Bitwig 4.2 Beta Discussion

[j wazza]

An additional way is to make a midi clip and use the operators to randomize the chance of the notes on your scale.

thanks for the suggestion!

maybe a randomised note filter could select 1 random note at a time.

would it be possible in note grid?

yes

if you have the time could you please explain how as i cant figure it out, i thought i could use the pitches/steps/probability and random modules somehow but cant wrap my head around how to set it up.

i guess i could randomly transpose the notes with a unipolar modulation and also modulate the direction of this unipolar transposing with steps. but if i wanted the notes to go up up down, how would i get the notes to go up twice in a row? if the randomiser retriggers on every trigger, it would just transpose up from the original note, not from the last one, so may end up going down from the last note.

maybe i could somehow use transposers in series to transpose from the last note, and use a steps modulator to activate the next transposer for each step, but this would be hard to set up.
maybe if i use a delay to hold the last transposed midi note value and then put the next transposer in series and use the stepmod to switch to this note value. this would be easier if they add the latch or note fx to the grid. it still seems doable but hard to set up.

[Biscotto]

I did it out of memory because I’m away from my laptop.
But in my thought I placed a clip in the launcher and used a 7 16th notes chord to make the entire scale.
I duplicate to fill the clip (16 times, no space between notes).
I then Randomize (50%?) all of them.

Use a Random modulator on a Note Transpose to go up or down required octaves (Steps may work but for a max of 64 steps and IIRC the Random button in it can not be triggered…right ?)

Pick a good feeling Random cycle (note or Hz)

Set your Synth to Mono of course.

I’m not well versed in the Grid, but others are, for a more elegant and elaborate setup.

Using Midi clip has a huge flexibility on the fly and with the Clip Actions you can have a lots of option.

[j wazza]

Using Midi clip has a huge flexibility on the fly and with the Clip Actions you can have a lots of option.

thanks, its useful to have other ways of doing it, many ways to skin a cat, not that id want to skin a cat

using the pitch quantize module in note grid as a custom key filter to force notes into a scale is cool for this generative stuff, you can use notes other than the scales provided in the key filter device. theres also a pitch quantizer in voltage modular

ive found the easiest way so far to generate random pitches in a scale with a specified up/down pattern and rhythm is using multinote to make random chords, keyfilter/pitch quantize in grid, then ana2 patternbased arp (works better than others ive tried but nora cm is free).
I hope bitwig make their own pattern based arp.

the 1 problem with this way is that the random multi note sometimes makes 2 or more of the same note, for the pattern based arps if you tell it to play the highest of 4 notes on the 2nd beat but there are only 3 different notes, you get no note playing. im going to try getting round this by making the random chords in note grid using transposers, and using logic modules so that if two notes are equal it will transpose one. if anyone knows of a random chord generator vst please let me know. i also want to explore a way of combining this with random rhythms, if anyone has any tips for generative/random rhythms in bitwig or knows a pattern based arp with random rhythms please let me know

i could make my own pattern based arp with piz midipolyphony splitting the notes to different midi channels, and an fx selector with channel filters selecting one of the notes/channels, then use a randomiser to select the note, but i cant really get any musical rhythms from the randomisers in bitwig yet, not like vermona random rhythm, i could use an audio follower from this or maybe use midi cc from another rhythm generator in a modular synth if someone knows one. or maybe i could just randomly choose between non random rhythms such as 16th notes, triplets, or euclidian rhythms.

it would be interesting to use probability/chance to make the notes from outside of the scale/blue notes appear less often and maybe modulate a note length so they are shorter too for jazzy chromatic passing tones

[Biscotto]

^^^I think you are a good candidate for a deep dive into the Grid.
One day will be my turn if I stop producing

[j wazza]

^^^I think you are a good candidate for a deep dive into the Grid.
One day will be my turn if I stop producing

haha i havent stopped producing but it can be easy to get lost down these modular rabbit holes

this melody generation has already given me the start of some nice basslines i wouldnt have otherwise come up with, this sort of thing is good for giving me inspiration and getting me out of a rut, you need to make sure it has a musical purpose or it can become a rut of its own, i used to spend ages just experimenting with no real direction and end up with a weird soundscape or something unusable, now i make a lot more actual music but still weird experimenting is what has given me my best ideas, even if it takes some time its worth it in the end if you have a goal in mind and this kind of modular stuff is the main point of using bitwig or ableton for me, otherwise id just use fruity, logic, cubase or studio one

[dupont]

the grid is too much time consuming and the learning curve is too slow. I have a full time job and no times left to dig into this kind of logical think made for mathematic engineers !!!!

[pdxindy]

the grid is too much time consuming and the learning curve is too slow. I have a full time job and no times left to dig into this kind of logical think made for mathematic engineers !!!!

I'm not a coder or engineer and never made a single thing in Reaktor or M4L but within 10 minutes of trying the Grid I had my first synth preset.

The Grid is easy. I can make synth patches in it basically as fast as any regular VST synth.

Yes, there is the possibility to dig deep into all sorts of complex stuff, but that is the beauty of the Grid, it isn't necessary to do that to make effective use of it. It is in the users hands and there is a very shallow learning curve. Keep it simple and it is super fast and easy to create synth patches.

[pdxindy]

if you have the time could you please explain how as i cant figure it out, i thought i could use the pitches/steps/probability and random modules somehow but cant wrap my head around how to set it up.

From your posts it sounds like you want a note to play, the following note to be a random note in a particular scale and higher in pitch, then the next note also a random note in the scale and a higher pitch, then the next note a random note in the scale but a lower pitch, and then that pattern repeating? That is what you are trying to do?

[xbitz]

finished the MIDI channel based chord splitter (another tool to be able to create patterns in BWS), a variant of the FL like sequencer just the note pitches aren't fixed pre-wired ones but come from the individual voices



the gate module at the bottom is just a visual helper (so enough to set non zero velo values), I'm a bit tired but seems working

[xbitz]

can't open all of the sequencers but there are no traditionally MIDI clips just sequencers and samples (like my Reason projects )>

love this update and still miss the official pattern supporting but far better now

[foosnark]

I'm not even trying the beta yet, but I just found this with VCV Rack inside Bitwig and figure it should also work in Note Grid:

pitch -> pitch output
pitch -> square oscillator -> VCA controlled by the gate input (*) -> gate output

((*) in the Grid, multiply the square by the gate input)

Then use a mono VST with a fast attack, short decay envelope. Triggering envelopes at audio rate is a kind of AM synthesis. Play with the decay time and the frequency of the oscillator that's doing the gating to get different timbres, including some vocal formant stuff (it's pretty close to VOSIM). This works really well with Aalto, E-Kick, E-Cowbell, and other things but not so well with others. Usually works best with monosynths rather than poly.

This may not work well with MIDI hardware (too much data down the pipe) but inside Bitwig it works fine

[dupont]

I can't believe some basic stufs as adjusting min/max to a midi coontroler still need to insert a macro between the controler and the modulated parameter. So easy to do in Ableton.

[j wazza]

From your posts it sounds like you want a note to play, the following note to be a random note in a particular scale and higher in pitch, then the next note also a random note in the scale and a higher pitch, then the next note a random note in the scale but a lower pitch, and then that pattern repeating? That is what you are trying to do?

yes, or in different patterns eg down down up down
but im trying to figure out how to make it higher than the last note rather than the original note (using the grid or bitwig devices, an arp/pattern based arp works but id still like to make my own one so i could use rhythm generators too)

[j wazza]

pitch -> pitch output
pitch -> square oscillator -> VCA controlled by the gate input (*) -> gate output
((*) in the Grid, multiply the square by the gate input)

Then use a mono VST with a fast attack, short decay envelope.
Triggering envelopes at audio rate is a kind of AM synthesis.

theres another way to trigger envelopes at audio rate, sending a square wave to a vca controlled by an envelope and the trigger for the envelope is the square wave signal instead of a normal gate/trigger.
in the grid you can just send the square to an envelope instead of a vca as the envelopes act like a vca + envelope would in a normal modular. but doing it this way in grid or another synth you would also need a normal envelope/vca with a normal gate/trigger so the sound doesnt play all the time.
if you look at an oscilloscope you can see the waveform changing when you do this. you could even do this with samples to bend the waveform of a sample, like an analog synth sample of a square wave from the free syntronik. very slightly modulating the attack and decay times also at audio rate could have some interesting results.

here is the patch, its very simple and turned a square wave into this new waveform

[foosnark]

theres another way to trigger envelopes at audio rate...

Yes But using it to send MIDI means you can use the trick with other synths outside the Grid as well. Sometimes with unexpected results.