spatial audio in Bitwig

[PhilipVasta]

I am very uninformed with regard to spatial audio, but it strikes me as especially superfluous for music, and I don’t really understand why it’s such a big deal.

Obviously you never heard music made for 8 speakers. If you do, you know why its a big deal… Of course it has to be music composed for multiple speakers in the first place… Might not be the typical dance floor stuff…

You're right that I've never listened to music with that type of playback, whether a quick conversion from stereo or something designed specifically for spatial. I'm sure it's neat and I’d love to try it. But as something I would go out of my way to incorporate in my own music or when mixing for other people, it just doesn’t seem very enticing. In fact, it very much seems like something that is fascinating primarily to technology enthusiasts (I include myself in this category, though less than I used to be). I’m certainly not arguing against it, but it feels like we’re collectively supposed to recognize spatial as “the next big thing.” Now, I realize this same argument could and probably was made about stereo mixes. I’m not sure what to say about that, because although I also don’t find stereo terribly important to the actual music, mono would feel like a step back. I’m kind of just thinking out loud here.

[Tj Shredder]

It can’t be the “next big thing”, that was back in the 70ties. It is as old as analog synthesizers, it just never got as popular due to the higher technical demand.
The concerts of Pink Floyd had been legendary in this regard. Most academic experimental electronic music is made for multiple speaker setups. And that isn’t just playback, I do it live. Its simply a part of my instrument.
Though the movie industry with its 5.1 format brought it to the home cinema. But in that context it is using maybe 5% of its potential. To look at it as a pure sound enhancement is the less important part.

[hockinsk3]

Little idea I had a while back, finally got around to putting it into a video. Obviously tools have moved on since this thread began, we have Dolby Atmos possible from within Bitwig now, but I think the Voice Stacking feature of Bitwig makes a unique case for use Spatially.

[ThomasHelzle]

Awesome!
There would be a TON of potential for Bitwig if they went native multichannel.

Edit: I just realised that Bitwig 4.4.10 which I'm still using doesn't have the Voice Toggle...

[hockinsk3]

Ahh yes, I think the toggle module came in with v5. I was thinking about this being possible since watching a voice stacking video from Polarity, but back then there was no way to access the stacks and get them out of the Grid separately. Then I watched one of the Bitwig videos and saw the toggle and the DC Offset trick is what I've used for a while to get the Grid out into VSTs again.
Definitely some potential with stacking. Hopefully multichannel comes, it seems to exist internally in the Grid already.

[Funk Dracula]

Little idea I had a while back, finally got around to putting it into a video. Obviously tools have moved on since this thread began, we have Dolby Atmos possible from within Bitwig now, but I think the Voice Stacking feature of Bitwig makes a unique case for use Spatially.

Very nice! You should post this is the tips/tricks (no chat) thread so it doesn't get lost.

In the recent interviews the devs gave surrounding the 10 year anniversary, and what potentially is in the future for Bitwig, they were brave enough to mention video and post production being a very big deal and how acutely aware they are that users want this. If they were brave enough to mention it in a print interview, I reckon it's absolutely coming to us in the near future. No doubt the hardware accelerated GPU update we got with 5.2 is paving the way, it's so obvious and I love it haha.

Cheers

[hockinsk3]

Will do, thanks!

[Cyoon]

Please link this thread in your Tips and Tricks post. Maybe one day we will see a fourth "Post" Version with multichannel capabilities.