Massive changes and new features relating to automation and editing form the bulk of the headline new features in Bitwig 6.
Some of them are relevant to MPE. I will try to mention them all as I try each of them myself in the coming days.
The ones that really struck me and caused me to start this new thread involve the ability to add variation to the MPE data every time the clip is played back. To quote from the initial 6 beta release notes ( Testing Notes for Bitwig Studio 6.0 ):
New features are also available for all automation points:
Each point can have Hold behavior, staying at the current value until the next point is reached.
Each point can have randomized Spread, setting a range where the point will land on each pass.
Spread can be set from the Inspector, or by [CTRL]-[ALT]-dragging ([CMD]-[ALT]-dragging on macOS) up and down on a selected.
For reproducible Spread results, automation clips have a Seed setting, as do automation lanes (for Arranger automation).
Each point’s Curvature (the slope on the way to the next point) is now shown in the Inspector.
This allows text entry for precise values.
When multiple points are selected, this allows for group editing of the values, including use of the Histogram interface (with its Mean, Scale, and Chaos controls).
Polyphonic event expressions and automation both have these new features.
So randomized spread in the context of MPE expressive data per note is the first thing I will be trying and reporting back on.
Meanwhile I still didnt get time to actually try the new Bitwig 6 features that I mentioned at the start of this thread. Hopefully I will be able to get on with that soon.
I finally found a bit of time, and am further motivating myself by trying to combine multiple missions. For example, the public beta version of Zebra 3 doesnt have MPE support at this stage, but it does have CLAP per note expression support. So I’m using that as an excuse to learn bits of Bitwig properly that I neglected in the past. I’m also hoping that the Bitwig Grid has just enough Expression support that I can use it to prototype some MPE sequencer ideas that I’ve wanted to experiment with for a long time.
OK the spread stuff that I focussed on in the OP is as useful and as much fun as I hoped it would be
The grid is as compelling as I hoped it would be, its a bit of a shame that I didnt notice exactly which Bitwig version added enough to this system to make it the perfect playground for my MPE step sequencer needs, it may have happened quite a long time ago for all I know.
I’m still only at the stage of taking my first stumbling steps with this, but my mind already exploded with possibilities. It helps that the Melbourne Instruments Roto-Control Bitwig integration is pretty good too, so if everything goes well I will also end up with nice physical controls for my prototypes.
Even if I initially ignore a big point of MPE, by focussing on the playing of just a single notes at a time, my mind is already alive with the possibilities that stem from combining a few concepts and using them in this context. This weekends mission involves taking some principals of polymetric/polyrhythmic sequencing, but with a focus on having the length/timing of expressive data varying over time compared to that of the notes. For generation of the expressive data, I am likely to experiment with two different approaches: the use of discreet single values per step, but also the use of the rather nice Curves system that is in Bitwig these days and appears to have been properly implemented within the Grid system. Focussing initially on single notes at a time is also useful when it comes to being able to use my ears to make sure the results when connected to a MPE (or CLAP per note expression) synth match what I think the results should be. Then in theory a useful amount of polyphony should almost be as trivial as copying and pasting chunks of stuff in the Grid.
Some of these ideas are things I sometimes planned to do in VCV rack, or Max4Live. But there are a number of complexity-reducing features in the Grid which seem to help these missions a lot, along with a pleasing sweet spot when it comes to visual pleasantness and consistency of modules, size of modules, integration with other parts of the DAW, and very good integrated help system.
You can probably tell that I am very happy and excited right now. Bitwig really helped me during the years when Ableton Live didnt have MPE support, but since then I have sometimes struggled to fully justify Bitwigs role in my setup. I even let my maintenance yearly payment thing lapse for over a year at one point. But now I feel like I finally stumbled into a very sweet spot indeed, one with so much potential for the various scenarios where I want to focus on sequencing rather than playing. Which is a perfect fit for one of my agendas, which is to go on and on about how MPE isnt just about wonderfully expressive controllers and people who can play those to a suitable standard.
Agreed, the grid is in a nice sweetspot of approachability vs possibilities. The main thing I wiah it had are submodules to structure and reuse groups of modules. A little in the same ballpark as VCV, it is following the modular “build fast optimized, hard to grasp from looking at a schematic” approach.
But for small to medium stuff it is very fun!
I am contemplating a new module for my VCV Rack #d CHEM plugin for better EM MIDI integration on the music/note side of things (rather than controller) side. This would include full MPE+ resolution → CV, and the same thing for output.
If you’re interested in this, I’d love hear your thoughts on what features it would need to get the most out of the combination. Rack already has good options for the envelope generation part (e.g. ShapeMaster) that you’d feed into my driver module for full-MPE+ resolution XYZ.
I’ve also been thinking about something for longer-scale timeline automation in order to do more compositional things in Rack (if you get my drift).
Unfortunately I find myself quite far adrift from both VCV rack and some of the Eaganmatrix stuff these days, so I dont currently feel well positioned to be able to help. I know there is one existing module for VCV rack that supported MPE+ input, because I found a bug in it back when I was more actively on top of MPE+, and thanks to it being open source I was able to point the author in the direction of a fix. But right now I’m so rusty that I dont even remember what that module was called.
I’m most of the way through adding polyphonic WXYZ outputs to the #d CHEM:Core module that support full MPE+ resolution. It’s working at a basic level, but either I have a bug, or I just need to add (user-adjustable) smoothing (slew) for at least Y because it’s looking awfully jagged on the scope.
There’s more work to match the number of channels on the outputs to the current polyphony settings. It’s currently always 16 channels, but only outputs on 2-15.
I also need to make sure I honor all the other current MPE-related settings. I have most but need to exercise all the options.
