Let‘s speculate about 6.0

[don_looney]

Sorry if this sounds kind of bitter or annoyed. It's not anyone's fault in particular. I just want to make it clear, by posting myself and adding another voice, that there are users who really want the core editing and "get productions to the finish line" features of Bitwig to receive more focus. So, I want to take energy away from random off-the-wall ideas and distractions when much of the core product feels incomplete in obvious ways.

I think they should definitely focus on the core features. Piano roll, Sampler+, ...

I wanted to point out that there are already tools available for offloading plugins to other hardware. I don't think it is smart to build custom hardware for offloading plugins to any hardware in the DAW market. CPU's are getting more powerful every generation. I still have a Ryzen 7 5800X and I use a lot of processing in my tracks. Sometimes 20 or 30 devices on one track. I have no problems, even with layering 10 synth with a lot of voices played. Yeah I have to go up in latency but years ago that was nearly impossible to do. Bitwig makes it so easy to deactivate a track and hide it in the project.

For me Bitwig is the best DAW and I am using it since 1.2. I asked for global modulators in the beta of 2.0 and wrote several bug reports regarding low frames with GUI since then. Tool volume to infinite volume was a fetature request I mentioned at the Superbooth. MSEG was always a big feature request for a lot of us. All those things are implemented in a Bitwig way and I love it. I could never go back to any other DAW.

My biggest feature request right now is a Bitwig controller from Bitwig like Push but I got my Roto-Control last week and this is just another level. If they ever release a dedicated controller for Bitwig it needs to have motorized knobs like the Roto-Control. But I think they will keep focus on the DAW/Software side and maybe hardware interfaces, like the Bitwig connect 4/12.

[xbitz]

Right now I’m using all four of these – not expecting any of them to magically merge into one...

FL Studio – for generation (Python script, MIDI)
Cubase – chord track + voice leading visualization
Studio One – tooltip tension checking + chord editing
EZKeys – arpeggio/voicing experimentation

But hope dies last so so with Cubase’s chord track and its ability to display chords and their voicings in the piano roll, it’s a great starting point. Add scripting support and the tooltip magic from Studio One, and we’d be golden!



or the Grid Editor from EZkeys which is similar to the Cubase

but at the end of the day, BWS reads FLS formats, and there’s .dawproject support for Cubase and Studio One, so what I have now is already pretty decent—just need a few extra tools in the piano roll, and I’m set!

ps. khmm (so the block mode of old FLS)

[Dionysos]

Connecting with Bitwig at Superbooth 2025: A Community-Driven Interview with Fredrik Larsson
https://auralflow.notion.site/Connectin ... 4acfaa3532

Thanks for the link!

I wonder if this vague little bit here is a hint that there's going to be a sampler update (highlight from me):

Fredrik: [...] And the next upgrade that we're working on right now, very intensely, will have a lot of core DAW features in it, a lot of workflow features.

Me: Good!

Fredrik: So, it's coming. Just hold on. You said you wanted sampler?

Me: Sampler Plus, yeah.

Fredrik: Sampler, and then, also core features. So you want both, right?

Me: Yeah.

I'm also happy about their stance on AI:

Me: Do you follow how other DAWs are developing? For example, FL Studio is adding new AI features. Are you thinking about adding AI features?

Fredrik: I think I cannot make any promises, but I don't think that's for us. I'm personally not interested at all in AI features. We are not discussing any AI features at this point.

[kultschar]

Yeah I thought maybe that was a little nudge that Sampler+ or improvements are coming.

Hopefully 6.0 is round the corner

[] Peter:H []

Sorry if this sounds kind of bitter or annoyed. It's not anyone's fault in particular. I just want to make it clear, by posting myself and adding another voice, that there are users who really want the core editing and "get productions to the finish line" features of Bitwig to receive more focus. So, I want to take energy away from random off-the-wall ideas and distractions when much of the core product feels incomplete in obvious ways.

I think they should definitely focus on the core features. Piano roll, Sampler+, ...

I wanted to point out that there are already tools available for offloading plugins to other hardware. I don't think it is smart to build custom hardware for offloading plugins to any hardware in the DAW market. CPU's are getting more powerful every generation. I still have a Ryzen 7 5800X and I use a lot of processing in my tracks. Sometimes 20 or 30 devices on one track. I have no problems, even with layering 10 synth with a lot of voices played. Yeah I have to go up in latency but years ago that was nearly impossible to do. Bitwig makes it so easy to deactivate a track and hide it in the project.

I own 2 pulsar 6 DSP Cards which I don't use anymore.
SonicCore / Pulsar is an not so good example for offloading ... because it meant vendor look-in. SonicCore was a joy to use, with good quality synths & fx... but soon was overtaken by general purpose cpus and plugins based on these general purpose cpus.
A valid system of offloading would offer the possibility to offload any arbitrary workload without vendor lock-in or extra effort by the devs like code stuff for just another hw/sw-platform ... but then why over-complicate things by adding another class of hardware and drivers that control it? why not buy a new mainboard + modern cpu firstplace while keeping other components. That would benefit not only making music. And when you cannot be convinced that offloading is a stupid idea, then at least we should look into GPUs (though it suffers from latency, and never really took off) or NPUs which promise to speed up AI use cases ... and therefore are supposed to speed up multiplication-heavy use cases. But it should be part of the OS to offload tasks to these extra/optional devices.
Anyways - If bitwig will spend dev capa on offloading hw, they will get the middle finger from me. I supported them by buying update plans and immediately activated them because I'm convinced in bitwig as a DAW (even after their stupid business moves in the past) but then found out they spent money and scarce dev capa on yet another hw interface which is only for the niche of modular fiddlers while neglecting CORE DAW functionality...

[tumface]

Fredrik: I think I cannot make any promises, but I don't think that's for us. I'm personally not interested at all in AI features. We are not discussing any AI features at this point.

Great to hear that from them. The AI stuff currently is a waste of time. The only time I see anyone actually use them is for vocal isolation of a celebrity artist for making a remix to try to get clout. Which I'm also not interested in.

[don_looney]

Fredrik: I think I cannot make any promises, but I don't think that's for us. I'm personally not interested at all in AI features. We are not discussing any AI features at this point.

Great to hear that from them. The AI stuff currently is a waste of time. The only time I see anyone actually use them is for vocal isolation of a celebrity artist for making a remix to try to get clout. Which I'm also not interested in.

The AI feature in Synplant 2 is really nice.

[MusikalischeFreiheit]

i think its around the corner

[] Peter:H []

Connecting with Bitwig at Superbooth 2025: A Community-Driven Interview with Fredrik Larsson
https://auralflow.notion.site/Connectin ... 4acfaa3532

Interesting part is, that fredrik somehow confirmed my assumption that bitwig sees their target group in "creativity folks" rather than "linear producing".
That kind of explains their priorities well and people can match their expectation against bitwigs priorities.

[tumface]

The AI feature in Synplant 2 is really nice.

Oh, that's true. I forgot about that.

[pdxindy]

I wonder if this vague little bit here is a hint that there's going to be a sampler update (highlight from me):

Yup... if there is an update, it will just improve Sampler. No need for a separate Sampler+ instrument.

Besides, the + devices are only FX. There aren't any Note FX or Instrument + devices.

[pdxindy]

Fredrik: I think I cannot make any promises, but I don't think that's for us. I'm personally not interested at all in AI features. We are not discussing any AI features at this point.

Great to hear that from them. The AI stuff currently is a waste of time. The only time I see anyone actually use them is for vocal isolation of a celebrity artist for making a remix to try to get clout. Which I'm also not interested in.

Yeah... I'm also glad to hear that they are not jumping on the AI train. They have enough to do just staying focused on what Bitwig is now.

It was an interesting interview, though the transcriber should not add all the "you know's"

[TheYke]

A sampler with slicing at last? I'm totally in!

[Tj Shredder]

If they ever release a dedicated controller for Bitwig it needs to have motorized knobs like the Roto-Control.

I would prefer rotaries 10000 times over motorized pots. You get the same control for 10% of the price (and size)…
But you need to do it right, which isn‘t the case for many rotary based controllers…

[slackhead]

I think they should definitely focus on the core features. Piano roll, Sampler+, ...

I totally agree. The problem is everyone here (and elsewhere) have completely different ideas about what the 'core' features are. For instance I don't have any need for a chord track and do not consider this as core, but the piano roll and arranger could really do with some attention and better groove tools would be a big bonus. I also am not a big user of samples so not too fused about that but can understand some others find this really important.