Bitwig Studio 4.1 Beta release is imminent

[Dionysos]

This may be just a subsection of what's coming, its a bit too small for a full update

Seems unlikely to me given the near-final look & focus of the leaked marketing page. You don't create a page header design & demo video for midi devices if you know there's some other big feature coming.

[Hez]

This may be just a subsection of what's coming, its a bit too small for a full update

Seems unlikely to me given the near-final look & focus of the leaked marketing page. You don't create a page header design & demo video for midi devices if you know there's some other big feature coming.

The videos were just placeholders using the 4.0 release video, I had a quick look at the page while it was up. Agree with you otherwise though - the rest of the layout/design looked pretty finalised.

[antic604]

And no actual DAW features

My guess is that the development of those new devices didn't compete very much with the development of core DAW functionality. So there are probably bigger changes on the way, but they take more time and those MIDI devices were done, so why wait releasing them? May not make for the most impressive release but it keeps the 4.0 "musical timelines" story going. I'm not too worried about it.

The point is most of those devices seem gimmicky or redundant at best. I'd rather they released a proper 4.1 in Q1 or Q2 next year, rather than go with this half-baked stuff...

[Tj Shredder]

But the whole idea of the plan is not to wait, they throw out what is ready. The stuff that takes longer takes longer… If all the bugs are ironed out, they add features and publish a point release with what is finished in the pipeline…
Btw. i also bought a renewal but don’t regret it. Hive 2 just sounds gorgeous… If I go bankrupt next week I will still get a Bitwig from 2023 and have a nice (almost) MPE capable synth of highest quality…

[pdxindy]

And no actual DAW features

My guess is that the development of those new devices didn't compete very much with the development of core DAW functionality. So there are probably bigger changes on the way, but they take more time and those MIDI devices were done, so why wait releasing them? May not make for the most impressive release but it keeps the 4.0 "musical timelines" story going. I'm not too worried about it.

same here...

[machinesworking]

Honestly it makes my upgrade to Live 11 a bit less painful to purchase. There's nothing inherently wrong with new features and personally unless we're talking about the Grid I'm not that interested in new FX or instruments, but like many have expressed I want more universal DAW features rather than more probability type stuff. It's their DAW, I'm along for the ride, so if I don't feel like the direction it's headed is where I want to go, I can just use a different means of transportation.

[sbmongoose]

I kind of think the Strum and Humanize might get a lot of use from me, probably more than the 4.0 updates. But yes, from the leaked page not the most earth shattering of updates, but for me nor was 4.0.
Hive is very nice though, I agree, so worth the update with it!

[antic604]

But the whole idea of the plan is not to wait, they throw out what is ready. The stuff that takes longer takes longer… If all the bugs are ironed out, they add features and publish a point release with what is finished in the pipeline…

I agree. They should've thrown out those devices to the trash can

[mholloway]

The point is most of those devices seem gimmicky or redundant at best. I'd rather they released a proper 4.1 in Q1 or Q2 next year, rather than go with this half-baked stuff...

Not to me, they don't. Bounce, strum, bend -- all very interesting and potentially useful stuff on my end. Just because you don't like / use it doesn't mean it's a gimmick.

That said, this nonetheless feels like a very tiny update serving only 1 small area of the DAW, and that is indeed disappointing.

[SLiC]

These types of devices have existed in Live for long time, so maybe its just a bit of catch up, or maybe they are just milking being able to put out midi/note based devices before they release a version of grid that lets users do this themselves (at which point it is a lot harder to make this type of update as users can make there own)

Very surprised (if) there is no midi comping and/or a decent IR based player/reverb and/or the long request MSEG- these seem like quite easy wins that people are chasing after, not bouncing ball note players...you can loose your audience Bitwig!

[antic604]

The point is most of those devices seem gimmicky or redundant at best. I'd rather they released a proper 4.1 in Q1 or Q2 next year, rather than go with this half-baked stuff...

Not to me, they don't. Bounce, strum, bend -- all very interesting and potentially useful stuff on my end. Just because you don't like / use it doesn't mean it's a gimmick.

That's all I'm saying. I obviously can't know what anyone else wants. I thought this is obvious, but - again - apparently it's welcome to express satisfaction if new features happened to fit one's needs, and unwelcome to criticise if they didn't. Oh well...

[pdxindy]

Btw. i also bought a renewal but don’t regret it. Hive 2 just sounds gorgeous…

Hive does sound great! I've been making some wonderful percussion. Not as smooth and round as Chromaphone, but more organic and alive. The new filters put a big smile on my face

[pdxindy]

The point is most of those devices seem gimmicky or redundant at best. I'd rather they released a proper 4.1 in Q1 or Q2 next year, rather than go with this half-baked stuff...

Just cause you don't find it of interest, there is no need to go on the attack and tear it down and heap on ridicule.

I'm pleased to have the Strum module. There is currently no easy way to do that. I'm sure I'll get use of Humanize and Quantize too. The rest I have to try before I know if it will find a use for me.

[machinesworking]

The point is most of those devices seem gimmicky or redundant at best. I'd rather they released a proper 4.1 in Q1 or Q2 next year, rather than go with this half-baked stuff...

Not to me, they don't. Bounce, strum, bend -- all very interesting and potentially useful stuff on my end. Just because you don't like / use it doesn't mean it's a gimmick.

That said, this nonetheless feels like a very tiny update serving only 1 small area of the DAW, and that is indeed disappointing.

I would use strum, that's about it.

I'm not so sure anymore I like the whole update plan model of updates. I only end up using a fraction of updates in general, so only a few updates at most a year are interesting to me VS every couple years a ton of updates in a major upgrade are released by other DAWs.

Completely guilty of being overtly into shiny new productivity features over more esoteric things, so for me MIDI comping trumps the whole folding audio files into a comp thing Bitwig did. It's dumb but I jumped on Bitwig because I didn't think the direction Live was going in fit what I do with a DAW, now I'm thinking the opposite, Lives latest upgrades are almost all things I would use.

We'll see, I can't really sell Live anyway, too many songs in Live, and I got offered a discount on the upgrade by Ableton as an olive branch for them screwing up on a support issue, so I think it's time to upgrade.

[SLiC]

Lives free updates since the release of 11 have been very good...they seem to be operating on a different level recently, perhaps the competition did them some good!

Bitwig integrates a lot of cool, interesting leftfield stuff...but you can achieve similar results in most DAWS now-a-days with plugins, look at something like Nest from Sugar Bytes...Bitwig really needs midi grid as a lot of the coolest MAX things are pretty much midi based or have DAW integration (you can now access sample start, clip launch and a lot of the DAW functions in MAX) and to be honest I have drifted back to Reaktor rather than Grid for Audio...old habits and works in any DAW!