a bit of a Bitwig update

[StudioDave]

Greetings,

Like some other folks here I've been working with Bitwig since its release, and I thought I'd post a smallish update about its progress (and my progress with it).

The official release is currently 1.0.7, with 1.0.8 already out in an rc version.

I now have basic MIDI I/O working with a variety of input devices (LPK25, BCF2000) and a couple of external MIDI interfaces (UA25, MidiSport 2x2). I've successfully routed MIDI data from BW to external devices, including softsynths, Csound, another computer, etc.

The beat/tempo matching has no equivalent in any Linux app I've tried. It's perfectly seamless, extremely simple to control, and permits complex arrangements (i.e. not limited to the barline).

Speaking of arrangers: The Clip Arranger is neat, with a very well-designed UI. I find myself alternating quickly between the Clip Arranger and the Track Arranger, the potential is there for an extremely efficient workflow.

I've already heard some interesting music made with it, not all of it filled with filter sweeps and other EDM/EBM signatures. It's certainly designed to work with few limitations upon the user.

The included instruments are few but serviceable. The Polysynth is definitely a keeper, it'd make a great standalone synth. The effects are more numerous, I haven't tested very many but what I have tried works nicely. And automation is a breeze, the easiest implementation I've seen yet for creating and editing gain curves.

The UI is a bit rich, but you can hide and magnify its various parts for an optimal view of your material and arrangements.

I'm testing many native Linux VST/VSTi plugins. Standouts for sound include Discovery, Aspect, NoizeMaker, and Vex. All my linuxDSP plugs work without problems and with comparatively light CPU usage. The Vex synth was a nice (re)find, simple to program good sounds quickly, but too bad there's no patch save function. Not to worry, BW remembers its last settings, I don't have to reprogram it for each use. The Cabbage plugins also work, but they have an enormous memory footprint, so unless you've 8G+ memory I'd run them in a separate process.

Problems: It doesn't like some of my bigger audio files, crashing when I try to load them into a track. Some controls are still buggy, and many users are facing difficulties getting their controllers recognized and configured under BW. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. Many Ableton users have specific complaints/laments re: Bitwig != Ableton, but since I'm not an Ableton user I'm not so sensitive to the same issues.

CPU usage is pretty intense with some plugins (Discovery can be a real hog in some of its denser patches), not so bad with others. Sending MIDI out to an exterrnal device obviously lightens the load. Unfortunately BW currently hides its MIDI connectivity, so I/O can be problematic. Apparently all Linux users want a more transparent solution, something similar to what we have with QJackCtl.

There's already a fair amount of 3rd-party documentation, tips & tricks, blogs, reviews, etc. Typical searches in Google and YouTube turn up quite a lot of material for a product that's only been out a few weeks.

Wrt my existing workflow: I can see many uses for BWS here at Studio D, especially for manipulating basic material in interesting and musical ways. I highly doubt that it will replace Ardour as my main DAW, I've been using that program for so long and it serves my needs perfectly.

So there are a few pseudo-random comments about Bitwig. If you haven't tried it you can still test the demo to get an idea of what the program actually does. Unfortunately you can't save your work with the demo, and you also don't get the extras from the BW "partner" collections (lots of samples and loops).

Best,

dp

[danboid]

Nice review Dave, thanks!

Where do you stand on Tracktion?

[StudioDave]

Where do you stand on Tracktion?

Hi Dan,

I've had it open only a few times. Like BW, it's quite different from my usual working methods and I'd want to spend some more time with it before venturing an opinion. I hope to get to it soon, but unfortunately (?!) there's just so much else I'm exploring these days.

Best,

dp

[aprzekaz]

The more I use Bitwig the more Impressed I become with Tracktion 5 Seriously, I don't want to be too negative and all and I know it's version 5.0 vs version 1.0. Bitwig is cool and all. The pro's for me are the quality of the built in effects/instruments and the powerful audio editing capabilities and clip launcher. But.............it's kind of disappointing considering it was in beta testing for years and now it's......still in beta testing..........only you have to pay for it I still have trouble getting my midi controller to work with it (seems like something that should have been sorted out in beta testing). It uses a lot of cpu and sometimes crashes my whole computer. I run into limitations with routing sends and stuff. I check the KVR forum and they say they are working on those issues and promise new features in version 2.

Tracktion on the other hand doesn't crash and runs very stable. Operations don't take very long to complete. And it's routing options with the Rack feature make it the king of everything in that respect for me. It does have it's bugs too. I still can't use Black Eq......anyone? But Tracktion for linux IS still in beta testing and I didn't have to pay for it so there's nothing to complain about.

All that said, I still like Bitwig and I bet most of this will eventually get fixed. I think it's a solid program and I'm glad it's here and has Linux support.
It does have some great features.


I guess something that annoys me a little with commercial software is the salesmanship that comes with it. They advertise something as "revolutionary" or "innovative" and up-sell the new things it can do and avoid discussing it's shortcomings.

It seems like I get a more realistic picture from the Qtractor or Ardour or Non people. They aren't afraid to tell it like it is and say things like "no it can't do that" or "don't expect any miracles"


It reminds me of the 1990 film Crazy People with Dudley Moore where he comes up with realistic advertisements for products like: Volvo, Boxy but Good


My advertisement for Bitwig would be something like:

Bitwig, The new DAW that is a lot like Ableton but with some things added that you might have wished Ableton had but don't really need (But nonetheless are nice to have). And without some things that Ableton has that are definitely better but we can't use them because of copyrights and patents and things. It took us a really long time to make this and the quality and attention to detail shows in many aspects. But we still had to push it out a little early for our liking because our Investors were getting antsy so it's still kind of buggy(*). It's still pretty good and costs a little less than Ableton and will only get better. Did we mention it comes with tons of samples?

* only speculation


All in fun

[danboid]

I'm still using qtr for audio only projects as it serves all my needs in that respect and I know Rui will quickly fix any bugs I may find, something I can't say about Tracktion yet. I don't think they've fixed any Linux-specific bugs in T5 so far.

Hopefully they'll put some effort into fixing some of the Linux bugs for the 5.3 release as T5 suits me better for MIDI stuff.

The buzzword with BW seems to be loops but I generally don't like loops - it doesn't sit well with my musical ADHD.

[StudioDave]

The buzzword with BW seems to be loops...

You're probably correct, but BW has so much more under the hood.

Have you heard about the Histograms ? Fantastic stuff there, I've seen nothing like it in conventional audio apps, it was a great surprise for for me.

I've been working on a piece in Ardour, it's something I wouldn't be able to do quickly in BW (not yet anyway). However, I definitely missed BW's automation lane and its ease of use. I got what I wanted from A3, but it did take longer than in BW.

Using BW is also a good way for someone like me to get an idea of what those other audio worlds have come to expect from music software.

Best,

dp

[sysrqer]

It can be/is based on loops but a better way to think of it would be sections rather than loops. There's nothing to prevent you from sequencing a never ending variation of patterns or segments of audio and never to have them repeat the same thing. So while the loop aspect may put lots of people off, the only limitation is your creativity and the time you put in to make it do what you want it to do.

That's a shame that they are saying some things may not be fixed until v2, no doubt you will have to pay extra money for the update to fix/implement things that really should've been in this version, especially considering the epic beta period it had.

[danboid]

Dave:

I'd not heard about its histograms until you mentioned it. I will have to try the demo soon, if just to see that, but like sysrqer I don't want to like it. It costs too much for me, I like small and/or free apps plus I have an aversion to hype.

[tripomatic]

Greetings,

I'm testing many native Linux VST/VSTi plugins. Standouts for sound include Discovery, Aspect, NoizeMaker, and Vex. All my linuxDSP plugs work without problems and with comparatively light CPU usage. The Vex synth was a nice (re)find, simple to program good sounds quickly, but too bad there's no patch save function. Not to worry, BW remembers its last settings, I don't have to reprogram it for each use. The Cabbage plugins also work, but they have an enormous memory footprint, so unless you've 8G+ memory I'd run them in a separate process.
dp

Dave, Does bitwig really save the patches from Vex?
Here it seems like it doesn't. If i open the project, the patch is always lost, saving the patch doesn't help also. Some settings are saved but most arent.

I've tried the same in ardour3 and it's fine overthere so there nothing wrong with vex.

Do you also have this issue? I'm running latest 1.0.11.

[StudioDave]

... The Vex synth was a nice (re)find, simple to program good sounds quickly, but too bad there's no patch save function. Not to worry, BW remembers its last settings, I don't have to reprogram it for each use.

Dave, Does bitwig really save the patches from Vex?
Here it seems like it doesn't. If i open the project, the patch is always lost, saving the patch doesn't help also. Some settings are saved but most arent.

You are right, I just tested a project in 1.0.11, only some parts of the patch are saved. I don't know now if the older versions worked correctly, then there was a period when Vex was not working at all here in BW, so I wasn't tracking its performance.

Too bad, I just programmed a nice harpsichord-like patch for the synth. But I took a screenshot.

Best,

dp

[glowrak guy]

Too bad, I just programmed a nice harpsichord-like patch for the synth. But I took a screenshot.

Best,

dp

Defeat hath been dealt yet another sound thrashing

[tripomatic]

... The Vex synth was a nice (re)find, simple to program good sounds quickly, but too bad there's no patch save function. Not to worry, BW remembers its last settings, I don't have to reprogram it for each use.

Dave, Does bitwig really save the patches from Vex?
Here it seems like it doesn't. If i open the project, the patch is always lost, saving the patch doesn't help also. Some settings are saved but most arent.

You are right, I just tested a project in 1.0.11, only some parts of the patch are saved. I don't know now if the older versions worked correctly, then there was a period when Vex was not working at all here in BW, so I wasn't tracking its performance.

Too bad, I just programmed a nice harpsichord-like patch for the synth. But I took a screenshot.

Best,

dp

I've reported it to bitwig, but they even fail to get sound out of Vex but they will have a look with their linux developers.
Anyway i'm not going to use it for now, but i think there there are other bugs in it also.

When i modulate the frequency, there's nothing changing until the pot it down.
Some other issue's also i think but i need to have a look at it and write it down before i forget it .

[juhana]

What is special in Bitwig? I tested Ableton Live but really could not do much there. I use Audacity extensively but would like to see improvements there, even on basic recording, editing, and mixing, which are Audacity's main tasks.

[sysrqer]

I tested Ableton Live but really could not do much there..

I suggest reading the manual because if you can't do anything in ableton live then it is only because you don't know how to use it.

[GraysonPeddie]

I think I might consider ordering Bitwig Studio, even though I would rather focus in open source tools for creating music (new age/ambient/smooth jazz with some orchestra instruments purchased from Digital Sound Factory). $400 is quite hard to swallow, but I could probably order the boxed version through Amazon and do 6-month financing...

(Sigh... Maybe sometime in the future if there are not that many improvements in MIDI in the open source front as I've been used to using MusE sequencer...)