What are some 'meta concepts' an FL user should know about Bitwig?

[Erik_Lucas]

Hello,
I'm an FL user and purchased Bitwig when 4.0 came out. I'm really liking it so far. It feels fresh and clean, and most importantly it seems to run smoother than FL on my PC.

I know that overtime I will be picking up on the shortcuts, workflow, etc. within Bitwig, but those are subjects that are primarily learned through experience + time. So I'm not as concerned about that.

What I'm trying to do with Bitwig at the moment, is how to think about it. Some say that learning a new DAW is like learning a new language which leads me to begin learning Bitwig by trying to understand the 'meta' concepts first.

If you were to teach yourself something about Bitwig when you first started using it, what would it be? How would you describe how Bitwig functions? What does Bitwig do differently? What approach should I take when using Bitwig?

There are more questions I could ask, but I think that will do for now.
Thanks in advance,
Erik

[xbitz]

clip launcher, modulators, container/nested devices, hybrid tracks, relative/multiplicative automation, entering into the grid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5j2jXT ... u&index=51
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4KUDDO ... u&index=49
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DomfzKa ... u&index=47

and the routing(audio/midi receivers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wzlrks ... u&index=11

or https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... Ojnj-GRTAG bit outdated

[Dionysos]

If your FL Studio workflow included first building up a loop within a single pattern in the Channel Rack (step sequencer), creating variations of it, and then splitting the patterns up and arranging them in the playlist, you can sort of recreate that quite well in Bitwig using the Clip launcher. Create a scene you like, duplicate it, tweak it, later move it to the Arranger.

The biggest change compared with FL will be the lack of ghost clips (or whatever you want to call them) – any change made to a clip in Bitwig will only be applied to that single clip, it will not propagate through all other copies of that clip. That can be really cumbersome, and for me personally it means I'll only arrange a track once I'm pretty happy with the basic loop(s), which can feel a bit stifling. In FL I was able to sketch out arrangements sooner in the process without really committing to things.

[xbitz]

^^^ yepp, workarounds are: time selection and clips are working on different levels so time selections can be copied into looped clips, and multiple clips inside a track can be edited at the same time (they are on top of each other)

[xbitz]

and track/clip etc. colors are not random one check the freq ranges on eq+

drum/sub are the red ones etc.

wow nice long image, sry

[Erik_Lucas]

^^^ yepp, workarounds are: time selection and clips are working on different levels so time selections can be copied into looped clips, and multiple clips inside a track can be edited at the same time (they are on top of each other)

To be honest with you, even this is hard for me to understand. Perhaps I'll understand it more after using Bitwig a little bit more, as I don't know what many of the basic terms mean.

For example "time selection and clips are working on different levels" do you mean that a clip and a time selection/clip within the main arranger? That's what I assume, but due to my limited understanding of Bitwig I have a lack of confidence in my assumption.

"time selections can be copied into looped clips" so a selection within the arranger panel can be copied into a clip that loops... in the arranger? or in the clip launcher/scenes? what does this look like exactly/how can this be done?

"multiple clips inside a track can be edited at the same time (they are on top of each other)"
So, because they are on top of each other (somehow), multiple clips' note data within a single lane of a track can be edited all at once? How exactly is that done?

Forgive me for the possibly amateuresque questions, but I may as well ask and learn more rather than go on with a gap in my understanding of the DAW.

[xbitz]

For example "time selection and clips are working on different levels" do you mean that a clip and a time selection/clip within the main arranger?

page 52. from the docs

› Time Selection tool is for choosing an arbitrary section of time instead of particular events. Otherwise it generally acts like the Pointer tool. You can switch to this tool by pressing [2], or you can temporarily use the tool by holding [2].

so it isn't event-based
,

"multiple clips inside a track can be edited at the same time (they are on top of each other)"

just simply should select multiple clips in a track in the editor(clip mode) all of them will be editable

video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb4y87FIkAA

[pdxindy]

The biggest change compared with FL will be the lack of ghost clips (or whatever you want to call them) – any change made to a clip in Bitwig will only be applied to that single clip, it will not propagate through all other copies of that clip. That can be really cumbersome, and for me personally it means I'll only arrange a track once I'm pretty happy with the basic loop(s), which can feel a bit stifling. In FL I was able to sketch out arrangements sooner in the process without really committing to things.

I can understand someone wanting this capability depending on what they do.

Logic has clip instances (ghost clips) and I hardly use them cause most of the time my clips are not exact duplicates. If Bitwig had ghost clips, I wouldn't use them much either.

In effect, Bitwig has something like ghost clips cause a single clip can be triggered at any point along the timeline in the Clip Launcher.

[antic604]

Off the top of my head, things that will be different from FL and are different from most of DAWs out there. It's kind of a list of Bitwig gotchas

Devices Panel:

• in some ways it's similar to Patcher, i.e. using containers (*Layer, *Selector, XY*, Chain) and splitters (mid/side, stereo, frequency band) you can build elaborate note FX, instrument & audio FX chains; using *Receivers you can inject audio or MIDI into that chain from someplace else; there's no limitations to order & number of devices

• each device (native & 3rd party plugins) have modulation slots where you put modulators that can affect parameters "contained" withing that device; and remotes page, that can be used to remotely control multiple parameters from "contained" devices chain and most MIDI controller scripts will map 8 knobs/faders automatically to currently selected device

• in reference to "contained" above - most of native devices and every VST have a slot (usually on the right-hand side) where you can put other devices to have them "contained", thus modulatable / remotable; if there's no such slot, you can always use Chain or *Layer container to keep the chain "contained", i.e. subject to modulation, remotes and saving as one

Detail Editor (piano roll in general speak):

• notice it has 2 modes selectable on the left: clip & track, which will either let you edit just the selected clip(s) aligining them along their respective start (this is what @xbitz was showing) or - in track mode - acting like a magnifying glass for selected track(s); both of those modes work for either MIDI or audio, in MIDI editing mode you can put one audio track as a background for reference

Automation Panel:

• here you can edit either clip or track absolute automation (that moves the knob/fader), but you can also edit - on clip level - additive or multiplicative automation, that adds to or multiplies by current value of given parameter

• clip automation can be decoupled from clip's length, e.g. 1 bar long clip can have automation that unfolds for 8 bars, when the clip is looping

Arranger:

• unlike in FL, there's a strict tie between given track and its chain of devices: note FX, instruments and audio FX and automation lane controls those devices

• bounce-in-place is a another powerful concept, which lets you bounce MIDI clip or time selection into audio, automatically creating a hybrid track where MIDI and audio live side by side; it's important to know that bounce happens at the output of instrument (or sound generating device, in general), so every audio FX that's not "contained" withing the instrument (i.e. not in instrument's FX slot, not in Chain or *Layer container, etc.) will not be rendered and will still process audio; there's currently no way to re-transform audio back to MIDI, so make a copy of that if you think you'll need it

• re: bounce-in-place - you can make time selection anythwere in the arranger, incl. FX tracks, Group tracks or Master and bounce that to audio which will take priority in playback; you can bounce in the actual place you've made the selection, or ALT+drag it anywhere - incl. new track - to have the selection bounced there

Audio Clips:

• they're actually containers for audio events (basically - samples), so when you open them in detail editor you can edit - cut, copy/paste, reverse, stretch, change pitch/formant depending on time-stretching algorithm) them individually or on a global level

Inspector panel:

• this is where info & controls for most of things you touch in Bitwig lives - many instruments & FX have their important controls that are not on the device itself there, so always have it open

• it's also useful for when you select multiple instances of notes, audio events, clips, tracks - that is where you can edit them all at once (e.g. change volume of several tracks at once)

Settings:

• pay attention to plugin sandboxing modes; while it's great to have each of them run separately because they can't take down the DAW and other plugins if they crash, some plugins require to be able to communicate between eachotehr (e.g. iZotope Neutron, FabFilter Pro-Q2/3, etc.)

• keyboard shortcuts - you can search up top by either action or key combination, so it should be easy to find what you need; notice, that keyboard shortcuts are focus sensitive in Bitwig, so Arranger shortcuts will not work when you're focused in Mixer or sometimes even in Detail Editor that's on the same screen as Arranger - that's mildly infuriating

Controllers:

• no matter what you have and whether it's natively integrated by Bitwig, try Driven by Moss which is a package of super deep scripts for many controllers + Flexi that basically lets you build your custom script: http://www.mossgrabers.de/Software/Bitwig/Bitwig.html

[xbitz]

"in some ways it's similar to Patcher," although not device bar but Grid, Mattias has created a comparison video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQEVroiPTNc

[antic604]

"in some ways it's similar to Patcher," although not device bar but Grid, Mattias has created a comparison video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQEVroiPTNc

That was a weird comparison.
FL's Patcher = Bitwig's device panel.
FL doesn't have anything comparable to FX/PolyGrid.

[xbitz]

^^^ it was his conclusion too but the video is an informative one, btw. FL can't see the controls of nested Patcher instances and automation(the red wires) can't go out from them (from the nested Patcher instances)

so device bar of Bitwig/ALive has a better concept and practically more (re)usable ones (it has been requested a couple of times some maybe some future FL version gonna fix it)

[xbitz]

unlike in FL, there's a strict tie between given track and its chain of devices: note FX, instruments and audio FX and automation lane controls those devices

btw. MIDI CC curves can be routed to multiple devices(with CC modulator) can be used at least for slower transitions(no needs for the audio-rate modulator trick)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBXcyzI2PTs

[NWSM]

What you should know is that Bitwig is on a good way to import FLP Files correctly.
What work is that Bitwig can read Midi, Sample information but the most Plugins will not load and there is no information wich Plugins are not found. So if you use Fruity Limiter, you will miss the Information...also if there is Harmor in the Project, Bitwig dont find the Harmor Plugin you installed as separate Plugin...but i think this is all in progress.

You say Bitwig runs smoother than FL? For me FL starts faster than Bitwig. And hangs and freeze are better solved in Bitwig.

[Dionysos]

The biggest change compared with FL will be the lack of ghost clips (or whatever you want to call them) – any change made to a clip in Bitwig will only be applied to that single clip, it will not propagate through all other copies of that clip. That can be really cumbersome, and for me personally it means I'll only arrange a track once I'm pretty happy with the basic loop(s), which can feel a bit stifling. In FL I was able to sketch out arrangements sooner in the process without really committing to things.

I can understand someone wanting this capability depending on what they do.

Logic has clip instances (ghost clips) and I hardly use them cause most of the time my clips are not exact duplicates. If Bitwig had ghost clips, I wouldn't use them much either.

Your clips are not exact duplicates when? How much variation your music contains in the end doesn't really matter, the question is how you get there, and it's where ghost clips come in handy. They just allow you to sketch out a placeholder arrangement early on in the creation process and add detail and variation as you go, always with an easy way to make wide-reaching changes.

In effect, Bitwig has something like ghost clips cause a single clip can be triggered at any point along the timeline in the Clip Launcher.

Not sure I'd agree with that statement. Replacing/updating copies of a clip in the arrangement is a completely manual process.

As far as I'm concerned, alias/ghost clips could also be implemented differently than they commonly are, for example as a global toggle/switch, something like "apply edits to all similar clips", with "similarity" based on the events within a clip. Then you wouldn't have to decide at the point of copying a clip whether you want to copy as a ghost/alias clip or as an independent clip. Instead you'd decide at the time of editing whether to propagate the changes or not. I wonder if there's any sequencer out there that has implemented it like this.