Since this is the Bitwig thread, I thought I’d post this in here:
Bought Kilohearts Phase Plant (2) today and started messing around with it in Bitwig.
I own most “super soft synths” on the market (Pigments, Equator 2, Massive X, Reaktor 6, Vital, etc) and appreciate the ability to mix different synthesis approaches in a single patch.
Phase Plant sounds great and going through some of the presets, I could really hear the layering of the different engines creating something lovely and unique.
Its sound and architecture inspired me to turn to Bitwig and use some of my favourite VSTs and FX to make a multi-layered patch of some sort…which I did…
And in doing so I have to say…whoa, Bitwig is the best, most versatile “super synth” out there and that’s even before getting into The Grid at all…
I used the Instrument Layer device (Ableton equivalent: Instrument Rack) to stack an instance of Pianoteq going through a lowpass filter with automated cutoff and resonance, a bit reducer and Zynaptiq’s Adaptiverb over an instance of Sampler set to granularise a simple vocal drone I recorded into it, through Soundtoys Panman into Eventide’s Blackhole…the result is a super nice and textured patch that hits the spot for something cinematic or a deep low end blanket (with the filter closed far enough)…so nice.
Instrument Rack in Ableton can do all of that, but what makes Bitwig so awesome for sound design along this “super synth” metaphor are the modulators and the ridiculous flexibility that comes with them. In this patch I modulate the filter cutoff on the Pianoteq layer with an LFO that also modulates a second LFO that modulates the resonance, which in turn affects the amount of saturation and bit crushing on the next effect…no need for M4L devices squeezed into the chain to have eg LFO modulators in the chain etc. Bitwig’s implementation is fun, powerful, easy to use and consistent across its device chains.
The less I think of Bitwig as a DAW (I prefer Studio One for linear recording & mixing) and the more I think of it as a sound design environment or super synth, the more fun and joy I get out of it.