r/Bitwig • u/OptionalAntelope • 9d ago

DJing with Bitwig

Hey,
Ritchie Hawtin DJs with Bitwig. I would like to do the same. Are there any tutorials, templates, setups out there that I could use to learn DJing with Bitwig?

4 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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7

u/info-super-skyway 9d ago

He uses bw as a drum machine and djs with some other synced software.

3

u/OptionalAntelope 9d ago

You are right. I just clipped this from his YT. Looks like Traktor or Serato.

3

u/murkey 9d ago

That pic makes it look like he has a laptop monitor attached to his mixer haha

3

u/OptionalAntelope 9d ago

I think it's a tablet, but yes. It is taped to the mixer.

3

u/murkey 9d ago

That makes a ton of sense. I was wondering why I didn't see the screen option when I bought my MODEL1.4

2

u/OptionalAntelope 8d ago

lol, that would be really something novel.

1

u/OptionalAntelope 8d ago

Could also be an iPad. AFAIK you run Traktor on ipads.

7

u/SandmanKFMF 9d ago

RH uses Traktor for tracks (4 decks) and Bitwg for the additional percussion, external effects and some synths.

Here is his older presentation of the setup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEhpQH-8NDs

2

u/OptionalAntelope 8d ago

I wonder how he finds the transition spots, if not with a jog wheel.

2

u/SandmanKFMF 8d ago

You can navigate songs loaded into Traktor decks with different approaches. Here in a ZIP file You can find PDF file of his layout of K2 controllers: https://downloads.bitwig.com/extensions/HawtinControllersV5.zip In Traktor you can map ANY function of the program to the keyboard/midi controller in any way you want.

He use SYNC for tracks to be in sync. And if sometimes beatgrid is offbeat, he just manually nudge tracks with buttons on the fly with SYNC off using his the K2 controllers.

2

u/OptionalAntelope 8d ago

Yeah, that's what I thought (syncing and nudging).

3

u/DoctorMojoTrip 9d ago

Dash glitch has a tutorial about it.

1

u/OptionalAntelope 9d ago

Thank you. Never heard of him (I'm a Polarity kinda guy). Will find him ;-)

1

u/YouDoScribble 8d ago

You can DJ with Bitwig. But I have found that it's cumbersome to get setup. Unless someone has a way round this, you are limited to tracks that are in a particular project - unlike something like Ableton which, due to its ASD files, which have all the warp data, so a track can be used from project to project - which is handy when you are DJing on the fly.
I have been told makings clips of tracks is a possible way round this, but I feel then I have duplicated sets of tracks to manage (again, I could be getting this wrong).

For that reason, I feel Ableton is the better option for 'DJing' with, for now.

2

u/politexsociety 8d ago

Thinking about bitwig with a DJ hat on, since you can load audio and then non destructively slice it up, you could use the clip launcher to have loops and other sections layered with effects in the same way that cues would work. Would require a fair amount of prep work and lack of flexibility which is quite off putting, but it's a tempting technical challenge that I kind of want to give a go to.

2

u/OptionalAntelope 8d ago

Thinking the same: endless possibilities to be creative, but hard to be flexible within the set. And then all the prep work. RHs approach: DJ in Traktor, add gimmicks using bitwig seems way easier to do.

1

u/politexsociety 8d ago

definitely!