Bitwig 2.5 beta is out!

[newtobitwig]

What is MIDI Drums? A MIDI is a MIDI. It's a group of notes.Please explain more.I might be getting something wrong.

I assume you can save the 'Clip' containing the MIDI,which also saves the instrument afair.

[Trancit]

What is MIDI Drums? A MIDI is a MIDI. It's a group of notes.Please explain more.I might be getting something wrong.

I assume you can save the 'Clip' containing the MIDI,which also saves the instrument afair.

MIDI drums is a midi file, which is intended to play i.e. GM drums...

And if you preview this in Bitwigs browser, it plays all the "drum hits" through an already silly sounding tone generator... try it... you´ll find out, that this sounds really awful...

About your assuming: yes of course you can save every midi file as a clip with the correct drums contained... if you got a few thousands of them, it takes only 1-2 years to convert them...

A much smarter way (even a cheap prog like Mulab got this) would be to allow the user for midi files to preview the clip through the selected track... no need to convert anything and it makes sense as you want to hear this clip playing THIS drumkit

[Proken]

One of the things that annoys me about BWS is that when I preview MIDI in the browser, instead of going to the highlighted track, it goes to a simple tone generator. This means that the browser is of no use when attempting to audition MIDI drums.

This beta is supposed to have made improvements in the browser, as well as other bug fixes. Does 2.5 fix this bug?

Depends on that though, if you save a MIDI file as a clip, it will play back with the instruments used on that clip if you play it from the browser later on. If you don't do that and you play a MIDI file, then yes it uses a sort of sine wave from Polysynth. But who cares about that, you can at least preview it with some sound. Not every DAW has this function (i think)

[coolblinger]

Does anyone know how to report issues with the new beta? I sent an email to beta@bitwig.com from a regular Gmail address (the same address I use for my account) but my mail got bounced:

Your email to group beta@bitwig.com was rejected due to spam classification. The owner of the group can choose to enable message moderation instead of bouncing these emails. More information can be found here: https://support.google.com/a/answer/168383.

[Hanz Meyzer]

I am missing a detailed undo action status text or a highlighting/focusing of the undo'ed gui element. It seems to me kind of confusing what undo action is done or how many undos I have to do, esp. if you made minor (multiple) changes and multiple knobs or even multiple devices.

Or is this already in 2.5 beta?

[Enrize]

Some cool new shortcuts:

Expands all subfolders of current folder in the browser
- Toggle children expanded state
- Toggle expanded state
- Toggle siblings expanded state

Also some shortcuts for working with track groups.
- Fold/unfold All Group Tracks
- Fold/unfold Top Level Group Tracks

[xbitz]

+ Toggle Existing Automation Shown For All / Selected Track

it's alone worth a new version number thank you

[mumpcake]

One of the things that annoys me about BWS is that when I preview MIDI in the browser, instead of going to the highlighted track, it goes to a simple tone generator. This means that the browser is of no use when attempting to audition MIDI drums.

This beta is supposed to have made improvements in the browser, as well as other bug fixes. Does 2.5 fix this bug?

Depends on that though, if you save a MIDI file as a clip, it will play back with the instruments used on that clip if you play it from the browser later on. If you don't do that and you play a MIDI file, then yes it uses a sort of sine wave from Polysynth. But who cares about that, you can at least preview it with some sound. Not every DAW has this function (i think)

Perhaps you didn't read the post immediately above yours.

About your assuming: yes of course you can save every midi file as a clip with the correct drums contained... if you got a few thousands of them, it takes only 1-2 years to convert them...

A much smarter way (even a cheap prog like Mulab got this) would be to allow the user for midi files to preview the clip through the selected track... no need to convert anything and it makes sense as you want to hear this clip playing THIS drumkit

If anyone doesn't understand that the suggestion to convert MIDI files into BWS clips is painfully inefficient and a horrible imposition on the end user, I don't know what more can be said.

[Yokai]

One of the things that annoys me about BWS is that when I preview MIDI in the browser, instead of going to the highlighted track, it goes to a simple tone generator. This means that the browser is of no use when attempting to audition MIDI drums.

This beta is supposed to have made improvements in the browser, as well as other bug fixes. Does 2.5 fix this bug?

Depends on that though, if you save a MIDI file as a clip, it will play back with the instruments used on that clip if you play it from the browser later on. If you don't do that and you play a MIDI file, then yes it uses a sort of sine wave from Polysynth. But who cares about that, you can at least preview it with some sound. Not every DAW has this function (i think)

Perhaps you didn't read the post immediately above yours.

About your assuming: yes of course you can save every midi file as a clip with the correct drums contained... if you got a few thousands of them, it takes only 1-2 years to convert them...

A much smarter way (even a cheap prog like Mulab got this) would be to allow the user for midi files to preview the clip through the selected track... no need to convert anything and it makes sense as you want to hear this clip playing THIS drumkit

If anyone doesn't understand that the suggestion to convert MIDI files into BWS clips is painfully inefficient and a horrible imposition on the end user, I don't know what more can be said.

You're right, of course, on one level. But the problem with drum MIDI clips is that they can come from many disparate user-created "drum racks" from various DAWs or from various plugin makers, such as Atlas or DrumLab or Battery or Nerve, etc. etc. So you can never predict where the kick, snare, hats, shakers, toms, crashes, etc. should be in the kit. Almost no one is going to have a library of General MIDI drum files.

The potential solution of auditioning MIDI through the sound generator on the currently selected track is also dicey because what if you have an audio track selected? Or what if it's a track with a drum machine or other drum-centric plugin, but your MIDI clip is a chord progression?

Either way, there's no one good all-around answer to the problem. So I kinda doubt Bitwig devs feel any need to prioritize something like this over other issues.

For myself, I get around the problem by having "Atlas" (by Algonaut) on one track, ready to go, in my default project template. If I need to audition drum MIDI files, I just drag them into the Atlas track and pick a random kit or two and see what's what. Atlas makes it easy to drag drum pads around to swap them, so if a kick or snare or whatever is in the "wrong" place in the MIDI clip, it's just a few drags to get get Atlas playing the clip more or less correctly.

[mumpcake]

You're right, of course, on one level. But the problem with drum MIDI clips is that they can come from many disparate user-created "drum racks" from various DAWs or from various plugin makers, such as Atlas or DrumLab or Battery or Nerve, etc. etc. So you can never predict where the kick, snare, hats, shakers, toms, crashes, etc. should be in the kit. Almost no one is going to have a library of General MIDI drum files.

I do have a bunch of GM drum files. Also, while there are certain issues, such as not knowing whether the snare is on 38 or 40, most of my drum programs are capable of MIDI mapping.

The potential solution of auditioning MIDI through the sound generator on the currently selected track is also dicey because what if you have an audio track selected? Or what if it's a track with a drum machine or other drum-centric plugin, but your MIDI clip is a chord progression?

Then I click on the track I want it to preview on. Not really a problem.

For myself, I get around the problem by having "Atlas" (by Algonaut) on one track, ready to go, in my default project template. If I need to audition drum MIDI files, I just drag them into the Atlas track and pick a random kit or two and see what's what. Atlas makes it easy to drag drum pads around to swap them, so if a kick or snare or whatever is in the "wrong" place in the MIDI clip, it's just a few drags to get get Atlas playing the clip more or less correctly.

I'll have to check that out one of these days.

[Hez]

Anybody having trouble reloading projects created with beta 2? A few of the projects I've started with beta 2 become unopenable at some point, even if every single track and plugin is removed from the project. The "loading plugins" window comes up then the audio engine immediately crashes.

I have a feeling its related to controllers as unplugging them all makes it crash a tiny bit slower, but not 100% sure.

I've also noticed that VST3 plugins don't load their "save as default preset" state correctly, and I've had a couple of other issues with plugins losing their name and just showing a blank VST container, but not sure if these were present before as I haven't used VST3 much in the past.

[Q-man]

....

[Enrize]

Anybody having trouble reloading projects created with beta 2? A few of the projects I've started with beta 2 become unopenable at some point, even if every single track and plugin is removed from the project. The "loading plugins" window comes up then the audio engine immediately crashes.

I have a feeling its related to controllers as unplugging them all makes it crash a tiny bit slower, but not 100% sure.

I've also noticed that VST3 plugins don't load their "save as default preset" state correctly, and I've had a couple of other issues with plugins losing their name and just showing a blank VST container, but not sure if these were present before as I haven't used VST3 much in the past.

Yes, i reported it to Bitwig team a week ago.

Its related to cache files. If you delete all files from folders “index”, “temp-projects”, “undo-history”, “view-settings” you can open crashed projects again.

I suggest you also report this issue to Bitwig, so they can prioritise this issue as a matter of the utmost urgency.

[Hez]

Cool, cheers. I reported it yesterday morning and sent a few follow up emails with other projects exhibiting the same issue, but hopefully they've got a handle on the cause already.

[JHernandez]

On my system just using the Organ instrument crashes the audio engine. Also, opening Bitwig from a project file saved in the beta does all kinds of wacky stuff, (even with nothing in it) I have to force quit it. I had a back-and-forth, sent them a video, but haven't heard back since. Actually, I should check now.