include the high pass filter just to make sure.
[00:17:42] But actually, we have an EQ here and there with the high pass, but still 30 hertz.
[00:17:49] Very steep filter. Maybe a low pass also.
[00:17:57] Five kilohertz and not not so steep. Okay. So that's that. We can now
[00:18:04] use instead here this gate, which is cool. You can use a button.
[00:18:10] Call this generate.
[00:18:15] Use a button here on the device itself.
[00:18:22] Call this generate. Just connect this. And every time we press it, we get a different sound.
[00:18:30] Something like that. And easy peasy. We can maybe change a safety stand as a preset.
[00:18:50] Cush generator, save the surprises. We don't have to do this all the time, right? So this is the
[00:18:55] power of it. And then we go for a drum machine. And you can just put this into one cell.
[00:19:04] Use again here a button. Or maybe can we just open this over here like that?
[00:19:15] This actually does the same thing. And just modulate this.
[00:19:20] So now we can generate a new drum sound for this cell from the drum machine.
[00:19:29] But we can also just duplicate here all the things.
[00:19:45] We have multiple cells now with this generator, and we can press generate.
[00:19:50] And we have a different random sound in each of these cells.
[00:19:57] So we can create a drum track or a note clip. Start here with this.
[00:20:19] I don't know. Just duplicate us.
[00:20:30] That's it.
[00:20:42] It's a bit too much like a bongo. So yeah, it's probably better to get some more values out here
[00:20:50] into the container itself. So we can change maybe the decay time for each of these devices.
[00:21:05] Just down. 45. And we also go for 45. Maybe a bit longer, because the noise needs to be
[00:21:18] always a bit longer. Or we use multiple controls for different things. Also here maybe the mix.
[00:21:30] Mix for the phaser. So we can bring this out.
[00:21:36] And maybe the distortion here. Drive. Okay. Then we bring this over here.
[00:21:46] That's that. We have to connect this, right?
[00:22:00] Phaser.
[00:22:01] And drive. Nice. So now we have to delete everything, of course.
[00:22:10] Here it's wired up.
[00:22:16] Duplicate this.
[00:22:30] Okay. Generate. Let's see how this sounds.
[00:22:39] I hope you get the idea.
[00:22:59] The only problem, the only real problem is the old Bitwig problem that when you save it in this
[00:23:06] state as a project and you reload it, everything is gone. So you need to sample it at some point.
[00:23:13] Also, when you just hit here, let's say, use right click and say bounce, it goes into an offline
[00:23:22] bounce mode. And in this offline bounce mode, it also regenerates your older things or sets it
[00:23:28] back to zero, which is a pain in the ass. And I'm complaining for this for years now in Bitwig
[00:23:34] to have some kind of persistence module where you can generate with the dice random value and then
[00:23:43] store it into the state of the preset or of the device itself. So it persists. This is the only
[00:23:52] downside of this. So what I do sometimes then is just generating something that I really like. And
[00:23:58] then I create your new audio track and feed this basically into here. And then I record it.
[00:24:07] Right. And then I have your sample with this stuff.
[00:24:13] So this is how I do it. But yeah, you can save this drum machine here as a preset. Maybe I do this.
[00:24:25] I don't know how to call it simple perc generator or something like this. And then I put it into
[00:24:34] the description so you can download this here and have some fun with it. It's just a basic idea. So
[00:24:43] usually I spend more time on this. Where is it? Is it a percussion? Yeah, it's here.
[00:24:51] Digital rhythmic. So usually I spend more time on it on each of these different
[00:24:58] settings here. It's just a quick tutorial to show you how to build this or how to set it up.
[00:25:05] But you can go in so many different directions with this. You can use more oscillators. You can
[00:25:12] use more envelopes or different post FX or maybe add more noise, add samples to the mix and use
[00:25:21] different ranges here. The more you open up here, the range for everything, the more interesting the
[00:25:28] sound becomes or the more randomized the sound becomes. But then at some point, it's not a
[00:25:32] percussion anymore. It's just you get some random noise. Maybe I just draw this out here and show
[00:25:38] it to you. So here we go for a big range. The types goes back to zero. Also here.
[00:25:47] So this gives you more things.
[00:26:04] Oh, it's okay because it's not too long.
[00:26:10] Maybe you can also drive this here.
[00:26:15] Maybe hook this up here.
[00:26:22] Maybe FB is also too much.
[00:26:34] Yeah, you can spend hours on this. And I guess most of you are already spending too much time
[00:26:44] on stupid things. But you can create nice percussion sometimes for drum loops and you
[00:26:50] want to have something in between and you don't or you are too lazy to actually select some samples
[00:26:56] from the hard drive. And this is a nice way of doing this, in my opinion, or at least this is
[00:27:01] what I do in Bitwig Studio because I love it. Okay. Thanks for watching. Leave me a like.
[00:27:05] The link to this preset is in the description below. So you can just try it out for yourself
[00:27:11] or maybe build your own thing or just change it in your kind of direction.
[00:27:16] That's it. Thanks for watching. See you next time. Bye.