[feature request] play overlaps

[antic604]

In my journey to use more audio in Bitwig, I found a feature - well, not just one but let me start here... - that I'm missing from Studio One: "play overlaps".

It's especially useful for editing drum loops, i.e. you want to copy a kick somewhere, but you don't want it to be pasted OVER an existing sound but rather MIXED with it. Obviously you can use another track for this, then group them and bounce the mix, but Studio One makes it really convenient:

(1st time without, 2nd - with)

[Dionysos]

Definitely. I feel like it'd even feel natural in Bitwig, since clips are just containers for events, and if it allowed multiple audio events to be played at the same time, that would make sense IMO. I suppose the devs would disagree

[antic604]

Definitely. I feel like it'd even feel natural in Bitwig, since clips are just containers for events, and if it allowed multiple audio events to be played at the same time, that would make sense IMO. I suppose the devs would disagree

In ideal world, since we have hybrid tracks, this should also work for MIDI and audio clips overlaping

Studio One doesn't do that, but at least - when you bounce MIDI to audio - you can still see the MIDI underneath and easily retrieve it back:

[astey]

I liked it in the first place and used it quite a bit (S1 & Tracktion) but then it gave me so much headache because of visibility and editing the right sample (masking each other)... those are reasons why I don't favour overlapping anymore.
However, Reaper got a great solution: it offers lanes for each track. Same result but clear visibility. You can layer audio & midi and edit all clips easily.

[pdxindy]

I liked it in the first place and used it quite a bit (S1 & Tracktion) but then it gave me so much headache because of visibility and editing the right sample (masking each other)... those are reasons why I don't favour overlapping anymore.
However, Reaper got a great solution: it offers lanes for each track. Same result but clear visibility. You can layer audio & midi and edit all clips easily.

Yeah... i'd rather not have overlapping...

I'd prefer the Reaper method... and lanes are needed for comping anyway.

[coolblinger]

I'm also not a huge fan of overlapping because as already mentioned it can get very confusing and cluttered very quickly, and it would be pretty easy to do it accidentally. I at least personally quite often rely on the fact that resizing one clip onto another one will cut off the second clip, and same when manually chopping audio by copying and moving parts around. If I do need 'overlap' then I'll use multiple audio tracks within a group, since Bitwig allows arbitrary nesting of groups. And of course if Bitwig ever gets takes (for comping) then it might also be possible to repurpose those for multiple lanes, but I don't see that as strictly necessary since we already have nested group tracks.

[antic604]

I'm also not a huge fan of overlapping because as already mentioned it can get very confusing and cluttered very quickly, and it would be pretty easy to do it accidentally. I at least personally quite often rely on the fact that resizing one clip onto another one will cut off the second clip, and same when manually chopping audio by copying and moving parts around. If I do need 'overlap' then I'll use multiple audio tracks within a group, since Bitwig allows arbitrary nesting of groups. And of course if Bitwig ever gets takes (for comping) then it might also be possible to repurpose those for multiple lanes, but I don't see that as strictly necessary since we already have nested group tracks.

But you can still have that in Studio One (+ ripple editing). It's just an option. I really don't get why people refuse to get an option, that they don't have to use it

What if mixing the item in was a modifier key you'd have to add just like you do for getting of the grid or duplicating instead of moving?

[pdxindy]

I'm also not a huge fan of overlapping because as already mentioned it can get very confusing and cluttered very quickly, and it would be pretty easy to do it accidentally. I at least personally quite often rely on the fact that resizing one clip onto another one will cut off the second clip, and same when manually chopping audio by copying and moving parts around. If I do need 'overlap' then I'll use multiple audio tracks within a group, since Bitwig allows arbitrary nesting of groups. And of course if Bitwig ever gets takes (for comping) then it might also be possible to repurpose those for multiple lanes, but I don't see that as strictly necessary since we already have nested group tracks.

But you can still have that in Studio One (+ ripple editing). It's just an option. I really don't get why people refuse to get an option, that they don't have to use it

What if mixing the item in was a modifier key you'd have to add just like you do for getting of the grid or duplicating instead of moving?

I don't want to see the developers 'waste' time on a feature I don't expect to use. I also imagine it is not trivial and would take lots of work.

And in general, I don't want Bitwig to become Reaper

[antic604]

I don't want to see the developers 'waste' time on a feature I don't expect to use. I also imagine it is not trivial and would take lots of work.

Sure, but I could say e.g. the same about 3.1 release or some stuff in 3.2 or 3.3

And in general, I don't want Bitwig to become Reaper

We're still far away from Studio One in terms of features & complexity and we'd have to go through Cubase next to only get close to Reaper. That's not something I'm bothered by in the slightest

[pdxindy]

I don't want to see the developers 'waste' time on a feature I don't expect to use. I also imagine it is not trivial and would take lots of work.

Sure, but I could say e.g. the same about 3.1 release or some stuff in 3.2 or 3.3

No point to try and save developer hours for already implemented stuff... those hours are already gone...

[Zacchino]

All those GIFs makes me realize there's a lot of improvement room for Bitwig's Clip Behaviors... And the Timeline / Editor as well, needless to say.

Really hoping for this big composer-update. 3.3.5 went in the right direction.

[pdxindy]

Really hoping for this big composer-update.

Some users made up that idea... others repeated it... now it is an urban legend.

[antic604]

I don't want to see the developers 'waste' time on a feature I don't expect to use. I also imagine it is not trivial and would take lots of work.

Sure, but I could say e.g. the same about 3.1 release or some stuff in 3.2 or 3.3

No point to try and save developer hours for already implemented stuff... those hours are already gone...

You're smarter than that.

[ozinga]

One great thing about Studio Ones ability to play overlapping events is when you use event efx, like delay on an event, the delay does not get cut when the next event starts

[antic604]

Recently playing with Operators on audio events I found another use for this - imagine you have a drum loop and would like a crash (that usually sounds for long) to only play on 1st of the 4 repeats. Obviously you can put it on a separate track, but I prefer to do as much as I can on a single track