LOBOTIX is another reason to have hope in musical imagination. Even without speaking a word of Japanese, these are instantly some of my favorite tutorials. Here, these cover the spectral synthesis modes in Serum 2 and the modular capabilities of Bitwig Grid (and Vital and PhasePlant and more). And thanks to 2020s tech, we get Lobotix in the form of an anime character.
Thanks to Joshua Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv fame for bringing this to my radar (not intentionally, but because, yes, I am spying on your social media feed).
LOBOTIX is making exceptional, insane music:
And then from this wild virtual studio, we get tutorials.
This is an exceptional tutorial on The Grid, and it’s honestly easy to follow even without the language, as it’s so well structured. I know some of you do speak Japanese, but I’m guessing you already saw this. Now, I love that brutal bassline:
And yes, I should say this explicitly: it probably makes more sense to use something like Bitwig Studio and The Grid to get your nonlinear/patchable DAW than the new Tweakbench creation I looked at yesterday. But I like the ideas Tweakbench was introducing anyway, plus the from-scratch dedication. Basically, our world is built on reinventing the wheel, anyway, but — we have fun doing it.
How about a Beat Repeater in The Grid, too?
While everyone is in a tizzy about generative code and patchers allowing you to prompt-engineer these tools, this is honestly easy to follow along, and going through and understanding each stage is kind of the point of DIY in the first place. But that’s a chat for another time.
There’s also the awesome spectral mode in Serum 2 — yeah, yeah, last year’s news, but hey, this weekend or even tonight could be the time to tackle it, plus brush up on your Japanese:
Music is here:
I hope we get some more tutorials, so while I’m late to the party, this can be a little gentle encouragement!
Bitwig Studio has a 30-day trial if you want to just experiment with these tutorials. https://www.bitwig.com/download/
Bitwig licenses and upgrades are also available from Plugin Boutique, meaning their usual financing and deals are available:
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