Is Bitwig dying?

[Tj Shredder]

The grid was supposed to be THE thing, but a search on you tube reveal only a handful of videos covering this. there is about one new video per month about Bitwig and most of them have only a couple hundred views. almost nothing on facbook too.

is bitwig painting itself in the corner by acting like a synth and pretending to be a daw?

The grid is THE thing...!
Beta users are just too busy with it (came out 3 days ago) and they use KVR as social media not Fakebook... (if they want to sell you shoes, they don’t bother you with posts about Bitwig 3 which you can’t buy yet...(sort of...))

[SLiC]

These silly attacks on Bitwig just show that a few people are publicly trying to convince theirselves that they haven’t back the wrong horse. Bitwig isn’t going to be for everyone (thank God) but for some of us is (as Yokai says) it is the future of electronic music and the logical evolution of products like Live and Cubase. It s simply a fact that no other DAW is evolvng as fast as BitWig and the future is very exciting for those of us who like to be creative and experimental with our music and enjoy the more leftfield vision of a small development team like Bitwig.

[DigitalDevil248]

Right now, it's definitely appealing to a more niche demographic but with each version, Bitwig is only getting better and attracting more people. Bitwig is slowly but surely gaining a core following of users. There will come a critical point when Bitwig finally releases some killer feature with mass appeal (maybe by v4/v5) and that's when I expect the flood of users.

[SLiC]

I sort of dread that day

[DigitalDevil248]

I'm betting that day will arrive when the online collaboration feature eventually drops. I can see that being very popular with younger producers whom make up the vast majority of DAW growth. If by then, Live and FL Studio haven't implemented it, Bitwig would potentially have a window of opportunity to pull in producers who are new/less invested in their current DAWs. Most long time users of other DAWs wouldn't care enough to switch.

Bitwig as a company doesn't care much for DAW popularity though and are more just building out their vision. It's more of a "build it and they will eventually come" mentality which I can respect.

[bolba]

This thread is dying

[billzero]

The fact that Bitwig is introducing The Grid is one thing. But I am more a sample based music maker, and I like bitwig for a lot of others things : I like the browser, the sampler is very good, the GUI is very nice, it is very stable thanks to the plugin sandboxing, you can open several project and copy things between them, etc. etc. The grid is not a major thing for me. And with or without The Grid, Bitwig IS a very good DAW, even for mixing or mastering.

[newtobitwig]

Isn't it a good thing less producers know about the new things? Some things are good when they are less mainstream.

[DigitalDevil248]

As long as they stick to their vision, I'm all for the Bitwig devs getting more financial support.

[Cyclomatic]

The Grid is a great feature, but I agree they really need to focus on the core DAW functionality and prioritize that. When using devices, I spend 98% of my time working with third party VSTs and 2% of my time working with Bitwig devices. The Grid may reduce that percentage a bit, but it'll still be very high. Bitwig will never be able to compete with plugin designers and audio engineers who have been developing amazing-sounding plugins for years or decades, and they shouldn't try to. They should focus on features, UI/UX, workflow improvements, and integrations.

I'm very hopeful for Bitwig's future and I see myself using it for a long, long time. It's the first DAW I've ever used, and I'm glad I made that choice. The UI seems to be a lot more intuitive and simple than all of its competitors. They just need to keep playing catch-up with the other big DAWs.

Isn't it a good thing less producers know about the new things? Some things are good when they are less mainstream.

Not really sure if that logic applies to a DAW, or other professional/creative software. But more importantly, it is a good thing more producers know about it, so that the Bitwig team can get more income and increase the rate of development.

[SLiC]

''They just need to keep playing catch-up with the other big DAWs.''

I just don't see this happening in terms of adding a lot of high end mixing and audio editing tools (although adding ARA2 and melodyne is an easy fix for the audio side) as the simple fact is DAWS exist already that were designed to do 'just' that and will probably be always better at that...Studio One, Cubase, Logic, Reaper et al will aloes keep adding new features and improving each year, so playing 'catch up' is never a good strategy for a new DAW, these guys have all had a 10 year head start!

I am not saying I don t want comping, more advanced midi/audio tools etc, but I think Bitwig have to find there own way, new ideas, new workflow and (as you have eluded to) keeping it all simple an accessible. I stopped using Cubase almost because it did too much, a little bit of everything...more and more stuff I didn't need being added as some small minority of users wanted it and it just got more and more cluttered and harder and harder to do the basic staff fast or even find stuff....its always a trade off.

[SpaceCadetOnLeave]

Isn't it a good thing less producers know about the new things? Some things are good when they are less mainstream.

Sadly for a lot of bitwig forum users (according to the bandcamps, soundcouds or the "share the track"s) that doesn't make a good producer.

But seriously, OP's concern imo, is certainly a legit concern, the 4 pro-posters inhere, + maybe 6 near pro-posters, almost hysterical in praise, act as if the grid is something new and as if they represent all of the bitwig users.
It's not new, it is a beautiful implementation of something here on earth for decades now and these permanent forum lodgers are no representation of the Bitwig user; they are in it for the toy, the possibilities, sounds, not for music.
For me the grid just seems like a VSTi (yeah yeah, beautiful made, blah and sh*t and I will check it out when it is out of beta, because my plan is still running), a VSTi like there are thousands, and I have already too much.
Next to the listener, you have 3 other kinds of people in this field, called music. The composer, the performer and the instrument builder.
Bitwig is only delivering to the last one, nowadays and it need the first 2 to survive, not only as a company but also as a credible DAW for composers and performers, to me the critical players in this game, not the preset builder trying to sell stuff to people who buy presets, if they still exist.

[x.iso]

When using devices, I spend 98% of my time working with third party VSTs and 2% of my time working with Bitwig devices. The Grid may reduce that percentage a bit, but it'll still be very high. Bitwig will never be able to compete with plugin designers and audio engineers who have been developing amazing-sounding plugins for years or decades, and they shouldn't try to.

For some FX stuff I would agree that native devices aren't enough, it's the same in every DAW. But you're seriously underestimating capabilities of Bitwig's instruments and Bitwig devs on making great tools for great sounding devices. Even effects have their own unique uses with things like nested device chains in feedback of reverb or delay. Since I moved to Bitwig, I stopped using VSTi and prioritized on exploring Bitwig's devices instead. Even without Grid you can get some amazing sounds using modulators and it's one of the reasons Bitwig appeals to me in first place.

[sisarii]

Isn't it a good thing less producers know about the new things? Some things are good when they are less mainstream.

Sadly for a lot of bitwig forum users (according to the bandcamps, soundcouds or the "share the track"s) that doesn't make a good producer.

But seriously, OP's concern imo, is certainly a legit concern, the 4 pro-posters inhere, + maybe 6 near pro-posters, almost hysterical in praise, act as if the grid is something new and as if they represent all of the bitwig users.
It's not new, it is a beautiful implementation of something here on earth for decades now and these permanent forum lodgers are no representation of the Bitwig user; they are in it for the toy, the possibilities, sounds, not for music.
For me the grid just seems like a VSTi (yeah yeah, beautiful made, blah and sh*t and I will check it out when it is out of beta, because my plan is still running), a VSTi like there are thousands, and I have already too much.
Next to the listener, you have 3 other kinds of people in this field, called music. The composer, the performer and the instrument builder.
Bitwig is only delivering to the last one, nowadays and it need the first 2 to survive, not only as a company but also as a credible DAW for composers and performers, to me the critical players in this game, not the preset builder trying to sell stuff to people who buy presets, if they still exist.

Man I agree 101% with you but send this post to bitwigs support as is1. I got so frustrated that I sent them something similar a while ago and they told me that they will FINALLY cater to composers after v3 release. Fingers crossed

[SLiC]

Bitwig is clearly NOT aimed at composers but there are so many good DAWS with full Notation for composters so why do we need another? Just use one that's already available (I personally use Studio One and Notation) and use Bitwig for what it is currently good for- no need to wait or wish your life away (if only it did X, Y or Z) use it for what it does or use something else.

This is what Bitwig say their DAW is for....

''Bitwig Studio is a dynamic software for creating and performing your musical ideas in the studio and on stage.
Super-fast workflow for sound design, recording, live performance, and beyond''

I think that's fair, I hope they stick to their plan and don't try and make it a generic DAW, we have enough of those in my opinion and it is not why I bought Bitwig or what I want development time spending on, so they will never please all users, but they can make it very obvious what direction they plan to take (and personally I think they have)