Let’s have a thread dedicated to Bitwig. For me it’s my favorite DAW, because of its modular nature, yet it still retains almost all features I love from Ableton Live, like the clip launcher and easy sample manipulation.
Are you guys hyped for Bitwig 3.0? As if Bitwig 2 wasn’t modular enough already…
I had no idea Bitwig had any type of modular capabilities / interfaces at all. My spidey senses (aka testies) are kind of tingling from that video already. Will the demo of 2 do it any justice for a newb?
I’m hyped! Love BW for the modulators and working MPE integration - BW 2 is already great for that! Gonna renew my update plan for sure at some point when BW 3 is out.
@KvlT: BW 2 demo is fully functional but without export/save afaik - the modular aspects in BW 2 are still mostly restricted to using modulators and the instrument and effect chains so far, somewhat similar to Live with M4L imho, but much better integrated.
I’ve never really dabbled with modular… would this be a good place to start and aid in learning how it all functions? I have a pretty good knowledge of how synths work fundamentally, just not how to plug a bazillion cables in a patch form to create what I want other than random experimental noise.
I think so, imho the Live+M4L/Bitwig workflow is pretty simple compared to full modular, the difference mostly being that you can use whatever synth you already know well and build on top of that, for instance adding another synth with a partly different effect chain to the first synth in an instrument rack, then adding LFO, sequencer, envelope followers or - in the case of BW! - expressive MPE modules as additional sources for modulaiton of parameters in the synths and your effect chainds. Of course, you can go crazy with parallel effect chains, modulating the crossfading between different effect chains or the crossover point of a frequency splitter separating between different effect chains with the timbre input of a seaboard/linnstrument, for instance. It’s great, simple, flexible and works without learning everything about how to connect basic modules to make a simple subtractive synth as a source for further mangling in the effect chains… but of course it’s not as flexible as a full modular environment.
Really wish there were some cheaper option. Not that it is an unfair price in general but it just isn’t something I would use frequently. Do most on my Ableton esque composing on iPad.
The ability to build your own shit in bitwig 3 might push me over the edge. My previous go to DAW before I went mostly hardware was reason. Any other good stuff Im missing that bitwig does best?
Mostly based on comparison to Ableton, haven’t really used most other DAWs in a while:
MPE (not best, but much better than Ableton) and modulation (more integrated and easily accessible than in Ableton). Also, plugin crash protection (still had some crashes, though).
Falling more and more in love with Bitwig over the Grid and the modulation possibilities including MPE. Really cool stuff.
Also, it really is much more stable for me than Ableton and feels like it uses less ressources for some reason even in heavier projects. Only thing I miss in BW as compared to Ableton is the Cpature function and that you can’t switch pattern length with right-click menue. And maybe some effects and M4L modules, but it just works better and more reliable overall for me…
Can’t recommend it enough, if you haven’t heard about the Grid, it’s a modular synth, simple to work with but extremely flexible. Sounds great and supports lots of modulation and expression options, even saved me from spending money on a new FM/PM synth such as PhasePlant ^^
(edit: if you want to download it rn, you better bring some patience )