Bitwig 5 is up

[pdxindy]

I've now started trying the beta. Installed Beta 5 but it crashed immeadiately for me. Then tried Beta 4, same behavior.

Beta 5 is working fine here. I'm on Mac Monterey.

[Fannon]

Ok, thanks for confirming that it works for others, @pdxindy. It's Windows 11 here.

Just found out where the crash logs are. They're actually very readable.

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Bitwig Studio\crash-report

> java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "CMA.HHY()" because "<local2>" is null

[SLiC]

Fine for me on win 11, maybe something was installed in the first beta that wasn’t in the latest betas?

[Greenplums]

5.5 working perfectly for me, the only odd thing is that if I open up Bitwig and then close it without doing anything, it says Project has been modified. Do you wish to save changes? 4.4.10 never did that. Anyone else or is it just me?

[Hanz Meyzer]

This update for sure is a good one, finally stuff was added again that most users actually need and demanded.

Yet Bitwig still is very overpriced, and the gui system is its weakpoint, lacking of proper hardware acceleration, only partly existing, lacking of visual detail in many regards. Let's see if they are willing to also improve already implemented stuff, or if this will turn again into a feature creep, adding features without context (which most users didn't ask for). Why not making an update with a focus on improving existing stuff, like improving the UI performance of the arranger, showing much more detail of midi data in the arranger, adding much more shortcuts for step editing (using the computer keyboard instead the mouse), so reducing the time between an idea and the actual creation, wasting even less gui space, actually adding complete hardware acceleration so Bitwig could be finally used on dual or even triple screen setups, each with 4K+ resolution (which is quite normal these days) with a fluent 60fps.

As far as my technical research goes, a Metal2 rendering finally was added to the Java SDK, mid 2021 or so, officially. But there are already bad examples, how this addition didn't improve performance at all, e.g. in all the IntelliJ guis. Something is really wrong in the JAVA world.

On the one side we have this absolutely outstanding audio engine written in C++, performing extremely well and stable, making it possible to route everything in anything, on the other hand, we have this still incomplete/unfinished/beta state gui system...

[Jac459]

... like improving the UI performance of the arranger, showing much more detail of midi data in the arranger, adding much more shortcuts for step editing (using the computer keyboard instead the mouse), so reducing the time between an idea and the actual creation, wasting even less gui space, actually adding complete hardware acceleration so Bitwig could be finally used on dual or even triple screen setups, each with 4K+ resolution (which is quite normal these days) with a fluent 60fps....

Which part of the arranger isn't snappy for you ? It looks like 60fps the whole time for me...
I am not in 4k+ though I am in 3024-by-1964 (which is not so far)...

I love to work with gesture so I am zooming and dezooming a lot with finger snap on the trackpad, it is very smooth and I would not accept a non-smooth XP... How is the framerate in your case, is it below 30fps ?

[Hanz Meyzer]

For me bitwig is already not really smooth with a bunch a tracks in the arranger, a few automation lanes open and using a single 5K screen (5120 x 2880). If I use it dual screen, and for example putting a single analyzer on the second screen, the gui performance drops even more, then the arranger scrolls with like 10fps or so. You can see that most elements are not hardware accelerated, because the bigger you resize the display, the slower it will get. For a gpu accelerated gui this would not matter at all. I think only some elements are hardware accelerated, but then a lot gui rendering happens on the cpu. My machine is very fast (m1pro).

[perpetual3]

Hard disagree on Bitwig being overpriced. For me, it’s the best music software I’ve ever used in my 28 years of producing.

[JHernandez]

5K screen (5120 x 2880).

I'm just curious, why?

Me: (2) 27-inch 1080p, @ 60 Hz, on a gutted os, smooth like butter.

Do you do graphics/video or something? Or? Gamer?

[Trancit]

5K screen (5120 x 2880).

I'm just curious, why?

Me: (2) 27-inch 1080p, @ 60 Hz, on a gutted os, smooth like butter.

Do you do graphics/video or something? Or? Gamer?

Once you have worked a bit on a i.e. 4k system with a decent Monitor you will hardly understand how you could work on "crappy" 1080 before...
I made the move very late and am working now on 4k on a samsung 43" TV and I would never ever look back to 1080...
Everything is really a pleasure to look at... the sharp and detailed graphics... everything looks way more polished and elegant...
It´s hard to believe just from the words without having any personal experience... but it´s like coming from the stone age directly into a distant future ... it´s just WOW...

[Jac459]

5K screen (5120 x 2880).

I'm just curious, why?

Me: (2) 27-inch 1080p, @ 60 Hz, on a gutted os, smooth like butter.

Do you do graphics/video or something? Or? Gamer?

Once you have worked a bit on a i.e. 4k system with a decent Monitor you will hardly understand how you could work on "crappy" 1080 before...
I made the move very late and am working now on 4k on a samsung 43" TV and I would never ever look back to 1080...
Everything is really a pleasure to look at... the sharp and detailed graphics... everything looks way more polished and elegant...
It´s hard to believe just from the words without having any personal experience... but it´s like coming from the stone age directly into a distant future ... it´s just WOW...

I agree that 1080 is low and we can easily see the difference with 4k, in particular while working.
I am a bit surprised by your assessment on 10fps though... 10fps would be very painful indeed.
The resolution you are handling is equivalent to 15M pixels... At my resolution it is 6M so you are 2.5 times higher...

[Jac459]

That being said, Bitwig IS hardware accelerated at least on apple silicon, you can very easily control that by using the activity monitor and looking at your GPU usage, it increases when Bitwig is in focus, and if you display fancy stuffs and move, zoom/unzoom, the precentage grows (not beyond 20% though)...

[pdxindy]

Hard disagree on Bitwig being overpriced. For me, it’s the best music software I’ve ever used in my 28 years of producing.

Bitwig has worked out to about $10 a month. For me that is insignificant, especially for the software centerpiece of my studio. I spend far more than that on cat food each month

[Jac459]

Hard disagree on Bitwig being overpriced. For me, it’s the best music software I’ve ever used in my 28 years of producing.

Hard agree on this one. The software is just amazing... If it didn't exist I would be using Logic in all sadness... (or try to like Ableton another 1000th time).

[Trancit]

5K screen (5120 x 2880).

I'm just curious, why?

Me: (2) 27-inch 1080p, @ 60 Hz, on a gutted os, smooth like butter.

Do you do graphics/video or something? Or? Gamer?

Once you have worked a bit on a i.e. 4k system with a decent Monitor you will hardly understand how you could work on "crappy" 1080 before...
I made the move very late and am working now on 4k on a samsung 43" TV and I would never ever look back to 1080...
Everything is really a pleasure to look at... the sharp and detailed graphics... everything looks way more polished and elegant...
It´s hard to believe just from the words without having any personal experience... but it´s like coming from the stone age directly into a distant future ... it´s just WOW...

I agree that 1080 is low and we can easily see the difference with 4k, in particular while working.
I am a bit surprised by your assessment on 10fps though... 10fps would be very painful indeed.
The resolution you are handling is equivalent to 15M pixels... At my resolution it is 6M so you are 2.5 times higher...

I never said anything about 10fps... for me everything is smooth and snappy