Bitwig Studio 3 gets 10 out of 10 from MusicTech Review

[SLiC]

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

Why is my opinion worth any less than yours? I owned a boxed copy of Bitwig for a year or so, my experience of it is at least as valid as anyone else's. It was on the back of nobody having anything bad to say about it that I bought it in the first place. I wish someone had been little more forthcoming about the poor quality of the included instruments and effects and the dicky workflow, it would have saved me a lot of time and a bit of money. My initial experience was OK, which is why I upgraded from the free version, but the more I needed to get into it, the less impressed I was.

Why would anyone buy an instrument based on what ‘other people’ think of the sound when there is a full demo that lets you hear and try before you buy?

Glad Cubase is working for you, I have been using it for 15 years, I find Bitwig far more interesting currently, but I only do this for fun, I use what puts a smile on my face, and that isn’t Cubase anymore.

[reggie1979]

The forums confuse me.

TBH, I don't care for all this modular gook. Frankly, the examples I've heard don't sound particularly exciting or unique.

But if it works for you? Fabulous. Most hosts are pretty stable these days, so it's mostly about what works for you.

[Noumena]

here's an example of why I would say that this is an excellent DAW:

here is a user-created Grid FX based preset that emulates a tape deck:

preset.jpg

notice the macro controls (to the left) and the modulators (in the middle) these controls are able to control things within the grid patch:

grid.jpg

and parameters for the pre-fx:

pre fx.jpg

and the post-fx:

post fx.jpg

modulators can be knobs, LFOs, envelopes and many other things. Macros and modulators can have a one-to-many mapping, mappings can be run through other modulators for scaling or combination (with math operators, even) with other macro or mod settings.

In this way you can build patches and presets that don't just have the potential to, say, emulate a cassette deck, but that have their controls very finely tuned to do this just the way you want to, and then you can save this as a preset, which saves pre-fx, grid patch, post fx, all the mappings, etc, in one file. You can set the preset up to hide or show any complexity you want.

Now think of this power in the context of an MPE controlled instrument. Your MPE parameter curves can be very finely tuned, in the preset, in a way just not possible anywhere else right now, along with other modulators, macro controls, etc, all configurable to such a level of detail that it is pretty crazy, and that whole shebang can be saved and reused, revised, checked into GitHub, whatever you want.

Now I know that you might say "ableton can do the same thing," and that is kind of true, but with the note receiver and audio receiver modules, fx layers, the grid, the insert slots in a lot of plugins for inserting additional effects or grid instances (as in the feedback loop of the delay) plus the mapping, and the way this can create complex, self contained patches that can be viewed and edited in an easy, clear and sane way, plus the full MPE support, deeper than pretty much anything out there... plus the poly grid providing a true polyphonic modular environment with a seriously mature initial implementation and more on the way... there's a lot to be excited about and I think a fair amount that we've not seen before on offer here -- and a lot that has been on offer better integrated here than I've seen elsewhere.

[dellboy]

The forums confuse me.

TBH, I don't care for all this modular gook. Frankly, the examples I've heard don't sound particularly exciting or unique.

But if it works for you? Fabulous. Most hosts are pretty stable these days, so it's mostly about what works for you.

I agree about the overhype of this whole grid thingy. As far as I can see Its only relevant to a certain type of music that relies on twiddling knobs in real time. I played with it for an hour or so yesterday, and joined modules and cables. It was fun for a while, but the sounds I got were ok-ish but nothing special. It would help if there were some ready made presets that can demostrate what the grid can do.

Is it polyphonic or monophonic ? How do you switch on the polyphony ? Add more oscillators or what ?

[pdxindy]

The forums confuse me.

TBH, I don't care for all this modular gook. Frankly, the examples I've heard don't sound particularly exciting or unique.

But if it works for you? Fabulous. Most hosts are pretty stable these days, so it's mostly about what works for you.

I agree about the overhype of this whole grid thingy. As far as I can see Its only relevant to a certain type of music that relies on twiddling knobs in real time. I played with it for an hour or so yesterday, and joined modules and cables. It was fun for a while, but the sounds I got were ok-ish but nothing special. It would help if there were some ready made presets that can demostrate what the grid can do.

Is it polyphonic or monophonic ? How do you switch on the polyphony ? Add more oscillators or what ?

The Grid is not specific to a type of music... and there is no need to twiddle knobs in realtime... you can use it in many ways.

There are also a bunch of included presets so you can see how those examples are constructed.

It is polyphonic (or mono if you wish). To set the number of voices, select the Poly Grid device and look in the inspector. There is no need for additional wiring. If you build a mono preset and then decide you want a polyphony of 24, just set the number of voices to 24.

In the inspector is also the voice stacking option as well. You can stack up to 5 voices and there is a voice spread modulator right there so you can spread the stacked voices for any parameters. If you want to control parameters of specific voices, you can do that with the voice stack modulator. So if you stack 5 voices but want voice 3 to be an octave up, different cutoff or osc phase, you can do that.

[Noumena]

there are a lot (hundreds) of grid and grid-fx presets with the bitwig distribution. you may have to update your packages (I was prompted at start.) The tape-sim I showed above is included. I would look specifically for the presets made by Polarity for some very good examples of both instruments and effects. I think that we're just seeing the beginning of where the grid platform will go... Polarity's work proves that.

The Grid is polyphonic: click on a grid device and look at the information pane. There you can set # of voices and unison voice mapping and some other handy stuff. In addition to being polyphonic there is a modulator available to use in a polyphonic patch that references the voice number. Useful for setting up detunes for unison voices or making your granular synth have sample offsets for every voice, etc. You can make fx patches polyphonic too and use the offset modulators there as well... that works well for a chorus patch -- just make it 6 voices and set some offsets and now its *thick.*

So far with the grid I've built a granular synth that (to my ears) sounds a lot better than anything that I've ever used (granulizer, granite, borderlands) and that I set up very custom MPE curves for to work with my Roli, and I made an effect that emulates some of the features of my (beloved, but dead) Sherman Filterbank, specifically the harmonic linking of two filters in series and the AM features. Both of these projects took very little time. there are a lot of tutorials, for instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq1AhDz ... e=youtu.be

it feels like a GAS antidote, also, and I really like that.

[reggie1979]

Again, if that is what tickles your fancy, BRILLIANT! There's nothing wrong with it.

[Noumena]

THANKS DAD

[dellboy]

The Grid is not specific to a type of music... and there is no need to twiddle knobs in realtime... you can use it in many ways.

There are also a bunch of included presets so you can see how those examples are constructed.

It is polyphonic (or mono if you wish). To set the number of voices, select the Poly Grid device and look in the inspector. There is no need for additional wiring. If you build a mono preset and then decide you want a polyphony of 24, just set the number of voices to 24.

In the inspector is also the voice stacking option as well. You can stack up to 5 voices and there is a voice spread modulator right there so you can spread the stacked voices for any parameters. If you want to control parameters of specific voices, you can do that with the voice stack modulator. So if you stack 5 voices but want voice 3 to be an octave up, different cutoff or osc phase, you can do that.

Thanks ! I just made a piano.

Still can't find the presets.

[reggie1979]

THANKS DAD

You're welcome, son. Daddy's proud of his boy.

[EnGee]

It worked great also with my 9 years old laptop (with Win 10)

The only missing thing is to preview midi files with my chosen instruments. I need this for the Rock, Funk and other styles that I already have patterns for it. Anyway, I might end using Reaper side by side for this task and switching back and forth between the two DAWs.

Regarding the quality of the modular Grid sound, I found it high quality. A noticeable upgrade from the previous synths (except maybe Phase). The more I use it, the more I love it

Nothing is perfect, so instead of keep changing the choices, it might be better to live with it and concentrate on the positive side, which is big side with Bitwig

[nostalgic]

Not only is Bitwig great, but the Bitwig team is top notch. You can expect bigger and better things with them, as they take everything that's been done before and elevate it. They are only on version 3 and all the other players are now playing catchup. It's a well designed work flow from the ground up, instead of bolting on pieces from 3rd parties. It's easy to have confidence in a team like that, everything done in house.

I hate to say it, but it's what Reason should be, FL Studio can't be, and Ableton wishes it was.

[tooneba]

Yeah most people can't plagiarize other product. Or shouldn't.

[reggie1979]

I remember that argument. Fake news.

I find it ironic that someone who doesn't know the difference between right and wrong and questions others about it has their panties in a bunch over the "similarities" between live and bitwig. Yeah, I'm feeling testy.

[gentleclockdivider]

Not only is Bitwig great, but the Bitwig team is top notch. You can expect bigger and better things with them, as they take everything that's been done before and elevate it. They are only on version 3 and all the other players are now playing catchup. It's a well designed work flow from the ground up, instead of bolting on pieces from 3rd parties. It's easy to have confidence in a team like that, everything done in house.

I hate to say it, but it's what Reason should be, FL Studio can't be, and Ableton wishes it was.

Why do you think the other players are playing catch -up , apart from ableton ?