Detailed Overbridge Bitwig setup

Hi All, I’ve been working a lot with overbridge in various DAWs and in bitwig have found a way to set it up so that you can record midi to separate tracks, and route them back to the vst. I’ve done this example with two tracks from the RYTM.

First load the plugin for your elektron instrument into an instrument track.
Then you must right click and select add missing chains:


Create audio tracks (add the audio receiver device to each not illustrated in photos):

Select the input for each one:

Create instrument tracks (this is where you’ll record your midi):

Select the input and output for each:

Make sure each instrument channel is set to the proper midi channel:

At this point you’re pretty much all set as far as routing. Make sure you have the rytm set up as a midi controller in your settings:

And finally, you’ll want to mute the track of the overbridge plugin to prevent doubling of the audio, as it’s now routed to separate audio tracks:

Hope the bad photo quality is forgivable here, it’s all I had. I really hope this helps some people out. I have spent countless hours trying to figure this out for ableton and logic with only limited success, and more hours looking through various forum threads that had some helpful hints that I am thankful for. Glad to have figured it out completely for bitwig and happy to be able to share :slight_smile:

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Hi! Thank’s a lot for your example! I have a question : is there a way to affect audio in Bitwig by Analog Four filter/distortion or Analog Rytm? I mean use them as plugin to process my own samples for example? I can’t to understand how to do it at all…Please, if you know could you help with this? Thank you very much again

I believe the only way to do this would be to route your audio out of your computer (via an audio interface), and into the A4 or RYTM, and then back into your computer. So no, not the way I think you were hoping to do it.

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I don’t own an A4 or AR, but is this what you’re trying to do?

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Hello sorry,
Probably, maybe, maybe not dumb question:
Is it possible to see the trigs in a clip in bitwig that i put in in rec mode on analog 4?

( not live rec mode, there i can see them in the bitwig clip, if i push the mini keyboard, depending on the settings)

In other words see the trigs in the bitwig clip like i see them lit on the sequencer.

a 16 beat bar clip in bitwig like on analog 4, normal roland sequencer style,
and if i push the trigs 1, 5, 9, 13 on track 1 analog 4 i can see them in a clip on a instrument clip that i configured like you described above as midi from that track in analog 4 ?

Thanks sorry if it too basic, stupid or not possible.
If its possible what am i missing or overlooking?

Also somehow im confused if its better to turn midi on or off on analog 4 for this use

Hey good question - The midi notes do not just appear in bigwig as you press the trigs. You would have to record the midi coming out of the sequencer after you enter them. In this case, of course you would have to have the track settings set to send midi for whichever track/tracks you are recording into bitwig clip. Hope that helps, I actually didn’t end up working with this setup a lot, but if you figure anything out that works well, or doesn’t work well, or any details that I left out, please post it here so others can learn from your experience!

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Thanks a lot for your time and effort.

I dont have the energy at the moment to test a lot of settings.
With a4 track sending midi trigs (a4 kickdrum on 1, 5, 9…) are quite off the grid
in the bitwig 16 beat bar clip.

Thats on a older (altough ssd and 8gb ram upgraded) hp laptop. Buffer 128 in ob control panel ( dont know if driver performance matters a lot) and 128 bitwig block size

Dont understand notes to track in output, if thats important for midi in rytm or a4 also
( i got notes also without that)
Or ( didnt test) has it some effect on the automatization in the added track midi tracks?
They are not named for me. ( so I would use rather the named automatization from the a4 ob vst)

As it is ( maybe , probably I overlooked a lot)
I may use the mini keyboard for live rec input sometimes.
For techno things rather just audio.

I will look into apc 40 or something for sequencing bitwig in roland tr style.
(Altough i would have tr8, dont even want to think about the setup headache there…, im interested in other opinions about tr 8 with bitwig…)
Im very open and interested in other ideas, opinions and workflows.

also how to better (easyer) integrate bassstation 2 as bitwig controller.

Thanks a lot kalin and elektronauts

Hello, I would like to be able to to multitrack record my Digitone into Bitwig. I’ve watched a few videos on this and I feel like I understand how it’s supposed to work, but when I right click on my Digitone instrument device and look for “Add Missing Chains” that button is disabled and doesn’t seem to do anything. What could be causing this?

If I try to add audio tracks and go look for my Digitone track 1, 2, 3, 4 audio channels, I don’t see any of that. I feel like I’m getting hung up on something really simple early on in the setup process here. Any help would be much appreciated!

This is what I see when I try to Add Missing Chains:

image

I had a thought just now - could this be a limitation of the “8 Track” version of Bitwig that I’m using? Is this audio routing just not available perhaps?

Yes it seems that 8-track doesn’t let you use multi-out plugins, I’m afraid

Sorry to hijack. Anyone know how to get the fx track from the digitakt into bitwig? It comes up as a separate track in ableton but BW doesnt seem to have that option…

I don’t think there is a separate FX track on any of the boxes (could be wrong, I only have DT, DN, and A4). If you need to record the FX separately, go into audio routing, and only route the FX to the main channel, then the main outs will only have the FX on them, while leaving all the individual tracks on their own channels.

Thanks for the reply. Im happy to have the fx embedded in the separate tracks tbh, but im hearing no fx anywhere. Its all coming through dry…

You can’t get separate tracks with FX per track, if that’s what you want (not without doing several recording takes). If you want an “FX track”, with the FX by itself (but it’ll be one track with the FX from all of the tracks), you’ll need to use audio routing on the machine to send only the FX to the main outs (see: Audio & FX Tracks Routing Output on Digitone Keys)

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You’re a gent. Thanks for your patience

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You saved me tonight with this.

Thank you for sharing!