Bit Wig have started Beta Testing today (Link) June 19th

[danboid]

Linux has already got a few quality commercial music apps (see Mixbus, LinuxDSP, pianoteq, EnergyXT, Loomer plugins etc.) but Bitwig will be the first time that a potentially major player in this market with buckets of hype and excitement releases their debut product for Linux at the same time as the Windows and OSX versions. For that alone, Bitwig will be Big News!

2012 should also see Valve start releasing their games for Linux, EA are taking interest in the penguin platform and the pro NLE Lightworks is also about to be unleased for the leading open source OS. For these reasons alone this year is shaping up to be breakthrough year for Linux and Windows 8 is only going to encourage more people to give Linux a go.

I'm hoping Linux Bitwig will encourage more devs to port their plugins to Linux - LV2 preferably but native Linux VST would be better than nothing.

[ChiTown24]

I know muscians are imagnative but you guys need a reality check

+1

though to amend my own speculation on dom changing ships and what it means for live 9 & bitwig;; maybe it means live 9 is close due to dom committing to stay for the duration of the live8 cycle, or maybe not. but it definitely means bitwig studio is close. be it the beta cycle or the actual release, you dont hire a high grade support guy for shits n giggles.

[GeorgeZ]

From the BW facebook page:

"We know you're all burning to find out more about Bitwig Studio, and we're very pleased to finally start sending out the first beta invites.

Along with the beta, we're releasing a series of screen capture videos showing various features and explaining functions in the software. We hope we can satisfy a bit of the curiosity of those of you who can't take part in the first testing round.

This first video shows Bitwig Studio in action playing the beta demo song that our sound designer, Genys, just completed. Check out the video to see what awaits you when you open the application for the first time. Enjoy!"

http://www.facebook.com/bitwig

BETA YT VID:

[sabiwa]

What an underwhelming breeze...I guess It must be a tough decision to select a demo song which covers all the bases...

[ChiTown24]

From the BW facebook page:

"We know you're all burning to find out more about Bitwig Studio, and we're very pleased to finally start sending out the first beta invites.

Along with the beta, we're releasing a series of screen capture videos showing various features and explaining functions in the software. We hope we can satisfy a bit of the curiosity of those of you who can't take part in the first testing round.

This first video shows Bitwig Studio in action playing the beta demo song that our sound designer, Genys, just completed. Check out the video to see what awaits you when you open the application for the first time. Enjoy!"

http://www.facebook.com/bitwig

BETA YT VID:

awesome
thanks for the update!

[ChiTown24]

What an underwhelming breeze...I guess It must be a tough decision to select a demo song which covers all the bases...

meh, i could care less about the demo song
from what little we seen of the midi editing its already a vast improvement over live {multiple instruments/channels in the same lane that can be easily hidden and highlighted}
was also interested in how the channel strip seems to work, listing the synths/fx in each channel {and even allowing you to edit the order they fx are in} without having to highlight/select the channel first like in live. so you can see whats going on in each channel, at a glance, within the session view. big improvement.

also nice to see other parts of the channel strip like the re-sizable meters going as big as nearly full screen. awesome.

will check it out a few more times im sure i missed some other nuances

[luxgud]

Just watched the video - at least we now know its not vapourware

Looks good .. saddened that we may have no more cats from now

[Bronto Scorpio]

Looks really nice so far
The screen layout seems to be really flexible

Cheers
Dennis

[kmonkey]

Looks cool. Really like a Ableton copy on steroids. Pretty similar.

Who cares about demo song which was probably composed in one day

It's good to know that it's coming.

I am expecting to see some Live9 soon

[dalor]

NICE! Very clean. Very organised. The FX channel looks very much like Renoise DSP channel. Didn't expect anything less from Claes.

[oneummon]

Who cares about demo song which was probably composed in one day

It doesn't hurt to make a flashy intro video - or does it?

Properly made demo song might be a put off for the host hobbyist. "I can do this too!" attitude probaby sells more wigs in the end.

[JD Gaffe]

So has anyone gotten an invite yet then? heh.

I'm just waiting to come home after work to day to find that they went out, I didn't get one, and I will go back under my blankets weeping myself to sleep until.. another day.

[liquidsound]

Just give me the PayPal link!

[VariKusBrainZ]

and i have seen gui copying before, but this is practically plagiarism.

Have you taken a look at Cubase, Sonar and Presonus One these days?
They all look identical to me

[sockofgold]

I have to admit I am really excited about this. I am a big fan of Live, but Ableton really drags their feet when it comes to improving the actual DAW, and instead just focuses on adding more and more third-party instruments and effects--not to mention their pricing model is absurd.

I am hoping the fact that this is basically a blatant Live clone will either make it a suitable replacement for Live, or maybe even just give Ableton a wake-up call to the fact that they need to get their shit together and get to work on improving Live now that they have some direct competition.

Either way, looks good so far. I hope they make the piano roll detachable, though. I hate using the little dock window for MIDI editing...


@danboid: regarding Linux, you forgot to mention that the next version of the Unity game engine is going to directly support Linux as well. That is another really big win for Linux.