Bitwig offers 1.2 Beta for Bitwig Studio (+1.1.11 update released)

Bitwig has given Bitwig Studio license holders access to the latest beta version in anticipation of the official release in October 2015. The entire Bitwig community can now test the new features of version 1.2, Bitwig Studio's most significant update.

Key Features Of The Bitwig Studio 1.2 Beta:

• Group Tracks - When building up a Bitwig Studio project, the individual parts can get out of hand. In most cases, there comes a point when it's essential to get a handle on the mix in the most efficient way. Group Tracks is a tried and true way to quickly manage multiple parts of a mix at once. Tracks that have common mix or tonality settings can be set in groups to minimize large sections of a project.
• Pop-up Browser - To accelerate the browsing workflow, all devices in Bitwig Studio 1.2 feature the Pop-Up icon. This advanced browsing feature appears in a new window that uses Bitwig Studio's tagging system to eliminate the boundaries between devices. The result is a meta view of all available sounds in one category. Searching for the right bass? It doesn't matter if it's a Polysynth preset or a sample, you now have the freedom to audition all your content in place while playing on the fly. Use the Pop-Up Browser to find the right sound quickly and to get back to what is most important, making music.
• Histogram Display for Dynamic Devices - Several audio devices in Bitwig Studio 1.2 feature a new window into a visual environment illustrating the dynamics of sound over time. The Histogram Display makes use of scale, light, shade, and volume on an XY grid to visualize sounds. The result can be found on the Audio Mod, Compressor, Dynamics, LFO Mod, Peak Meter, Gate and Transient Control devices. The Histogram Display allows for quick analysis of device settings as they dynamically affect sound using animated graphic displays.
• Project Templates - Project Templates eliminate repetitive tasks by predefining the most commonly used project setups for the style of production you work with most often.
• Customizable Shortcuts - Extending on the freedom that exists throughout Bitwig Studio, customizable shortcuts are now available. Now it's easy to see the factory shortcuts available for anyone to change, and all the parameters to which can be freely assigned. The shortcuts feature is now available in the Bitwig Studio preferences.
• Per Project Mappings - Bitwig Studio makes every effort to eliminate the boundary between controllers and those who use them. This is immediately noticeable from community designed controller scripts or the newly enhanced MIDI mapping functionality. The depth of these mappings can get extremely detailed, and keeping track of their unique settings in each project is no small task. In the 1.2 update a new finger-pointing icon in the lower right of the project window. Pressing this icon reveals a new mapping panel. The mapping panel keeps track of any parameter mapped to a controller or computer keyboard and is completely editable.
• Expressive MIDI Support - In the past few years, multi-dimensional controllers have pushed the boundaries of MIDI, and created a gap between the degrees of freedom they are capable of and what DAWs and plug-ins were designed to utilize. Multi-dimensional controllers send gestural data that most software is not equipped to deal with, which limits the creative use of multi-dimensional controllers. By supporting this preliminary standard, Bitwig Studio 1.2 is among the first DAWs capable of capturing and utilizing the precise features of the most advanced MIDI controllers available on the market today.

The following additional features can be found in the Beta as well:

• Oscilloscope.
• Device Inspector.
• Delay-4.
• Expand Clip Height.
• High-DPI and Retina Display Support.
• Jack Support + Jack Transport.
• Poly to Mono Modulation Mappings.
• Pressure Note Expression.
• Roger Linn "LinnStrument" Support.
• Roli "Seaboard" Support.

The current version of Bitwig Studio has also been updated to v1.1.11.

Changes:

• Polysynth doesn't play the same sound when you want in repetition.
• Roland VSTs crash audio engine.
• Application might not start on OS X when a non-local URL is in the clipboard.
• Engine freeze when creating an audio track after loading a specific project.
• Wrong raw playback with activated arrangement loop.
• Connecting Arturia BeatStep Pro breaks listing of connected MIDI controllers on OS X.
• Open plugin GUIs don't disappear when deactivating the engine.
• Crash when loading MIDI file with tempo events.
• Writing automation for switch parameters such as the sustain pedal was resulting in ramps instead of straight edges.
• Tooltips would sometimes hang around on the screen when they shouldn't.
• Stopping the playback in the middle of a sustain-pedaled note playing creates hanging note.