Unified Modulation

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Hello,

Can anyone tell me what the Unified Modulation system is all about? The concept it not hyping me enough compared to the way Bitwig emphasizes it.

My question is, how is it different from combining macros with automation?

Their main selling point is: "allowing you to easily link any device parameter, including nested internal devices and VST plug-ins, without losing hands-on control"

Can't that be done in other programs?

In other programs, I can map any buttons into an automation lane. Even if it's not called "Unified", it's still possible using group racks and macros ... Or is there something i'm missing here. I'd like to know how this translates in to better creativity.

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The modulation in Bitwig is second to none. You don't have to hand draw everything you want to automate anymore, I prefer doing mostly hand drawn automation, but hand drawn automation paired with modulation devices in Bitwig is absolutely insane.
Anyways, unified modulation. It essentially unifies your plugins with Bitwig and with each other. They don't act like plugins anymore they act like they're part of Bitwig, and they can work together.

In this example I have an Audio Mod, which is where you can use an audio waveform as an envelope to control something. Sort of like how sidechain compression works, but instead of your kick controlling the volume on a synth, you can have your kick control anything you want.
Screen Shot 2015-09-02 at 11.55.07 PM.png
So here I have it controlling the master volume, but also the unison count.

Now I have an LFO Mod, controlling the Audio Mod. Its controlling the release time of the envelope, which you can see on the blue graph of the Audio Mod.
Screen Shot 2015-09-02 at 11.59.03 PM.png
I can even have the LFO control Serum directly if I wanted to.

Now, in another example, using something called the Note Mod, lets say we have a bass sound and a pad sound. You can use the characteristics of the MIDI from the bass, to control the pad sound.

Here I have the velocity of the MIDI notes from the bass, controlling the wave table position on the pad
Screen Shot 2015-09-03 at 12.22.27 AM.png
Continued...
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-Tristan
MacBook Pro|MacOS Sierra|Bitwig Studio 2.0
UA Apollo Twin| EVE SC207 Monitors|ATH M50x|Focal Spirt Pro|Komplete 10|Push

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...Continued

Now back to the first example I had with the LFO and Audio Mod controlling Serum. I can now use the Pad sound for an Audio Mod and modulate the wet/dry on the the LFO and Audio Mods
Screen Shot 2015-09-03 at 12.33.51 AM.png
Then I can of course map a macro to the wet/dry of the parent Audio Mod and manually control how much the parent Audio Mod is modulating everything else.
Screen Shot 2015-09-03 at 12.40.40 AM.png
Or I can just modulate that macro with another modulation device and keep going on and on.

I hope some of this made some kind of sense as to why the unified modulation is a big deal. It basically ties everything in your project together in however many ways you want, and it can be as simple or as complex as you want. You can have your drums track talking to your bass track, then have the vocals talking to your pad track, and everything in between.

So no longer are your sounds/tracks separated, you can have them intertwining and controlling each other and all kinds of crazy stuff, and it doesn't matter if you're using 3rd party or native Bitwig stuff.

If that doesn't spark some kind of creativity then I'm curious as to what does ;)
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Last edited by TristanMendoza on Thu Sep 03, 2015 5:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
-Tristan
MacBook Pro|MacOS Sierra|Bitwig Studio 2.0
UA Apollo Twin| EVE SC207 Monitors|ATH M50x|Focal Spirt Pro|Komplete 10|Push

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alexisk wrote:I'd like to know how this translates in to better creativity.
Well i think the idea is that..

Less workarounds means faster workflow, which means more creative freedom. Rather than focusing on workarounds.

It is very simple to achieve something with nesting devices in bitwig, whereas in another DAW you would have to use a (sometimes lengthy) workaround to achieve the same thing.

But for me.. Online Collaboration was what got me looking at Bitwig. While i like being independent in creating music, I think I can learn a lot from meeting other producers/musicians. Plus I like the idea of being able to share hardware equipment with others and/or software. Someone with a Moog Voyager might be nice enough to run my MIDI track through it and visa versa, I would be able to offer processing something in some of my equipment, all while looking at the same project in real time. But this isn't scheduled until 2.0

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Thank you for such a thorough explanation!

I just realized the difference between modulation and automation in practical terms, eventhough all already knew it theoretically. Modulation is one knob against another, but mostly within the same plugin, unless off course you use unified modulation. Now, that brings it to the next level indeed!!! So that means that I don't need to do split chains of racks controlling different layers of macros, and even better, I don't need to plot copy/paste automations that are short and constant. That makes perfect sense! Jeez, its all making sense now! I thought they meant modulation, as in a low frequency affecting another knob, but this is just movement and no frequency implemented...

So now that i know what "mod" does thanks to Tristan, it does open my curiosity about the difference between the FX box in a plugin vs adding it after the device chain. Is that related, or is it affected by modulation somehow?

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Modulation means change :) if you talk about low frequincy oscillator as modulater then yes but modulation is not the source its modulating from. It just means to change something :)

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Adding a device to fx allows for modulation, if its outside you cant mod it :) it needs to be nested. But if you dont want to modulate it does not do anything different, but example if i have something in fx for reverb it will only effect the reverb signal and not the dry sound . Also having things in fx allows to save it as a preset

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there is an article about it on http://bitwigtutorials.net/tutorials/au ... ation.html with similiar examples as above
"Where we're workarounding, we don't NEED features." - powermat

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Thanks again,
Coockie1176ln wrote:Adding a device to fx allows for modulation, if its outside you cant mod it :) it needs to be nested.
That's awesome. Thanks for the link too.

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