Getting Started: Note Editing in Bitwig Studio

[@molecularentropy]

I've been using Bitwig for years, and I always assumed Bitwig just didn't want you to hear incomplete notes. Through this video I learned of Note Chase and turned it on immediately.

[@vonthorne8387]

for anyone else, command is ctrl. Took me a minute to figure out how to duplicate notes on PC. it's ctrl + D.. I gotta say, learning a new daw is annoying guys. I haven't had to do it in years.. gotta 2 times speed these videos to get to the info quick enough. I do appreciate the video tho, I think I got the gist of bitwig now. Thank you

[@atetraxx]

FWIW, Cntrl d is duplicate for almost every creative software I know of. If you ever use any other creative software, it will work in most of those as well.

[@JC20XX]

I've been using Bitwig for a bit now and this still helped me. Especially the easier velocity ramping.

[@KipCount]

Love how basic and thorough this video is.

[@chris5375]

Hope you bring keys and scales function directly in the note editor like in Ableton 11

[@musicproduction-me3ci]

three years, still no scales

[@brianbergmusic5288]

@@musicproduction-me3ci It's possible to memorize intervals and scales for all 12 major/minor (circle of 5ths) a lot faster than three years with good instruction or ear training. [edit] I just also realized that you can also do this yourself using folded note names (similar to drum note editing) Step 1: Create a chord featuring all the notes in every octave you want to use Step 2: Hide that chord by clicking and dragging that chord away from playback in the arranger Step 3: Switch to FOLDED NOTE NAMES (default hotkey == f) Now the Pen tool will fail to write in any accidentals (no blues notes for you unless you include that flat-five in step 1).

[@dylanh2591]

If you guys didnt know when using the grid you can drag around and reposition the grid by HOLDING THE MOUSE SCROLL WHEEL... I just figured this out and it has helped so much.

[@brianbergmusic5288]

I've been using BItwig a few months and did not know this awesome fact. You saved me!

[@ELEKTROGOWK]

A different mode for audition notes would be nice. When selecting multiple notes it should be possible to audition the chord.

[@mathieupe666]

Great host. Great video. Feature request: Please let us audition multiple notes by highlighting them!

[@bitwig]

You mean by making a selection box? That could quickly get very messy. ;)

[@mathieupe666]

@@bitwig yes. I know it raises many questions on how to implement it right. But it would be very handy to write harmonies. Putting it as "not uncommon in the concurrence" would be an understatement.

[@datashat]

@@bitwig this is one of the few things that I miss from Ableton. Currently in Bitwig, when you have a bunch of notes selected and shift them around with arrow keys, you get to hear them auditioned, but there's no way to hear them where they currently are without making the play head pass over them, this makes editing sequences of chords quite tedious. Perhaps there should be a shortcut key to audition-in-place the notes? (or tbh, better still, audition on marquee selection, as the OP said)

[@carterhinkle8153]

@@bitwig this is a really important feature. It is the main reason I don't use bitwig, as I am really into composition

[@soundfx68]

@@bitwig There could be a strip along the top of the editor window, that when clicked, played all notes underneath the position. A selection box would mean you could select parts of a chord, so less messy but more clumsy EDIT, more clumsy depending on zoom level and ability to 'selection box'. Hence my click strip idea... or click location with modifier might work, to play all notes positioned vertically underneath click location. The problem Bitwig team has with any implementation is that it needs to work with touch screen. 'Made a rod for your own back' there! Good luck.

[@FurkanTopal]

I'm looking for a solution why always the notes I write are out of the grid even though I correct with its indicator... I'm about to give Bitwig a chance but its piano roll seems a bit weird. Whenever I zoom in to the note, I'm seeing that it's out of the grid and it's annoying.

[@ramdevgehlot4317]

hi bitwig.... plz give option to zoom out track vertically... to minimize track.. and make piano roll advanced like fl studio love u

[@carlosp.1846]

just asked for the same, he's even struggling to select them in the video

[@mathieupe666]

It s there already. Hover the mouse beetwen track headers to resize. One of the modifier keys allows for resizing all tracks at once. To resize the pianoroll: click and drag laterally on the pianoroll keys

[@carlosp.1846]

@@mathieupe666 works vertically? with magic trackpad it zooms only horizontaly

[@rarbelo1]

@@mathieupe666 Having to move the mouse over to the left side of the screen to click the tiny resize area is a huge pain. Other DAWs let you zoom with a modifier + scroll from anywhere. In fact, even Bitwig lets you do this but only in the MIDI editor, not in the Arranger.

[@iliravdyli4109]

I want to zoome verticaly while i hold alt & scrool the mouse wheel like in all other daws.

[@ussrfeniks]

It is easier to persuade the developers of FL Studio to make a piano roll as a VST plugin so that I can use it in Bitwig, than to ask Bitwig to improve the piano roll (for example, to add a ban on writing notes outside the tonal scale)

[@domtak]

Great. More of these plz.

[@datashat]

How about: command+shift+up/down = raise / lower chord inversion. This could just mean transposing the lowest note in the selection up an octave / highest note in the selection down an octave. (or perhaps enough octaves to clear the farthest note at the other side, in the case of chords that span multiple octaves)

[@PolicemanPlanet]

you can change your hot keys. it's also in your edit bar.

[@iliravdyli4109]

Some scale and chord function would be nice in the next update. 🔥

[@thepauloapo]

And step recording

[@dubtube6691]

yes please

[@woopeedyscoop1858]

per note possibility slider would be nice addition

[@Manuel_Manzotti]

If I hit command + D, it will duplicate the note or clip, but why I cannot just hold command +D to duplicate without hitting command +D over and over again. And why when I hit a note on my keyboard, it doesn't show in DAW what note I am hitting? And I can move with arrows key a midi note inside editor, but why I cannot also move the clips on the arrangement view with arrows key? And why if I insert a return track outside the groups and use that return track for tracks that are inside in groups, when I solo a group, it will play without effect from the return track? The only possibility is to put in every group return tracks but this is a little bit annoying. And also it will be nice if the cue marker would be bigger because you barely see it, and it will be also nice to see every section from cue marker delimited like in Ableton with lines. It will be also nice to see how many cpu every track consume, freeze option, comping , mp3 export , chords and scale options, cloud storage and a new modern UI. Otherwise, very good DAW.

[@bitwig]

Hey Manuel, thank you for sharing this. Please get in touch with us via our contact form: www.bitwig.com/support/ so we can look at your issue in more detail.

[@PM-yz8fx]

Is there a way in Bitwig to insert notes in the piano roll by using a midi keyboard? Ableton allows to play a note or a chord on the midi keyboard, and then by hitting the arrow on the PC keyboard the note/notes are automatically inserted, I think it's a wonderful feature, but I can't figure out if Bitwig has it or not.

[@gancci1932]

Please add retrospective record

[@Mitsumata]

*Please add Scale Highlighting as in FL Studio or Ableton Live 11* Pleeeeease 😞🙏

[@organsmoothie6186]

this for the love of god

[@ContentScientist]

This is great, can you do another video going into how to view "MULTIPLE" Midi Clips. For example, editing drums and bass to make them work together....Is this possible?

[@thefiddle2958]

Hope you guys don´t stop working on your DAW. You made many things better than the current DAW´s that annoyed me. And i´m looking forward to what bitwig will look like in a couple of years hopefully

[@sbookholt]

Good vid, learned a few things! 2 things I really miss: Copy/Paste silence before the first note, so the offset remains. And a way to lengthen very short notes without zooming.

[@bitwig]

As a work-around you can move the start position marker. Note lengths can be changed via the inspector panel, that way you don't need to zoom in.

[@sbookholt]

@@bitwig The note inspector tip is useful, thanks for that! The workaround is not going to work if I want to copy an off-grid hihat pattern from a drumrack to another clip for instance. This bug has been confirmed since v1 and I really hope this gets squashed soon.

[@OdoSendaidokai]

Thanks a lot.Always when you think you got it, there is always something more. I love to learn with Bitwig.

[@idanmashta]

Thanks, how can i lock the piano roll to a certain scale? It’s extremely useful for me.

[@user-kx5fs9jy1g]

Is it possible to select all notes after (or before) the cursor or playhead? And are there any plans to add step recording? Really miss that feature.

[@dancaldwell910]

I have been looking all through the manual for a way to interactively scale the notes I've recorded.. Alt click and drag selection is exactly what I've been looking for! Goodbye fiddling around with percentage scale :D Also Note Chase

[@Myntian]

if you could audition multiple notes at once, either by selecting a chord or another shortcut, the piano roll would be so much more powerful

[@DarrinNoNAME]

@@Zachino this can be done in Ableton Live.

[@mathieupe666]

Pls implement a Talent Simulator

[@bitwig]

One auto-cowbell coming up!

[@mathieupe666]

@@bitwig 😂

[@JC20XX]

5:40 is this any different from pressing ctrl and dragging to make a copy?

[@iliravdyli4109]

Step up the midi game guys.

[@jmb5706]

Can we nudge notes slightly in Bitwig?

[@solarsound744]

Is there a way to start playback from selected note ? Like playback cursor jumps to a selected region in arranger view and hitting space

[@notificationsareblocked.yo53]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CAN YOU ADD SCALE HIGHLIGHTING AND GHOST NOTES! Ableton just added it in 11. I chose to buy Bitwig instead of upgrade because support told me that you guys plan on adding it in the future

[@bitwig]

Hi Sam, for ghost notes please try layered editing. It will allow you to see the content of other clips while editing.

[@Mitsumata]

@@bitwig *This sucks. Please add Scale Highlighting as in Fl Studio*

[@lunar_brained]

Please add a step sequencer. ...and bigger vertical zoom. ....and midi editor + timeline play head sync .... But these are tiny things compared to the immensity of good things Bitwig does :) ...oh, and custom named notes in the drum editor. I'm flying blind with this midi controlled fx selector, man!

[@bitwig]

Hello Daniel, thank you for your feature requests. Be sure to send them to us via our contact form: www.bitwig.com/contact/ By the way, if you open the note (or audio) editor in Track mode, you'll have one playback head for both editor and arranger timeline.

[@lunar_brained]

@@bitwig Thanks for the direction! I'm sorry, but when I mean "play head sync" I mean that when I click on an area in the midi (or audio) area -- in any vertical location, in either track or clip mode, it would be nice to have the option of playback then starting from where I clicked (indicated by the vertical white line). Right now, playback start point can only be started in a different area by clicking in this tiny area at the top of the editors (which then moves the blue arrow).

[@bitwig]

@@lunar_brained You can always double-click in the header to start playback from any point in the time line.

[@louisgagarin]

Pitch colors is so useful. But it's not default. Can I make it default?

[@robmlisanti]

How about joining notes from left to tight?

[@peterkoval]

Why is it that when I go to Add Controller > Native Instruments, my list looks different? I have the M32 and I see on your list, it's listed there, but on my list I have a very limited selection of NI to choose from, and the M32 isn't showing up....

[@bitwig]

Hello Peter, please make sure your controller is connected, and all necessary drivers are installed.

[@peterkoval]

@@bitwig I'm on a Mac, and everything is connected and installed. Very strange the M32 wouldn't show up as it is on your list.

[@bitwig]

@@peterkoval please get in touch with our tech support for further assistance: www.bitwig.com/contact/

[@mjaa1307]

hello in my bitwig "pitch colors" are not so "colorfull" and the Note Chase feature does not work.

[@mansky985]

nice video!

[@Пока-к8]

Hello! How to connect push2 ableton? I don't have it in the list of controllers Ableton. Version 4.3

[@ehdyn]

I didn't know about the alt-shift combo.. really nice to have! BTW, there seems to be an issue where Bitwig refuses to load files with several million notes but when the same files are exported from Reason it can read them.. also, the whole program gets terribly bogged down just from loading 128 small midi "beat" files.. which would be a typical amount one would expect for a live-set. Not sure what's up with that cause I have 32GB of Ram, fast SSD, etc..

[@bitwig]

Thank you for sharing this. Please get in touch with us via our support form: www.bitwig.com/support/ so we can have look at your issue.

[@mansky985]

how do i make my midis have higher resolution than 1920?

[@maddogmorgan]

awesome

[@jonmacdiarmid3671]

Really useful thx

[@LK-ln1fi]

Still no staff viewing/editing... 🙄

[@Mrdjhappyman]

Please... Please.... In a future update, implement time time stretching in the sampler. I love using samples to create instruments but the current options (pitch, cycles etc...) don't sound right at all with one shot samples such as bass, melodic etc...

[@loveyoupeng]

How to record more midi notes at the end of an existing clip

[@thabeachmaster324]

Alt drag notes doesn't work for me... Help??

[@ImaplanetJupiteeeerr]

How do I make all of the selected notes to be the same length? Not change the lengths of all notes as a slider, but make all of the selected notes, say, 16th note length? Anyone know the answer to this? ❤️ Ps. Happy Bitwig Day!!!

[@JohnSmith-pn2vl]

if i move notes with the keyboard an octave up or down, the piano roll view does not follow, i miss that from ableton. would be great if we can see somewhere if grid snap is on or off

[@kris_lx]

It's EXTREMELY annoying that the note editor for clips defaults to adaptive grid. On my screen this is 1/32 while I prefer 1/16. Please change this so it remembers how I set it, like it does when editing in arranger view. It makes totally no sense that it remembers my settings for arranger view but not for clip view. I don't want adaptive grid and hate it that Bitwig forces it on me every time I edit a clip. To be honest, MIDI editing in Bitwig is kinda weak compared to other DAWs.

[@happyduck1424]

they put all their cards into production if they update the composing side it will be a well rounded monster.

[@iliravdyli4109]

Less modulations & more audio/midi edeting features. Thats what im hoping for😎

[@bitwig]

Thank you for sharing this. Your feedback is appreciated and we've added it to the feature list.

[@kris_lx]

@@bitwig I've already contacted support about this behaviour, and got a reply that it works as intended.

[@Zen-Breeze]

scale mode ，chord track please

[@mnieuwhof]

Pls make a new vid when Bitwig has more MIDI editor functionality than Cubase 1.0... FL Studio did a great job...

[@notificationsareblocked.yo53]

Note chase should be enabled by default. I would have never known

[@skatechatham]

they need to fix drum editor so you can see which midi keys you are pressing. Works fine in piano roll but not drum editor

[@thabeachmaster324]

Did they replace the German guy;(?

[@xkidmidnightx]

Put the note name on the note in the piano roll like in live.

[@bitwig]

Zoom is your friend.

[@wrongpony]

Please show me how you select, copy and then paste notes at the cursor position, not at a random position. Okay, I actually know a way to do it but if this behavior is not a bug but a design decision then this is the weirdest midi editor in the world.

[@bitwig]

Select notes, copy, click anywhere in the editor (a white line appears) then paste.

[@wrongpony]

@@bitwig Unfortunately it doesn't work that way because Bitwig takes the first selected note as a reference and when I select from right to left the pasted notes appear before that white line. Even worse things happen when I select a block of notes from top to bottom with the first note selected in the middle of the sequence. This issue has probably existed since v1.0 and I believe has been reported many times, I also have information that the Mac version may be free of it.

[@troycarpenter4355]

Feature request. Please include a basic midi soundset just for working on midi files. We can not simply open a 16 channel midifile in Bitwig. We need to assign VSTi's to each track every time.

[@ussrfeniks]

The note editor in Bitwig is fast and convenient? Don't make me laugh! Look at the note editor in FL Studio, that's what it should be like!

[@gasparpini]

Please Freeze function!!

[@Michael-fx1ls]

what

[@EgoShredder]

@@Michael-fx1ls I think he means to save CPU and RAM resources, so only the active plugins will consume power. The rest can be muted or "frozen" to temporarily disconnect them.

[@Michael-fx1ls]

@@EgoShredder bro bitwig implements this way better than live , with bounce and bounce in place freezing tracks is very old technology from ableton.

[@Michael-fx1ls]

It already makes it better than live dude

[@dnalord77]

Freeze function +1! Whilst bounce in place is OK, I would love a button to freeze and de-freeze the track if I need to make any changes to the midi, fx, etc. I understand that you can duplicate the track, bounce, deactivate and all that, but a button to click on/off would be simpler. It is not an either/or situation, both options to bounce in place and freeze could happily coexist. And whilst we are at it, audio autoquantize would as well be great! I record guitars/bass and it would save me a few clicks to get the recorded audio clip having the beat markers automatically placed and stretched to groove.

[@summerWTFE]

That white selection thing is extremely annoying. It gets in the way every single time I want to edit the note length. Instead moving the selection. This basically makes the program unusable.

[@platinumfit3716]

BITWIG моя новая любовь= после жены конечно)

[@carlosp.1846]

these notes are TOO SMALL we can see you struggle to select them, as we do

[@mathieupe666]

You can resize the pianoroll anyway

[@iliravdyli4109]

But when you close the pianoroll and open it again it dont remember the size.

[@mathieupe666]

@@iliravdyli4109 true

[@kris_lx]

@@iliravdyli4109 That's typical Bitwig workflow, it doesn't remember anything and forces you into the default view for every part of the program. That's one of the reasons why Bitwig is nothing more than a sound design playground for me. As a DAW it's pretty much useless.

[@iliravdyli4109]

@@kris_lx lets hope they change this in the future, because i love making beats in bitwig.

[@MaximusSilentium-cl1ff]

batmanoric

[@neneRijan]

tuner

[@ShaunWatson]

Really confusing as the narrator keeps talking about a 'Command' button where no such button exists so not really very helpful.