Bitwig Studio - Bitwig Device Library for Komplete Kontrol Integration

Kymeia

Bitwig Studio has built-in support for NI Komplete Kontrol enabled keyboards (also Maschine) and there is also the great Moss extension that allows even greater control.

However these extensions are only half the story when it comes to control - they enable you to control the transport and mixer but to control devices like Bitwig instruments and fx and third party plugins you also need them to be mapped to the 8 knob/multi page layout that is common to all NI keyboards and Maschine. The way this is done in Bitwig is in the Remote Controls Editor in Bitwig. Native Bitwig devices and macros have mappings setup by default but most third party plugins do not. That's where the Bitwig device Library comes in.

Like the NKS User Library, I setup a thread on the Bitwig/KvR forum years ago to explain how to make and share Bitwig device mappings for third party plugins. Over the years we have built up a library of hundreds of mapped devices using the Remote Controls Editor, most for VST2 plugins but mappings for VST3 and CLAP plugins are also being added all the time, initially by myself, but now we have a number of contributors so also look in the KvR thread for additional device mappings. These are all on a device level so work independently of presets.

To install these you need to go to the Bitwig main settings folder:

\Users\username\Documents\Bitwig Studio\Library\.settings\devices (Mac)

or

\Bitwig Studio\Library\.settings\devices (Win)

This folder is hidden by default so you will need to unhide invisible files and folders first

Then just unzip the device mapping/s you want to add them to the devices folder. You must copy over both the 'Default.bwremotecontrols' file and the folder it is in (named vst-xxxxxxxx) as this enables BWS to know the plugin ID. I have zipped them up so that they extract the folder and file as they should be copied.

To be honest I see this as a viable alternative to the Komplete Kontrol software as Bitwig also has a very capable Browser built in and is able to actually read and browse preset formats natively that Komplete Kontrol can't (eg u-he plugin presets and CLAP format plugins that have this enabled) and without all the tedious saving out NKS presets one by one. They both have their pros and cons but Bitwig has the advantage of good integration with Komplete Kontrol but also support for more modern standards like MPE that NI currently barely support and need to get on board with.

Kaiwan_NI

Thanks for sharing Kymeia!

Kymeia

If anyone is interested I recently added device panels for the CLAP version of most u-he plugins including the new Filterscape 1.5 - I chose the CLAP versions as these allow for additional interactions on a deep level with Bitwig modulators, vastly extending the capabilities of each synth and effect

Kymeia

I've added Device panels now for the new CLAP versions of Fabfilter Twin3, Timeless 3, Saturn 2, Pro R 2 and Volcano 3 - more to come, CLAP is really taking off now. The nice thing about the FabFilter CLAP versions is they include browser support for their presets so it's almost like having Komplete Kontrol built into Bitwig.

Kymeia

I made a short video showing the Device Map functionality with the MOSS extension which allows you to visualise the params in the keyboard screen and swap pages using the left/right arrows

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/q7dpkpro9jb236m9itse7/IMG_4412.mov?rlkey=nvwvi33f9srnsuucw4ini0ugy&st=z0rnbadd&dl=0

Kymeia

Bitwig also makes an excellent prototyping editor for NKS layouts. For complex plugins like Avenger this is essential as it's so easy to create a multi page mapping only to realise you really could have used another filter page or forgot to add something, only you can't then go back and add those pages after they are built without remaking them. Unlike in Komplete Kontrol, in the Bitwig remote controls editor, you can get a complete overview of all user pages in one screen, add additional pages and can move them around using drag and drop as you like till you arrive at the layout you want (or even quickly change it to suit a particular patch)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qscrlokmtfvrk2y/Screen%20Recording%202024-07-18%20at%2017.27.46.mov?dl=0

I so wish KK had this functionality!