The All In One Source Bitwig Information & Speculation Thread

[ZenPunkHippy]

I agree that claiming "none" was a bit OTT, but most of the examples so far have been from established companies, which is a bit different.

Bitwig is also a boxed product, so it has to be "release version" when it's sold in stores. No one in their right mind would walk in to Sam Ash / Guitar Centre / Your Local Gear Store and buy boxed beta software.

Basically public betas exist in the download only world, which KVR is a huge part of. It's generally not something that exists in the boxed retail world, but that's what we're dealing with here.

Also I agree that the hype is entirely user generated - it happens time and time again with new software releases. Does anyone remember DCAM: Synth Squad? That thread went on and on and on and on ...

Peace,
Andy.

[LawrenceF]

Agree that "None" as relates to public beta testing is obviously incorrect.

Reaper, FlStudio, and some other media apps do that obviously, but it's nowhere near close to being most. On the contrary, the vast majority of media apps obviously don't do that.

I think - at least partly - some public betas are used as a good marketing tool because if you get people highly involved for free with a time limited beta, get them "vested in the process", they'll maybe be more likely to buy it later. On the other hand, some private betas actually give you a full license as motivation to actually test, and not just demo, which obviously can't be done for the full public, giving everyone a license.

I mean, if you get into the Melodyne beta program they're essentially giving you something worth $500, Melodyne Editor, as financial consideration for testing. I would also assume some might filter those out who don't actually participate, those who just showed up for the free software and aren't giving any valuable feedback... which is why with major software you may have to re-apply for every major version, to keep the leechers out of the beta programs.

It's probably also the case, in general, not universally, that people who feel they're "involved" are less likely to complain about stuff because they feel like they're involved, feel like they have the ear of the company... so public betas likely reduce the number of gripers in general ... no matter what actually happens with the software.

Anyway, mmv as usual, I'm not personally convinced that media apps with public betas are more bug free than those who don't have that.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[LawrenceF]

Yeah, that comment seemed to be 100% pure sarcasm to me ... just missing a smiley to make it even more obvious.

We all know PT is the worst daw ever.

[dsan@mail.com]

.....We all know PT is the worst daw ever.

And Live, and Sonar, and Mulab, and Energy XT, and Tracktion, and Reaper, and....

Did I leave any out?

I'm sure someone will come along and add to the list of the world's most useless and worst DAW softwares.

Oh, and I'm serious too....no sarcasm at all here.....serious business....

See, no smilies.....

EDIT: Forgot one...Studio One
sheesh....

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[samsam]

If the BW devs get too glum about some of the negative comments they can cheer themselves up knowing that some Live users are switching.

https://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=203124

Mmmm, lucky BW forum.

[whyterabbyt]

We all know PT is the worst daw ever.

By at least 20-40%

[LawrenceF]

The biggest practical problem some will encounter with this product is the lack of multi-outputs.

While it's easy enough to run single instances of Kontakt or whatever on any decent modern system, and indeed, there are actually some practical benefits to working that way and I do work that way, not having multi-outs for expensive drum samplers is potentially a much, much bigger deal.

They probably need to sort that out as soon as possible, like... maybe at 1.2 or 1.3. It's only more a major deal if it's not very, very high on the short term todo list.

[dsan@mail.com]

The biggest practical problem some will encounter with this product is the lack of multi-outputs.

While it's easy enough to run single instances of Kontakt or whatever on any decent modern system, and indeed, there are actually some practical benefits to working that way and I do work that way, not having multi-outs for expensive drum samplers is potentially a much, much bigger deal.

They probably need to sort that out as soon as possible, like... maybe at 1.2 or 1.3. It's only more a major deal if it's not very, very high on the short term todo list.

I've gotten used to the lack of outs and dropping in extra instrument tracks; but it creates [at least] one other problem.

By adding all the tracks you end up doing a lot of clicking around. I find all this clicking is getting in the way of creativity.

And if naming conventions are nondescript it's easy to forget which Kontakt is which.

I'm hopeful they implement improved routing sooner than later.

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[LawrenceF]

I'm just the opposite with Kontakt and similar. I find that many DAW features in general, like freeze and similar, all work much better (or more as designed) when using single instances, and my workflow improves because I never have to search out a Kontakt module or worry about midi channel assignments or any of that stuff.

So that trade off, trading ram for a better general workflow with those instruments, is a pretty easy choice for me, mmv. Click a track, always only see it's instrument UI, not all 16 Kontakt instruments in one instance.

Not to mention it's literally impossible to directly drag/drop and replace a Kontakt module with another mfg's instrument, keeping all FX inline, but you can with a single instance.

But using drum samplers is quite another story.

[Robmobius]

The biggest practical problem some will encounter with this product is the lack of multi-outputs.

Yep, this is a biggie for me... Mainly because I use Geist for my drums. And I like to use my own separate channel FX and EQ.

However, I can use Bitwigs drum machine for that purpose. Or should I say, that I can EQ the drums in the container separately. So, that's fine for now, and it's nice getting used to how the drum Machine works, etc.

But I'd say we will be seeing multi outs pretty soon.

R.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I'm sure multi-out VST is top priority and will make it by 1.1. The two biggest things that would prevent people from buying are probably group tracks and multi-out VST. They've already said group tracks are just about done so you have to assume they'll focus on multi-outs. It's the sensible business thing to do.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed at first but only because I'm used to DAW development being a bit slow and if there are workflow issues, it's rare that they improve those little things before significant updates. So when I first started using Bitwig and was somewhat annoyed by some things, I assumed wrongly that much of it would stay that way for some time through the incremental bug fix updates. However they have shown that they are actively improving it at every step and as Dom said they don't distinguish so much between bug fixes and improvements. So I think that's great. They are doing an admirable job through the initial release to address issues and that makes me feel like any annoyances I feel have a good chance of being addressed.

[LawrenceF]

For sure. Nobody is (or more accurately, "very few" ) really still surprised by the lack of multi-outs. We've all - anyone interested - mostly known it wouldn't be there for months already. Not seeing it on the product page, no mention of it at all, as a feature, was the first clue. The beta guys saying it out loud was the second clue.

Never seeing any multiout instrument working that way in any Bitwig video ever, before the release, and at multiple trade shows, was the third clue.

But sure, adding it really soon would obviously be very good for anyone who bought it who actually owns and uses those kinds of drum instruments.

[Robmobius]

Yeah, the news is very positive from the Bitwig crew and they are really slamming out the updates.

[humanbeingbeing]

Multi outs would be great but lets not forget about midi routing, in terms of features, really apart from a few things, if those 3 big items were covered the app would be complete for my practical purposes... BTW I just bought Bitwig... I like the crash protection having a license, but I bought it because I'm super impressed with the Bitwig team and their updates, honestly, with all this negativity about bugs and such, I really think we can't expect much more from a software group, they seem to be really on the ball... I wasn't expecting the PDC fix so fast, but especially them updating the vst listings, that was great... now they've promised multi outs and other updates so I don't feel the investment is risky at all.