Bitwig

jobinho · Post by **jobinho** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 12:49 pm

I'm a long term Ableton user that has decided to look at Bitwig. I like its streamlined and intuitive approach. Certain things are simplified which will no doubt aid the creative flow. My only slight hesitancy to jump over is the lack of certain effects.

One near indispensable effect I use in Ableton that I cannot find any where else so far is Erosion. This effect adds noisy artefacts (sine or noise) to a specific frequency and is very useful for enhancing sounds. There are other effects I'd miss within Ableton (Overdrive, AutoPan) but Erosion is the one Id find most difficult parting with.

Is there anything similar to Erosion that could help me if I moved to Bitwig? Thanks

EDIT: If there's any other key effects where Bitwig scores, feel free to let me know, I'm very interested!

SB-SIX · Post by **SB-SIX** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 1:29 pm

From the ableton manual:

The Erosion effect degrades the input signal by modulating a short delay with filtered noise or a sine wave. This adds noisy artifacts or aliasing/downsampling-like distortions that sound very digital.

So yeah, you could probably create this as an fx chain in bitwig.

qtheerearranger · Post by **qtheerearranger** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 1:56 pm

the question would be if you were to make it, how small of a delay? I assume were talking max 300 samples.

Could you use the test tone as the sine wave/noise source? or would you just use a noise oscillator from a synth?

just trying to get ideas flowing for this person.

jobinho · Post by **jobinho** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 3:06 pm

SB-SIX wrote:From the ableton manual:

The Erosion effect degrades the input signal by modulating a short delay with filtered noise or a sine wave. This adds noisy artifacts or aliasing/downsampling-like distortions that sound very digital.

So yeah, you could probably create this as an fx chain in bitwig.

That's interesting, the modular capabilities is something that really attracts me to Bitwig.

If anyone had a method for creating such an effect id be very grateful. I understand how to modulate the delay but not how to introduce the noise or sine part, and then to apply it to a specific frequency band.

Beerhunter · Post by **Beerhunter** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 8:24 pm

Hi,

could anyone please give an Audio example,
so i know what i am looking for, how it should sound like ?

Cheers

jobinho · Post by **jobinho** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 8:56 pm

Beerhunter wrote:Hi,

could anyone please give an Audio example,
so i know what i am looking for, how it should sound like ?

Cheers

Here's a little youtube vid on it:

muuzex · Post by **muuzex** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 11:01 am

"If anyone had a method for creating such an effect id be very grateful. I understand how to modulate the delay but not how to introduce the noise or sine part, and then to apply it to a specific frequency band."

I think the noise should ring modulate the audio. Then experiment with band limiting the audio and/or the noise before/after the ring mod.

Tearing Riots · Post by **Tearing Riots** » Thu Aug 06, 2015 12:12 pm

I played around with this yesterday, didn´t manage to make bitwig´s delay sound anything like erosion (i guess it´s too clean).
Reaktor does it nicely though.
Delay time itself doesn´t matter that much as long as you don´t mix it with the dry signal.
It needs to big enough so modulating won´t make it go negative, i´m at 10ms with modulation adding +/-4 ms (1 ms of modulation is probably enough though).

comxed · Post by **comxed** » Thu Aug 06, 2015 7:43 pm

Here you go:
http://comxed.com/bitwig/Erosion.bwpreset
Quite simple design:

It requires a free plugin MRingModulator.
http://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins/ ... gModulator (downloaded in a bundle)

It's not exact because of different filters and different noise and possibly different filter placement. Sounds close enough though. Doing it in this modular way has two main advantages over original Erosion:
- MRingModulator can modulate not only with sine, noise, complex waveforms but also external signal. Click the SIDE-CHAIN button on top of the oscillator to enable it. Then in bitwig you select the audio source you want (through this little down arrow button in plugin box).
- You can throw any effect anywhere you want and change it anyway you want.

For example you can use street noise, drum loop or your voice as modulator.
You can duplicate the modulation chain and make the whole thing multiband.
You can modulate it by the reverb of the original signal - just throw a 100% wet reverb as another layer, set layer volume to 0 and then select that layer as sidechain input PRE in the MRingModulator.

Ring modulation is just multiplying one signal by another, sample by sample. Values are between -1 and 1. This will help you imagine better what is happening inside and what signals to pick.

Enjoy!

jobinho · Post by **jobinho** » Thu Aug 06, 2015 10:16 pm

Thanks so much! will try this out v soon

comxed · Post by **comxed** » Sat Aug 08, 2015 2:54 pm

Actually it's possible to do it without external plugin. Just discovered that when you disable envelope follower in AUDIO MOD device it modulates the parameter(s) you choose with pure audio signal (meaning audio rate). Amazing. This means you can build your own ring modulator just by inserting Tool device into Audio Mod. Disable envelope follower, set the PRE-FILTER to highpass cutoff 0 (pre-filters behave weird in this device) and modulate the volume of the Tool. Then set source to whatever signal you like (noise in case of erosion) and it's done.

Kung VU · Post by **Kung VU** » Sat Aug 08, 2015 5:43 pm

Just discovered that when you disable envelope follower in AUDIO MOD device it modulates the parameter(s) you choose with pure audio signal (meaning audio rate). Amazing. This means you can build your own ring modulator just by inserting Tool device into Audio Mod.

That´s what I love about Bitwig! There is so much to discover…

psybex · Post by **psybex** » Sat May 22, 2021 7:29 am

comxed wrote: Sat Aug 08, 2015 2:54 pm Actually it's possible to do it without external plugin. Just discovered that when you disable envelope follower in AUDIO MOD device it modulates the parameter(s) you choose with pure audio signal (meaning audio rate). Amazing. This means you can build your own ring modulator just by inserting Tool device into Audio Mod. Disable envelope follower, set the PRE-FILTER to highpass cutoff 0 (pre-filters behave weird in this device) and modulate the volume of the Tool. Then set source to whatever signal you like (noise in case of erosion) and it's done.

Can you please reshare the Device you create for this FX

] Peter:H [ · Post by **] Peter:H [** » Sat May 22, 2021 7:57 am

Not tried out the provided Bitwig presets, but from what I get from the post...
Regarding degrading only selected frequencies...

Use the Multiband Container and plug-in any degrading fx you like into the fx slots per band.
As well you can use a Chain with a Filter as first element to cut off frequencies you don't want to manipulate and then add degregating fx after the filter.
Delay has a internal fb fx slot as well where you can add stuff...

Degrading you can use: Bit-8, Blur, Saturator, Amp, Ring-Mod...

The point is as already mentioned: Combine all these and save it as your own new FX preset.

And the most crazy stuff is that you can combine all these with audio side-chain... think of side-chain the degradation by your basedrum.

carlca · Post by **carlca** » Sat May 22, 2021 11:58 am

Polarity has produced an Erosion preset. It's at https://bitwiggers.com/presets/41216720 ... e066a7977/

Baphometrix has also produced one. It's at https://bitwiggers.com/presets/6237e6dd ... 2c42bf830/

Polarity is currently winning the download score between these two, by 68 compared to 50, FWIW

Bitwig

KVR Audio

Anything like Ableton's Erosion effect in Bitwig or VST?