Bitwig Studio 2.5 Released!

[Yokai]

Since v2.5 was announced I was kina 'meh' about the slip edit feature - I don't really use audio that much & also why wouldn't you just move the clip?

But today accidently I discovered that it also works for MIDI clips! Now it all makes sense and I'm super happy it's been added

I was a little disappointed that slipping audio doesn't wrap the audio event... So if you have a 1 bar loop, you can't slip it and expect the start and end to wrap around (ala Reaper).

Hopefully I'm wrong and someone can point me to the error of my ways. Otherwise, can we get this in 2.5.1 please?!

1. Double-click the clip to open it in the Event Editor.
2. Down in the Event Editor, click CLIP on the left side to make sure you're in CLIP mode (not in TRACK mode).
2. Still in the Event Editor, click on the title bar of the EVENT (not the clip). If you don't understand the difference yet, take some time to watch the video I made about audio editing in Bitwig, linked below.
3. Press CTRL-D to duplicate the EVENT inside the CLIP.
4. Up in the Arranger timeline, CTRL-Drag on the clip to slip the audio and watch what happens when you slip it to the left. Then watch down in the Event Editor when you let go of the mouse button.

Thanks for the reply. I had figured that out already but... If I want to slip the other way? Then I need to manually copy the event to the other side of the clip. Meh.

To paraphrase someone on the forum, "when we're working around we don't need fixes". But of course, not having to take 4 or 5 extra steps to do this would be a workflow boost, not a 'take me out of the creative moment' kinda deal, like the current implementation.

I understand what you’re saying and agree it would be nice. But....

Bitwig is very different from any other DAW (especially Ableton), in that a CLIP in Bitwig can hold *multiple different* audio EVENTS. Basically, what you think of a “clip” in other DAWs is an “event” in Bitwig.

This enables some very interesting workflow possibilities, because you can do some fairly drastic audio editing and combining of different samples/recordings in a single Bitwig CLIP, and now that entire CLIP is a modular thing you can move and copy around, save to your User Library, etc.

Thing is, because of this unique advantage of Bitwig CLIPs, i think it also makes impossible the thing you’re asking for? Maybe not impossible, but certainly more difficult. In that other DAW you mentioned, where a “clip” is literally just one sample, and the DAW knows the start and end points of that single sample, it’s relatively simple to slide a window around over that ONE sample.

[alexpen]

So.. are we going to get a list of the new shortcuts?

It's really a pitty there is no list of 2.5 shortcuts... :-/

[neverbeeninariot]

I was a little disappointed that slipping audio doesn't wrap the audio event... So if you have a 1 bar loop, you can't slip it and expect the start and end to wrap around (ala Reaper).

Hopefully I'm wrong and someone can point me to the error of my ways. Otherwise, can we get this in 2.5.1 please?!

1. Double-click the clip to open it in the Event Editor.
2. Down in the Event Editor, click CLIP on the left side to make sure you're in CLIP mode (not in TRACK mode).
2. Still in the Event Editor, click on the title bar of the EVENT (not the clip). If you don't understand the difference yet, take some time to watch the video I made about audio editing in Bitwig, linked below.
3. Press CTRL-D to duplicate the EVENT inside the CLIP.
4. Up in the Arranger timeline, CTRL-Drag on the clip to slip the audio and watch what happens when you slip it to the left. Then watch down in the Event Editor when you let go of the mouse button.

Thanks for the reply. I had figured that out already but... If I want to slip the other way? Then I need to manually copy the event to the other side of the clip. Meh.

To paraphrase someone on the forum, "when we're working around we don't need fixes". But of course, not having to take 4 or 5 extra steps to do this would be a workflow boost, not a 'take me out of the creative moment' kinda deal, like the current implementation.

I understand what you’re saying and agree it would be nice. But....

Bitwig is very different from any other DAW (especially Ableton), in that a CLIP in Bitwig can hold *multiple different* audio EVENTS. Basically, what you think of a “clip” in other DAWs is an “event” in Bitwig.

This enables some very interesting workflow possibilities, because you can do some fairly drastic audio editing and combining of different samples/recordings in a single Bitwig CLIP, and now that entire CLIP is a modular thing you can move and copy around, save to your User Library, etc.

For sure, I understand the differences. (Bitwig user since 1.3, Reaper since 2009, Cubase since v2 on Atari...).

Thing is, because of this unique advantage of Bitwig CLIPs, i think it also makes impossible the thing you’re asking for? Maybe not impossible, but certainly more difficult. In that other DAW you mentioned, where a “clip” is literally just one sample, and the DAW knows the start and end points of that single sample, it’s relatively simple to slide a window around over that ONE sample.

Even within a clip, there's still a clip start pointer, a loop start and end pointer etc. regardless of how many individual samples are chained inside that clip. It may be a challenging programming task (or appear to be so), but certainly not impossible (and given what Bitwig already provides in terms of functionality, not outwith the capabilities of the devs).

So what they have added is a useful arrange window shortcut to doing what was already possible inside the clip editor, but misses an opportunity to be even more useful, IMO.

Edit: After first coffee of the morning... a possible solution.

Given that the workaround is to copy the clip before or after the current clip, it seems like a relatively easy task to make this happen without user intervention.

Slip before the start of the clip and the clip is automatically copied to the beginning. Slip beyond the end of the clip, and the clip is copied to the end.

This could work if implemented at either the clip or audio event level.

If you slip the entire length of the clip (one full loop around), then the start position can be reset and the copies removed.

Thoughts?

[Yokai]

I was a little disappointed that slipping audio doesn't wrap the audio event... So if you have a 1 bar loop, you can't slip it and expect the start and end to wrap around (ala Reaper).

Hopefully I'm wrong and someone can point me to the error of my ways. Otherwise, can we get this in 2.5.1 please?!

1. Double-click the clip to open it in the Event Editor.
2. Down in the Event Editor, click CLIP on the left side to make sure you're in CLIP mode (not in TRACK mode).
2. Still in the Event Editor, click on the title bar of the EVENT (not the clip). If you don't understand the difference yet, take some time to watch the video I made about audio editing in Bitwig, linked below.
3. Press CTRL-D to duplicate the EVENT inside the CLIP.
4. Up in the Arranger timeline, CTRL-Drag on the clip to slip the audio and watch what happens when you slip it to the left. Then watch down in the Event Editor when you let go of the mouse button.

Thanks for the reply. I had figured that out already but... If I want to slip the other way? Then I need to manually copy the event to the other side of the clip. Meh.

To paraphrase someone on the forum, "when we're working around we don't need fixes". But of course, not having to take 4 or 5 extra steps to do this would be a workflow boost, not a 'take me out of the creative moment' kinda deal, like the current implementation.

I understand what you’re saying and agree it would be nice. But....

Bitwig is very different from any other DAW (especially Ableton), in that a CLIP in Bitwig can hold *multiple different* audio EVENTS. Basically, what you think of a “clip” in other DAWs is an “event” in Bitwig.

This enables some very interesting workflow possibilities, because you can do some fairly drastic audio editing and combining of different samples/recordings in a single Bitwig CLIP, and now that entire CLIP is a modular thing you can move and copy around, save to your User Library, etc.

For sure, I understand the differences. (Bitwig user since 1.3, Reaper since 2009, Cubase since v2 on Atari...).

Thing is, because of this unique advantage of Bitwig CLIPs, i think it also makes impossible the thing you’re asking for? Maybe not impossible, but certainly more difficult. In that other DAW you mentioned, where a “clip” is literally just one sample, and the DAW knows the start and end points of that single sample, it’s relatively simple to slide a window around over that ONE sample.

Even within a clip, there's still a clip start pointer, a loop start and end pointer etc. regardless of how many individual samples are chained inside that clip. It may be a challenging programming task (or appear to be so), but certainly not impossible (and given what Bitwig already provides in terms of functionality, not outwith the capabilities of the devs).

So what they have added is a useful arrange window shortcut to doing what was already possible inside the clip editor, but misses an opportunity to be even more useful, IMO.

Edit: After first coffee of the morning... a possible solution.

Given that the workaround is to copy the clip before or after the current clip, it seems like a relatively easy task to make this happen without user intervention.

Slip before the start of the clip and the clip is automatically copied to the beginning. Slip beyond the end of the clip, and the clip is copied to the end.

This could work if implemented at either the clip or audio event level.

If you slip the entire length of the clip (one full loop around), then the start position can be reset and the copies removed.

Thoughts?

Seems like a worthwhile feature request to make to support@bitwig.com. However, I'd ask for this "wrap around" behavior to be a user-selectable option in addition to the current behavior. I can definitely think of typical use cases during audio editing when I would very much not want this wrap around behavior.

[neverbeeninariot]

Yep, it would need to be optional, both behaviours are desirable.
FR submitted.
Cheers.

[toby]

Has anybody had any troubles with "Save As" not working after starting a project from a template?

Happened to me a couple times, the workaround was to save the project as a new template, then open that template and resave it as a different project.

I sent this in to support but was curios if anybody else experienced this?

[mevla]

Has anybody had any troubles with "Save As" not working after starting a project from a template?

If I start Bitwig with a template then decide to make a little change to the template and save it under the same template name, then I have to reload from scratch the same template to be able to save it correctly later as a new project. But that's 2.4.3.

[JHernandez]

2.5.1

Changes in Bitwig Studio 2.5, RC 1

Fixes

Control scripts that don't require any hardware (eg MIDI or USB) don't automatically start when added
Plug-ins that incorrectly list their parameters with non-unique IDs (like BeatSkillz Slam Pro) don't work correctly
Controller visualizations shown in the status bar may not always show the correct value when the parameter is changed in the Biwig Studio user interface
Stereo Split Device is -6dB too quiet
The timing on some modulation routings would be one processing buffer late

Regression Fixes

Value displays for plug-in parameters not updated on controllers in 2.5 if the parameter is not currently visible in the parameter list in the device chain
Some very old projects that were create in 1.1.x where the user had copied the master track into a nested track group's track list meant that the project could not open in 2.3.x or later

[apoclypse]

I'm experiencing a lot fo bugs with 2.5. Clip leaching is worked as far as I can tell. It's never on time when I click on the next scene to launch there is always an audio hitch. I've had it a few times when the previous clips are still playing and the next clips are playing as well so it they are both playing (didn't even know that was possible).

I've had countless audio hitches during playback in Bitwig as well. Everything could be playing back just fine then the audio hitches, DSP usage is never in the red. I personally can't trust Bitwig for live usage with all these audio hitches and clip launching issues. Ableton is stable in that regard. Never had any audio hitches nor clip launching issues no matter what I do to it. Clips launch on time and when I need them to, and audio stays stable even when loading projects with 80% or more DSP usage.

Bitwig really needs to fix these bugs and forget about adding features for a while imo. The application is great on paper but there are always little things or bugs here and there that add up over time and make it really annoying to use.