Bitwig



When it comes to recording and comping audio, Bitwig Studio might not be the first DAW that comes to mind. Don't let past perceptions put you off as Noah Pred shows how capable it is.

Although Bitwig Studio 3 is focused around The Grid, there are a number of other updates of note. The most significant is probably the reworked device voice mode menu, added to the inspector panel for polyphonic instruments. This now offers three voice modes: polyphonic, digital mono and true mono. Producing Resources Marketplace. Ableton Live Templates, Logic Pro Templates, Cubase templates, FL Studio Templates, Reason Templates, Soundbanks, Presets, Loops, Tracks and much more. Bitwig Studio 8-Track is the sketch pad for your musical ideas featuring the acclaimed workflow of Bitwig Studio. Bitwig Studio 8-Track, the trim and effective digital audio workstation to start producing, performing, and designing sounds like a pro. We proudly stand behind Bitwig products because we know that they deliver outstanding quality and bang for the buck. Your music is important to you, and Bitwig can help you make it the best it can be. Plus, with Sweetwater's award-winning service and support, if you should ever have a question about Bitwig products, we're here to help. This video walks through a first launch of Bitwig Studio.Contents:0:11 - Using the Dashboard to access everything0:24 - Loading a Quick Start template0:32.

In traditional music studios recording vocalists and live musicians, it’s common practice to create the best possible representation of a melody, phrase, or passage by creating a composite – or “comp” – of all the best moments edited together from multiple takes. Traditional studio DAWs such as Cubase, Nuendo, ProTools, and Logic have built-in tools to help construct these composites with relative ease.

In contrast, modern DAWs such as Live and Bitwig – perhaps due to their emphasis on more creative elements of “in the box” production – lack explicit comping features. However, with Bitwig’s multi-clip audio editing and new Post recording action features, it’s possible to approximate a comping feature in just a few easy steps.

Configuring Post Recording Actions

Similar to Live’s Clip Follow Actions, Bitwig Clips feature Next Actions, which allow a variety of other Clips on the same track to be triggered following playback of a certain Clip for a specified duration.

Taking this functionality a step further, Bitwig’s Post recording action lets you specify playback or recording actions to follow recording into a Clip slot for a specified period. These actions are global, and can be configured in via the Play menu.

PIC 2: Setting up Post recording actions to Record into the next free slot after two bars.

By setting Bitwig to record into a new Clip slot every two bars, I can record multiple versions of the same two-bar riff as many times as needed until I feel like I have enough raw material to edit and compile into the ultimate composite take. For longer riffs or passages, simply specify a longer duration.

Recording Multiple Takes

For this example, I’ve set up an Arpeggiator with some Random modulation. This is triggering a Korg Minilogue XD, which will be recorded into the Capture track via my audio interface. This could of course be configured similarly for any audio input, using a microphone for a vocalist or acoustic instrument.

While Random modulations will ensure some variety from one two-bar recording to the next, I’ll also be tweaking parameters on the Minilogue XD controls to differentiate the takes even further. The goal will be to put together at least one “golden” comp take from the varied input.

PIC 3: Bitwig automatically recording input to new Clips at two-bar intervals.

Having sufficiently tweaked the Minilogue XD into five different two-bar Clip takes, I’ve hit the Track Stop button to end automatic Clip recording.

AUDIO: Take 1-5:

Multi-Clip Audio Editing

Before doing anything else, I’ll double-click an empty Clip slot on the same track to create an empty Clip, rename it “Comp 1” and extend the Loop duration from the default length to two bars.

Now I’ll hold down Shift to click and select all six Clips on that track, then click EDIT at the bottom right of the Bitwig interface to enter multi-clip editing mode. Next, I’ll click the Layered Editing Mode toggle – the icon that looks like a stack of three squares at bottom left of the Editing area – to view and edit all six Clip takes simultaneously. Long wisdom modems driver download.

Since there’s no easy way to trigger the different Clips directly within the Layered Editing Mode, I’ll map the triggers of the recorded Clip takes to buttons on a connected MIDI controller.

PIC 5: MIDI mapping my Clips to a Korg nanoKontrol.

PRO-TIP: If I want to make sure I can’t accidentally edit any of the original audio, I can click the Lock icons to their right in the Layers panel at left – doing so prevents any editing whatsoever which means they only provide a visual reference.

To perform traditional comping edits, I will use the Time Selection tool (Hot Key: 2) while editing Audio Events. Triggering different Clips via MIDI, I can identify my favorite selections, then select and drag them to the empty Comp clip.

PIC 6: Multi-Clip audio prepared for compilation editing.

PRO-TIP: After clicking your desired selection, press and hold the Alt/Option modifier while dragging audio material into place to copy it, rather than remove it from the original Clip.

I’m fairly happy with this first composite, but to make the transitions between sections a bit smoother, I’ll impose stronger fades by switching to the Pointer tool (Hot Key: 1) and dragging the triangles that appear when hovering over the upper leftmost section of an Audio Event’s waveform view and dragging it further left over the preceding Audio Event’s edge. I can then hover where the fades meet and once both fade slopes turn white, I can drag up or down to impose Bezier curve fade slopes for even smoother transitions.

PIC 7: First Composite compiled from Takes 1-3, with crossfades in place.

AUDIO 2: Comp 1:

Due to reverb tails recorded in the original takes from the Minilogue XD, the transitions are somewhat obvious – but recording a dry vocal or mic’d instrument in a more standard configuration should inherently avoid any such issues.

The first comp was generated entirely from material contained in the first three Clip takes, and I think there’s enough material in the second two original takes to make a second Comp, so I’ll go back to the Clip Launcher MIX view, double-click to create a new empty Clip, name it Comp 2 (while renaming the first Comp 1), and set it to two bars in length. Now I can use the CMD/CTRL modifier to select just takes 4 and 5 along with Comp 2 and then switch back to EDIT mode to create a new Comp from just those two Clips.

Since there are only three Clips in this case, I don’t have to MIDI map them since there’s room on my screen to easily trigger them in the Clip Launcher and view the Detail Edit panel simultaneously.

In-system design tapedrive driver download. PIC 8: Comp 2 constructed from specifically selected Clip takes 4 and 5.

AUDIO 3: Comp 2:

Finally, if I want to export the Comps, I can right-click the Comp Clip and select Bounce – or if I’m confident enough to eliminate the compiled edit, I can select Bounce In Place (or simply CMD/CTRL + B), which will replace the Comp with a newly exported audio file.

Learn to make music and design sounds in Bitwig Studio: AskAudio Academy | macProVideo


Just because Bitwig Studio doesn't support ReWire doesn't mean you can't make it play nice with other DAWs. Gary Hiebner shows how to use Jack and MIDI routing between different apps on Mac and PC.

You may be using other audio software and are wondering how you can use this software with Bitwig. For example, maybe you're using Reason or Ableton Live and would like to use the two together. The problem is that Bitwig doesn't support the ReWire protocol, but there is a workaround to this. Bitwig recommends that you use the Jack Audio Connection kit to route audio between the applications. I'll take this a step further showing you how you can route the MIDI between the applications. I'll be demonstrating this on a Mac, but you can follow along on a PC with the PC equivalent software.

Installing Jack

Before you start, there are some steps required to get everything set up. But once you have configured this it's just a matter of starting up the Jack server. No need for starting your audio applications in specific orders like with ReWire. First download the Jack Audio Connection Kit.

Download the correct version for your OS, then unzip the package and install it. You'll need to restart your computer when it is done. After restart notice that there is now a Jack folder in your Applications folder. Navigate into this and launch the Jack Pilot. To start the Jack audio server, click on the start button.

Bitwig

If you go to the preferences, you can specify the amount of virtual audio inputs and outputs in the interface inputs and outputs. But you'll need to stop the server first and then restart it when you have set the new input and output configuration.

Setting Up the Audio in Bitwig

Now launch Bitwig and go to the Options menu, and then Preferences. Under the Audio Input and Output Device in the Audio tab choose the Jack Router.

Then open up the other audio application you want to use, on my side it's going to be Ableton. Go to the preferences menu. Set the output of the device to the Jack Router.

Now here is an important step. Go back to the Jack Pilot and click on the Routing tab'this launches a window so you can do your routing setup. I want to send the audio from Ableton to Bitwig. Under the Send Ports section click on the out1 and out2 under Ableton Live. These will now go red in color indicating that they are active. And on the Receive ports section click on the in1 and in2 under the BitWigStudioEngi so that they are active as well. So you are now virtually routing your audio from Ableton to Bitwig. If you don't see your audio applications here by any chance, then go back to the applications' preferences window and reselect the Jack Router audio device again. I found this can be a bit buggy. But it's a quick fix.

Now the audio is being routed between Ableton into Bitwig. But to hear this in action you'll need to set up an audio track in Bitwig. On the audio track, make sure the Jack Router is chosen as the input for the device. Then record arm the track, and then if you play back your Ableton song, you'll hear the audio coming through Bitwig. Notice also on your audio track how there is an audio signal on the track's meters. So you could record audio from Ableton on this track in Bitwig. Drivers moschip motherboards.

Bitwig Studio Free

Using the IAC Bus

Now let's look at how you can route MIDI between the two applications. For example let's say you're going to use Ableton's Analog instrument, but you want to program the MIDI in Bitwig. With a Mac, you can use the IAC bus to route MIDI internally. I'm going to demonstrate setting up the IAC bus. You can also use MIDI Pipe or MIDI Yoke on the PC. Open the Audio MIDI Setup (Applications > Utilities). Then open the MIDI Window (Command-2). Double-click the IAC Driver to open up its properties window. Tick the '˜Device is online' box. And then click the + sign to add Bus 1.

Now go back to Bitwig and go to the Preferences, and then go to the Controllers tab. Click on Add controller manually and select Generic'MIDI Clock Transmitter. And for the MIDI output here select the IAC Driver Bus. Bitwig Studio now acts as the master clock for the audio, and any other audio applications with slave to its clock.

Bitwig Manual

Next create an Instrument track, and on this track add the Hardware Instrument, located under the Routers section. On the MIDI Output select the IAC Driver Bus 1.

Now jump across to your other audio application, on my side it's going to be Ableton, and to its Preferences section. Click on the MIDI Tab, and in here make sure that the IAC Driver is enabled for Track and Sync. Then select the instrument in the software, I'm going to select my Ableton track with the Analog synth on it.

Here's the true test to see if it's all working. Go to Bitwig and select the Hardware instrument track and when you hit some keys on your Bitwig instrument track you'll see Ableton pick up the external MIDI signal. Using the Jack and the IAC bus together can really add to your audio skills toolbox. Now I can record my MIDI on the Hardware instrument track in Bitwig and it'll be sent to Ableton and I'll hear Ableton's Instruments audio coming through in Bitwig. This allows me to contain all my MIDI within Bitwig even though I am using two audio applications.

Bitwig Download

Conclusion

That's how to be able to use other audio applications in conjunction with Bitwig. Jack allows you to route the audio between the two applications. And the IAC Bus (or MIDI Yoke on PC) allows you to route the MIDI between the two. So you can make use of software instruments in your other tracks. Or you could even pass audio out of Bitwig and into the other software to process it with its effects. This really does open up some extra possibilities for your music production with Bitwig.

For further Bitwig Studio tips and tricks check out the following tutorials:

Bitwig.com/register

Related Videos