Bitwig 4.2 Beta Discussion

[Alma Mare]

I'm feeling pretty dumb about this ordeal, but I'm trying to generate notes from the Grid itself, but I can't find a way to generate gates or phase triggers. Apparently without a device input or a clip running that is not possible. Am I missing something (obvious) ?

[JHernandez]

Not sure if I'll ever use it, or what for, but I know many people wanted "Note Grid", so congrats!

I had a great Logic Environment step sequencer modeled after the first modular CV step sequencers, which was a lot of fun, before the Environment became too scary to mess with barring screwing up other parts of Logic.

Being able to emulate that in Bitwig is pretty cool.

I always found Logic's environment scary. Yeah, I always thought I'd mess something up.

After watching the video the sequencer aspect of Note Grid def got my attention. That can be useful for sure. Note Grid looks useful in general but right now I prefer something already built and easy to understand. Learning curve, tinkering time, ect. but people will likely come up with some cool stuff and share so looking forward to seeing what they come up with.

[stufflin]

I'm feeling pretty dumb about this ordeal, but I'm trying to generate notes from the Grid itself, but I can't find a way to generate gates or phase triggers. Apparently without a device input or a clip running that is not possible. Am I missing something (obvious) ?

I find the beta super buggy. Lots of freezes and stuff.
But, a squarewave LFO module to the note out should do the trick.

[pdxindy]

I'm feeling pretty dumb about this ordeal, but I'm trying to generate notes from the Grid itself, but I can't find a way to generate gates or phase triggers. Apparently without a device input or a clip running that is not possible. Am I missing something (obvious) ?

Make it a mono Grid

[pdxindy]

Im not trying to make an arpeggiator, just send all 3 or more chord notes to different midi channels or midi fx

You can make the notes in the clip have their own midi channels... don't even need the Grid for that

[pschuegr]

+1 to Alma Mare, trying to fake a step sequencer using the Gates module but it only runs when I have a note held down.

[D Halgren]

I'm feeling pretty dumb about this ordeal, but I'm trying to generate notes from the Grid itself, but I can't find a way to generate gates or phase triggers. Apparently without a device input or a clip running that is not possible. Am I missing something (obvious) ?

Make it a mono Grid

Thanks, that was driving me crazy!

[D Halgren]

+1 to Alma Mare, trying to fake a step sequencer using the Gates module but it only runs when I have a note held down.

Like @pdxindy said, make it a mono grid.

[pschuegr]

Ok, that does work... but... why?

[D Halgren]

Ok, that does work... but... why?

I think it simulates analog gear where the waveforms are always running. I'm going to have to read up on it.

[Alma Mare]

Making the grid mono did indeed work. Thanks! Now I'm finally able to do what I first envisioned when I heard of the grid... creating random sequences and CC modulation on the grid while driving a HW synth (tonight, the Volca Keys is the test subject, and I have a grin on my face). It's glorious!

Edit: If anyone else runs into this, disabling and re-enabling the grid while it's self-generating may result in silence. A single trigger signal from outside (in my case, playing a key on my controller) will resume the signal flow.

[u-u-u]

If you want to create individual sequences for each drum cell of a Drum Machine device but want to have a common e.g. Probability control, you can use Voice stacking:

Note Grid and Voice stacking.png

[j wazza]

Im not trying to make an arpeggiator, just send all 3 or more chord notes to different midi channels or midi fx

You can make the notes in the clip have their own midi channels... don't even need the Grid for that

thanks, this is good for if you already have chords and want to send each note to a different instrument or something

but if it could happen automatically it could be more useful for coming up with chord progressions in the first place, if its transposed immediately as you play it, you could play some simple triads and theyre turned into inversions or different voicings and you can easily try out chords in these voicings and make a progression with them, it can be a way to come up with progressions you might otherwise not have. combined with something like scaler 2 it expands the voicing possibilities for chord generators like that

it turns out you can seperate up to 3 midi notes in the note grid to send to different fx or midi channels. use 3 pitch in modules, 1 set to default, 1 to highest, 1 to lowest. add the highest and lowest. send the default pitch in to a poly module set to sum. then send the output of this to the first input of a subtract module, and the highest+lowest to the other input to take this away from the sum of all 3 notes. this gives you the middle note value. then send this, as well as the highest and lowest note values, to whatever midi fx or channels you want. hopefully there will be a way to do it with more notes in future

i can do it with reason rack or voltage modular too but having it native to bitwig now is nice, it runs more smoothly, and could be integrated with bitwig's other note fx and the note grid for more possibilities

[Firewyre]

Nice to see the new features, but I think the reverb was the stock FX that most needed an overhaul. I just can't get it to sound as good as any of the free reverbs that I end up using.

[u-u-u]

Here is a Note Grid preset which simulates the pattern of a bell tower:

Bell Tower Notes V2.zip

Sounds cool with bell-like sounds but also with others.

My basic idea was that big bells have a lower pitch and ring with a slower rate (because of greater mass). Voice stacking let's us build something like this in a very compact way.