Easy Additive Synth in Bitwig 5.1

[@kaliyuga4802]

Really great patch! But it eats almost my cpu! Others who experience this?

[@Digitt6]

This is genius! I've wanted something like this for almost a year and been looking for a creative way to do this. Amazing. Thank you so much

[@MattiasHolmgren]

Excellent idea for additive synthesis Pol! Superb work on the sound and video! 👌🎅🙏❤

[@StefanSauer]

Super cool. Being able to modulate random in the steps mod would indeed be nice. Also if you could lock certain steps. I like how the sounds change when change the steps while playing. I'll try an a/b mod to blend between two steps mods.

[@cryptout]

A few more days until I upgrade. I never do that mid project. Looking forward to 5.1.

[@OdoSendaidokai]

Absolutely great idea ! Thanks for sharing 🚀

[@iamsyntact]

coolest thing I've seen all year

[@iamsyntact]

Polarity could you answer a question for me? I'm using this technique to create a modular wavetable editor with the 16 partials etc, and I'm trying to create a routing system that allows one of my oscillators to Ring Mod itself (like what IL Sytrus does in its RM table) but I'm having trouble getting an LFO to follow the voice stack the way the oscillator does. I was able to achieve this before using wavetables imported from Vital, and all I had to do was duplicate the oscillator's output, send it into a Modulator Out module, then route the modulator to an Attenuate placed after the Oscillator, but in this case it doesn't seem to want to work. (Also, the phase of my partials are strangely out of sync before ever routing them to a step editor. What's the deal with that?) Any help would be appreciated 🙏

[@brianbergmusic5288]

Thank you for this tutorial. This technique really works! I will confess, however, that I really need a more powerful computer for stuff like this ( you say so yourself @ 12:14 and @ 17:59 ). Just a couple voices brings my i5 processor to its knees. Hellooooo audio bounce!

[@jumpstar9000]

I was thinking, could do some kind of simple physical modeling delaying each partials to simulate propagation delay/material resonances, that kind of thing. You might get some interesting beating phenomena if you then modulate the separation distances.

[@sanjaux]

Followed along inside the grid, it's nice when you can just stack the steps on top of each other so you get a linear representation of what each voice is set to!

[@sanjaux]

Using this on the delay for easy per voice strumming omg

[@KlareAudio]

@@sanjaux cracked idea

[@BadComputer]

@@KlareAudio woah we got the whole squad here

[@Michael_H_Nielsen]

Those cat ears :)

[@wavhart3454]

Dude this is crazy

[@hrrld]

per-voice step mod phase (clever!) --- really interesting to think about which partials are getting picked out when you take 0-1, divide it by 16, then multiply it by 36, then floor... (1/16*36, 2/16*36, 3/16*36 ...) ... sort of 16 partials spread "somewhat evenly" over three octaves. Excited for 5.1, going to use this to build a 2-op (or maybe 4?!) fm synth closer to operator. Thank you for the ideas!

[@CuriousPassenger]

I think there aren't three octaves. The numerator setting in the oscillator represents harmonics not semitones. 2nd is octave up, 4th is 2 octaves up, 8th is 3 octaves and so on.

[@hrrld]

@@CuriousPassenger- good thinking. I believe you're right. So it's sixteen partials spread 'evenly' over the first 36 harmonics?

[@CuriousPassenger]

@@hrrld yes I think so. If you modulate the numerator with the amount of 16, voice stacking covers all first 16 harmonics, but if you set a wider modulation range, some harmonics will be skipped, like in the video. Worth trying to set a very wide modulation range and then dialing down the amount knob of the steps mod to find a good sounding setting. Also, the amount knob itself can be modulated. And the phase knob too, which can produce some interesting unexpected results.

[@hrrld]

@@CuriousPassenger - amazing thoughts. Notably, a setting that pulls out every other harmonic might be interesting (even or odd). There are phenomena in nature (e.g., a tube open at only one end) that involve only every other harmonic. Thanks for your great comment and follow-up, it's very rare that I learn something from a youtube comment. Stay rad.

[@CuriousPassenger]

@@hrrld with odd harmonics that's easily doable. Grab the Stack Spread mod, set its spread mode to Value, modulate the numerator setting with amount of 2. Partials will be 1, 3, 5, 7 and so on. Some more tricks: Instead of the Sine osc, take Swarm which also has the Sine waveform in it. Swarm has the Spread parameter that can be modulated per-partial with Steps. It can produce some nice atmosheric otherworldly sounds not just pure tone plucks! Partials distrbution can be non-linear. Instead of modulating Numerator, modulate the Value module, connect it to Modulator Out which in turn modulates Numerator of the oscllator. Put Bend, Pinch, Transfer or any other shaper between Value and Mod Out, and voila, you have non-linear distribution of partials over harmonics.

[@calamalabar]

great creative ideas about this new feature. Thanks for sharing ! do you have some ideas using voice stacking on note effects and create rythmic or melodic stacks ?

[@DashGlitch]

Genius! thank you!

[@berniehcc]

Awesome, thanks so much 😍

[@thala_723]

schön zu sehen, wie die CPU Anzeige hoch geht, als Du die Polyphonie hochsetzt. :D Ich ziehe noch immer meinen Hut vor Razor, welcher damals all seine Power auf nur einem CPU Kern entfaltet hat. (Dank der nicht Multicorefähigkeit von Reaktor)

[@PolarityMusic]

😁

[@DrMax0]

Very nice. For me the use of a step modulator (which modulates in time) with a rate of 0 (which means it does not step at all) to modulate the voice stack is utterly counter-intuitive. But it works. What is the logic behind that? What will happen if the rate is not 0 ? Totally bamboozled ....

[@buckycore]

I call this patch the "FL killer" 😂😂😂 (that was an Ableton 12 joke) Anyway, this such a beautiful sounding thing to make and i thank you for this video. And to all the people criticizing for Bitwig not updating this, or that, or to make the Piano roll like FL: DUDE! you're missing the point about Bitwig. Bitwig is about the experimenting, the modularity and is ALL about the grid. Bitwig ain't your grandpappy's DAW. If you don't like the fact the new updates are focused on this stuff, then you're using the wrong DAW. I purposely use four DAWS for diffenet type of projects and musical ideas (Bitwig, FL, Cubase, studio one...and ok, Reaper at times and Reason..but mostly as a plugin So 5 and a half daws) They all provide differnt work flows when it comes to creating. So maybe consider that as well. If you want to just be a one DAW kind of person that uses Clips and has ARA support the use ProTools (no joke..they have clips like in Bitwig and Abelton now)

[@joecat4115]

Also - for anyone missing how to get stereo detune - right about 9:30 " so maybe activate this" - lol, that's an important step - click "±" symbol in the Sine oscillator to the left of detune, which is off by default. :)

[@joecat4115]

Thanks so much - leaned a ton from this (for anyone new to the grid it's a great example of what you can do with the voice stacking also). Only thing missing for me (and easy enough to do) - adding inverse key tracking to the AD delay for shorter tones in the higher registers (realistic for a lot of bell / mallet sounds). That's one thing I always appreciated about Live's Operator that's missing from a lot of FM / FM type synths - the Time parameter makes it simple to add inverse key tracking to all the ADSRs at once.

[@ArukuSound]

thank you for this video, great stuff!

[@Emily_M81]

I followed along on this one and in the end came out with some sinister ambient sounds, just the synth, a Filter+, and Supermassive :D

[@angrytoken]

Holy voices!

[@BeatMax2023]

Neat idea and very versatile. Thanks for this!

[@jumpstar9000]

Very good thinking Polarity! It's quite incredible what we have in terms of sound design now. I'm having an absolute blast. Bitwig is ❤

[@7ARkathal]

i'd love to learn how to make my iwn wavetables with native bitwig? have you got a neat work around to create and edit wavetables like serum or vital? x

[@stephanehoreczko]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing!

[@GodelsPrison]

Smart idea, thanks for sharing

[@DonutShoes]

Absurdly amazing idea

[@KozmykJ]

Yay !! Release Day !!

[@Christian-op1ss]

Fantastic! Quite the little bombshell tip at the end as well

[@ze2like]

This stacked phase mod trick on the step sequencer in hold is insane! It still feels not at all intuitive to me, as if Bitwig was lacking a more straightforward path to implement this! Haven't you had a hard time to come up with this design ? I sometimes feel the grid is a bit daunting. Thank you for showing us the way!

[@shira158]

Jesus Christ, can't they just update the piano roll and other standard features a DAW should have? they haven't touch the piano roll since version 2 bruv. It's already rad enough when it comes to modulation, move on other things...

[@AmbientShores]

Totally - all they need to do is replicate what FL Studio do.

[@bobobob1637]

Boring

[@FranciscoCosta-d6t]

​​@@bobobob1637It may be boring for your high IQ but it would bring Bitwig a lot of money and that money would be reinvested in R&D to benefit you.

[@wrxnglove]

nah fam we dont write chords here

[@Trentcast]

When you learn how to actually use it, you’ll find it is much more intuitive. Just spend some time with it. Same thing with automations. Everyone complains about the automations. But once you learn your way around, it becomes simple to use.