Bitwig with Digitakt & Digitone

Is anyone using Digitakt with Bitwig? Have you set it up so DT knobs are recorded in Bitwig?

I’ve set the Digitakt up in Cubase so that DT knob tweaks are recorded in Cubase. When playing back the Cubase project later, the recorded MIDI CC messages is sent to the Digitakt. It’s good to be able to automate parameters smoothly and not have the automation tied to the Digitakt pattern length.

I’d like to do the same thing in Bitwig but not sure where to start.

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I do the following…

Instrument Layer { [midi cc] [midi cc] [midi cc] [hardware instrument] }

Each [midi cc] device is configured to send 8 different ccs. Then I map preset remote control pages to control those ccs (and name them according to what they do, i.e. “filter fq”).

You don’t have to use the instrument layer, it just keeps everything fairly organized.

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And it allows you to saw the whole thing as a preset for easy re-use.

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Thanks a good idea, thanks for the tip zfigz. :slight_smile:

could you please share how did you connect digtone to cubase? Thanks

Adding this here, as I have a question on using Bitwig with the Digitakt.

OK - There’s some history here, so let me explain…

I’ve been using Bitwig for a few years, and very happy with it.
However there is one annoying thing about it that I’ve been unable to fix.

I set up my DT so that all the instruments I record go through it. I did this so I can sequence them with the DT. For example, I have a midi controller sending notes to the DT, and a track in Bitwig that receives the midi notes from the DT. It works great, and the autochannel on the DT allows me to change midi tracks easily (Midi A-H, tracks 9-16).

Here is the problem, and I’ll use one track as an example. I set up Midi A on the DT to drive Omnisphere, and it works great. I mapped the 8 encoders to parameters in Omnisphere (CC 70-77), and to focus on one of those I routed the first encoder (70) to volume in Omnisphere. Again, works great, and I can sequence Omnisphere, and use P-Locks for volume, or just tweak the volume as needed without looking at the DAW. So far so good!

If you are still with me, here is the problem.

When I record into Bitwig, I get 8 channels of automation added on the first note I play. This is because the DT sends the initial state of the CCs (70-77), and if you recall in my example the first one is volume. Meaning that every time I record I have to delete the 8 automation lanes, and the volume is initialized to 0 <<<< Gee, why would that be a problem :slight_smile: . There is no way to turn this off in Bitwig, and I’ve gone round and round with their tech support on this (and yes the “automation write” toggle is off).

Bitwig claims that this is a problem with the DT, and that CCs (mod wheel, pitch bend, etc.) are part of the performance, and thus always recorded There is NOT a way to only record notes, which is what I want.

Anyway, I find it very weird that Bitwig does not have a way to record notes only (I came from FL Studio which can do this). The only way (Bitwig tech support claims) to fix this is to write my own controller script (which I have done with limited success), or fix it in the DT.

What are your thoughts on this? Anyone else record through the DT to Bitwig? Do you always want things like the mod wheel recorded? Do you want/expect 8 lanes of automation added every time you record? Any advice, or things I could try to work around it?

Best regards,

Gino

As far as I know you can’t strip midi CCs natively in Bitwig. A quick google search brings up lots of cheap or free VSTs that claim to filter MIDI – I haven’t tried any of them but probably something out there will work. All you’d need is a plugin that filters CC data. (Personally I use Loomer Architect for this sort of thing; it’s not free but it is awesome.)

Alternatively, you could use a standalone MIDI program along with LoopMIDI (if you’re on Windows).

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Thanks!

For now, I made a pattern on the DT for recording. It has all the same track settings, except all the midi CCs are disabled (by using [FUNC] + Encoder to toggle them off).

I go to that pattern before I record. Or I just toggle them off manually if I have other things going on on that pattern.

I’m not happy with it, but such is life :slight_smile:

Just got a Syntakt, and was hooking it up, and to my surprise it looks to support sidechain for the plug-in. Have not tried it yet, but that is super cool IMO.

image

(Should this topic be renamed to make it generic to all Elektron devices?)

Hi, I just wanted to share that Bitwig on Linux can receive audio from the Syntakt’s 12 tracks (plus main, input, FX, and delay/reverb) thanks to Overwitch.

More details here:

I still need to learn whether Bitwig can manipulate parameters of the Syntakt via MIDI. Being able to use Bitwig modulators to spice up the Syntakt (even more) could be interesting.