What if notes did more than trigger your sounds? As musical signals that dance and curve, notes just do more in Bitwig Studio, both on the timeline and in performance. Version 4.1 is here, adding eight new note effects. So with 20+ FX now included, we say… LET THERE BE NOTES!

Hear Them In Action

The new devices bring a wealth of possibilities along, all in a performance-ready context. Please hear them in action…

While each device has a focus of its own, some themes emerge. Some add randomization to each note that passes through. A couple of these musical tools make notes more similar, and others diversify them. Most of these devices put notes into motion, including three different kinds of “note repeats.” And this is all before you try two effects together, or add Bitwig's modulators to the mix.

New to the Note FX Family

Bitwig Studio 4.1 Humanize
Quantize

Ricochet treats notes as bouncing balls in a room, which retrigger on collision and can use their position to animate panning and timbre. Humanize randomizes chance, timing, or velocity. And Quantize holds notes until the next beat, with optional “Forgiveness”.

Randomize
Bitwig Studio Strum Note FX

Dribble bounces each note, until gravity wins. Randomize adds chaos to any note expression, including pitch. And Strum fragments your chords, playing them one (or more) note at a time.

Bend

Bend slides to each note's pitch. And Note Repeats retriggers each note, with additional “Burst” and “Euclid” pattern modes.

Every device is a tool offering new musical possibilities, and 70 new factory presets show a little of what is possible with each of them. But these devices are made to mix and match. Try a Dribble to make your chords kinetic, followed by a Strum to tidy things up as a speed limiter. Or Bend a single note into Multi-note so that all notes glide together, then Humanize the output so they aren't perfectly aligned. And when taken together with old friends like Arpeggiator, Micro-pitch, HW CV Instrument, or your favorite plug-in — new ideas are just waiting to be found.

Notes In Bloom

Accompanying Bitwig Studio 4.1, the new sound package Notes In Bloom has arrived, containing presets for combinations of the new Note FX devices.

These presets will make your played and held notes repeat, dance, bounce and create interesting rhythms in real time, so you can use them while playing live.

Learn More

See Also...

A handful of other enhancements are worth noting. Color palettes are now available for tracks, clips, and layers. So if you want to turn an image into a palette, just drop a JPG or PNG into the Bitwig Studio window. Track MIDI output is now directly available (and or via the HW Instrument device when you need delay compensation). Our Sampler now has a Release chain, where each note release triggers an instrument of your choice. So you can now import an SFZ file with both press and release samples, or try out a synth or VST to make any sound newly responsive. And a few other note FX got some love as well.

Read the full changelog.

November 24, 2021

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