ive been using ableton for three years now, im pretty fluent with it now, but bitwig at face value at least looks so much better. does anyone use it as there main DAW? is it worth buying over ableton?

 

similar story here. used ableton, purchased Bitwig and I don't regret it.

there are few ridiculous pitfalls (that i don't really care that much about) like nonexistence of MIDI export and signature changes.

one that did hurt me was nonexistence of multi channel output - but they already added it.

can't recall all the upsides. in short - it's ableton with better foundations like sane plugin processing (ableton's lack of 64bit vst support kind a seems like a joke. but then again - bitwig has no vst3 support (forthcoming feature)) that doesn't look like Microsoft Excel.

 

Bitwig is a pretty solid daw and it has heaps of potential. Its actually VERY similar to Ableton but has the capabilities of MAX 4 Live built in. I found it quite intuative and fast to use but I foud the GUI a little too crammed for my liking. The fact that it had proper PDC was a big deal but Ableton have fixed that issue in their latest beta's too. If anything It has caused ableton to up their game and fix and add things their customers have been asking for.

To answer your question....there is nothing crucial you can do in Bitwig that you cant with Live.

I recently moved form Live to Cubase Pro 8. I still have a lot of Love for Ableton but I HATED the arrange page. Cubase 8 is an absolute powerhouse.

 

There is Sensomusic Usine, as live gig alternative, with M4L like features (and a lot more) included by default
The best DAW ever in this domain...and no one cares

About arrangement view, yeah...it sucks in Ableton. Like piano roll.
When i see some ppl (trying to use) using it for orchestral work, i feel pity

The best arrangement view to me is FL Studio. Very colorful and effective. But effective only for electro work (complextro/dubstep...).
For orchestral work, it would be Studio One for me.

Try Bitwig, don't trust our words. Like "d32r", i feel Bitwig is nice, but too late. They tried to add features and features to reach Ableton. But i don't feel a lot of ppl will "switch" now they are near. Ableton is here for too long.

There is an amazing Ableton community. Like i said before, even Usine didn't scratched Ableton omnipresence. I don't think Bitwig is going to do it...sadly.
I'm very bored ppl stick to the word "live" like an Ableton only feature. But it is...

That's where you see names are important. Search "live DAW" and you will see what i mean
Like ProTools. If they named it "FruityTools", they would have sold less...if you see what i mean

 

Bitwig has pretty high CPU usage, btw. I bounce between Studio One, Cubase, and Ableton. I'm very excited for Studio One 3, if they make it look a little less drab, it will become my DAW of choice. I think it really combines the best of Ableton and Cubase.

 

...still a bit weak...



Maybe 2.0 ? ...Maybe ???

 

That would depend on your definition of crucial. Bitwig certainly has a lot of features that Ableton doesn't, such as VST sandboxing, per note automation, tabbed project browsing, 32 and 64 bit plugin support, unified modulation system etc. It's these new and unique features that make me love Bitwig.

Although Ableton does a few things that Bitwig hasn't got yet. But they're improving it fast, so I'd imagine that it won't be too long before Bitwig has the features it currently lacks.

 

Yes but it hidden at the moment. May be realized at 2.0 ver.

Before buying other DAW better think twice what functions You lack with own one. Bitwig doesnt bring smth new to Live users. I also wondering, VSTs doesnt recognize .fxb files! No AU support! Zoom opposite to Live's one and not customizable!
If You want something new, to change Your workflow, try Reaper. Its amazing!

 

It's just me or the stretching algorhythm it's just bad?? Try before buy... I found the screen a little bit cluttered, tons of buttons and knobs, how people can work with it on 13' and 15' laptop screen??

At least as already said they are working hard with updates wich is a good thing, but as for Studio one 3 "this daw will be awesome" it's just a personal thought nothing more. There is some potential in it, people who regularly uses Ableton will feel a little bit at home with it. Daws nowadays have tons of features that users doesn't really know to have or use at all. If you are happy with Ableton and PDC isn't a problem for you there is no real reason to jump into bitwig boat (atleast for now). At bitwig headquarter they studied well Ableton and Studio One for sure wich is a good thing to have cool features from other daw.

 

should wait the 1.2 version (summer maybe) then demo it to death, yepp the community power (m4l) behind AL makes it superior over BWS currently, so devices like

J74 HarmoTools (realtime harmonization)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l9c7reHWmk

Comping tool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udhd-Rx0Qh8

etc. etc. are priceless ones

 

No it's not just you, the stretching could definitely use some improvement. I'd prefer it if they just licensed a better algorithm from one of the popular ones.

 

I'm on Cubase 8 and I love it. Tried bitwig, wasn't super impressed. Will wait for a later version.