KVR Audio

crispr · Post by **crispr** » Tue Jul 19, 2022 3:27 pm

Hi all,

I'm pondering going into the Bitwig world. I mainly come from Logic but used many different DAWs before. One of the big selling points of Logic for me was how stable it is and how well it handles Apple's hardware/software updates.

Now a question to all you long-time Bitwig users: how would you judge the stability of Bitwig on a Mac, especially compared to other DAWs like Cubase, ProTools or Ableton? Are there many issues? How about MacOS updates?

Serhii Kot · Post by **Serhii Kot** » Tue Jul 19, 2022 4:00 pm

UI is very laggy on my M1 Air. Overall performance is fine. After Logic you will feel UI lag a lot.

Tj Shredder · Post by **Tj Shredder** » Wed Jul 20, 2022 1:44 pm

Its more stable than Logic. As it hosts plugins in their own process and a crashing plugin does not crash Bitwig. Another huge advantage: plugin scanning is done completely in the background and never interferes with your work. You can even install new plugins and load them without the need to restart Bitwig.
It does not host au, and the Apple instruments. I connect Mainstage for that scenario with the aid of Blue Cats Connector to Bitwig…

apoclypse · Post by **apoclypse** » Wed Jul 20, 2022 4:34 pm

I believe Logic does that as well. AU plugins are run in a AU service on macOS (at least on M1 Macs). So they are running in a separate process. That being said I've rarely had Bitwig crash on me. It's very stable on macOS, but the UI is very laggy and there is some wonkiness here and there.

crispr · Post by **crispr** » Wed Jul 20, 2022 5:32 pm

apoclypse wrote: Wed Jul 20, 2022 4:34 pm the UI is very laggy and there is some wonkiness here and there.

What do you mean exactly? I’m currently running a demo on two different MacBooks and it’s super smooth (perhaps a bit less than Logic but light years ahead of Cubase). At least for smallish projects.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Wed Jul 20, 2022 6:14 pm

Bitwig is easily the most stable DAW I have ever used... including Logic

dupont · Post by **dupont** » Wed Jul 20, 2022 6:49 pm

I used Bitwig on linux mac OS for several techno live acts with a APC 40 and never had a crash.
For example the last one last week with Bitwig on linux. https://www.instagram.com/p/CgC-KzmoCDM/ or

apoclypse · Post by **apoclypse** » Wed Jul 20, 2022 9:08 pm

crispr wrote: Wed Jul 20, 2022 5:32 pm
apoclypse wrote: Wed Jul 20, 2022 4:34 pm the UI is very laggy and there is some wonkiness here and there.
What do you mean exactly? I’m currently running a demo on two different MacBooks and it’s super smooth (perhaps a bit less than Logic but light years ahead of Cubase). At least for smallish projects.

That's what you need to do more that just "run a smallish project". You won't see the lag issues in Bitwig until you are pushing the DAW a bit. Other than that Biting is pretty rock solid probably more than any DAW I've used. That being said plugins do crash within Bitwig, they just don't take the whole Daw with them.

jonljacobi · Post by **jonljacobi** » Wed Jul 20, 2022 11:03 pm

Never seen a crash. Closing all the animation improves performance quite a bit. I7-6700.

emef · Post by **emef** » Wed Jul 20, 2022 11:53 pm

Bitwig is super stable, but has tried to shag my wife a couple of times, don't trust Bitwig.

crispr · Post by **crispr** » Thu Jul 21, 2022 1:14 pm

emef wrote: Wed Jul 20, 2022 11:53 pm Bitwig is super stable, but has tried to shag my wife a couple of times, don't trust Bitwig.

That’s one reason to stay with Logic

ozinga · Post by **ozinga** » Thu Jul 21, 2022 5:51 pm

This is the response I got from Bitwig team last year when I had graphical lagging on my projects. Do not know if anything has changed since then though.

"Bitwig Studio uses more GFX performance than Logic, for example, as it runs with 60 frames per seconds and usually also has more things going on graphically."

jonljacobi · Post by **jonljacobi** » Thu Jul 21, 2022 6:48 pm

You can see the performance improve using the activity monitor as you close various windows. Bitwig animates a lot of stuff. It might be nice to have the ability to toggle it all off so you can still see the various FX, instruments, etc. without killing the performance.

sQeetz · Post by **sQeetz** » Thu Jul 21, 2022 7:03 pm

The one quibble I have with Bitwig on MacOS is that it shows that it wasn't designed for it. It might work fine, but the lack of use of the menu bar and the window button placement and... there are a lot of cues reinforcing that thought.
There is also that one issue I mention every update some people got tired of. So I won't.

Dionysos · Post by **Dionysos** » Fri Jul 22, 2022 5:13 am

sQeetz wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 7:03 pm The one quibble I have with Bitwig on MacOS is that it shows that it wasn't designed for it. It might work fine, but the lack of use of the menu bar and the window button placement and... there are a lot of cues reinforcing that thought.

The placement and design of the window controls was changed to be in line with macOS conventions in a recent update.
The menu bar still isn't used, though.

Bitwig Studio stability on MacOS