Bitwig Studio 5.3 is here!

[Korg Supporter]

https://downloads-secure.bitwig.com/5.3 ... ase_notes/

You already know from the beta, but it includes new drum synths, a step sequencer, a new pitch shifter, Frequency Shifter+ and master recording!

• Bitwig Studio is now available for Windows ARM

• The English User Guide has been updated

• New Accents (Data) Grid module: Tri-state event sequencer, with an out port for Normal steps and a separate out port for Accent

• New Step Access (Phase) Grid module: Transport-relative phase signal generator, for reaching particular step ranges (good for data sequencers)

• New Dome (Filter) Grid module: a Hilbert transform, providing any signal's real & imaginary portions, as well as its magnitude & phase

• New CV Pitch In (I/O) Grid module: Specialized input module, with DC and AC modes, as well as Octave Range, Root Key, and Smoothing parameters

• Note FX Selector (Container) device: Now has a Solo Active Layer option in the Inspector Panel

• Note In (I/O) Grid module: Now has a MIDI Channel(s) setting, for either allowing in All MIDI channels (the default setting of 0), or specifying one channel for the module to receive

• CLAP plug-ins:
  Has been updated to v1.2.5

• Controller script added for Novation's SL MkIII (including a native step sequencer)

• Controller script added for Reloop Keypad Pro

[pdxindy]

Note FX Selector (Container) device: Now has a Solo Active Layer option in the Inspector Panel

This one is so so useful!!

Note In (I/O) Grid module: Now has a MIDI Channel(s) setting, for either allowing in All MIDI channels (the default setting of 0), or specifying one channel for the module to receive

This one is also useful.

Sometimes it's the small things that satisfy the most.

[Korg Supporter]

I love the fact that it already has scripts for the Launchpad Pro MKIII and Launchkey MK4!

[SamDi]

Pretty lame and doesn‘t make me want to activate my one-year-subscription, which I have laying around since one year. Maybe need to wait till version 6

[kmonkey]

Pretty lame and doesn‘t make me want to activate my one-year-subscription, which I have laying around since one year. Maybe need to wait till version 6

What do you expect? For Christ's sake, Bitwig is already a black hole of creativity on its own. How the hell did you end up buying it in the first place? Did you base your purchase on the exciting expectations (whatever that may be)?

[SamDi]

What do you expect? For Christ's sake, Bitwig is already a black hole of creativity on its own. How the hell did you end up buying it in the first place? Did you base your purchase on the exciting expectations (whatever that may be)?

I expect slowly that they release version 6 with a bunch of new features or so. My subscription run out somwhere around 5.1 and after that I bought a new one when it was reduced to activate it, when there will be sonerhing exciting new - still waiting.

For my taste they focus to much on stock effects and modules and too less on DAW festures itself. Where is comping for MIDI? Organising tracks better? Arrangement features? More sophisticated markers? Improvement of crappy audio warping workflow? More options for look&feel?

[pdxindy]

My subscription run out somwhere around 5.1

So which do you have? 5.0 or 5.1?

[Trancit]

Pretty lame and doesn‘t make me want to activate my one-year-subscription, which I have laying around since one year. Maybe need to wait till version 6

What do you expect? For Christ's sake, Bitwig is already a black hole of creativity on its own. How the hell did you end up buying it in the first place? Did you base your purchase on the exciting expectations (whatever that may be)?

You assume everybody interested in Bitwig would be deeply into the main advantages like Modulation, generative stuff etc... this is where Bitwig excels for sure and most likely there is no better DAW atm...
But there are many other users more into sequencing than sound design/modulation who like to have e.g.
- scale features or better scale awareness,
- ARA or at least some kind of tuning capabilities internally (even Ableton went this step now),
- better automation (i.e. real value awareness for VST3/CLAP plugins like just native plugins have),
- better and more advanced PR tools in general...
- what SamDi wrote above...
- ...you name it...

Bitwig was a very young but promising DAW when many people bought it and of course many bought it with some hopes for the future...
Sadly the development came mostly up with devices after devices after devices... oh and not forget: Grid device after Grid device after Grid device... lately more and more CPU hog after CPU hog after CPU hog...
So what´s "a black hole of creativity on it´s own" for one can be throwing a spanner in the works for the other simply because of different needs...
I know you and many others don´t want to hear that but the truth is: Bitwig nowhere near to be perfect and it is NOT impertinent for a paying customer to ask or wait for different feature than a very single sided development until now came up with!

[xbitz]

I'm really curious about the next Bitwig version—what improvements they'll bring to the most criticized areas like the piano roll and arrangement. In Cubase, the only thing that still frustrates me is that modulators are assigned to tracks rather than devices, meaning they can only be saved in track presets. If they make some progress there as well, I'll be scratching my head trying to choose between them.

Right now, what I'd like to see and consider a good direction for Bitwig is if all of Polarity's Piano Roll MIDI extensions became unnecessary.

and yepp, they really need to do something about the CPU. I could get an M4 instead of my M1, and then I'd be happy in terms of single-core performance—but still, nah...

[_leras]

This is great news. Quite a good point release plus more stuff under the hood that helps set Bitwig up for the future.

I appreciate some people may not see immediate benefits from UI, ARM, CLAP, update audio, but at least they're getting done.

I think the drums alone are worth it in this release, quite a lot of fun to be had there.

And personally I don't mind the grid updates and devices. They have to try to keep up their stock plug ins. It's a necessity in the market.

Anyway.Yay. now roll on v6.0 with, hopefully, a return to core workflow related changes.

[PieBerger]

Pretty lame and doesn‘t make me want to activate my one-year-subscription, which I have laying around since one year. Maybe need to wait till version 6

You're getting your money's worth on upgrade costs at least

[Jac459]

This is great news. Quite a good point release plus more stuff under the hood that helps set Bitwig up for the future.

I appreciate some people may not see immediate benefits from UI, ARM, CLAP, update audio, but at least they're getting done.

I think the drums alone are worth it in this release, quite a lot of fun to be had there.

And personally I don't mind the grid updates and devices. They have to try to keep up their stock plug ins. It's a necessity in the market.

Anyway.Yay. now roll on v6.0 with, hopefully, a return to core workflow related changes.

I agree, at the end all combined it is a good release. In particular the windows on ARM makes me willing to switch back to Windows laptop.

Drums are not really what I was needing but they are nice anyway.
The step sequencer is the thing I need to play more with....

[pdxindy]

Changes in Bitwig Studio 5.3.1 [released 20 February 2025]

FIXES

Audio system fixes:
Fixed an issue where some users had no audio output set when upgrading to v5.3
If a configuration was saved with no Speakers and no Headphones, the program now sets an output path as Speakers and enables it
In all cases, active monitoring paths are set in the Output Monitoring Panel
When creating a new audio track, an input choice is provided (and updated when switching audio configurations) [37679]
Fixed a rare crash when showing the context menu for an audio buss [37719]
Fixed a crash when opening some audio devices (for example, if the driver reports a sample rate of, um, zero) [37728]
Safety fix for an application crash [37715]

[SamDi]

My subscription run out somwhere around 5.1

So which do you have? 5.0 or 5.1?

I am currently on 5.1. Between 5.0 and 5.1 were indeed some interesting changes as far as I remember. Since then, the progress is rather low IMHO.

You're getting your money's worth on upgrade costs at least

Yeah, I don‘t complain about their pricing model, which is fair, if one uses it right. If I had activated subscription last year April, when old ran out, I‘d be disappointed though.

[pdxindy]

My subscription run out somwhere around 5.1

So which do you have? 5.0 or 5.1?

I am currently on 5.1. Between 5.0 and 5.1 were indeed some interesting changes as far as I remember. Since then, the progress is rather low IMHO.

Yeah, 5.2 spent a lot of effort on the graphics engine and 5.3 on the audio system. I can see why you might hold off until the next update.