Topics / Bitwig Studio / Bitwig Grid / Bitwig Grid Modules / Grid Envelope Modules / Segments

Segments

Bitwig Platform

Segments module panel in Bitwig Grid
Segments in Bitwig Grid 6.0.6.

A drawable multi-segment envelope with one-shot, held, looping, and ping-pong playback plus BWCURVE persistence.

What it does

Segments plays a user-drawn timeline of points and shaped transitions when triggered. Unlike a fixed ADSR, it can contain many stages and can stop, hold, loop, or reverse direction according to its Play Mode, making it useful for envelopes, rhythmic modulation, or even hand-drawn audio-rate waveforms.

Controls and ports

The curve editor defines points, durations, values, and segment curvature and can save or load BWCURVE data. Rate and Timebase scale playback, Play Mode selects One-shot, Hold, Looping, or Ping Pong, Smoothing softens abrupt changes, Bipolar changes the value range, and the module provides envelope, internal amplifier, and modulator outputs.

Practical uses

  • Draw a detailed one-shot amplitude, pitch, or timbre envelope that would require several conventional envelope modules.
  • Use Looping or Ping Pong for custom cyclic modulation, or Hold when a designated region should continue until gate-off.
  • At audio-rate playback, draw several waveform cycles and use Segments as an editable, preset-persistent source for kicks or percussion.

Things to know

  • The curve data is persistent and can be saved as a preset or BWCURVE, but the cited workflow does not support directly dropping a WAV file into the editor.
  • Rate and Timebase scale the entire drawn timeline rather than changing one individual segment.
  • Smoothing can reduce clicks from sharp discontinuities but also changes deliberately fast transients.
  • For audio-rate use, one waveform period of frequency f must occupy approximately 1/f seconds in the Segments timeline.
  • Complex drawings are deterministic and editable, but their audio-rate interpolation and aliasing are not yet characterized.

Technical details

No Nitro implementation has been confirmed for this visible module. The behavior is described conservatively from module metadata and editorial research.

Conceptually, a playhead advances through a stored BWCURVE timeline, identifies the active pair of points, evaluates that segment's interpolation function, and then applies playback-mode, polarity, optional smoothing, and amplifier routing. One-shot stops at the end; Hold retains or loops a gate-defined region; Looping wraps; Ping Pong reverses direction. No dedicated Segments Nitro body is mapped, so the point representation, segment equations, event ordering, timebase conversion, smoothing filter, and exact loop-boundary rules remain behavioral rather than recovered claims.

Open questions

  • Recover the BWCURVE timeline representation and measure every segment type, curvature value, endpoint, and discontinuity.
  • Map One-shot, Hold, Looping, and Ping Pong boundaries under short and held gates, retriggers, and rate changes.
  • Measure timebase accuracy, audio-rate interpolation and aliasing, smoothing, bipolar mapping, persistence, and voice-lifetime behavior.

Version and sources

Checked against Bitwig Studio 6.0.6. This page combines Bitwig's module metadata, the existing Grid course and guides, and Nitro analysis where the mapping is strong enough to support a technical statement.

Return to Bitwig Grid Modules or the Grid Modules course lesson.

Also matches: Bitwig Segments module, Bitwig Grid Segments, Segments Grid module