Bitwig Studio 3 gets 10 out of 10 from MusicTech Review

[Tronam]

One of the big problems is that bitwig ask $170 for updates yearly

No they don't.

Props also ask 129€ pretty much yearly. And so does many more who release a "major" once a year.

Reason upgrades are usually 17-20 months apart, but include multiple free feature-updates inbetween. Reason 10 has been one of their longest cycles so far and will have been out 2 years this October. I like that they don't add cumulative upgrade costs over time, like the way Steinberg does it. If I skip a Reason upgrade and return later, the price will still be the same. For me to upgrade my Cubase Pro 9 to 10 it'll cost me $160 now.

Considering how many fantastic features the Bitwig team are rolling into their upgrades lately, they look worth paying for.

[Noumena]

I used Notator until Logic was introduced, never looked back. Bought Ableton Live v1.5 and used it w/ rewire until Live 3 came out and ditched Logic and never looked back. Used Live until the first time I tried Bitwig 2.5 and then ditched it and never looked back.

After using Bitwig for six months I can safely say that for the work I do it is second to none. Among a hundred exceptionally well implemented features I have to say that the MPE support is a miracle.

Don't knock it unless you tried it for a month. Not only have I not had a reason to boot up Live for six months, but the built ins and poly grid w/ the excellent mod system have effectively replaced most of my plugins. I used to have 200+ installed, now I have seven.

[BONES]

obviously if you have no interest in modular synths like Reaktor, VCV rack or BYOME then the Grid probably won’t be for you.

You don't really know much about me, do you? I have made more than 20 VSTi in SynthEdit, you can download many of the better ones from our website, I just don't want to be dealing with that while I am trying to sort out an arrangement or finalise a mix. i.e. A DAW is not the place where I want to be doing that stuff, it makes less than no sense to me to build it into a host/sequencer like Bitwig. It would be like including a Photoshop type application into Cubase so I could work on the cover art while I mix our next album.

There are better linear DAWs, but if you want MPE, CV, clips and the best modulation system Available, Bitwig is still the best choice even without the Grid. I also have BWS on a MS tablet running in ‘tablet mode’ for me that is the ultimate mobile solution.

Yeah, nah. I can get all of that in Cubase, except maybe the CV stuff (but it's not 1980 so I'm OK with that) with a much, much slicker workflow. I worked with Bitwig for about three months and got less done than I did in the first three weeks I was working with Cubase. Working in a loop-friendly manner in Cubase is at least as easy as it is in Bitwig (but neither can hold a candle to Orion in that department).

[gentleclockdivider]

Hmm let's not compare the grid to reaktor , the latter has some real low level modules ( core ), and in the grid you are dependent on the developers for adding new filter /osc models
You could compare it reaktor blocks in poly mode .
That being said , been playing with the demo for the last 24 hours and it's pretty great , I think it's the closest thing to my nord modular g1 when it comes to the selection of high level modules , a combined vca envelope etc..little things that make patching easier .

@ bones , I wasn't too impressed either with bitwig included instruments ( except for phase 4 ) , but the grid is really something else .
Even the filters sounds juicy

[SLiC]

obviously if you have no interest in modular synths like Reaktor, VCV rack or BYOME then the Grid probably won’t be for you.

You don't really know much about me, do you? I have made more than 20 VSTi in SynthEdit, you can download many of the better ones from our website, I just don't want to be dealing with that while I am trying to sort out an arrangement or finalise a mix. i.e. A DAW is not the place where I want to be doing that stuff, it makes less than no sense to me to build it into a host/sequencer like Bitwig. It would be like including a Photoshop type application into Cubase so I could work on the cover art while I mix our next album.

There are better linear DAWs, but if you want MPE, CV, clips and the best modulation system Available, Bitwig is still the best choice even without the Grid. I also have BWS on a MS tablet running in ‘tablet mode’ for me that is the ultimate mobile solution.

Yeah, nah. I can get all of that in Cubase, except maybe the CV stuff (but it's not 1980 so I'm OK with that) with a much, much slicker workflow. I worked with Bitwig for about three months and got less done than I did in the first three weeks I was working with Cubase. Working in a loop-friendly manner in Cubase is at least as easy as it is in Bitwig (but neither can hold a candle to Orion in that department).

You are not 'dealing with' the grid, you just load it in the rack if you want it. There are a lot of advantages in to having the modular environment (and modulation system) integrated in to the DAW, particular when interacting with Midi and CV stuff, but that of course doesn't mean that any of that will be of interest to you, but a lot of people did like MAX + LIVE and this is in my opinion a far better integration and much easier to use.

Its all personal preference and whatever fits your workflow. I wind BWS the most intuitive and interesting DAW to work with if I am not sequencing live instruments. I also have Cubase 10 (just because I have been with it since Pro24 days) but realy don't like it much anymore, I find it to cluttered and over complicated for my humble needs....I was a Cubase + Live guy, now I can get 80% of what I do done on just Bitwig (an the rest in Studio One)

[jonljacobi]

I like Bitwig, and the Grid seems to be quite popular with some, but the program is full of gotchas. Gotchas being little things you thought just had to be there, or work simply, or work as expected and don’t.

Very creative devs, but they keep adding rooms to the house without fixing the issues in the basement. Or maybe I should say the first floor.

[teilo]

It's not the same, especially in view of CPU management and track management. In Reaper: put several tracks in a folder, freeze folder. All instruments and effects on those tracks are offloaded, while remaining available - exactly as they are - for further editing. You can now add more tracks without maxing out your CPU - all the while keeping tracks organized.

In Bitwig - do what and manage how? Does it have track folders in the first place? Does bounce offload your plugins to save CPU? How do you go back and forth between the midi and the bounced files? How do you manage that, so it doesn't become a mess of rendered files?

I'm not saying the experimental side is 'bad', just some basic things are still missing.

It pretty much is the same thing. Use groups (i.e., folders). Yes you can create sub-groups. Select the clips in the group (they are shadowed in the group track), not in the subtracks, and bounce in place. The group track gets the bounce, and a bounced clips in the group track automatically mutes the corresponding clips in the subtracks. To save CPU, select the subtracks and Alt-A them to deactivate them. Collapse the group. Everything stays neatly organized. Subtracks stay intact, and don't use CPU when deactivated.

[teilo]

Blech! The last thing I want in my DAW is SynthEdit. Makes me feel good about selling my Bitwig license last year, especially if the sound quality of the bundled instruments in v2.x are anything to go by.

And why should any of us care? Seriously. Why are you in this thread? Are you looking for validation?

[pdxindy]

I like Bitwig, and the Grid seems to be quite popular with some, but the program is full of gotchas. Gotchas being little things you thought just had to be there, or work simply, or work as expected and don’t.

Very creative devs, but they keep adding rooms to the house without fixing the issues in the basement. Or maybe I should say the first floor.

You make it sounds like they have done nothing in that regard. They have steadily added and improved on the basics... while also adding new rooms

[nostalgic]

You're such a hater don't you?... do I have seen you somewhere? your account is very recent and you hate (personally?) FL studio... I don't know...

There's a lot of people that don't use FL Studio or Live anymore and have moved over to Bitwig for varies reasons. I could name some of the reasons, but this is a Bitwig thread so let's save everyone the headache. We don't want another circus thread like the other two DAWs seem to create every time.

Bitwig is just a well designed, from the ground up, piece of software that is both form and function. It has to be the leading software for innovation and technical advancement too, along with the best GUI around. Every DAW borrows ideas from each other, Bitwig just brings them to another level and it makes a lot of people envies and jealous.

That might be why you're in this thread and you have no interest in Bitwig, whatsoever. There's no reason to hate on Bitwig, it never did anything to you. If you don't like it, that's fine, but we all love it. So try to move on, there's no need for childish trolling here.

[Trancit]

There's a lot of people that don't use FL Studio or Live anymore and have moved over to Bitwig for varies reasons. I could name some of the reasons, but this is a Bitwig thread so let's save everyone the headache. We don't want another circus thread like the other two DAWs seem to create every time.

Bitwig is just a well designed, from the ground up, piece of software that is both form and function. It has to be the leading software for innovation and technical advancement too, along with the best GUI around. Every DAW borrows ideas from each other, Bitwig just brings them to another level and it makes a lot of people envies and jealous.

That might be why you're in this thread and you have no interest in Bitwig, whatsoever. There's no reason to hate on Bitwig, it never did anything to you. If you don't like it, that's fine, but we all love it. So try to move on, there's no need for childish trolling here.

I like Bitwig but I turned back to FLS for good reasons...
It´s not that Bitwig is the almighty superduper DAW and perhaps you should stop with this godlike self-congratulation... even in a Bitwig thread, it´s a tad too much...

At the very end it´s just a DAW with as many cons as pros like every single other DAW and for sure no other DAW developer is somehow frightened by Bitwig´s (non-existend) success to rule the world... as it is still like linux in the OS world... 99.9% of all users use something else...

This is nothing against Bitwig, the "normal" community... but what this guys blows out here is just laughable

[JunSev]

You're such a hater don't you?... do I have seen you somewhere? your account is very recent and you hate (personally?) FL studio... I don't know...

There's a lot of people that don't use FL Studio or Live anymore and have moved over to Bitwig for varies reasons. I could name some of the reasons, but this is a Bitwig thread so let's save everyone the headache. We don't want another circus thread like the other two DAWs seem to create every time.

Bitwig is just a well designed, from the ground up, piece of software that is both form and function. It has to be the leading software for innovation and technical advancement too, along with the best GUI around. Every DAW borrows ideas from each other, Bitwig just brings them to another level and it makes a lot of people envies and jealous.

That might be why you're in this thread and you have no interest in Bitwig, whatsoever. There's no reason to hate on Bitwig, it never did anything to you. If you don't like it, that's fine, but we all love it. So try to move on, there's no need for childish trolling here.

Don't cherry pick things, please. And of course you're hater and you really are one of those disgusting bitwig user (not all of them are like that) that needs to diminish and discredit others DAW in order to put bitwig up, hypocrite. That's why I had to come all of a sudden. No one is jealous, recently some people was trying to derail the thread in FL studio 20.5 and has been not the only time, was actually a hater and others. Is safe to say, that really looks like some of those were jealous and pretty dirty move trying to throw shades in a Free Life Time upgrade release. But yeah sure I'm a hater...

^^^^^
+1

Yes, function, features and work flow over popularity with children any day.

In addition, there is not "best daw", I know of others that can do things bitwig simply can't compete and the same I could say about bitwig being unique too with some features others daws don't have or can't do. So all of that is subjective.

Could it be because Bitwig is only on version 3 and some DAWs are on version 20 and still can't get it right?

Who cares. All anyone needs to know is Image Line is on KVR posting a graph like this bickering with trolls meanwhile Bitwig is pumping out kick @ss updates

So true. The Bitwig staff has way too much class to stoop to that level. They need to keep their energy and focus on improving the product while listening to their customers' feedback constructively.

This is only speculation. But I believe there was too much Image-Line mentality over at Ableton before they departed, which makes a lot of sense. Who wants to stick around a company with so much internal drama that spills over to their customer base.

The Bitwig team must be doing something right, if all these Ableton and Fruityloops fanbois feel so threatened by it.

[nostalgic]

I like Bitwig but I turned back to FLS for good reasons...
It´s not that Bitwig is the almighty superduper DAW and perhaps you should stop with this godlike self-congratulation... even in a Bitwig thread, it´s a tad too much...

At the very end it´s just a DAW with as many cons as pros like every single other DAW and for sure no other DAW developer is somehow frightened by Bitwig´s (non-existend) success to rule the world... as it is still like linux in the OS world... 99.9% of all users use something else...

This is nothing against Bitwig, the "normal" community... but what this guys blows out here is just laughable

It always seems like Fruityloops users have a chip on their shoulders and need validation or something. It sounds like a lack of confidence in their DAW. If their DAW is that great, it should speak for itself. It just feels like they need to raid every thread and proclaim that they are on equal footing. I'm not sure where this ideology stems from, maybe it's a trickle down effect.

Anyways, back to Bitwig...(please)

[Hink]

^^^I think that's a great idea

[tooneba]

DAW cult is on its highest in every BW thread! It's interesting to read their essays though.