Bitwig default meter level setting

[rodanmusic]

Hi,

I'm trying to understand Bitwig's mixer, and I am not understanding why there are different default meter values for different types of tracks.

For example when I use a drum machine, the drum machine containers main fader defaults to -10dB, but each individual track inside of the drum machine defaults to +0.0dB.

Or for a standard audio or instrument track it defaults to -10dB, but then for the group track it defaults the meters to 0.0dB....the opposite of the Drum Machine container.

Can someone please explain why it works this way? Why wouldn't every fader default to 0.0dB when double clicked?

For the drum machine I imagine it is just so the total dB level of all the instruments inside the drum machine container are less likely to exceed 0dB?

I hadn't noticed this until I looked at a percussion instrument inside of the drum machine and found it to be clipping, but then saw that the drum machine container channel itself had no clipping despite that percussion being the only currently playing instrument.

What am I missing here?

Thanks.

[JHernandez]

-10 db is the default setting in BWS. You can change this in settings > behaviors, to whatever you want. The 0 db for each channel/chain is relative to the -10 db in the Drum Machine device. If you turn up that -10 db you'll hear the whole device get louder.

Personally I like to keep mine @ -10 db or lower because VSTI's tend to be loud and sometimes I'll forget to turn down the plugin immediately when scrolling through factory presets. To each their own.

[rodanmusic]

Great thank you. I did not notice that option in the settings.

[Astralp]

I really appreciate this about Bitwig, it's great to work with plenty of headroom, the only trouble is I forget when making videos and compared to the rest of youtube the sound is really quiet

[Excds]

I really appreciate this about Bitwig, it's great to work with plenty of headroom, the only trouble is I forget when making videos and compared to the rest of youtube the sound is really quiet

That's why you put a compressor / peak limiter + a loudness meter on the master channel when you're done with mixing and crank it up.

[Astralp]

Unfortunately the videos demonstrate products and so have to have no extra processing/coloration most of the time, I just have to get better at remembering to turn up the channel level

[Excds]

Unfortunately the videos demonstrate products and so have to have no extra processing/coloration most of the time, I just have to get better at remembering to turn up the channel level

Adding a loudness meter will help you to get to a proper level. -13/14 LUFS is probably where you want to end up.

[rodanmusic]

I can't decide if I like this feature or not.

On one hand I like it as it prevents me from blasting my speakers with a loud preset or other sound, but it is kind of annoying when gain staging to have to go through and manually put every channel up to 0dB.

I guess that won't matter in the end. Now that I've realized that it does this I can just change it as I go.

[pdxindy]

I can't decide if I like this feature or not.

On one hand I like it as it prevents me from blasting my speakers with a loud preset or other sound, but it is kind of annoying when gain staging to have to go through and manually put every channel up to 0dB.

I guess that won't matter in the end. Now that I've realized that it does this I can just change it as I go.

You can change the default -10 to whatever you want in preferences

[zfigz]

i think it's a cool setting to have, but i record into bitwig a lot, so all my levels are well set by the time i get my sounds into bitwig. i've changed the default to 0dB.