Bitwig Studio 6 will be released on March 11, 2026

[VariKusBrainZ]

Maybe she should try Reaper

[BobDog]

Must be close to release, the "usual suspects" have surfaced.

[SLiC]

popping back to Bitwig threads occasionally...people still seem to be talking more about the 'update plan' than the software

[BobDog]

Because everyone is waiting for an update?

[dirtysnow]

Lurker and user reporting in to whinge about the plan in hopes of mild catharsis.
Behold my post:

If you bought in at 5.3 [released 19 February 2025], then you get 6.0.
If you bought in at 5.2.3 [released 28 August 2024], then your plan gets you 6.0.
If you bought in at 5.2 [released 25 July 2024], then your plan gets you 5.3.13 [released 07 August 2025]
If you bought in at 5.0 [released 29 June 2023], then you get up to 5.1.9 [released 06 May 2024]

...and if you bought in at 5.0 and renewed immediately for 5.2, then you get up to 5.3.13.

You might get the next major version, or you might not get all updates for the major version you bought into.
You can pay once and get two major versions, or you can pay twice on the same major version and not get the next.

The value you get from the update plan is highly variable and entirely unpredictable.
This has always been what people are salty about.

I bought in at version 3, have paid for three renewals since, and it will take a fourth to get version 6.
I love Bitwig and will eventually upgrade, but renewing is a gamble and I don't like how it feels.

[VariKusBrainZ]

I got version 1 and bought 4 upgrades.
Do I win ?

[aMUSEd]

OK where have they moved the MPE toggle for instruments?

EDIT never mind it's still there for VST3 but just not for CLAP

[questionaire]

I am sad to say that for this moment i have no trust anymore in Bitwig, beta 17 is still unusable for me. I have paid for half a year for a Beta which is unusable.
I have installed Ableton again, so far real stable on windows. I will miss the great sampler from Bitwig, but can do pretty much the same if not more with pigments sampler. Simpler and sampler together with granulator cover also a lot ground with sample manipulation.

I used Bitwig mainly because it run on Linux but switched back to windows so that is no more argument for me to stay with Bitwig either.

And Bitwig does have half baked controller scripts which has a few bugs which Bitwig confirmed, but not taken real care off.

Controllers i have work fine with ableton, bug free aswell.

I think Ableton does do it for me at the moment, need to import all of my songs thats a hard job i am willing to do the effort

[Yorrrrrr]

Beta versions should be "unusable" by its own nature, as they are incomplete. You just need to wait for a few versions after release to really evaluate if the software doesn't work for you.

[JHernandez]

Meanwhile I'm chilling, getting paid, and not worrying about the beta. Feels good man.

[MegaPixel]

I just read this thread from when I last posted, I unsub from replies pretty much straight away...

RE: Version numbers
Typically it's Major.Minor.Patch, with bitwig it's more like:
Major .
New Minor Feature (not usually a fix) .
Patch a Bug or Fix a regression (resurface of an old bug)

I think they should use Major.NewFeature.MinorChange.BugFix(Patch)

But who really cares... It's a DAW not a software repository and we are not compiling the source code...

RE: They typically take many months to go from X.0.X to X.1.X
Yes, but most of the bugs should have been worked out by then, so just wait. No rush, enjoy v5 till it comes.

RE: People complaining about using the beta
Why would you use a beta of anything as your daily driver? That's on you. I have no sympathies. Especially as they warn you not to.

RE: Beta only for users with active subscriptions
IMO, this is a bad idea, it limits their beta testers and alienates a lot of their user base. Just build in datetime kill switches or server auth kill switch. Its easy to do, they just don't do it. I think they did at one time, but I could be thinking of some other piece of software.

You could look at how Microslop (Microshaft, erm, Microsoft), do it... You do get insider previews but these are far from alpha or early beta. They do have testing teams but mostly the public are the testers and there are issues over 20 years old which have yet to be fixed. But thats just how Microslop gives you the Microshaft.

RE: Subscription complaints
There are a few ways this can go... And there are pitfalls to all:

1. The 1 year subscription
Depending on when you started your subscription you may not get to the next full stable release, and the company is inclined to make sure that this always happens, reasons... Money and they got salaries to pay.

Also look at what they could do, the company JetBrains, software PHPStorm etc, if you sub to that for 1 year, you get the version of the day you subbed on, and all updates till your sub runs out. But when your sub runs out you have to go back to the version that was running on the day you subbed. Now that would piss you off. But it's a clever way to show you what you will be missing out on if you don't re-sub.

2. All updates till next Major Version (5.x.x but not any 6.x.x)
The buy all updates to current major version, upgrade (aka renew sub) to get next major version and all its updates.

This is my pref', but they could pull a Studio One and bump the major version number for stuff that doesn't deserve a major version bump. Eg. Hey we added a new echo+++ all new in v7. If they done that I wouldn't touch a sub for years till a feature or many new features that really really catch my attention have been added.

3. The Adobe Subscription Model
You don't get to use or keep the software if your not paying for the subscription. This could work if they dropped the monthly/yearly price, in theory it could keep more people paying something on a monthly/yearly basis and have a steady stream of money coming in.

However not owning the software (even an older version) at all after, lets say 1 year of monthly payments, that's not acceptable to me. And it's for that reason Affinity photo & designer and DaVinci resolve replaced everything Abobe for me. And now with comfyui and various other ML models I don't miss any adobe tools at all and can actually do more.


So till mid/end 2026 or early 2027, I will be happy on v5 till 6.1.x comes out.

[questionaire]

Beta versionas should be "unusable" by its own nature, as they are incomplete. You just need to wait for a few versions after release to really evaluate if the software doesn't work for you.

Yes i know that beta's are not a final version. But beta 17 is close to be the final release (11 march release). And i could expect it to be quite stable. But at my windows 10 system it is by far stable crash fest and flickering gui and double clicking. So for me Bitwig 6 is far from final release. Together with the no love for controller scripts by Bitwig my love is over for me. And i will repeat it once more i have paid a half year to be beta tester. I dont want to be beta tester btw.

I dont know why im complaining here its just to vent my frustrations about Bitwig which in its core is a great idea/company, but it is struggling to fight its own problems it created with its subscription model and the way of handling updates.

[SLiC]

And i will repeat it once more i have paid a half year to be beta tester. I dont want to be beta tester btw.

I guess another way to look at it was you paid for whatever update you got when you bought the update plan, then you got a years worth of free updates. I don't buy an upgrade plan until the features I want are included (then that's what I am buying, everything else is a bonus)

I also doubt it will be stable in a few days for launch, but at least it will be launched and then can be fixed with they next few updates (hopefully), this has been an unusually bad beta IMO (too many regressions), but hopefully the structural issues are just about sorted now for moving forward.

[BobDog]

It's all a flip of the coin really, my timing worked out quite well as I had a couple of weeks left when the first beta dropped, so I am going to get the 6.0.n versions. Im guessing it will be at least another 3 months before 6.1 so I will have saved 9 months or so of the plan. I'm guessing on the flip side some people will have lost 9 months of the plan, so not so great for them.

[VariKusBrainZ]

Insert recursive loop