Bitwig Studio 6 is Out Now!

[pdxindy]

So I reported this to bitwig with images and video as you can no longer do this in V6 with the GUI changes they made. They replied and said go use the mixer view to see the routings in version 6.
Here's the mixer view in Version 6, no parts, nowhere close to 32+ tracks in view.

Agreed. The Mixer can show about 40 tracks on my laptop, but at that point they are so narrow that you cannot see the I/O. So the Mixer doesn't replace the old compact view, if that's what you want. I never used it myself cause the names are too compact and hard to discern.

In V6, I don't bother making the track height tall enough to see the I/O, it is still narrow enough that the names are often truncated.

Whether in V5 or now in V6, I use either:
The Track Inspector because there is plenty of room and the I/O names are not truncated.
The Mixer, with the track widths increased so the I/O is easy to read. I prefer that and scrolling rather than either v5 or v6 Arrange. I don't like the truncated names cause then I often have to think about what they are and end up checking the Inspector anyway.

[pdxindy]

If a track is inside a group, then the audition tool plays, but I can confirm that if a track is routed to another track, the audition tool is silent. I'd call that a bug since solo'ing the track plays.

If you are so inclined, send in a bug report about it. I'll do the same.

Thanks for confirming, i tested it on 3 systems myself. I have reported it a few times this week, with video too, still no reply or acknowledgment about about it though.

I heard back from support. They confirmed that it's a bug.

[Ou_Tis]

I tried copying the track volume automation clip to tool volume instead of tool gain.

It's still ridiculously messed up and a huge hassle to fix manually. 0 db gets mapped to 12 db---WTF? And when I select all the nodes and try to use the old trick of typing in a new numerical value that's 12 db less than whichever node value is currently displayed---double-clicking to input a new value sets all points to 0, and single-clicking or right-clicking don't work either. Have to do it manually now it seems; ridiculous!

And I don't want to change the time position of the nodes. I tried selecting them all, turning on Snap to original event, and holding either ctrl or shift (alt changes curvature), but none of these prevented accidental movement to the sides when I was trying to just drag them down.

So I tried adjusting the numerical volume value in the inspector panel. When multiple nodes are selected, instead of displaying the value of the last selected node, it displays a value that none of the nodes have---probably their average. Since the node values aren't displayed as I'm dragging, I have to keep stopping and checking the value to get to 0 db. Eventually I managed to get there, but even then... after dragging all the nodes down exactly 12 db, most of the values still don't even remotely match! WTF. -11.5 db maps to -21.6 db when 0 db maps to 0 db. Madness. Looks like I'd have to edit every node manually. And the big problem with leaving it as track volume automation is that I want to A/B several different volume automations, which is easy to do with several instances of Tool (with all but one deactivated).

What absolute garbage. Shame on the beta testers if they didn't complain a f**k ton about this, and even greater shame on the developers if they did and were ignored.

[Bobby L'Avenir]

If a track is inside a group, then the audition tool plays, but I can confirm that if a track is routed to another track, the audition tool is silent. I'd call that a bug since solo'ing the track plays.

If you are so inclined, send in a bug report about it. I'll do the same.

Thanks for confirming, i tested it on 3 systems myself. I have reported it a few times this week, with video too, still no reply or acknowledgment about about it though.

I heard back from support. They confirmed that it's a bug.

Thanks pal, I've sent them about 4 videos as they said they couldn't understand the bug but really they just don't like my ass for some strange reason Guess i''ll have to come here to report bugs from now on as i still haven't got one reply before you got yours. That's assuming they put some things I'm missing back in the program for me to actually upgrade to 6

[Bobby L'Avenir]

So I reported this to bitwig with images and video as you can no longer do this in V6 with the GUI changes they made. They replied and said go use the mixer view to see the routings in version 6.
Here's the mixer view in Version 6, no parts, nowhere close to 32+ tracks in view.

Agreed. The Mixer can show about 40 tracks on my laptop, but at that point they are so narrow that you cannot see the I/O. So the Mixer doesn't replace the old compact view, if that's what you want. I never used it myself cause the names are too compact and hard to discern.

In V6, I don't bother making the track height tall enough to see the I/O, it is still narrow enough that the names are often truncated.

Whether in V5 or now in V6, I use either:
The Track Inspector because there is plenty of room and the I/O names are not truncated.
The Mixer, with the track widths increased so the I/O is easy to read. I prefer that and scrolling rather than either v5 or v6 Arrange. I don't like the truncated names cause then I often have to think about what they are and end up checking the Inspector anyway.

Plenty big on my screen, i'm on a 24" screen and yes about 40 tracks come show with routing and names, all more than big enough to read in V5. In V6 on the same system i cant get more than 6 tracks to show with the same view, so 40+ tracks with routings and parts on screen down to 6

Then the right click tool bar selector is gone, the markers are imo quite messy now and the blue loop/cycle strip is difficult to make out. That audition bug too, annoying but still would've upgraded but for the right click tool bar and global routing view, those are staples to my workflow in V5 and V6 is clearly slower

[Bobby L'Avenir]

"it's not a broken, it works for me" is such a tiring response.

Bitwig has a lot of bugs, and it's been that way for some time now. Versions 3 and 4 were pretty stable and had a relatively small number of issues, and most of those could be worked around. That isn't the case now. There's been a huge amount of churn, which has introduced a lot of defects, and it doesn't feel good.

I'm not a hater, I really like Bitwig, but let's be honest, the last few years have been bumpy.

It could be so much worse though. Cubase crashes every 10 seconds, so Bitwig feels rock-solid by comparison.

Tip, Jbridge all of your vst2 plugins with cubase, it's super sensitive but jbridge really helps make it much more stable. put them into performance mode too from the jbridge options, trust me this makes a huge difference for cubase and the constant crashing

[Bobby L'Avenir]

"it's not a broken, it works for me" is such a tiring response.

Bitwig has a lot of bugs, and it's been that way for some time now. Versions 3 and 4 were pretty stable and had a relatively small number of issues, and most of those could be worked around. That isn't the case now. There's been a huge amount of churn, which has introduced a lot of defects, and it doesn't feel good.

I'm not a hater, I really like Bitwig, but let's be honest, the last few years have been bumpy.

It could be so much worse though. Cubase crashes every 10 seconds, so Bitwig feels rock-solid by comparison.

Oof, that sounds rough.

Something I absolutely rate Bitwig for is that whenever it crashes, it will reliably reload the state it was in just before the crash. That is :chefskiss:

Is it still the same that when you load a recovered project all the devices are fully expanded on each track, even though you manually closed them all before the crash? They said they were fixing that last year so just wondering as i can't test it with the demo version

[pdxindy]

What absolute garbage. Shame on the beta testers if they didn't complain a f**k ton about this, and even greater shame on the developers if they did and were ignored.

As a beta tester, I never once even thought about trying to translate between parameters like that. Sorry, not trying to be rude, but you are going about it in an inefficient way.

If you want to A/B different track volume automations:

Make the Track Volume automation an Automation Clip
Drag a copy of that Automation Clip to the clip launcher
Edit a new variation in Arrange
Drag a copy of that variation to a second clip slot.
Edit a new variation in Arrange
Drag a copy of that variation to a third clip slot.
Do a 4th if you want... etc.

Now you can just drop any variation from the clip launcher onto Arrange which replaces with the variation. This is faster and easier than fussing with a bunch of tool devices and turning them all on and off, and of course no need to translate at all.

[Ou_Tis]

As a beta tester, I never once even thought about trying to translate between parameters like that. Sorry, not trying to be rude, but you are going about it in an inefficient way.

If you want to A/B different track volume automations:

Make the Track Volume automation an Automation Clip
Drag a copy of that Automation Clip to the clip launcher
Edit a new variation in Arrange
Drag a copy of that variation to a second clip slot.
Edit a new variation in Arrange
Drag a copy of that variation to a third clip slot.
Do a 4th if you want... etc.

Now you can just drop any variation from the clip launcher onto Arrange which replaces with the variation. This is faster and easier than fussing with a bunch of tool devices and turning them all on and off, and of course no need to translate at all.

That's not a faster method for A/Bing; it's much slower. With your method I have to drag each clip across the screen with my mouse to audition it, instead of just having all the tool instances next to each other and turning one on, then turning that off and another on. Much less mouse movement, much faster.

And on a track with several different plugins getting automations that I'd want to A/B in different combinations and save for later, using the clip launcher that way isn't very practical. Not "efficient" at all.

[pdxindy]

That's not a faster method for A/Bing; it's much slower. With your method I have to drag each clip across the screen with my mouse to audition it, instead of just having all the tool instances next to each other and turning one on, then turning that off and another on. Much less mouse movement, much faster.

Hey, do it how you want.

I just tried both ways and the multiple Tool devices method is clumsy. It requires that track to be selected. Turning one off and another on, can require scrolling of the device pane. And if I switch tracks to tweak something, and come back to that track, all the Tools are out of sight on the far right of the device chain. Tweaking a synth on that track also requires scrolling.

And as you discovered, if you already have track volume automation, you have to manually edit a matching curve in a tool device. No thanks!

It took me 1-2 seconds to drag a curve from the Launcher into Arrange. (or just launch the automation clip). It does not require that track be selected. One can adjust stuff on other tracks and still quickly drag a variation across.

In fact, this method makes it easy to create volume automation variations on multiple tracks and then be able to A/B variations on a number of tracks at once by triggering different scenes.

It's one of my favorite features of V6 that midi/audio clips can be on Arrange and the automation can be in the Launcher. Fantastic flexibility!

[Ou_Tis]

That's not a faster method for A/Bing; it's much slower. With your method I have to drag each clip across the screen with my mouse to audition it, instead of just having all the tool instances next to each other and turning one on, then turning that off and another on. Much less mouse movement, much faster.

Hey, do it how you want.

I just tried both ways and the multiple Tool devices method is clumsy.

IDK if English is your native language, but no, it's really not "clumsy" at all.

Turning one off and another on, can require scrolling of the device pane.

I said they're right next to each other as I'm A/Bing them, so no, it doesn't.

And if I switch tracks to tweak something, and come back to that track, all the Tools are out of sight on the far right of the device chain.

First of all, I often use them in place of clip gain, and so place them at the start of the chain. But even when I have them at the end of the chain, my view is set up so all that crap on the right hand side that I never use is hidden, giving plenty of space for long plugin chains.

And as you discovered, if you already have track volume automation, you have to manually edit a matching curve in a tool device. No thanks!

Yes, that sucks. So thanks for the suggestion in that regard.

It took me 1-2 seconds to drag a curve from the Launcher into Arrange. (or just launch the automation clip). It does not require that track be selected. One can adjust stuff on other tracks and still quickly drag a variation across.

When I'm A/Bing different volume automations I'm generally going to have the track selected. I only need to select the track once and then I can turn one tool off and another on in less than a second. Your method is 2-3 seconds for each A/B which is absurd.

In fact, this method makes it easy to create volume automation variations on multiple tracks and then be able to A/B variations on a number of tracks at once by triggering different scenes.

If I understand you correctly here you're not talking about your "drag and drop" method but actually triggering them as automation clips. Okay, that could be interesting.

It's one of my favorite features of V6 that midi/audio clips can be on Arrange and the automation can be in the Launcher.

I'll grant that that does seem to be an improvement.

[pdxindy]

And as you discovered, if you already have track volume automation, you have to manually edit a matching curve in a tool device. No thanks!

Yes, that sucks. So thanks for the suggestion in that regard.

You're welcome.

And of course if you prefer using the Tool device...

[Ou_Tis]

What the hell---typing in values for automation nodes no longer works? I type in a value within the parameter's range, that I'm able to dial in manually by dragging the value up, but if I double click on the node's value in the inspector panel (which now annoyingly sets the value to 0), type in the new value, and press enter, the node remains at 0. Is this really the intended behavior? WTF?

[BazJacuzzi]

"it's not a broken, it works for me" is such a tiring response.

Bitwig has a lot of bugs, and it's been that way for some time now. Versions 3 and 4 were pretty stable and had a relatively small number of issues, and most of those could be worked around. That isn't the case now. There's been a huge amount of churn, which has introduced a lot of defects, and it doesn't feel good.

I'm not a hater, I really like Bitwig, but let's be honest, the last few years have been bumpy.

It could be so much worse though. Cubase crashes every 10 seconds, so Bitwig feels rock-solid by comparison.

Oof, that sounds rough.

Something I absolutely rate Bitwig for is that whenever it crashes, it will reliably reload the state it was in just before the crash. That is :chefskiss:

Is it still the same that when you load a recovered project all the devices are fully expanded on each track, even though you manually closed them all before the crash? They said they were fixing that last year so just wondering as i can't test it with the demo version

I think so. I'm constantly minimizing devices, I'm not exactly sure what's causing them to unminimize, but it could well be this.

[bite_me]

What the hell---typing in values for automation nodes no longer works? I type in a value within the parameter's range, that I'm able to dial in manually by dragging the value up, but if I double click on the node's value in the inspector panel (which now annoyingly sets the value to 0), type in the new value, and press enter, the node remains at 0. Is this really the intended behavior? WTF?

Alt or CTRL plus clicking with mouse?