with regards to signal flow

[Igor Amos]

I don't know why its been so hard for me to be completely clear about how MIDI and audio pass through Bitwig. It seems like every time I set something up, I struggle with getting the routing working. Its guesswork for me. Eventually I figure it out, but its never straight forward. I read through the whole manual to see if it would help, but there was nothing that clued me in clearly about this.

I use a lot of plugins that generate audio and others that generate MIDI, So my midi is not "played" into the track, rather it comes from the track. And my audio is not input to the track either, but output from the track.

So what I usually end up doing it sending the audio out to another audio track for recording which works most of the time as long as I ALSO set the input to the new audio track to the output of the track generating the audio. Likewise with MIDI. And occasionally, I have to group the tracks in order for the audio and/or MIDI to get passed to the parent group track for output. I have no idea why I have to do this or why it works. Maybe I'm too used to how its done (or not done at all) in other DAWs and Its just not clicking for me.

In my experience, I've never been able to use either Note Receiver or Audio Receiver to accomplish this. Apparently, it doesn't work like I imagine it should.

So, I guess I'm really wanting a concrete way of understanding the signal flow and how all of these features work together. Even if I could see a graphic "schematic" of the signal flow.

How did you all get your heads around this. For some of you it seems like you find it intuitive. Please enlighten me if you can! Once I understand clearly, maybe I'll make a video or diagram of it...

[HamHat]

What are you having a problem with exactly? We might be able to help you route it. Signal flow has never really been an easy thing to explain, at least for me.

[Igor Amos]

What are you having a problem with exactly? We might be able to help you route it. Signal flow has never really been an easy thing to explain, at least for me.

Thanks for the offer, but I really want to understand on the lowest level how things are flowing and then I can figure out any situation for myself. I've posted out a few times with issues and gotten help. But I want clarity now. I can usually figure it out but it takes time and kills my workflow/inspiration...

[xbitz]

BWS doesn's support feedback looping this is why it's working this way



- signal of a clip goes to the devices area of the given track (case 0) MIDI notes of the orange clip go to the devices of (Inst1)
- u can record the out signal of a track into clips if set the IN of any track to an other one , but the signal doesn't go to the devices in these cases(check the third point for the reason), so (Inst2) can record the out of (Inst1) to clips if the IN of (Inst2) has been set to (Inst1)
- u can send a signal to the device area of an other track(can be group track to), if u set the OUT of a track to an other one in this case it can't be recorded but post processed, this is the OUT of (Inst1) on the picture, the out signal of (Inst1) gonna go the device area of (Inst2)
- if set the IN and OUT too - as in the picture (IN of Inst2 + OUT of Inst1 ) u can record the out of (Inst1) to clips on (Inst2) and the signal gonna go to the device area of (Inst2) too but it can't send back to the device area of (Inst1) so this possibility has been removed from the out list of (Inst2) because it would cause internal feedbacking(endless loop), but the IN of (Inst1) can be set to (Inst2) > this is the case one above, recording to clips doesn't cause feedbacking because the signal doesn't go to the devices

if u put a note receiver device to (Inst1) and check its source dropdown u gonna see that (Inst2) isn't allowed (using the conf above) exactly for the same reason as above, BWS not gonna allow feedback looping,


if u remove the OUT from (Inst1) so not send signal to the device area of (Inst2) the note receive gonnal list (Inst2) because it doesn't cause feedbacking



all the other cases also can be traced back to the feedback looping (audio,note receivers/MODs, sends etc.), hope it makes sense and helped a bit

[Igor Amos]

Wow, xbitz! I can't thank you enough for this! I had to read it 30 times for it to really sink in, but I think I kinda get it now. If I think its all about wether the signal is reaching the devices on that track or not. I might try to draw up a diagram to clarify further. So to say it in my words (I'm thinking of posting to Bitwig Tips and Tricks if its ok with you):

*A track by default sends the signal of its clips to the devices on that track
*By setting the IN of current track to the output of a different track, the signal will reach the clips but NOT the devices on the other track
*By setting the OUT of a different track to the IN of a current track, you send the signal to the current track's devices, but you cannot record that signal onto the current track itself
*If set up 2 tracks using the two rules above, you can send one track's signal to the clips AND the devices of another track at the same time, but you cannot set it up where the resulting signal gets sent back to the original track's devices cause this creates a loop.

Xbitz, I'm curious how the hybrid track works in relation to this?

[ThomasHelzle]

I don't have any trouble understanding the signal flow so I might be the wrong person to help, but here you go:

. Any signal - be it audio or midi - from the track input can be recorded into clips and goes from there into the device chain.
- Any signal created by devices can't be recorded directly since they sit "behind" the clips so to say.
- If you want to record the output of devices, set the input of another track to the track with the device to record. You don't have to set the output of the sending track specifically.
- Note that while it will record just fine, it will not show you the input live (that is actually a kind of bug/not updated behaviour AFAIK).
- Note- and midi-receivers are also devices so you can use them as live input but not record them (without routing their track again to another one).
- You can't create feedback, there is a quite involved logic in place to prevent it.

I use a lot of generative things and find BWS a blast, since you can have all sorts of devices in one chain in any order you want.
I usually leave everything live or bounce to audio.

Hybrid tracks don't behave any different routing wise, you just can mix audio and midi on the same track.

Cheers,

Tom

[u-u-u]

Hybrid tracks (how I understand it):
- You can set the track input to an audio or note source on order to record audio/note clips to the track.

Now to understand the playback routing it is important to know the definition of "Instrument" in Bitwig Studio.
I'm not too sure that I don't miss a scenario but I try to explain it:
The "Instrument" device in the chain of a track can be:
- VST instrument, a Bitwig instruments device (e.g. Polysynth, E-Kick, Sampler,...), an instrument container (e.g. Instrument Layer, Chain, XY Instrument, Drum Machine, ...), a MOD container...
But only the first instrument device in the device chain of a Hybrid track will be recognized as the main Instrument of that track and that defines how the routing will work:

Obviously only one type of clip can be played at the same time: a note or an audio clip...
a) if a note clip is played back, the note data will go into the beginning of the device chain (through note FX to the instrument which will generate audio then)
B) if an audio clip is played back, the audio signal will be routed into the first device after the first (, the main) Instrument of the track's device chain.

The reason:
when you use bounce-in-place on a note clip, it will render the audio that comes out of the Instrument playing the notes (you could call that "Pre-FX"). When you play back the bounced audio clip then, the audio signal from that clip is routed as if it would come directly out of the Instrument.