VidPlayTransportNotifier - Bitwig Studio helper extension for film scoring

Bitwig Studio has a minor issue when used for film scoring with VidPlayVST. This DAW notifies playhead cursor position to plug-ins only when the transport is actually running. Therefore, when the transport is stopped, VidPlayVST is not able to respond to relocation of the playback start position (the blue triangle in arrange and edit views).

The VidPlayTransportNotifier java extension makes it easy to position video at particular events for accurate placement of synchronised MIDI and audio clips. The following tutorial shows how to use the extension.

How To Install

Java extension VidPlayTransportNotifier.bwextension is delivered with VidPlayVST Demo and Full distribution downloads (version 2.3.0 and later).

  1. Note the Extensions folder location for the relevant platform, as follows...
    Windows: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Bitwig Studio\Extensions
    macOS: Documents/Bitwig Studio/Extensions
    Linux: ~/Bitwig Studio/Extensions
  2. In the distribution download find file /Xtension_for_Bitwig_Studio/VidPlayTransportNotifier.bwextension. Copy it to the Extensions folder noted above. (In Linux refer to folder ~/VidPlayVST-Install-Extra after the installer has run).
  3. In Bitwig Studio Settings, Controllers choose Add Controller and click on Generic. Vendor 'AnthonySJaques' should appear in the drop-down list. Choose it to see 'VidPlayTransportNotifier' in the Product window. Select it and click on Add to install it. The extension should be enabled with the orange on/off switch.
  4. VidPlayVST (version 2.3.0 and later) detects when it is running in Bitwig Studio and provides a Settings menu option 'SYNC: Use Bitwig extension'. This must be enabled so that it will read the transport position notified by VidPlayTransportNotifier.

Notes

Lots of useful information about Bitwig controller scripting, and java extensions, here...
Jürgen Moßgraber - Developing with the Bitwig Controller API