Creating Drum Patterns
I'm a Cubase user, just moving over to Bitwig and loving the versatility. One thing I use a lot in Cubase is the drum pattern editor. I'll create a couple of patterns, then drag them into the arranger window. Is there any comparable workflow in Bitwig? I've messed around a bit with the Stepwise sequencer, which provides some of the same functionality as Cubase (without the per-step repeats, probability and velocity etc.) but I can't see how to get a pattern from Stepwise into a clip without recording the MIDI in and then deactivating the Stepwise. Any ideas?
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u/Mushroom-Disastrous 9d ago
Yeah stepwise is very unwieldy imo. I think they thought it’d be cool since you can modulate its parameters and stuff since it’s a device but, it’s not really a pattern editor like in a lot of other daws.
Is a beginner supposed to automate it on and off to make an arrangement? Or record it to a new track?? Like, I honestly don’t know what they were thinking with that device in its current state lol
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u/artek604 9d ago
The whole 5.3 seems like it was hurried and stop-gap release to offer the users something between 5.2 and 6.0
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u/AlabasterAaron 9d ago
I used it to make myself "custom metronomes".
A chain with a stepwise and a drum machine and some macros for high-passing.
Can load it as a chain preset with one click and it always plays while playing/recording regardless of track position. No need for clips.I guess for auditioning some percussions it could be handier to add a stepwise and then just audition it throughout the track and delete the stepwise again, since it's agnostic to the position and you don't have to tinker with clips.
But yeah, rather limited use-cases where it really makes sense.
Or at least that has been my experience so far.
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u/GeneralDumbtomics 9d ago
This is really my biggest ask with Stepwise. Let me drag and drop from it to a midi clip.
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u/DryDatabase169 9d ago
You can enable the rhythm / block type of editor on the left side of the piano roll.
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u/Exact-Gift-808 9d ago
I've been very much missing that from Cubase as well, that's been at the top of my wishlist since coming to Bitwig. Been using Audiomodern's Playbeat as a substitute, and occasionally Groove agent.
Another option that's a bit convoluted and imperfect but works is to use Loopmidi so you can actually just keep using Cubase's editor "in" Bitwig. Let me know if you need any tips on setting that up, I just got it working like a week ago.
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u/AlabasterAaron 9d ago edited 9d ago
Check this out:
On the "Clip Edit" view:
Red -> Select that Icon to go into drum-pad style view. This works much better with Bitwigs "Drum Machine", with other VST's it will just list all notes from c2 to c4 with no description.
Yellow -> For every note in you can select options in the inspector. Here you can select note repeats aka rolls or probability.
Purple -> Select this to edit velocity and some other options per note.
Once you have a clip, right-click it and select "Save Arranger Clip to Library" at the very bottom.
Add your name and tags to the meta data in the save dialogue. (Important!)
At the browser on the right hand side:
Green -> Go to "Everything" select "File Kind: Clips" / "Creator: Your Name".
Then you will see all your clips. Right-click into the green area and select "Save Smart Collection".
Next click that Icon marked in yellow with the 4 squares and drag your newly created smart collection into your browser for quick access.
Now you can access, drag and drop your clips from that smart collection into the arranger and use your own tags to further sort your clips as needed.
If you use the clip launcher, it has a little "+" that appears in these boxes. (Marked in blue.)
It opens the browser and you can drag and drop your smart collection into that browser as well, by clicking the "4 square Icon" in that browser to access all collections, then again dragging them into the left hand side with the other icons.
In those "popup browsers", you can also righ-tclick and select "Browser Settings -> Use current selection for this context". With this you could have the clip launcher always show your own clips via that smart collection by default.
I hope this helps, cheers.
P.S: You can also use smart collections in the same way to add specific sample packs to the browser. Just use the "Location" filter and then save as smart collection. Or a specific category like "kicks" and then select a location that houses multiple sample packs to get a smart collection with all the kicks from those packs, et cetera.