@StormChaser
Sadly, most Bitwig users will simply say "it works for me" ... and let you alone.
That's why i left the boat several times, trying each new version since v1 to v4.

About "fresh air", it was the same when i tried Reaper (several versions too).
But at the end, i'm back to Studio One and Cubase.
it doesn't suit me at all.

Like i'm back to Ableton after trying Bitwig.

No time to be a beta tester, especially when bugs are reported for years AND devs just don't care because they impact only a "few ppl" (few my a** ...).
About DAWproject : don't expect anything really working for at least 1 year.

Especially when Bitwig devs can't solve a soundcard bug for years on the most sold soundcard : scarlett 2i2

 

Bitwig was never bug free, actually it was horrible piece of unusable lag-y shit on macOS up until they finally fixed it for Mojave, now it works amazing on macOS, for me at least, encountered some bugs, but nothing show stopping, than again, my system is only for audio and it always was, I was using interfaces with great drivers like RME and realized that's the part I'm not going to cheap out and sacrifice, like getting great PSU, after having two PC's compromised by unreliable ones.

When Bitwig was POS on macOS, I was using Windows and had similar experience like I have now, only time I really got frustrated is when I used Soothe, that thing messed whole projects latency, probably is fixed by now, but I moved to DSEQ, don't really know.

if people could make music all these years with Ableton Live, which had severe PDC and crashing issues, than they could easily make music on Bitwig, but I understand that not everyone is up for that, but Cubase isn't any better, power users know, it was crash and bug fest every now and than, even today you have guys like Protoculture reviewing Cubase 13 and addressing he didn't had much crashes and it was smoother ride than before. Amount of people that couldn't get Cubase to behave on their custom built PC no matter what exist, performance of Cubase on macOS was shiittier than Bitwig.

Logic was solid for me, but every new OS update would fuck something up and I stayed on good working combo's longer than most people are these days, there was whole combinations of Logic and macOS versions you needed to combine to be on a good side, not bug free, severe PDC issues they are fixing up until now, 10.8.0 is the first version of Logic that have whole automation aspect fixed, but there's more bugs and it will take rounds until all that is sorted.

In every community you can find power users that know every bug DAW have and they pray every version that same will get fixed and in same communities you have people who pretend those bugs don't exist and ones that aren't affected with the bugs on same level, so they don't care.

But people made music anyways, every DAW is bug fest, if you got one that isn't, just stay on it and make music, stop updating and pray everything continues to work.

Bitwig is in constant development, if you have issues with latest v5, try mature v4, if that thing is bug fest for you, trash it and don't look back, if you have DAW that works better, awesome, you found the one and make music.

I will not ditch Bitwig for another bug fest, just because some folks have issues with Focusrite's shitty drivers, I solved my problem by removing Focusrite from my life, maybe it's best thing for some than to remove Bitwig from theirs and use their interfaces with DAW's that work good with them, choices and all that.

If Bitwig needed years to fix problem that was affecting every macOS user, than imagine how long it will take them to fix issues for Focusrite users, probably twice as much, so don't hold your breath, trash it and don't look back until you hear that they actually fixed that.

 

Last edited: Nov 15, 2023

I think I read one of your posts about the Focusrite drivers and still not being fixed 2 years later, shocking. I have the Scarlett 18i20 Gen 3 as my backup interface with my main interface being a Presonus Studiolive 32R (Rack Mixer) which cost me over £1550.00 for that alone, so I know I am not cheaping out on any part of my music making hardware.

I am totally with you on US not being Beta testers at least not for a production build, BETA build for sure and of course there are always going to be issues but for me when I have the time to sit down and compose it needs to be productive without constant fire fighting over silly things that dont work which should.

Studio One is a great DAW it really is and if I am honest with myself I dont really have a valid reason to want to switch DAWs and wasnt expecting to want to, so I thought I would try Bitwig just to see for myself what the hype is all about and day one I was totally in love with it and if Black Friday wasnt so close I would have purchased the license but then a few days in the issue started popping up.

As I said before I really dont want to give up on it, it has some excellent features and really like the work flow.

 

Every software, including games, have bugs in all versions, doesnt matter if it's been worked on for 20 years. Like games, DAWs are complex software and it's impossible to remove all bugs, so you have a priority list.

You should have seen Winamp, a small software, MP3 player that was extremely popular during the 90s. I read every version update and they have like 20 bug fixes each time. New versions were pretty frequent. So small software! 20 bugfixes each time! xD

A DAW is, I dont know, maybe 200 times bigger than that. You just have to hope that the way you use your fav DAW doesn't trigger too many bugs, or that they fix it fast.

Lastly, sorry Mac users but I see soooooo many Mac posts with complaints, software not even starting. Check ANY big Facebook DAW group. FL, Bitwig, any DAW that exist on PC as well. The walls are LITTERED with posts from Mac users and I see new ones daily. Do not take my word for it, go see for yourself. So. A good start is to not have a Mac. The architecture changes too often and too big and this is a nightmare if you want to run softwares from different sources. Like you would typically if you're a digital musician.

Sure, I know you're there, Mac user who never have any problems and you are sooo happy. But sooo few... Not worth it, my friends. Why BUY problems into your life - why pay extra for that - why

I wouldn't use a Mac if it was free, but if I HAD to, I'd use Logic - of course this is the DAW that runs best on Mac, it is after all mac only. So it doesn't really count if we're talking Mac and DAW stability, no points for Logic ;)

 

Last edited: Nov 15, 2023

Really appreciate you taking the time to reply, you make a lot of good points there Melodic.

I used to be on MAC a good few years back even purchased the top of the range black Mac Pro trash can when they came out and did enjoy logic but just don't like Apple's business ethics, they force you in to everything even if you don't want to, not so easy upgrading macs, so after doing the dance with them for years I decided to go back to PC and buy something that would blow every MAC out of the water for half the price. Although I am still Apple centric for iPhones, iPads, Apple TV, watch etc and will most definitely be buying the Apple Vision Pro when it comes to the UK, I don't think I would buy another Apple computer unless if was just for internet and noodling around.

So my Focusrite and Bitwig thankfully this now not my main interface since getting the Presonus 32R, so I personally haven't had the pleasure (and don't want to) dealing with the shitty drivers and Bitwig, although its played very nice with Studio One and don't have any complaints during my time that it was my main interface.

I am going to keep bashing away at Bitwig for a bit longer cause there are some things that really are fantastic about it and I really want it to work, the HW Instrument and the way it works is really great.

There are many things I am yet to try like time stretching, seeing if it plays nice with my MPC X SE.

I would like some sort of control surface with motorized faders. I have a presonus Faderport v2 (only the single one) which doesn't work I know the 8 and 16 have native support. I also have a Nektar Panorama P1 which I need to look to see if I can get that working with it, I am more than happy to buy something new but if I am going to do that I'd rather it being something completely new and not a bigger version of something I have already had.

 

I used to love Winamp and Llama. I see they have made a return recently with a subscription model

https://www.winamp.com/

I remember back in the day with my Speccy / C64 / Amiga you used to buy a game on cassette and that was it, no updates, and now you download 100GB game on Playstion 5 or Xbox Series X and two days later it wants a 40GB update, and few more days later another 40 GB update, its infuriating, and these are on dedicated hardware which is the same for everyone.

But if this stuff was free you would expect limited bug fixes but at a premium price you expect what you are paying for to work.

I too have read the many MAC users gripes with certain DAWs, it seems these days we are glorified beta testers and ones that we paid a high premium cost to be. BUT thankfully we have the internet and forums like this, and great members like all of you willing to help out and reply to posts, so thats one thing I am very grateful for.

 

Exactly!

Yeah, even developers have nightmares dealing with macOS because not everything is documented clearly, so most times they are trying to fix things on their own, come up with workarounds, invest lot of time fixing things between each yearly OS updates, constantly adopting to changes. Not many are versed in coding for both platforms, some are relying on workarounds that sooner or later stop working, amount of dev's that in this new transition relied on workarounds to get plugins Silicon native instead of coding them from ground up for it is big, others did their work from ground up and took full advantage of new architecture, down the line those relying on workarounds will have nightmares again.

Bitwig invested time trying to patch their macOS version and were among first to offer full Silicon native support, now it's a DAW that actually works great on macOS, but amount of dev's that are going to take ages to get there on other hand...

I can speak for myself, I use handful of plugins from developers that really do know how to code, have great backwards compatibility, even offer Linux support for all their plugins, don't incorporate intrusive copy protections, so relying on them isn't horrible experience. Laptop I got is well worth any hassle, best laptop I ever used, transition from Windows to it was actually less painful than I imagined, because back on Windows I weeded out all vendors that proved unreliable over time and that worked out great, I can even move to Linux tomorrow and still have my whole setup there.

Dunno about that, tested Bitwig, Reaper and Logic and pretty much they run the same sessions with similar performance, at least on my machine, which is odd because the way their pre-buffering worked before, so Bitwig got an edge there for me, much better real time experience making music, they really put their time to fix macOS version and it shows. It's stable, just as Logic or Reaper, it got fair share of bugs, but stability isn't one of them.

I'm for sure in minority and the way I work, but over time I leaned how to make my life easier, knowing which vendors I can trust and all that, tomorrow I can land on any platform and continue where I left off without much issues.

 

Thanks, that's my honest opinion based on my experience, maybe it doesn't correlate to someone else's, but yeah.

 

Last edited: Nov 15, 2023

Spoiler: Bitwig Studio 5.1, Beta 6 [released 15 November 2023]

IMPROVEMENTS:

• Audio onsets are now hidden when they are not being used for playback (because they are below your Onset Threshold value for the event)
• In the Onset view, inactive onsets are still shown but dimmed

FIXES:

• Fixed a crash when showing the Secondary Mixer Panel below the Arranger (a regression in beta 5) [34266]
• Certain feedback situations were bouncing poorly and causing other mischief [34316]
• Dragging pitch expression points slowly now works again [34299]

Arranger loop improvements:

• Better mouse cursors for adjusting loop length
• Same modifiers are allowed while dragging as with clicking
• Setting the metronome level works correctly again (a regression in beta 5)
• Selecting tracks in the Arranger changes focus in the layered editor again (a regression) [34323]

 

Last edited: Nov 29, 2023

About Mac "nightmare", i built an hackintosh.
But i had SO many things going wrong UNRELATED TO HARDWARE ITSELF (especially with sister site installs) that i just scrapped the drive, and now i'm back to 100% Win 10.

Mac forums are FULL of ppl with M1/M2 last OSX troubles. Legit AND "sister site".
And it is worse every year with each OSX version.

A lot of devs ALREADY jumped from PowerPC to MacIntel ... and now they need to jump from MacIntel to Apple Silicon
Some ppl REALLY expect all devs will follow ?

In fact, they don't care about devs : they just want you to BUY new softwares again and again.
But soon, devs will simply give Apple a big middle finger and concentrate on PC.
Same for users, bored to buy a new computer AND new softwares to go with it.
Especially ppl who can't open their projects again ...

Frankly ... it is Buster Keaton like

 

It's not really, last 3 macOS's pretty much broke nothing here, I got this M1 shipped with Monterey and now I'm on Sonoma. For developers that know how to code for macOS and coded their plugins properly for Apple Silicon, last few years were actually much less stressful than in OSX days, guess soon when Intel side of story is completely out of macOS, we will get even better and more optimized system. Sonoma was good step in that direction, just like Snow Leopard was in that transition time, just hope next one isn't Lion's fame, that thing really sucked big time, like Vista did in Windows land. My favorite was Mavericks, that's like pinnacle of OSX IMO, than things started getting flat and more fucked up.

I hope most don't, especially the ones that can't get their shit together all the time, seems like folks who follow the best are the ones that actually have least intrusive copy protection, best backwards compatibility, one of the best tools and some of them even support Linux. Really hope this corporate mega sale's iLok folks stop following, but fear they are there to cash in, gonna continue the same on Windows ARM too, nothing will stop them unfortunately.

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2023

BitWig have started there Winter Sale today with €100 off Bitwig Studio 5

So I ended up purchasing it for €249.00 very happy with that , no more trial nag screen and full packages download.

 

Do you still have same issue with loading saved projects?

 

No, I have figured out what was causing the issues.


So, there were 2 issues I was experiencing for this


Problem 1: I use a firewall type app called NetLimiter which controls any inbound / outbound connection, as I like my studio machine internet enabled for the most part as I do browsing for looking things up, YouTube etc, as I have a 57" widescreen monitor I can very happily have my DAW and Browser open together giving me ample space for both, however as I block many IP addresses from various apps I also decided to block all the IP addresses that BitWig was trying to get out on apart from the initial account licence check to authenticate my at the time 30-day trial and now my actual licence. There were about another 9 IPs that it wanted to connect to that I was stopping even though it was just loading a blank template with no plugins loaded, so once I allowed these IP addresses the initial problem went away.


Problem 2: Another issue was opening a saved project that I exported out from Studio One v6.5 as a DAW Project File, this also caused an issue with the Audio Engine not playing any audio apart from the odd crackle and bleeps, even though once imported into BitWig as a DAW Project File and then saved as BitWig project file. To get around this, and I don’t know why it works, but it does for me. I opened my initial BitWig blank template which has the Audio Engine enabled, then opened the exported Studio One project either as a DAW Project File or converted to a BitWig project file (audio engine disabled), and copying each track from this project and pasting it in to my blank template file doing this makes each of the tracks play and sound as they should, it’s a bit of a faff, but I only need to do this once per exported Studio One project, and then save this template file as an actual BitWig project which then loads fine each time.


Although nothing to do with the above issues there was also a lack of my understanding on how the Audio Engine works when having multiple projects open together, I didn’t know that only one project can access the Audio Engine at one time and that it renders the other open project's audio engine as disabled. Never worked like this before, but now I know.

 

Spoiler: Bitwig Studio 5.1, Beta 7 [released 24 November 2023]

NEW FEATURES

• Stack Spread (Voice Stacking) modulator: Now visualizes each voice's effective modulation amount in the Inspector Panel
• Hovering over an individual voice in the Inspector pops up a tooltip with a numeric representation

IMPROVEMENTS

• Dialogs can now be freely dragged around the application window
• This includes Quantize Audio, Slice to Drum Machine, Slice to Multisample, and Slice to Sampler, which can preview onto timeline content in the background window
• Mixer improvements:
• Track headers now default to Fill header backgrounds, which can be disabled by right-clicking in the mixer view toggle area (to the left of the track volume faders)
• Stronger icons for the Clear Arm, Clear Mute, and Clear Solo buttons
• Automation recording of continuous parameters has been improved, only writing a flat line when no input has been received for a short period of time (resulting in smoother automation curves being recorded)
• On device interfaces that use icons on either side of a knob, the icons can now be clicked to set either extreme value. This applies to:
• Vibrato (LFO) modulator, for Waveshape parameter
• Random (LFO) modulator and S/H LFO (Random) Grid module, for Smoothing and Feedback / Correlation parameters
• LFO (LFO) modulator, for Waveform Tilt and Waveform Curve parameters
• Beat LFO (LFO) modulator, for Rate, Waveform Tilt, and Waveform Curve parameters

FIXES

• Fixed potential application and audio engine crashes when some controllers are connected [34450]
• Solo as Cue: Cued channels are now properly delay compensated [33363]
• Editing clip automation after splitting a clip was not working correctly [34257]
• When tweaking a volume slider in Mixer View, the mouse cursor no longer jumps to the left on release [34390]
• Stack Spread (Voice Stacking) modulator: Random modes no longer constantly update in True Mono [34318]
• Instrument Layer and FX Layer (Container) devices: Take advantage of more parallel processing opportunities when EQ+ is present [34437]
• Arpeggiator (Note FX) device: Rate parameter is now sample-accurate [34232]
• Merge & Split (Mix) Grid modules: Now Wrap properly on the edges of the range [34259]
• Random (LFO) modulator: Respects the Bipolar setting, even when a negative Feedback value is set [34128]
• Poly Grid (The Grid) device: Fixed a rare case with broken audio on export or bounce [34181]
• Fixed some crashes and/or erratic behavior of deactivated Grid modules when reactivating them after voice stacking was enabled [34242]
• Setting the track modulator's note source works correctly with the output of a device [33463]
• Instrument glide always tracks the last note now, even in Digi Mono mode [34217]
• Clip Launcher: Quantize to Loop is working correctly again [33001]
• When recording automation in a loop on the Arranger, sometimes automation was deleted in the loop region when recording near the loop jump [34352]
• Copying a track with a CC automation lane was sometimes creating bipolar automation on the new track [34322]
• DAWproject: Loops were not imported correctly for audio clips (a regression) [34414]
• Plug-ins: Routing to multiple MIDI channels directly was broken (a regression) [34140]
• CLAP: MPE was not working in a certain situation [34415]
• Improved memory usage for controllers which are editing note clips [34335]
• Controller API: Fixed a random crash [33721]

Spoiler: Bitwig Studio 5.1, Beta 8 [released 28 November 2023]

FIXES

• Notes recorded into Launcher Clips are properly placed, even while the Arranger loop is active [31301]
• Clips are no longer out of sync when starting scenes (a regression) [34483]
• From the Export Audio dialog, multiple tracks can be selected again (a regression) [34481]
• Fixed a crash when deleting a scene, that had manual controller mappings, to launch a clip in that scene [32894]
• Fixed a crash when recording automation, in some cases (a regression) [34454]
• Mixer: The left level meter is no longer narrower than the right one, at 125% scaling, on a lo-res monitor [34416]
• Track arm status is now shown correctly, with a multiselection of tracks, in the Inspector Panel [34495]
• Fixed various audio engine crashes

 

Ive a cracked release of Bitwig v5 and whilst theres some impressive features the workflow for me just isnt as intuative and intrisic as live 11
In an ideal world if bitwig had the same workflow as live id switch over, however we arent in a perfect world
Does has some great plugins, samplers great as are most of the onboard plugs, but still i find myself going back to live after an hour it becomes tedious for me tbh
I do use it for sound design sometimes but i sample what ive done then import it to my library within live, and dont use it to actually write a track within its architecture

 

Spoiler: Bitwig Studio 5.1, Beta 9 [released 01 December 2023]

FIXES

• Manually mapping a knob to a toggle button state was not working properly [34500]
• Fixed some random app crashes when recording [34502]
• Mono meter is properly wide again on Arranger track headers (a regression)
• Package Manager: Now switches to populated tabs (like Installed) when current tab no longer makes sense [34482]
• VST 2: No longer receives incorrect beat time info, when playing and past the loop region

 

And it's final!

Spoiler: Bitwig Studio 5.1 [released 06 December 2023]

10 NEW CHARACTERS — MODERN FILTERS AND WAVESHAPERS, READY TO FX

• Welcome three modern character filters
  • Each use a nested structure, taking a general outer filter and placing a second 'filter' inside the feedback circuit
  • Each algorithm is unique, with a mix of modes for different behavior, tuning controls, inner modulation, and tweak points
  • Drive and Resonance / Feedback are connected, so pulling down Drive a little can often leave more room for resonance to take over, etc. etc.
• Welcome five character waveshapers
  • Each remaps incoming audio to its current shape, transferring each level to the shaper's position
  • Each shaper has its own morphing path, by moving or modulating the single Drive control
  • A little high-level math keeps the shaping tight and smooth via the Anti-aliasing option
• Also along for the ride: a formant filter (Vowels) and a modeled ring Diode shaper

NEW POLYMER / FILTER+ / SWEEP / GRID MODULE: FIZZ (FILTER)

• A modern Character filter for spreading harmonic nodes around
• Has a bit of a moving formant sensibility
• Takes place inside a stereo, resonant low-pass filter, with standard options:
  • Drive to affect the incoming signal level
  • Main Cutoff Frequency control
  • Stereo input for cutoff modulation, with Cutoff Modulation Amount set in semitones
  • Key Tracking Amount, for using incoming note pitches to affect the cutoff buss
• For this algorithm, additional controls include:
  • Feedback Gain, which feeds or chokes the nested filter
  • Feedback Cutoff Frequency, for tuning the nested filter
  • A bipolar Color control, which shifts the placement and variation of formant peaks
  • An Alternate Color toggle, for a reorienting and different tuning of the circuit

NEW POLYMER / FILTER+ / SWEEP / GRID MODULE: RASP (FILTER)

• A modern Character filter that can scream or whisper
• Creates resonant peaks on top of the standard filter
• Takes place inside a stereo, resonant filter, with standard options:
  • Drive to affect the incoming signal level
  • A Filter Type setting, to switch between an outer Low-pass filter or a Band-pass model
  • Cutoff/Center Frequency control
  • Stereo input for cutoff modulation, with Cutoff Modulation Amount set in semitones
  • Key Tracking Amount, for using incoming note pitches to affect the cutoff buss
  • A Feedback Limit Inspector Panel (also available via right-click context menu) control, for adjusting when the filter model saturates
• For this algorithm, additional controls include:
  • Resonance, which enunciates or chokes the nested filter
  • A Brightness Mode setting, with various options for how resonance peaks move:
    • Shift - Gently moves past the main cutoff, usually emphasizing a central peak
    • Double - A tuned mixture of the Shift and Gravity modes
    • Gravity - Pulls and pushes toward the main cutoff with a bit of magnetism
  • The bipolar Brightness control applies the set Brightness Mode, bending the new resonant nodes thru various harmonic — and inharmonic — positions

NEW POLYMER / FILTER+ / SWEEP / GRID MODULE: RIPPLE (FILTER)

• A modern Character filter with hyper-resonance
• Three elemental modes provide different levels of fun/wreckage that often anchors to harmonics of the incoming signal
• Takes place inside a stereo, resonant filter, with standard options:
  • Drive to affect the incoming signal level
  • Main Cutoff Frequency control
  • Stereo input for cutoff modulation, with Cutoff Modulation Amount set in semitones
  • Key Tracking Amount, for using incoming note pitches to affect the cutoff buss
• For this algorithm, additional controls include:
  • Bipolar Feedback Gain, which feeds or chokes the nested filter
  • Feedback Cutoff Frequency, for tuning the nested filter
  • A Nature setting, with various models for the filter:
    • Earth - Gently moves past the main cutoff, usually emphasizing a central peak
    • Wind - Focused feedback, ready to blow
    • Fire - Broad feedback, with some motion
  • Two additional toggles, Tweak Feedback and Tweak Feedforward, modify those points in the filter circuit, either dampening or expanding resonance
  • A Low Quality toggle (in the Inspector Panel or via right-click context menu), for adjusting the filter's tuning and reducing the CPU load

NEW POLYMER / FILTER+ / SWEEP / GRID MODULE: VOWELS (FILTER)

• An Inspired filter that produces vowel sounds
• Can be used several ways, including:
  • Setting (or hard modulating/automating) a single vowel
  • Setting and morphing anywhere between two and five vowels
  • Any combination, all with different configurations and vowel models
• Standard filter controls include:
  • Drive to affect the incoming signal level
  • A Resonance Limit Inspector Panel (or Q Limit via right-click context menu) control, for adjusting when the filter model saturates
• Five Vowel Position choosers are available, located around a central, bipolar Vowel Blend knob:
  • Vowel Blend at -100 % uses only the nearby Vowel Position 1
  • Vowel Blend at 0 % uses only the nearby Vowel Position 3
  • Vowel Blend at +100 % uses only the nearby Vowel Position 5
  • Vowel Blend corresponds to Vowel Position 2 at -50 % and Vowel Position 4 at +50 %; if set to vowel sounds, only those values will be heard; if set to None (the default), the surrounding vowels will be blended perfectly there
  • Each position offers 27 different vowel sounds to choose from:
    • i - As in “see” or “eat”
    • y - With a rounded w-, like “we”
    • ɪ - As in “sit” or “hit”
    • ʏ - A medium oo, like “ooze”
    • ɨ - An exaggerated oo, like “eww” (gross)
    • ʉ - A slow oo, like "ooh!" (surprise)
    • ɯ - As in “hook” or “book”
    • u - As in “pool” or “cool”
    • e - As in “say” or “rain”
    • ø - With a closed -l, like “ool”
    • ɘ - Partly closed, as in “eh”
    • ɵ - As in “foot” or “would”
    • ɣ - Partly closed, as in “uh”
    • o - First sound in “coat” or “bold”
    • ə - As in “run” or “ton”
    • ɛ - As in “get” or “rent”
    • œ - With a round -l, like “ole”
    • ɜ - Partly closed, as in “ah”
    • ɞ - Partly closed, as in “aw”
    • ʌ - As in “fun” or “come”
    • ɔ - As in “more” or “floor”
    • æ - As in “cat” or “hat”
    • ɐ - With a subtle -r, like “are”
    • a - First sound in “hi” or “fight”
    • Œ - With an open -l, like “all”
    • ɑ - As in “far” or “star”
    • ɒ - As in “want” or “job”
  • Each Vowel Position can be set in two ways:
    • Clicking on any position opens a pop-up menu of all available vowels sounds and description texts
    • Clicking and dragging on any position starts moving thru the vowels sounds, for a quick workflow with audible results (if audio is passing)
  • In The Grid, a stereo in port (Vowel In) is available for adding to the Vowel Blend value
• Profile selects which set of vowel data to use, with choices including:
  • Women 1 - an older data set, with average values from several women
  • Women 2 - a modern data set, with average values from several women
  • Female - values from one individual female
  • Men 1 - an older data set, with average values from several men
  • Men 2 - a modern data set, with average values from several men
  • Male - values from one individual male
  • Kids - average values from several children
• The Topology chooser (on the right edge of the module) sets the structure of the filter, from three choices:
  • Cascade - Serial low-pass filters; a bit better for traditional text-to-speech sounds
  • LP/BP - Low-pass and band-pass filters, processed in parallel; a synth-ier, Autobahn-friendly vibe
  • LP/BP/HP - Low-pass, band-pass, and high-pass filters in parallel; adds a slight bit more highs
• Several parameters influence the tuning of the internal filters in use:
  • Cutoff Pitch Offset moves the internal filters by semitones
  • The Cutoff In port and its associated Cutoff Modulation Amount attenuator allows stereo manipulation of the Cutoff Pitch Offset
    • Note: While this is like moving the cutoff of a normal filter up and down, the result is different and you might want to start by disabling pitch modulation
  • The Cutoff Frequency Offset (in the Inspector Panel or via right-click context menu) allows linear frequency manipulation, which can be interesting for formants
  • Resonance adjusts the relative sharpness of the internal filters

NEW FILTER+ / SWEEP / GRID MODULE: PUSH (SHAPER)

• A Character soft clipper with a detailed curve
• One Drive parameter for going thru the module's unique path, with optional high-order Anti-aliasing (AA)

NEW FILTER+ / SWEEP / GRID MODULE: HEAT (SHAPER)

• A Character S-shaped clipper that starts soft but can drive hard
• One Drive parameter for going thru the module's unique path, with optional high-order Anti-aliasing (AA)

NEW FILTER+ / SWEEP / GRID MODULE: SOAR (SHAPER)

• A Character soft wave folder that makes the quietest parts loud
• One Drive parameter for going thru the module's unique path, with optional high-order Anti-aliasing (AA)

NEW FILTER+ / SWEEP / GRID MODULE: HOWL (SHAPER)

• A Character wave folder that puts different parts of the signal into loud focus
• One Drive parameter for going thru the module's unique path, with optional high-order Anti-aliasing (AA)

NEW FILTER+ / SWEEP / GRID MODULE: SHRED (SHAPER)

• A Character non-linear wave folder for subtle cancellation or big-time artifacts
• One Drive parameter for going thru the module's unique path, with optional high-order Anti-aliasing (AA)

NEW FILTER+ / SWEEP / GRID MODULE: DIODE (SHAPER)

• A Parametric shaper modeling the classic circuit in a modern way
• Offset parameter for biasing the signal to be asymmetric
• Drive parameter for pushing the signal to bend
• Low-pass Cutoff Frequency control for rounding it off and restoring some order
• One Drive parameter for going thru the module's unique path, with optional high-order Anti-aliasing (AA)

NEW DEVICE: FILTER+ (FILTER)

• A dead-simple FX box, for deploying any waveshaper and filter from The Grid directly onto a track
• Pick one of ten filters from three categories:
  • Structural choices for classic circuits:
    • Low-pass LD - A ladder filter, with variable slope and nonlinear option
    • Sallen-Key - 16 various low-, high-, and band-pass configurations
    • SVF - Highly resonant multimode (high-, low-, band-pass & notch) filter
    • Comb - A comb filter with timed feedback & dampening
  • Inspired options that speak:
    • Low-pass MG - A Moog-style low-pass filter, including drive character
    • XP - An Oberheim-style multimode filter, with 15 configurations)
    • Vowels - A morphing vowel filter, with various models, pitch and frequency offsets
  • Character ideas for something new:
    • Fizz - A nested filter circuit that can sparkle, shimmer like a phaser, or bump
    • Rasp - A filter that adds brightness around the cutoff, so it can scream or whimper
    • Ripple - A hyper-resonant circuit for playful feedback, subharmonics, or even distortion
• Pick one of 14 waveshapers, sorted for you:
  • One Knob classics with a singular control:
    • Chebyshev - Nonlinear shaper that can target harmonics
    • Distortion - Gentle distortion
    • Hard Clip - Simple, hard clipper
    • Quantizer - Signal resolution reducer
    • Wavefolder - Reflects each cycle back on itself
  • Parametric options that offer more control:
    • Diode - Classic circuit model, used for biasing and clipping
    • Rectifier - Independent positive and negative attenuators
    • Saturator - Waveshaper with loud/quiet settings + bipolar skews
    • Transfer - A freely drawable, segmented waveshaper, with BWCURVE-file support
  • Character ideas, for unique paths and simple control:
    • Push - Soft clipper with a detailed curve
    • Heat - S-shaped clipper that starts soft but can drive hard
    • Soar - Soft wave folder that makes the quietest parts loud
    • Howl - Wave folder that puts different parts of the signal into loud focus
    • Shred - Non-linear wave folder for subtle cancellation or big-time artifacts
• Signal flow is simple: audio input → waveshaper → filter
• Pre FX and Post FX chains are also available, for nesting other devices or plug-ins
• Wet Gain parameter (for volume correction) is also available between the Pre FX and Post FX chains — the same as its signal-flow position
• A modulation section offers two built-in sources:
  • A stereo LFO module gives four waveshapes with sync-able Rate and Timebase controls
  • The incoming audio itself provides a second modulation source, with optional low-pass filtering and rectification (to make the modulation go in only one direction)
  • Both LFO and Audio Mod sources are normalled to the filter's cutoff buss, with attenuators on the filter
  • These sources are also available as modulators for free control elsewhere, including shaper Drive controls, other filter controls, or control of any nested devices in the Pre FX and Post FX slots
• Other parameters are available in the device's Expanded Device View, which exposes the embedded Grid patch. These include:
  • LFO Skew (to bend the shape), Phase, Phase Offset (R) (for the right channel, controlling the stereo effect), Bipolar, and Sync to Global Transport toggle (on by default)
  • Pitch Buss toggle (with = icon) to not attenuate the audio mod source, giving it a ±10 octave range
  • A simple Pan module, for placing the signal
• Being a Grid-powered device, polyphony and voice stacking are uniquely available in this audio FX device
• By right-clicking the device header, functions are available to:
  • Convert to Sweep, for bringing all settings into that device
  • Convert to FX Grid, for full patching control

NEW DEVICE: SWEEP (FILTER)

• A performable effect device, combining and blending a waveshaper and two filters from The Grid
• Everything said about Filter+ is true of Sweep, except Sweep has a second filter slot and generalized controls for this setup
• Joint Frequency Control provides control of both filters in a range ±3 octaves
  • An Invert option flips the direction that the Joint Frequency Control applies to filter B, allowing you to move their cutoffs in opposite directions
• The Routing Blend control smoothly moves thru various device configurations:
  • At 0 %, only filter A → waveshaper is heard
  • 50 % is a parallel routing, with device audio input going straight to both filter A (then out) and to waveshaper → filter B (then out)
  • 100 % is fully serial, with device audio input going to filter A → waveshaper → filter B
  • Positions in between blend these routings, for a continuous range
• Stereo Pan is similar to the Joint Frequency Control, except it applies the same stereo adjustment to both filters
  • Positive (rightward) settings move right channel cutoffs up and left cutoffs down, and negative (leftward) settings move left channel cutoffs up and right cutoffs down
  • Good, quick stereo-ization control

VOICE STACKING EXPANSION

• Voice Stacking remains a unique feature of Bitwig Studio, allowing any polyphonic device — including compatible plug-ins — to create multiple layers of sound
• 16 is now the maximum, allowing each note played to trigger up to 16 independent voices
• When voice stacking is active, any single voice in the stack can be soloed
  • This temporary gesture makes sound programming easier and fast
  • This option is available in the device Inspector Panel, along with the Voice Stacking setting
• The old Voice Stack (Note-driven) modulator has been replaced by two modulators in the new Voice Stacking category:
  • Stack Spread offers the original four spread modes, along with eight new ones:
    • Flipped - Provides simple reciprocals [1, 1/2, 1/3, ... 1/n]
    • Straight - Gives harmonic relationships [1, 1/2, 1/4, ... 1/2ⁿ], whether for pitch or rhythms
    • Primes - Inverted prime numbers [1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/5, 1/7, 1/11...]
    • Golden - The Fibonacci sequence [1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/5, 1/8, 1/13...]
    • Rand+ - Creates a unipolar random value for each voice (at note on), with all values adding up to 1
    • Rand+ ↕︎ - A scaled, stronger version of Rand+, tending towards more large values
    • Rand± - Creates a bipolar random value for each voice (at note on), with all values adding up to 0 (zero)
    • Rand± ↕︎ - A scaled, stronger version of Rand±, tending towards more large values
    • All modes visualize the relative effect on each voice in the Inspector Panel, and mousing over any voice visualization will pop up a tool tip to show its relative level
  • Voice Control provides 16 individual modulator sources for programming any of the 16 voices uniquely
  • With more spread modes, you may want to insert more than one Stack Spread modulator
  • Previous presets or projects using the Voice Stack modulator are automatically converted to use the new modulator(s)
• Three new Grid modules offer a new level of control when voice stacking is active:
  • Voice Stack Info (I/O) provides two signals:
    • Voice Stack Index outputs a polyphonic signal of the current voice's index within the stack
    • Normalized by default, the signal is ideal for creating your own spread modes (maybe try running it thru a Bend [Level] module, or any other shaper)
    • Voice Stack Size outputs a mono signal reflecting the current voice stacking setting, which could be useful for dynamic gain adjustments, etc.
  • Voice Stack Mix (Mix) is a processor that provides a mixer interface for each voice in the stack
    • This provides a Level, Pan, Solo, and Enable control for each voice in the Inspector Panel
    • Each control can be mapped, modulated, or automated
    • The module can be inserted anywhere in a patch — and as many times as you like. This isn't just for audio.
  • Voice Stack Tog (Mix) is a processor the provides simple Enable controls voice each voice
    • Like Voice Stack Mix, this is a processor that can be inserted anywhere in a patch and is free to be mapped or modulated
    • This module could be useful in many cases, including with Note Grid (before the Gate Out, for example)
  • Since the Voice Stack Mix and Voice Stack Tog modules share an Enable control for each voice, swapping between the two modules will keep these particular data
• Since Filter+ and Sweep are based on FX Grid, there are now three audio FX devices that can use polyphony and voice stacking
  • Simple idea: try a band-pass filter in Filter+, enable Voice Stacking, and spread the cutoff

NEW POLYMER/GRID MODULE: BITE (OSCILLATOR)

• A Techniques-driven oscillator, offering exponential FM, hard sync, PWM, and ring mod from dual oscillator feedback
• Anti-aliasing and internal feedback allow for some very crisp, fresh, and/or modular analog sounds
• Internal Oscillator A & B are identical, each providing seven waveshapes with Pulse Width controls, as well as fixed Saw and Sine options
  • Like the Union oscillator, the oscillators exhibit some smooth analog drift when Pulse Width, for example, is moved
• Oscillator B can pulse-width modulate (PWM) Oscillator A
• Oscillator A can do exponential frequency modulation (xFM) on Oscillator B
• Oscillator A can also hard SYNC Oscillator B:
  • SYNC is a useful way to use exponential FM without breaking the pitch of Oscillator B
  • Oscillator B also has its own Pitch Offset control, for setting (or modulating) more interesting hard sync waveshapes
• A trio of mix controls set the output level for oscillator A, oscillator B, and a ring-modulated mix (RM) of the two
• The Grid module version has a special Independent Mono Mode toggle in the Inspector Panel
  • This flattens the module to a mono output
  • This also allows individual oscillator targeting via the in ports, routing left channel inputs only to Oscillator A and right channel inputs to Oscillator B

ONSET POWER AND AUDIO QUANTIZE

• Our new, higher-resolution onset detector from v5.0 provides better data and allows for new functions
• Audio clips/events now have an Onset Threshold setting
  • This value affects playback, setting which onsets are preserved by stretching
  • Onsets below the threshold are hidden in most displays (in the Onset view, they will be shown but dimmed)
  • This value is in the Audio Event > Stretching area of the Inspector Panel
  • If affected clips/events are onscreen with onsets showing, their visualization will be updated while dragging the Onset Threshold setting
  • The setting is available for audio using either the Stretch, Stretch HD, or Slice when the algorithm has its Transient Rate set to at Onsets
• A new Audio Quantize… function is now available for audio clips and events
  • Set the desired beat grid in the dialog
  • Adjust the Onset Threshold within the dialog to set which onsets should get quantized (via stretch markers)
    • Again, if the clips/events are visible when the dialog is open, they and their onsets will be brightly previewed in the background
  • The Amount, Shuffle, and Humanize settings determine the movement and position of quantized
  • Click OK to make it so. Boom.
  • After executing the function, visible waveform editors will switch to the Stretch page, displaying beat markers
  • When applied to raw audio events, events are switched to the user's Default stretch mode set for On recording / bounce (set in Dashboard > Settings > Behavior)
  • An additional Audio Quantize (no ellipsis […]) function is available to skip the dialog and directly apply your last values
• Other functions that can use onsets (Slice in Place, Slice to Drum Machine, Slice to Multisample) now have the Onset Threshold control, interface, and visual preview mechanism

SOME MIXER LOVE

• The various panels in the Mix view and Mixer Panel have been reordered, made scrollable, and show/hide is better ways (when available space changes)
• A permanent left column (below scenes, when visible) has been added for the mixer view toggles and section labels (Devices, Sends, I/O, etc.)
• When multiple tracks are selected, adjusting one track will adjust them all, whether it is volume, mute, output routing, etc.
• The left column also has a horizontal divider line that can be dragged ups and down to resize the volume faders and their level meters
  • The peak hold level for each track is now visible at most heights, just above the level meters
  • Hovering over the peak hold level shows updated stereo information about the track level
  • Clicking the peak hold level clears it for all tracks, as well as the small red peak indicators at the top of each meter
  • There are now stronger icons in this area for the Clear Arm, Clear Mute, and Clear Solo function buttons
• Tracks can also be made much narrower now
• The mini device view of the mixer now shows clickable icons for native Bitwig devices that have an Expanded Device View
  • Clicking the icon scroll the device (in the Device Panel) onto screen and opens the Expanded Device View above
  • The same is true in the Inspector Panel, except the icons are always visible (give or take EQ+ and EQ-5)
• Holding [SHIFT] when resizing one track resizes all tracks in that section to the same size
  • Holding [SHIFT] now performs the same function when resizing Arranger track lanes
• Track headers have been redesigned to give more space to track names, and to make selections and relationships more obvious and clear
  • Track headers now default to Fill header backgrounds, which can be disabled by right-clicking in the mixer view toggle area (to the left of the track volume faders)

NEW FEATURES

• A non-destructive Normalize function is now available on audio clips/events, inserting a Gain expression value for the clip (or for each audio event, when multiples are selected)
• New Set Clip Start function is available in the Detail Editor Panel, sliding the clip contents to the current time selection
  • Available in the Time menu or in the right-click menu
• Container devices with three or more chains (Multiband FX-3, XY FX, and XY Instrument) now have mute / solo controls for each chain
• Container devices with two chains (Multiband FX-2, Mid-Side Split, and Stereo Split) now a solo button for each chain
• FX Grid (The Grid) device: Now has an Auto-gate from Notes parameter
  • If you enable an FX Grid patch to be polyphonic, now you don't have to change your patch at all as some simple enveloping is applied for each note played
  • The Auto-gate toggle is in the Note Source section of the Inspector, with an Auto-gate Release Time setting right beside it
  • Auto-gate is on by default and has no effect if your patch is using True Mono
  • Both Filter+ and Sweep also have this Auto-gate option
• New Toggle In (Mix) Grid module: Switch between two incoming signals, with a button directly on the module
• New Toggle Out (Mix) Grid module: Switch between two outgoing paths, with a button directly on the module
• New Pitch Buss (Pitch) Grid module: Pitch summing buss with attenuators for up to six inputs
  • Attenuators are set in a range of ±36 semitones
  • Inputs two to six also have a Thru option (a clickable = icon) that adds that incoming signal without attenuation, good in the case of actual pitch signals, etc.
• New Invert (Math) Grid module: Gives a button to reverse polarity (× -1) of the incoming signal, with Stereo-ness option
• New Reciprocal (Math) Grid module: Gives a button to flip (1/x) the incoming signal, with Stereo-ness option
• LFO, Curve, and Wavetable LFO (LFO) Grid modules: Now have a Sync to Global Transport option
  • This mode positions (and keeps) the module's clock relative to current global transport
  • This disables the Retrigger In port and the Retrigger on Notes pre-cord options
  • This setting defaults off for the module, and defaults on within Filter+ and Sweep
• Chebyshev (Shaper) Filter+/Sweep/Grid module: Now has a Remove DC option to subtract the function's inherent DC
• Added a control for the visual strength of timeline Grid Lines (under Dashboard > Settings > User Interface > Contrast)
• Support for Softube Console One devices [33559]
• DAWproject files can now be exported (from the File menu) and imported by Bitwig Studio
  • This new format allows transferring project data from one audio sequencer to another
  • More information on the format is here
• Controller script added for Derivative's TouchDesigner
  • This script from Derivative provides an integration between Bitwig Studio and TouchDesigner, for dynamic live visuals and more
  • More info here
• Controller script added for Native Instruments's Maschine Mikro Mk3

IMPROVEMENTS

• Zooming behavior with shortcuts now centers around the active selection if present, or otherwise around the mouse location if present over the editor
• Dialogs can now be freely dragged around the application window
  • This includes Quantize Audio, Slice to Drum Machine, Slice to Multisample, and Slice to Sampler, which can preview onto timeline content in the background window
• Dragging automation points for certain parameters (such as Frequency, Q, and Gain in EQ+, etc.) no longer feel slow
• Dragging automation/expression events beyond the upper/lower timeline boundary no longer requires dragging back the same distance [25219]
• Improved MIDI clock syncing implementation [34040]
• Automation recording of continuous parameters has been improved, only writing a flat line when no input has been received for a short period of time (resulting in smoother automation curves being recorded)
• Various editing improvements:
  • Make Legato function now treats chords together
  • After using the Knife tool to slice, the second clip/event is now selected
  • Time selection tool can now move beat markers when hovering marker head
  • Eraser tool can now be used to delete beat markers and onsets
  • The Arranger loop length can now be extended by clicking outside of the loop region
  • The Arranger loop length can now be shortened by using [CTL]-click ([CMD]-click on Mac) inside the current Arranger loop
  • Dragging in new beat markers from onset locations has moved to top edge of the Detail Editor Panel, where the onset locations are shown
  • [ALT]-dragging now slides the waveform under a beat marker
  • Dragging automation events now feels smoother
  • Better beat marker visibility
• Arranger loop control improvements [34227]:
  • [CTL]-click ([CMD]-click on Mac) adjusts the loop end time
  • [CTL]-[SHIFT]-click ([CMD]-[SHIFT]-click on Mac) adjusts the loop end
  • Dragging within the current Arranger loop moves it
  • Clicking outside the current Arranger loop changes the loop start time, but not the length
  • Dragging outside the current Arranger loop — or [CTL]-dragging ([CMD]-dragging on Mac) within the current Arranger loop — draws a new loop region
  • Better mouse cursors are shown for adjusting loop length
  • Same modifiers are allowed while dragging as with clicking
• EQ+ (EQ) device: Is now latency compensated
• Instrument Selector and FX Selector devices: May now process chains in parallel
• Instrument Layer and FX Layer (Container) devices: Take advantage of more parallel processing opportunities when EQ+ is present [34437]
• Test Tone (Utility) device: Now has cleaner Saw and Square waveforms
• Transfer (Shaper) Filter+/Sweep/Grid module: The Reset Curve function (available on right-click) makes a three-point identity function for better custom editing
• Saturator (Shaper) Filter+/Sweep module: Has a Pop-out Editor, making all parameters available when outside of The Grid
• ≥ and ≤ Grid modules (Math): Now have an Exact Matches Only setting, which can be disabled from the Inspector or the context menu [33705]
• Bounce only processes the track's prerequisites (and not the whole project)
• Support for sample-accurate automation recording from controllers and plug-in windows
• On device interfaces that use icons on either side of a knob, the icons can now be clicked to set either extreme value. This applies to:
  • Vibrato (LFO) modulator, for Waveshape parameter
  • Random (LFO) modulator and S/H LFO (Random) Grid module, for Smoothing and Feedback / Correlation parameters
  • LFO (LFO) modulator, for Waveform Tilt and Waveform Curve parameters
  • Beat LFO (LFO) modulator, for Rate, Waveform Tilt, and Waveform Curve parameters
• Improved dictionary-based text truncation to respect the original text more (CAPS, spaces, etc.) [34160]
• Package Manager: Now switches to populated tabs (like Installed) when current tab no longer makes sense [34482]
• CLAP plug-ins: Added missing track info implementation
• CLAP: Updated to version 1.1.9
• Windows: No more firewall popup messages
• New function to Delete All Project Automation
• New function to Delete All Automation Owned by Selection
• VST3 and CLAP: We now honor any plug-in's realtime requirement
• CLAP: Uses MIDI MPE if the plug-in asks for it

FIXES

• Solo as Cue: Cued channels are now properly delay compensated [33363]
• Clip Launcher: Quantize to Loop is working correctly again [33001]
• Instrument glide always tracks the last note now, even in Digi Mono mode [34217]
• Now correctly updates the project's plug-in delay compensation, when activating a plug-in for offline rendering results in a latency change
• Notes recorded into Launcher Clips are properly placed, even while the Arranger loop is active [31301]
• Convolution (Reverb) device: Improved playback for "true stereo" (four channel impulses, removing previous artifacts in some cases [33899]
• Instrument Selector, FX Selector, and Note FX Selector devices: Index automation is now correctly latency compensated [33766]
• Arpeggiator (Note FX) device: Rate parameter is now sample-accurate [34232]
• Humanize (Note FX) device: Was not passing note offs when panel was hidden, causing hanging notes [33975]
• Segment (Envelope) modulator and Grid module: Loop Mode buttons now work correctly via touch [32850]
• Merge & Split (Mix) Grid modules: Now Wrap properly on the edges of the range [34259]
• Clock Divider (Logic) Grid Module: Fixed cases where it was sometimes triggering too frequently [34131]
• Random (LFO) modulator: Respects the Bipolar setting, even when a negative Feedback value is set [34128]
• Octaver, Ratio, and Transpose (Pitch) Grid modules: Default value for Stereo-ness parameter is now Mono
• Note Sidechain modulator: Now shows user-provided name in the modulator pane [33619]
• Setting the track modulator's note source works correctly with the output of a device [33463]
• CC automation points round better, outputting more accurate values [34023]
• DAWproject: Fixed an import issue with clip offsets when clip times and durations were using mixed units
• Fixed a crash when deleting a scene, that had manual controller mappings, to launch a clip in that scene [32894]
• Plug-ins: Now go to sleep regardless of how their window is closed (including using the GUI button in the device chain) [33862]
• VST Plug-ins: Show automated parameters only option now consistently updates the list when automation is added [33853]
• Library clips containing Arpeggiator were previewing twice as fast as they should have [33764]
• Fixed a crash when zooming in/out via control surface [33981]
• When recording automation in a loop on the Arranger, sometimes automation was deleted in the loop region when recording near the loop jump [34352]
• macOS: Fixed random crashes when inputting text [33774]
• Arturia MiniLab3 controller script: Improved device browsing
• Improved memory usage for controllers which are editing note clips [34335]
• Touch automation mode now works when plug-in parameters are changed from within Bitwig Studio's GUI [33768]
• Controller API: Fixed a random crash [33721]
• Reference waveforms (shown under notes) in the Detail Editor Panel now uses a stronger color
• Fixed a random engine behavior after mapping a hardware button to some toggle controls (like mute) [34176]
• Fixed a rare engine crash [32296,32104]
• Fixed various and sundry audio engine crashes
• [SHIFT]-[X] shortcut did not work when assigned to Cut Time [33818]

 

This thread is off the rails..
Here's a fact. Bitwig 5.1 is stable as on Mac Sonoma. Bitwig is a killer DAW. My Macbook Pro M1pro is the best creative decision I ever made, especially paired with an Ipadpro M2 and an iPhone 15 Promax.. stop winging about your FKN Hackintoshes FFS.. Move on.. Intel is Old Tech.

 

Last edited: Dec 7, 2023

Got new iPhone as a present, already considering iPad as secondary touch screen, do you have time to expand a little on how did you incorporated both into your workflow, especially iPhone?