clips, effects and workflow

[antismap]

Bitwig workflow seems to be "clip oriented" :
- you can edit audio inside a clip, like slice, fades, moving parts etc
- you can add clip automation for various parameters
- you can "save clip to library" and re-use later
- the clip launcher gives the whole real time experience

One thing that is missing I think is the ability to add effects and automations of those effects to a clip, like in Reaper.
For example, If I have an audio clip and I want to automate a filter cutoff, I can't. And I can't save this to the library. I need to create a track, add the effect to this track and do a track automation.

This makes the whole clip concept a bit weak because they often will be tied to a track anyway which you can't save to library.

Do you also think that this feature is in a way half finished ?

[antic604]

For example, If I have an audio clip and I want to automate a filter cutoff, I can't. And I can't save this to the library. I need to create a track, add the effect to this track and do a track automation.

Yes you can:
- add a Filter plugin (or whatever other device that has filter cutoff)
- wiggle the cutoff knob/slider a bit
- hit "A" to go to automation editor
- make sure you're in "Clip" mode, as opposed to "Track" mode (vertical column on the left of the editor)
- make sure you've in absolute automation mode ("A" icon, next to "+" and "x" for additive and multiplicative modes respectively - explore those, too )
- make sure the cutoff is listed in the drop-down menu, if not - find it
- draw the automation
- now the clip will include it

[antismap]

Wow thanks, I will try this out !

[antic604]

Wow thanks, I will try this out !

Let me know if it works. I'm at work, so was writing it off of my head

[antismap]

Just tested it, works. This is great on the long run because I can create a library of clips with associated effects that I could re-use later.

[antic604]

This is great on the long run because I can create a library of clips with associated effects that I could re-use later.

Definitely! But remember, that the clip saved to library contains TRACK devices. So for example, if you have one audio clip saved with fillter and another saved with delay, then dragging the 1st in will put filter (and its automation, if it's there) on the track, but then dragging the 2nd one on the same track will - likely - remove the filter and insert delay instead. So you need to use separate tracks or merge the devices manually.

What Bitwig is lacking is equivalent of Reaper's Item FX, i.e. FX that are embedded and work only on the given clip. You can obviously automate that in Bitwig, but it's not as convenient

[Nerdcore]

One tip I have is to make sure to set a default value on the control about to be assigned to automation if you plan on the base value being different than the factory default, otherwise you need to adjust each clip

[pseudonym_303]

Bounce to audio could be an option here too. You loose ability to edit automation later but you can have as many audio clips as you like.

[antismap]

Sure, but the idea was to get an level of abstraction between the arranger view and the content of a clip. For example, if I have a audio drum loop that I will slice, rearrange, apply effects etc.
By using only the arranger view if I unzoom I'll soon end up with lots of very small clips and I'll lose any sense of overview. If I use the clip feature and rearrange my breaks inside those clips, I have a nice level of abstraction between fine-editing and arranging.

This is one main issue that I found while using Reaper, The editing was nice but my drum breaks were just a mess of micro audio clips

[Zacchino]

Antic604 For The Win ^^
Always nice to see people like him helping out other fellow BW users. This is inspiring.