Bitwig VS Ableton

[sQeetz]

Guess I'm just an Ableton guy now whatever that may mean

It means you can get on with it and not have to think about other DAW's or spend time comparing them.

Now that's worth something, isn't it?

[jlgrimes11]

Maybe I'm stupid, but Live is starting to bore me.... So I renewed my Bitwig license for over 300 credits....
Lemme see were this leads me. Gonna have a lot of questions, maybe.... It's been a while

I feel you on this one. There are numerous reasons why I should be using Live over Bitwig: collaboration, M4L SysEx plug in and the hundreds of plug ins for M4L, MIDI capture, MIDI comping, tempo matching, video hosting. I still end up using Bitwig, I've always loved Lives' Session View, time stretching, live performance workflow, but the basics of a DAW have always seemed like they almost hate them. So no real tools to slice and dice MIDI and audio, you still can't cut a MIDI note since there isn't any slice tool, and the command really only works on audio in the Arrangement. What kills my enthusiasm there is you can slice MIDI in the Arrangement, by cutting a clip in half, which makes the fact you can't just select a single MIDI clip and slice it, weird. This extends to other things, there's no reason 20 years later that Clips should only contain one audio or MIDI chunk slice whatever, but that's how it works in Live.

I just got sick of the numerous mixed messages Ableton sends with what it implements in Live. It's the WYSIWYG DAW, but some things aren't, it's meant to be intuitive, but here's Max 4 Live, it's meant for live performance, but they haven't developed anything in that area in a decade. I still keep it around, I'm just more excited about where Bitwig is heading lately.

At the end of the day whatever DAW allows you to do your job, that’s the one you will use the most.
Limitations are to be encountered everywhere: pick your best poison
Sometimes, you need to master just a perfect punch or a kick to defeat the opponent. Thousand kata will mess you up
Ableton is…. Ableton. It works wonders if you blend with its workflow and limitations. It does it with hundreds of thousands, and more, of users… but not (sufficiently) for you obviously, and that’s the journey of a musician.

So...
after a week of tinkering with Bitwig (which I really like, btw....) I realized it was an impulse buy I shouldn't have done. My whole workflow now is grounded in Live. Even though Moss' efforts of giving the Push controller really good functionality in Bitwig is applaudable.... it's just not the same. And it was not just that, of course. But the sum of things that annoyed me led to decide against it.
Asked for a refund and the guys at Bitwig were super nice and did it.
Guess I'm just an Ableton guy now whatever that may mean

I casually tried the Demo. Certain things do seem nice (seem like a more mature piano roll), but I didn't want to get too comfortable as I do pretty well with Ableton.

I knew there would be alot of stuff I would need to relearn.

I think both programs are great and almost to the point a new user just need to try the demos of each before buying and see which one personally gels better.

[idoru97214]

They ARE both great. I used Ableton for about a decade and then - a couple years ago - I got tired of switching back and forth between the arrangement view and the session view. So I demoed Bitwig. For me, and my specific workflow, Bitwig is the ONE for composition. Love it. I mix in Reaper after completing the composition.

Ableton is great, but that one feature was THE one feature I really pined for. Now that I am a Bitwig person, I automate everything with everything and love the implementation they made for that feature. Love the Grid also.

I miss MIDI capture. I miss groove templates. That's all I really miss and the trade off works well for me.

[Dombaeb]

After couple long lasted jumps between Ableton and Bitwig I'll stick with Ableton in the end (but, I will keep Bitwig because it's good). For me, Ableton shines with deep thought, good sounding and very well designed devices. It's quirky sometimes, and Bitwig excels in many important workflow features that Ableton just don't have but in the end I can't deal with Bitwig piano roll, stock devices sound and overall busy Bitwig interface.

[SLiC]

After couple long lasted jumps between Ableton and Bitwig I'll stick with Ableton in the end (but, I will keep Bitwig because it's good). For me, Ableton shines with deep thought, good sounding and very well designed devices. It's quirky sometimes, and Bitwig excels in many important workflow features that Ableton just don't have but in the end I can't deal with Bitwig piano roll, stock devices sound and overall busy Bitwig interface.

I am pretty certain PUSH 3 will move a few people back to Live, but many who use both will keep Bitwig as well, like you say, Bitwig has some real advantages + the Grid and who knows what will come in the future (for both of them)...I have both, no FOMO!

[musicproducerdee]

The Bitwig Studio piano roll is indeed kinda annoying. Also, I can't wait for them to add a lighter skin. Not everyone likes dark mode at all times, it kills my inspiration and motivation sometimes to make music, because the dark skin doesn't match the vibe. I wish Ableton Live was a bit more budget friendly. The new Push 3 is a beast in itself though. Something new and something more expressive and future proof. Maybe someday Bitwig will have it's own controller as well, but it still needs to mature a bit more.

[liquidsound]

I am pretty certain PUSH 3 will move a few people back to Live

But probably not just from Bitwig alone…

but many who use both will keep Bitwig as well

Why not, we always keep more than one DAW at hand just in case right?

And this is only a “point” update…

[syntonica]

Just looked at the price of Push 3. Ow. Haven't seen the street priced yet, though.

That said, with a full license (Price: Ow.), it looks to be a contender in the standalone market.

[SLiC]

but many who use both will keep Bitwig as well

Why not, we always keep more than one DAW at hand just in case right?

I have Live, Bitwig, Studio One, Reason and Renosie (I sold Cubase, seemed greedy )

[sQeetz]

Live Renoise Reason and Logic seem more than enough to me

[pdxindy]

Bitwig and Logic is plenty for me...

[sQeetz]

While I use Reason just as a plugin and Renoise for fun from time to time. Logic is barely touched to be honest... I wouldn't mind not having it at all. I just fire it up from time to time to keep the plugin list up-to-date
Live is my man right now

[liquidsound]

but many who use both will keep Bitwig as well

Why not, we always keep more than one DAW at hand just in case right?

I have Live, Bitwig, Studio One, Reason and Renosie (I sold Cubase, seemed greedy )

Cubase is the only one I’ve never bothered to own.
Logic didn’t moved the needle for me and Studio One was a short date.
I still have more in the archives but the active ones are Ableton, Bitwig and Reason (by default for the Rack).

Even though Ableton has obvious issues, the one I’m facing in Bitwig are enough to leave it on the second burner.

Ableton 12 should close the deal…. or BWS 6?

[rod_zero]

A friend of mine teached me on Cubase, it was expensive so I started with Reaper, too complicated. One day while buying a controller in a music store there was a big discount on Live Suite 8 boxed, something like 60% discount, and got it. Have been using live since.

When bitwig was announced i was pretty excited, it took so much time to come out, by the time it did Push was out and I was even more invested in Live. I have tried bitwig over the years and I like quite a few things but I simply have so much time invested in Live that I find my time is better invested making music that learning another DAW.

[Nathanananan]

Im stuck with Bitwig (not a bad thing) because I can not afford Ableton Suite... It's just too much money.
With Bitwig I can use the payment plan and get all of the updates for a year after Im done paying for it.

I do miss Ableton, I had a crack for it for about 2 decades, but Im done putting unknown scammy software on my computer.