wow du hast ein kommentar vom beardyman :D bin neidisch :D (sorry you are obviously german so i automatically switched to german :D) gutes video! habe sowohl bitwig, als auch ardour und reaper probiert. auch unter linux. unter linux kann man offensichtlich leider nicht ernsthaft musik produzieren. bin nun nur noch in ableton unterwegs und brauche nix anderes mehr. passte ifnach zu meinem kreativen workflow. habe unter keiner anderen daw so gute ergebnisse erzielt wie utner ableton. ist natürlich für jeden anders und FL ist auch cool, Studio 1 auch. VG
Really really well done! I've spent 5 years in Bitwig and this video covers pretty much all of my pain points at the moment. They truly need to consider working on the core features of their software... ESPECIALLY automation, piano roll, overall UI performance, and navigation.
Bitwig has a different core, they need to stop working on those and work on core features that come from other DAWs.😜 BTW, what's wrong with the UI performance? I don't notice any issues there.
That's like a dream coming true, thank you for that! :) I will make an updated version of my video in textform, and put the link in the description, in case that further helps. Btw: i wrote you on reddit via reddits Chat function - but nevermind, it's no longer important since you've already shared it with the CEO :)
@@sternenherz I heard back from him, they have checked out your video and appreciate the feedback. I can not disclose any specifics but I can foresee you becoming a full time Bitwig Studio user in the future ;)
Dude if @bitwig sees this and implements these changes. It will be the best daw. I 100% agree with this video. Also, you should have WAY more subscribers.. its criminal.
Thank you for being our voice!! If you work at bitwig and hope the best for the company please share this video with the people responsible for making bitwig the best DAW. I also gave up bitwig but always come back to see what changed, because I believe this DAW has potential. One more request, The primary mixer should show the input levels moving just like in the ableton, without the need to open the extended mixer, you could make the fader a bit more transparent and show the levels overlayed moving behind it, and also make the peak bar stays a bit longer in place, also just like in ableton cause it goes down so fast that makes it hard to see where it’s peaking Anyway, for me the main features that makes me stay in ableton is midi capture that was mentioned and simpler/sampler and the ability to slice samples and work with it easily, and also this mixer thing that makes me annoyed 😂😂
One thing I love about Bitwig is the UI. As an older user (I'm 58) I think I would struggle with the tiny details of Ableton's interface. Bitwig has chunkier controls, and more primary colours to help with finding things. Accessibility is becoming increasingly important to me as I get older. I hope this is something they don't change - or at least, if they were to add interface customisation (which would be a great idea), then there should be an option to keep the original skin, for us oldies ;-)
@@xkidmidnightx I didn't know that - thanks! Interesting that I've never seen it done, though. I wonder why. Can you also move the track headers to the left side? It's always bothered me, seeing them on the right.
@@macronencer That part you cant. The zoom is great on high res small monitors though. Really helpful is you have bad eyesight. I keep my at 140% on my MacBook Pro
I fully agree with you!! I went back to Ableton.... Default settings for piano roll view, Piano Roll default zoom is a nightmare, Scale highlight and quatize (Cubase ist the best), Midi capture and comping, Gridlines, Automation are horrible, Sampler Warping and slicing, Chord track, Groove Pool AND the last feature is Undo support for third-party plug-ins!!! V5 was a not bad but is a 4 point version..... Thank you for this great video! I That's what i wanted always to say to the Bitwig team!!!
I'm on day one with Bitwig as my problem can't be solved by Live Support - though they tried for a week. It's interesting how every user values certain features and devalues others. For example Warping and slicing I agree is critical. But the chord track - I'm not sure that there aren't a million Max for Live solutions for you. The Groove Pool. I get groove from my own playing and I always thought Groove Pool did a terrible job of interpreting subtle grooves, so subtle that I literally couldn't hear it working in some cases. Again, I think Max for Live has your back on this. Good luck to us all!
You are the legend!!! Everything you said is absolutely needed! I have some more things you have not mentioned, but I believe they’re REALLY important for composers like me who do film scoring. 1. Ability to resize tracks like in Logic, Cubase or Studio One. When I’m working on large electro- orchestral production I need to have an ability to resize tracks just by using mouse wheel like in many other DAWs. Bitwig has a button which makes tracks tiny but this is not a solution at all. We, film composers, need to freely resize tracks in large projects with 100+ track string templates. 2. When I want to record a midi note in the current region, Bitwig just splits the region. That behaviour looks like a bug and make Bitwig totally unusable when I want to just add a midi note by playing it on my keyboard. Every time I want to edit midi I need to hit cmd +j to join midi region which is absolutely crazy to me. I wondering why nobody talks about it, but it’s absolutely true. 3. Unable to “play from playhead” in the piano roll like in Studio One. It’s really inconvenient to hit this upper panel on the piano roll to move playhead starting position. I want to just hit anywhere and then hit spacebar for playback( like in Studio One) 4. Unable to organise deactivated tracks. If there are many tracks being deactivated there are no way to organise it. You need to create a folder with audio bounce and deactivated tracks which is absolute workflow killer for all of us. 5. Unable to draw smooth automation in track view by mouse. I can do it in clip view but it getting buggy as I adding many points. 6. Video support is absolutely needed. All these things are not just small inconvenience. It’s absolute dealbreaker for me, unfortunately. I love Bitwig soo much and I hope developers will see this video and WILL FOCUS ON BASIC STUFF IN THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT. Bitwig is already innovative product. Just give people DAW functions, please, guys! In general, if Studio One and Bitwig could be one program it seems like it would be ideal daw for 95 % on this planet So much respect to @Sternenhertz for this video!
I did ask them about stickiness of automation nodes and acceleration of moving nodes. Their reply was that actually users like this and I can use fine adjustment through shift… well, I guess I’m not one of their favourite users who like it. Also about polarity. He was a fanboy and now he works for them so I wouldn’t listen to his talks. He will always find workarounds and will always and sometimes in a rude manner defend bitwig. For example he was openly talking for years that bitwig don’t need mseg. Now when they are out he says it’s is the best thing ever happened. ARA support, no thank you. It may and will make engine unstable. Grid lines. I couldn’t understand why I liked interface of Ableton so much. I didn’t even notice bars but yea, this is number one!
I hope Bitwig 6 Has more of this stuff like midi comping, ARA, track link, audio to midi. A way to comp different performances of automation would be very cool
My main reasons for switching to Bitwig from Ableton were the mixer in arrangement view, audio editing in the clip launcher, bounce in place and plug-in sandboxing. I’d love them to add scales in the piano roll, a chord and arranger track and themes as the UI isn’t great to look at! What would be amazing is if they teamed up with Pure Data to give a Max for Live experience in Bitwig.
version 5.1.8 is out and FINALY theve done something about the horrendous stubby little vol mixer. its now resizeable in both hight and width. i love it a lot taller and slimmer
Awesome list. So many basic features that are missing that I don’t use Bitwig as much as I use to. I know to most people it’s a small gripe, but I can’t stand the orange default system color of Bitwig. Customization like most other daws is greatly needed.
99 of 100 people will complain about anything... length, message, etc. but the 100th person is the one who really appreciate what you´re doing! for those people these kind of videos are made for! it´s a great video with lots and lots of information and btw a great combination of facts and fun - the lenghts only shows your passion for this specific DAW and its potencial! thx for this video!
Sternahertz…Bitwig should employ you mate. How I’ve missed your Bitwig channel is astonishing. Pity it’s too late for me. I’m too ill to use Bitwig much now. Even though I have Omnisphere, Soundtoys 5 and some other top plug ins. But I’m. Rey impressed with your video. Brilliant work man.
Thank you! Well, it's my first video about Bitwig ever, and only 3 weeks old now, so you haven’t missed much with my channel, haha :) it's a pity to hear that you're too ill! I wish you all the best and peace within!
29:19 - "the most obvious thing missing" for bounce in place is hubrd comping, because bounce in place removes the MIDI notes completely; instead, it could put them in a separate comp lane, so you could mix & match bounced audio with source MIDI as you wish :)
Oh, sounds nice, too! Could be a useful additional way for BiP to work, yes. The other thing coming to mind is, that "freeze track" sometimes also has its advantages.
Nice comments on Bitwig 5. I dedicated numerous years (and financial resources) to Bitwig, holding onto my affection for its concept. Nevertheless, my dissatisfaction grew due to the excessive emphasis on introducing new features, often at the expense of addressing and enhancing the fundamental functions of the DAW. Despite submitting more than 50 feature requests, I witnessed none of them being put into action. Particularly disappointing was the lack of progress in enhancing the piano roll. As a result, I made the decision to part ways with Bitwig and invest my resources in a DAW that offers superior support for piano roll functionality. While Bitwig excels in sound design, it falls short in the realms of composition, mixing, and mastering, leading to a challenging experience in those aspects.
Hi, would be interesting to me, which DAW you chose. I would have stayed with Cubase forever (i think), if Cubase would include Live Performance abilities. But Cubase is absolutely not built for live performance - and my personal way of making music changed to a more live-approach, which "forces" me to choose between Ableton and Bitwig. Concerning Features not being implemented in Bitwig i also want to add, that part of the problem is in fact the community. On KVR and reddit more than 50% of the users i encountered were seriously defending Bitwigs status quo ( secretiveness about feature implementation, and not listening to basic DAW requests). So sadly, also a community can have a negative effect on a DAWs direction, when people are stubbornly defending whatever the developers do or dont do. With my video i hope to give a neglected part of the community a voice. I'm seriously interested in Bitwig 6. Will it be "just more additional features" instead of fixing old problems and adding long wished for basic functions? Unlike you i havent been disappointed since a very early version, but started with v4, so i still have a bit hope ;)
I agree with you on a lot of these things. I'm not using Bitwig as a tool for live performances though so to me a great chunk of your feature requests are moot. Still very valid suggestions! I fell in love with Bitwig two years ago and sold my Ableton license a year after. Never ever looking back. Ableton feels absolutely ancient in comparison and the reason I actually switched to Bitwig was Abletons stubbornness and terrible support while having HUGE issues under the hood. Abletons has big problems with delay compensation and timing which made it completely unusable for me and to this day I am astonished that so little people talk about this. Everything with internal LFOs\sequencers that need to be synchronized to the host on playback are out of sync as soon as you introduce plugins with latency in front of them (AutoPan, Cableguys Shaperbox, Kickstart, Dmitry Sches Tanra, Devious Machines Infiltrator......). This has insane consequences and I was just so sick of finding workarounds instead of actually being creative. My most beloved feature is definitely the whole audio rate modulator stuff in Bitwig and how great it is integrated. It blew my mind and I couldn't live without it. Max For Live feels like a Frankenstein patchwork in comparison. And YES... PLEASE give us a Sampler+ with transient detection and sensitivity. I dearly miss Logics Quick Sampler or Ableton Simpler in my workflow.
Your word "Frankenstein Patchwork" for m4l is really funny haha. I partially agree, because in many cases, m4l has buggyness and crashes written all over it. But in some rare cases, m4l plugins are really really good and working smoothly, like the One button looper, or some other tools, which enable users to have features which Ableton never ever implemented, like Bounce in Place by valiumdupeuple, or Shortcut Buddy by noir labs. And i miss similar workaround-possibilities in Bitwig. The grid is nice, but is restricted to its own "place" - thus it can't access fundamental parts of Bitwigs API like the post recording functions, etc - while m4l plugins have access to a high amount of API functions for general DAW control. Abletons latency issues are really fascinating. For example, I never understood why they don't warn people that turning monitoring on causes latency compared to monitoring off tracks (Empty Tracks, without! any plugins inserted). Had to find that out by trial&error, and then watched many youtubers sharing their workaround for that issue (e.g. using 1 track for monitoring, and another for recording)
@@sternenherz The whole latency thing is a rabbit hole. The deeper I dug the more I just wanted to throw the DAW out the window sadly... I made a small video for my fellow classmates a while ago (in German) where I explain how to use the Shaperbox 2 MIDI trigger in Ableton to circumvent the issue. In the first two minutes I briefly explain the problem and you'll see and hear what exactly I mean. It's absolutely nuts and a no-go for a professional DAW imho. It even affects stock plugins. Also the only video I uploaded so it's not hard to find 😅
And here I thought I was the only one with huge Ableton issues under the hood. You literally wouldn't believe what my issue was - just how serious. The crazy thing is that I thought I was being unreasonable and that other Ableton users just lived with these show-stopping bugs. I was wrong.
erm.... after using BITWIG for a long time... I have to say that BITWIG is more of a platform for sound fricklers. It´s a "random DAW" of sound and clip patterns... This is a strength - but also an absolute weakness. BITWIG lags in so many ways... I'm using BITWIG less and less and I'm back on Cubase and Ableton plus modlation plugins like Kiloheats. Best compromise.
I also share your assessment of "BITWIG is more of a platform for sound fricklers.", BUT that's exactly why i made this video! I think the Bitwig-community could greatly help to improve Bitwigs overall usability, if we, the "non-fricklers" make ourselves heard and seen. And make bitwig remember its own claim, which is the very first thing on their website "Bitwig Studio is the single solution for realizing any musical idea across every stage of production."
yes, yes yes - especially loop station like features + chord track features. And please bitwig stop developing features I can get using modular synth plugins. Yea the grid "was" nice with lot potential but I really do not want to build features in the grid that could be much more easy done with dedicated DAW feature. THX for this great Video .
Great well structured take on what is missing! I do think DAWs like Ableton are basically in maintenance mode (Cubase is another). While Bitwig isn't transparent hopefully they get to fixing some of the basic however the folks over at Ableton have clearly shown they will ignore the community and just keep up with basic patching of the product. Let's hope Bitwig learn from that and don't make the same mistake.
Bitwig user since v1 here and also Cubase user since 1995... Bitwig for Ideas and fun, Cubase for serious productions... With all your Ideas, maybe switching 100% to Bitwig. Awesome Video and nice track at the end.
Video support, Automation lane QOL would be nice like not having percentages but actually having the number from inside the plugin for the thing you're trying to automate.
Great video Only one thing, I absolutely need the horizontal scenes :). It’s much more intuitive to work from top to bottom imo. The vertical view is good though when switching to an arrangement.
I am only a few days into Bitwig (after using Reaper and Ableton Live and many others in my life) and found your overview of good and 'bad' very interesting and entertaining. You got yourself a new subscriber.
Thank you so much for this video! I agree with all your complaints, and have been very frustrated with their lack of attention to basic features, and popular demand...
I started with FL Studio in 2004 but switched to Ableton after one year. I used it for nearly 17 years before I switched to Bitwig. Thanks to that, I got used to switching between the vertical and horizontal layout of Ableton's different views right in the beginning. And I think a vertical layout for the session view/launcher really makes sense. A mixer has a vertical layout, most MIDI controllers have a vertical layout, so having a vertical layout for the session view/launcher makes absolute sense. Also, when we arrange different things in front of us that are equally important, we want to use, and want to have a good access to all of them, then we arrange then side by side in a row. Those things could be tools or channels. Arranging equally important things next to each other in a row just feels natural and practical because they're all in good reach. Because of that, I barely use the launcher in Bitwig's mix view and nearly exclusively the dedicated launcher. The only purpose I use the one in the mix view is for is moving clips between the launcher and arrangement. And I think making the layout of the arrangement vertical to have a consistency, also wouldn't be very helpful. We primarily read from left to right and only move vertically at the end of the line. When we draw a time line, let's say to show the history of life on Earth, we draw it from left to right. Also, when we have an automation curve where a certain parameter is automated upwards, the curve would go to the right with a vertical arrangement. That's not very intuitive. It's "pump up the volume" and not "pump right the volume". So I think that in the long run, it's best to just get used to switch between a vertical launcher and a horizontal arrangement because in itself, it's most logical and intuitive to be vertical or horizontal respectively.
Hmm is it possible that by "Mix view" you actually mean "Arrange view" (with Clips showing)? Did i understand you correctly, that you prefer the vertical TRACKS, over the horizontal TRACKS when you launch clips? That would mean that you prefer the MIX view. I agree with your argument, that a mixer and mixer controllers usually have a "vertical track" layout, and that's engrained in muscle memory. Since i used Cubase the most, i m very used to having the mixer layout open, while seeing the Arranger with its horizontal Tracks - thus horizontal Tracks for Clip Launching also feel good for me personally. But i fully understand the logic behind the vertical tracks being an extension of the Mixerpanel.
and absolutely gorgeous I forgot to add! Such a Cubase song... especially the intro and the third part after that bridge I feel Cubase is the most cinematic DAW out there. Very cheeky to put a Cubase song in a Bitwig video hahaha nice touch :P Personally I use Live + Cubase + Reaper for various reasons and use cases... also have Bitwig for sound design and toying around on laptop with multiple touch screens so I feel you on that as well.. I really hope BW goes all the way. Such a refreshing and incredible little DAW... And for version 5 I think they really show great potential Thanks again for the music and the excellent breakdown of this fantastic DAW
Agreed, they do need to stop focusing on new features and spend a year or 3 working on the core. I would love to get rid of that double select range thing and have all that functionality wrapped up into 1 area selection with edge grab, the white and black selection areas, the white for me stops me dead in my tracks so many times because it's not what I wanted or just need to get it out of the way. Grid line colour changes would be great to make them more defined, piano roll needs a huge amount of work, 1 that annoys the hell out of me is that the auto zoom when you click on a midi clip often has all the notes off the screen then, you double click the clip again and it may or may not bring them into view. I also hate having note selection play a preview so I always have that turned off, but when I click on the piano keys to the left they are turned off also... Come on... lol. The little things matter, they matter a lot. I do love the MSEG stuff though, when I made a feature request to them I designed UI/UX interfaces in bitwig for using them, what they did took it a step further and I do love them.
Its been a year since you made this...with bitwig 5.2 i believe they adressed a few issues. Would love to see a follow up 🙌🙌👏👏. I love bitwig, been using it for 3 years.
Some are coming with 5.1, like audio quantization and a better mixer, which is great :) They’re listening to the community, but being a small team, they need their time. I would give the free 30 day trial a chance, unless you 100% need a specific feature that’s missing. Then it would be awesome if you wrote them a little mail. I think they do not realize how many people would love to switch, but don’t, due to certain things missing.
thank you! i'm just searching about bitwig, hoping to get out of PT hell...and your video helped me realize i can't switch yet either. i'm a drummer and no grid lines are an immediate deal breaker. as well, the lack of overdub/loop recording. (pro tools calls it playlists, which are critical) i also learned that searching about someone's disappointments is a great way to learn about a DAW haha
as a software developer, this is very much in the same vein as video game players when it comes to delusional feature requests. The reality is that it is incredibly easy to dream up features but each of these features could take weeks of man hours and thousands of real dollars, and prioritizing development is a really hard challenge. Things like touch control are incredibly hard to justify when it’s used by such a small part of the user base. Some of these are rightfully frustrating to not see after many requests, but these things take time and I’m sure if requests keep coming in it’s planned for development and only a matter of time
Maybe the thought that certain feature requests can be implemented easily is delusional, yes. Because sometimes even the "easily implemented" feature requests are much harder to implement in reality. That doesnt make any feature request delusional per se. It just further proves my point how important transparency is! Communication about why something takes a lot of time, or why something will NEVER be implemented due to some company decision, etc etc, is vital to building a good relationship between company and customers. Besides, don't forget that we, as customers, are the ones paying real dollars to the company. Hence my case for more transparency, as it enables us to make a informed decision if we want to continue putting our money where it's not used for our own vision of DAW improvements. Because i agree with what someone else commented here: Paying customers should at least get 25% of the developers time and their own "user wishlist" which can be publicly voted on. More clarity for all, and no more disappointments for several years. 75% of all developer resources should be enough for the company to stick to their "own" path and work on their "own" priorities.
I have to disagree. As a software developer I am so thankful for elaborated user feedback. It is my job to make clear what the cost of features are. And as you always have to prioritize it is helpful to have an active community that tells you what really matters. The touch features mentioned in the video are present in Bitwig from the beginning and they where never improved despite lots of user feedback.
The thing is, Bitwig has developed very custom touch screen gestures which work great for a very select few tasks. But when it comes down to basic tasks such as using touch screen like a mouse, Bitwig will not let you do that. I much prefer using touch screen in Ableton and it has very basic support with not even multi touch.
Funny you should say this, Dan. I just spoke to a software developer today as I had to make the switch to Bitwig (my first day) because of confirmed, show-stopping bugs with Live - that won't be fixed. I agree that, as interesting as this video is, and reasonable some of the requests, has the video maker any idea of how much coders are paid? Bitwig is a tiny company. Ableton has only 100K paid users not 'millions' and is a medium-sized company. Bitwig is TINY. One bad move and their gone. Only place I disagree with you is things being a "matter of time." The time was 20 years for Ableton to get comping. Twenty...YEARS.
Bitwig Released on 25.03.2014 & Abelton 1998 / Cubase 1993 ... give them some time to make it right and try to find a way around.. no big deals for anyone... i understand your points, but i am shure they will implement any requests or the communit will... love! :*
Grid lines and piano roll improvement for sure, but for me the #1 reason not to switch is : VERTICAL ZOOM ...Click and drag up/down in the tracks section is painfull and slow, and even worse if you're on a laptop with trackpad only ... the one in Ableton is good, but the one in Logic is perfect : Zoom in all direction with 2 fingers by just pressing Alt ... so fast !!!
I come from ableton too, but man, using bitwig recently, I am sooooo gonna move, there are a few other things that bother me in bitwig as well but the positives are just overwhelming (no no file normalization on bouncing is literally a sin, there is a workaround but its long).. I mean i am in fulll support, i can only imagine what bitwig 7 or 8 would look like.
All that shiny stuff doesnt matter when Bitwig doesnt show gridlines. A DAW without visible gridlines is 100% unusable to me.. Absolutely insane that someone thought this would be a good idea and even more insane that people accept it. True Reality-Check-Truman-Show-Moment..
@@sternenherz Perhaps there's a third party "set of lines" that some community could develop. On a serious note - Bitwig seem very friendly - perhaps you could simply - as your accent makes me think you're closer to Berlin than I am here in the states - call them on the phone and ask them?
@@allancerf9038 hello, although i m german and can write my emails in german (they dont offer phone numbers...), this fact alone doesn’t help this cause. Haha! I have sent this feature request a while ago now, and There have been far more people asking for this than suspected. It is one of the most asked for features, actually. (Also represented on Bitwish) If you read comments about this feature on Bitwish, you ll see that Bitwig knows about that wish of many people since several years.
Holy crap. I was considering Bitwig but how can they omit gridlines!? My jaw dropped when the video came to this moment I dunno… kinda like a car without headlights? I’m out.
I was considering trying Bitwig after 15 years with Ableton (+occasionally Reaper) but this video was exactly what I needed to understand that basically all the things Ableton version 8/9+''s updates have left me disappointed with... are nearly all the same degree of neglected or even *worse* in Bitwig. I appreciate some generative music toys but deeply do not care about them if i don't have good tools for writing music WITH INTENTION first. it's making me wish these DAWs were more modular in design so I could just have FL Studio's piano roll without committing to how to handles channels/groups/etc. as it is, with all DAWs trying to both do "EVERYTHING" (in theory) AND be distinctive, it seems like *every* developer will get at least one aspect dead-wrong, and our choice of DAW comes down to deciding which thing we can accept being dead-wrong. Yeah, sodium has accumulated.
Thanks. I'm moving out of FL Studio - was going to get Ableton, but took a pause to consider Bitwig. Those lack of grid lines alone is enough to walk away. There are other things I don't like either, but that is a no no.
Auto fades on start and end for recorded audio on clip grid is a must. Can't use it as a looper for live synths otherwise - recorded clip is clicking on loop! Ableton do it easily...
Hey, i must have overlooked your comment! Have you put this feature request to Bitwig? Because i have just written the same to them two weeks ago about this :) i really hope they listen. Autofades for recorded audio make 100% sense, Ableton has a button for it in each clip.
One thing that baffled me about Bitwig was that group and my pre-master channel's faders get ignored when exporting individual tracks via post-fader. This is really annoying when you want your bounced pre-master volume to be equal to the exported individual tracks. Unless there is something obvious i am missing, this makes group processing of any kind difficult to handle as well. It's not a problem as long as you don't have that requirement but some beat selling sites demand this. Otherwise I absolutely LOVE Bitwig. I haven't been this creative in years since I started using it. Oh and best feature might be multiple sessions and the ease of copying things over.
the thing that bugged me with bitwig is the color thing for some reason, because like let's say you add an audio/instrument track the color would be always different and i would always have to click to that color unlike in ableton but bitwig's performance tho, it's really good, you can run plugins 2x than that of ableton (resorting to either freeze of flatten tracks)
Everyone asks for improvements in the software, but very few people know the hard work behind programming, sometimes functions are not implemented simply because of the initial design of the software, it is possible that to implement a single function they have to modify other things that are already well established and functional and not introduce too many bugs, it wouldn't hurt Ableton, for example, floating windows, but they would probably have to change the core of the program, and only they know the lines of code that would have to be modified.
That’s why i love it when devs tell me/educate me about how hard certain things are. For example i remember a mail in which they told me that a fix for a certain issue requires deep "under the hood" changes - so i immediately got a better picture about the issue, and knew that i cant expect that to be solved quickly:)
1 year after switching from Cubase to Bitwig and my productivity and creativity has increased 10 fold. The one thing a lot of people don't talk about is how much Cubase crashes, and how much work you lose in the process. There are workarounds but working with it every day, means several hours of work a week down the drain. BW has not crashed on me without a perfect crash resolution yet.
Ahhh this reminds me of another Feature request: Autosave :) Although Bitwig runs pretty stable, and i agree that Cubase is a crash-master, it would be the most awesome "stableness" experience if they add autosave with automatic versioning. People discuss it here for example www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=593589 Bitwig has a tiny autosave function, like autosaving a backup when manually saving - and nice restore functions after a crash - but seems, in the case of the crash described in the forum that wasnt enough
To all arguing on the complexity of implementing core features requests, that's true. But the reality, is that we see a lot of niche sound design features at the expense of DAW ones and more important, live creative friendly features. This is so obvious, that I have seen synths threads where users where comparing Polymer to Serum and hopping for a VST version. Is this what we expect from a tool that was sold as a live oriented DAW? Users are stuck with it, not knowing where they go with their time and money investment? Maybe it's more simple for devs to outsource some independent Grid modules dev than working on the core of the DAW. Basic examples, there is no way to modulate the reset of the note counter or the release of latch. Of course it could be looked as side features. But it's not. Counting notes and releasing them is a core feature of any sequencer. What we are missing is an alternative to Live, not to the whole bunch of already exiting modular synths. Ok, they do what they want but, don't pack it in a live DAW looking alternative. And note, that I was not one of these crying people about the Spectral Suite paid feature. I'm ok to pay for what I really use if it can improve dev resources.
The radial menu on the touch is really bad. Amazing that it opens UNDER your finger. How are we supposed to use the menu we can't see? The menu should expand to the sides of the finger and above the finger, leaving underneath clear.
There's so much which could be improved about it, that i tend to just ask Bitwig to please let us deactivate it completely. How much of developers time could it take to just implement an on/off shortcut for touch UI/radial menu? I can’t imagine that could take long, especially compared to a complete overhaul of the touch UI... Still hoping for that simple on/off shortcut to happen:):) If it's a pinnable shortcut, one could use the normal mouse emulation via touch, AND if needed the radial menu, without having to dive into Bitwigs settings. One funny positive side effect i noticed about touch control recently: you can move clips without ever accidentally changing clipGain. I hate that so much with mouse control, haha! I personally never want to adjust the gain of a clip in the arranger directly, and every missclick is deeply annoying.
I get the gridlines problem in arranger view but its not as big of a problem people think. In the detail editor BOOM transparent lines over the waveform. Keep the arranger for arranging sections of your song instead of waveform chopping ;^)
To each his own. I used the Cubase arranger like a semi-detail view since 2009, and i love it, and this workflow is fucking awesome, and i will ask for it till Bitwig implements it ;)
It's funny what you're saying about the touch going horribly wrong.. I also had that same experience, like I wanted to use touch screen to just simply record loops as I would with Push 2, and the fact that I MUST have the clip launcher in view in order to record a clip and there's no 'session record' button (also does not exist with the Push 2 support from DivenByMoss) and this drives me absolutely mad to the point where I'm actually considering starting songs in Ableton and importing them to Bitwig using the Ableton import features (which work surprisingly well if you're only using VST). And if I record a bunch of midi and then want to select a section of that to loop after the fact, its nearly impossible to do on a touch screen... I suppose I am very used to the Push 2 workflow in Ableton but I wish every other DAw would just copy that workflow as much as possible.
Great video and pretty much sums up my experience. I love Bitwig and my first DAW was Ableton and I would love to fully make the switch and just go deep with Bitwig but too many basic things like you mention that frustrate me to no end.
Very interesting to see other people's perspectives on the shortcomings of a DAW. For example, the touch screen issues are completely irrelevant to me but I can understand why they are important to you. I agree with a lot of the points you covered. Some of the flaws were things I' hadn't realised were broken because I haven't been using Bitwig very long. Others were things I'd already found myself (lack of transparent clips to show bar lines, lack of MIDI comping). There's one thing that bothers me a LOT, because I'm a pianist: Bitwig treats piano pedal CCs (64 and a couple of others) as controller information, which means it doesn't stay with the notes when you move a clip around. This is INSANE. Piano pedals are part of the note information, and should be stored and moved around with the notes. End of story. This is simply wrong and broken. I did email them about this and was told that it's "on the roadmap" to be changed, but I'm not sure the fix is in BW5 as I haven't tried that yet. Probably it isn't. Another thing: you can't export individual tracks or clips as MIDI. You can ONLY export the entire project. This is also a bit weird. Perhaps the reasons relate to the Bitwig policy of discarding MIDI internally and using proprietary formats... but it's still a massive pain if you're collaborating with other producers/composers. I recently tried to record a piano part for a friend, and both this and the way CC64 sustain is handled caused me so much trouble that in the end I couldn't do it and had to give up (Cubase would have let me do this in no time). Like you, I love Bitwig and would like to stay with it. But they need to communicate better with customers and listen to what we are saying.
Hello, concerning the piano pedal issue: For me, it actually moves along the clip, when the clip is moved (in arranger). Maybe you have turned "automation follows when clip is moved" OFF. You find that little symbol in the timeline, on the left to the grid settings. Alternatively, search for "automation" in the shortcut list, you'll find it. You also write "piano pedals are part of the note info, should be stored and moved with the notes" -> in case you mean, that by moving the notes WITHIN a clip, the pedal info should also move, that's something that doesn't work in Cubase 12 either, unless there's an option i missed. There's one thing i forgot to mention in the video though, which i really miss: Not seeing the pedal info in the "normal" detail view. It's only visible in the Automation view. But i guess my "give us more control over the interface" should also cover an option for letting us see pedal info in the normal detail view. Thank god though, that we can see the midi CC lane in the expanded detail view (edit view), that's good. Also, Bitwig does something right compared to Ableton: In Ableton you can't even see the Pedal info in the arranger. I m not even joking: You have to edit CC64 within the Clip-detail-view in Ableton! CC64 isn't part of the normal automation-lane editing in Abletons Arranger. That's crazy :D I agree with the Midi Clip export. In Ableton, you can rightclick export any clip. In Cubase, you can drag&drop individual clips out of cubase. But at least there's a workaround, if you have several daws, you can export the big midi file out of Bitwig, import it in Cubase, then export the single file. Alternatively, copy&paste the single midi clip into a new Bitwig Project, then export.
@@sternenherz Many thanks for the reply! I know what you mean about moving CC64 events within a clip when the notes are moved - I agree, this is not something that I would expect Bitwig to do (I am also a Cubase user, though my last version was 9.5 and I haven't used it for a while). I might look again at the option to move automation along with clips, but the point is that even if this fixes the issue, it would mean that the setting applies to ALL automation (I assume), which means the piano pedals can't behave in a different way from, say, CC11 or CC7. So maybe this still isn't ideal. The other thing I forgot to mention is that when I exported the MIDI, the pedals were not exported with it (presumably because Bitwig assumes that automation is a separate creative process from making notes). That's where there is a really important problem to solve, to be honest - I was trying to collaborate by sending a MIDI piano part to a friend, and the fact that it was literally impossible to get the pedal information into it made it a complete wash-out... utterly unfit for purpose :( I think I might install Cubase alongside Bitwig to give myself more options in future, until Bitwig wake up and sort this out.
I just purchased BitWig on their 10th birthday celebration sale. And when I was looking around and trying out a few things out. I started creating a few melodies and working with the midi notes. And for almost 2 hours I was searching for gridlines, only to find out 2 days later that it doesn't exist. I wanted to change from 32 to 16 and could not find it. I got frustrated and closed the DAW.
Do you mean gridlines in general or gridlines which are visible through Clips? Gridlines in general exist, and there is a slider to determine their strength in Bitwigs Interface Settings. But Gridlines cannot be seen through Clips, that's true, and it sucks :D
I think your point about "developing niche functions vs. targeting core features" is actually a tough dilemma. I feel like Ableton is an example of the opposite. I think Live is a victim of its success; used by all kinds of different music makers, who all seek different workflows and features. Including "never using it live", or never using the Session View. I feel like Ableton may be too small to cover all this ground, and may have trouble keeping a sense of focus for their feature development. Because of that, I'm not sure how mad I can be at Bitwig for prioritizing its uniqueness. At any rate, coming from the hardware world, I think there is always a feeling that we have as musicians that "the perfect tool never exists, unless you are willing to build it". I would still love to see your suggestions implemented though! I never used Bitwig (yet) but these sound like very useful changes. ps: I have to admit, like some have pointed out, I prefer Live's horizontal scenes, precisely because I don't want them to feel like a linear arrangement. It helps me visualize them as easily movable bricks that I don't commit to yet. Still, I would prefer vertical scenes to be an option for people who want them :D
Midi control and cc automation capture is like the only thing that keeps not just me but many people from using bitwig. In many ways it is way better than any other daw. But these few basic features keep it from being truly amazing.
Hey, would be interesting to me what you mean by "cc automation capture"? Do you mean something like an upgrade to "normal midi capture for notes", also working for CC automation movements?
@@sternenherz what I meant is midi cc translating into automation data. Take cubase as an example. In any Vst you can use your midi controller by simply clicking on the Parameter of your choice and assigning the Pot by just moving it on your hardware. Then click on the write button to record automation data as you want. In Bitwig you have to assign through the browser and turn the button on so it captures the movement. After capturing you have to clear the control from the Hardware in the browser again to enable the "read" function of the automation and hear what you just did. Now if you don't like what you have captured, you have to do the process again. This is very long winded to simply record a modulation with a Pot. In Cubase you have the "read" function enabled by default if you recorded any automation. Even if you activate "write" you can listen to what you have just automated without having you reassign anything. It is a workflow thing and for anyone out there recording with Midicontrollers or Hardware Synths it is a no brainer to make it as accessible and easy to use as possible. I mean, why should I care about MSEG and all that modulation stuff if I can't easily send Midi CC data to and from any Parameter I want as much as I have to.
A "Tablet" formfactor like a Surface Pro would have 100% the same dysfunction when using your fingers to touch!! And switching between Display Profiles (from studio to Tablet setting) also doesn't change the dysfunction. If you can name me a windows device/tablet, where you can grab and drag a single automation point with your fingers, i would be very happy to hear about it. But it doesn’t exist, sadly.
Great video, even though a bit too long ;) Bitwig has't, well... touched the touch features since they were released in v1.3 :( However, 80% of your FRs are related to live performance, which is a very small portion of user base, so I'm hoping they'll not throw ALL dev efforts towards it :) Personally, I want midi and hybrid comping, midi capture, alias/linked clips, note step input, scene follow actions, an action called "play the same clip/scene from start" (I often loop clips of weird length in a regular 4/4 music), new synths based on additive, granular and physical modelling synthesis, pattern tracks, sidechain inputs for all midi & audio triggered modulators. Basic stuff, really ;)
Bitwig really needs to touch the touchfeatures😅 I think except for "live performance" and some of my "interface" FRs, also the non-live-performers would greatly benefit from all of the FRs:) I absolutely understand your concerns though, i wouldnt want Bitwig to go "all in" on anything which makes too many users feel neglected! It's quite a task to prioritize FRs. "Scene follow actions" i forgot about those! "Play the same clip from start" - i m not sure, but isn't that possible since Bitwig 5, when the new next action button is activated?
@@sternenherz I tried everything and I couldn't make e.g a 3/4 clip start looping again after e.g. 4 bars. It can be done oscillating between two copies of the same clip in a block.
SuperCollider integration would be nice. I'd love to write my own SynthDefs than can be played like any other plugin. Or write patterns that control other plugins. I know it will never, _ever_ happen, but I can dream, dammit!
i also dream of a daw like this. it can kinda be done by routing midi and audio between Bitwig and SC, but its cumbersome enough that i dont often bother
Im working only a few days w Bitwig. Great Daw. But only some day of playing around and I find many of your issues too. Especially the music theory functions like Chord Track. Assign a key to song and show pressed chords in piano roll .... the modular concept is awesome... i have no live intensions so I stay at my current daw and don't switch :-)
Great list! Also, expanding your request about UI tweakability, this maybe very subjective, but I find Bitwig's very high contract colour scheme nice but quite hard to look at for long periods of time; I think it should be tweakable and themeable like in Ableton where it's very simple but efficient. Bitwig should be at least able to switch between light and dark colour themes which almost every app already does in 2023! And yes, I second the chord tracks request! Or at least display which chord the selected MIDI notes form. Continuing with the topic of UI / UX, I would also like to have a lane for articulations. That is done very well in Cubase as far as I remember, basically you have another lane in the bottom of the piano roll which displays current articulation. You select a portion of the timeline (or some MIDI notes) and change the articulation, and that is reflected in the lane. The thing with these UI / UX fixes, Bitwig don't even have to invent anything, it is already implemented (mostly) in different DAWs and tested by time :) As for the looping fix, I don't think the fix you mentioned is very easy to implement: it requires tracks below the current to have exactly the same settings as the current track; imagine the user has something completely different on those tracks. What should Bitwig do then? I'm not saying it's impossible but I just don't think it's an easy fix. Maybe it can be implemented as 'clip folders', similarly to comping in Ableton, but instead of playing only selected clip, play all of them at once; then, after the jam, the user could 'explode' the folder into many identical tracks and work with those.
Themes/interface options are high up in the feature request ranking yea. Concerning the "record in next free scene slot", i m not sure if i get what you mean - because i don't see the problems you see. First and foremost, this feature is required for having audio-overdub-capabilities And it would be the responsibility of the user to make sure that the currently selected Track has several usable "ready-made" Tracks below, to make a proper overdub recording! Besides, if "imagine the user has something completely different on those tracks" is refering to the case where the user already has a recorded CLIP in the Tracks below - those Track will of course be excluded automatically, hence the name of the function "Record in next FREE scene slot" :) Furthermore, as you already mentioned, using Groups would make the whole thing extremely easy, as "next free group slot" would just automatically stop, when the whole group is full of new clip recordings. Also, i wouldn't even see any problem if the "record in next free scene slot" function just runs through the whole project and records in each and every Track which has empty slots -> it would switch from Audio to midi Tracks without any problem, wouldn't it, just like when you press the downarrow on your keyboard? It would be the responsibility / the skill of the user to make use of it and record some awesome musical patterns ;)
@@sternenherz yes, if we assume this to be the user's responsibility to organise and prepare their workspace accordingly, then it would work! :) I missed you mentioned 'FREE' slot, right :) then we're good! I was just concerned about user not fully realising what they are doing and messing up the project. But yes, I guess it's an advanced performance feature and thus should be used with knowledge :)
Very insightful video. About Touch Control however, can't you get a Stylus pen for your Touchscreen Monitor, or if it's not supported, get a Touchscreen Monitor that features Stylus input?
Hello, thank you! :) my touchscreens dont support a pen, and i honestly dont want a pen. For faders, clips and almost anything important to me for live performance/jamming, fingers on a 24inch screen are 100% accurate enough. Hence my complaint that the "good" functionality is restricted to pens: i want the same for "real touch" as i call it
Yea, my main complaint is not lack of precision, which of course will always be limited to the fingertipsize - i just would love to be able to edit certain areas of the interface AT ALL. :D I wouldnt use touch control much for the production phase, it’s 99% about adjusting things while live-jamming, which of course is something almost no musician does, thus i m relatively alone in my workflow: live jamming with 2 24inch touchscreens ;) Thankfully i ve built my own touch osc interface now which almost replaces the Bitwig interface
Great video. Re: automation, I feel like that with Reason4, I haven’t used it in.. 13 years? But I remember the way it put automation into its own clips, independent of notes, was amazing. You’d set a default value, for when the play head isn’t over a relevant automation clip, it didn’t read the situation like a continuous graph that could break as you cut and paste sections in your track. The “automation simplify” tools. Were super useful. Compared to that, ableton ^and^ bitwig, feel like swimming through glue 🤣 Plenty of other reason features came far too late for me to stick with the platform. But I’d love if bitwig could implement some of these features that made this part of its sequencer so great.
Thanks! Oh yes, i heard about Reasons way of handling automation now - if i would have known earlier, i might have included it in the video, since it appears to be a very smart way! The more i went into the whole user experience and features topic, the more i would love to make my own DAW, haha. Would be awesome, but i can’t program at all.
28:39 It's the "Toggle Active" keybind that you're looking for, it also works on entire tracks and individual Grid modules. P.S. Linked clips is my top request switching from FL, it makes iterative composition so much easier.
When I was looking to switch my main issues were lack of custom MSEGs, seeing v5 have them integrate into it's system that lets you build your own behaviors and create an infinite amount is such a relief now. Also, I never realized the lack of grid lines as someone who uses 95% MIDI but that would be very useful, along with being able to see MIDI notes at all arranger track sizes.
That LIFE...or ....LIVE...... or Yeah ,.....Bitwig..... p.s. Soundesign , modulation , Midi controller device Banks , Grid... and some other fancy stuff are really cool and I think Ableton will never have that... awesomeness... even in 10 years.. But capture even a crap looper and all the other stuff you miss ,... I miss too and brings me often back to Live too .... ......Thats LIFE
23:04 and speaking of handles.... in Live's MIDI editor, when a loop bracket extends beyond the visible screen, hovering over the end of the visible portion causes a small handle to appear on the loop indicator. This handle allows you to drag the end of the loop to adjust its length. The is extremly handy for large loops or if you are zoomed in. However, in Bitwig, how often did I have to zoom out of the current MIDI view just to see the end of the loop selection, before I could grab the end of the loop indicator. super annoying.
Just recently, with 5.1 beta 5, they changed the way the arranger loop bracket is handled, in a very good way, modifier keys for start and end loop. Especially with beta 6 now it feels great. However, i m not sure if the clip detail view has the same smooth loop bracket behavior - cant test it right now. If the loop bracket of the clip detail view still doesnt have that new behavior (you could end the loop bracket with ctrl+alt+click immediately), then let's write that suggestion to Bitwig :)
YesYesYes!!! I thought I was the only ony hating the time range selection always getting in the way, it's highely frustrating !!!!! Please Bitwig make the time range optional or come up with a better approach but this SUCKS!!
I asked years ago, for a glide button in the key track modulator. Simular to uvi shade. It makes such a difference, when modulating filter cutoff by key tracking. So you wouldn't get those ugly jumps, you usually get without glide. Maybe that's a function licensed by uvi otherwise I see no reason, why it's not in there allready 😢.. And I do hate, when you colaps autmations that you don't have a visualization of them in the clip. But maybe that's just me beeing unable to use bitwig properly 😅
Concerning Automations: Do you mean, you want to see Automation within the Clip, exactly like in Ableton? That's not possible, no. However, when using the Cliplauncher in Arrange-view, the Automationlane gets "baked" into the Clip, visually, so technically, it's "within" the Clip there, hehe. Just not within Clips in the Arrangement Timeline
@@sternenherz I mean in the arrangement view. When you do automation there, but not inside a clip you can't see it on the lane, when you colaps then. I come from FL and there it's everything kinda Messi, but you are able to just through automations on a lane and more over it and see everything 😅... You can aswell make one automation and have it automate completely different things on different instruments and different lanes, but that's FL...
@@leonfriedemann9151 One Automation-Lane controlling many different things on different Tracks is possible with global modulation :) Here's a tutorial. It works differently than FL though, of course. ruclips.net/video/UHust6xONJg/видео.html
This is great!!!
wow du hast ein kommentar vom beardyman :D bin neidisch :D (sorry you are obviously german so i automatically switched to german :D)
gutes video! habe sowohl bitwig, als auch ardour und reaper probiert. auch unter linux. unter linux kann man offensichtlich leider nicht ernsthaft musik produzieren. bin nun nur noch in ableton unterwegs und brauche nix anderes mehr. passte ifnach zu meinem kreativen workflow. habe unter keiner anderen daw so gute ergebnisse erzielt wie utner ableton. ist natürlich für jeden anders und FL ist auch cool, Studio 1 auch. VG
The man the myth the legend!
Ayy
Really really well done! I've spent 5 years in Bitwig and this video covers pretty much all of my pain points at the moment. They truly need to consider working on the core features of their software... ESPECIALLY automation, piano roll, overall UI performance, and navigation.
Bitwig has a different core, they need to stop working on those and work on core features that come from other DAWs.😜
BTW, what's wrong with the UI performance? I don't notice any issues there.
Hear Hear!!
Just to let you know I shared this with the CEO of Bitwig, good work on this video.
That's like a dream coming true, thank you for that! :) I will make an updated version of my video in textform, and put the link in the description, in case that further helps. Btw: i wrote you on reddit via reddits Chat function - but nevermind, it's no longer important since you've already shared it with the CEO :)
@@sternenherz I heard back from him, they have checked out your video and appreciate the feedback. I can not disclose any specifics but I can foresee you becoming a full time Bitwig Studio user in the future ;)
@@sternenherz weird I never got your msg on Reddit.
Dude if @bitwig sees this and implements these changes. It will be the best daw. I 100% agree with this video. Also, you should have WAY more subscribers.. its criminal.
Agreed. 👍🏻
Thank you for being our voice!!
If you work at bitwig and hope the best for the company please share this video with the people responsible for making bitwig the best DAW. I also gave up bitwig but always come back to see what changed, because I believe this DAW has potential.
One more request,
The primary mixer should show the input levels moving just like in the ableton, without the need to open the extended mixer, you could make the fader a bit more transparent and show the levels overlayed moving behind it, and also make the peak bar stays a bit longer in place, also just like in ableton cause it goes down so fast that makes it hard to see where it’s peaking
Anyway, for me the main features that makes me stay in ableton is midi capture that was mentioned and simpler/sampler and the ability to slice samples and work with it easily, and also this mixer thing that makes me annoyed 😂😂
One thing I love about Bitwig is the UI. As an older user (I'm 58) I think I would struggle with the tiny details of Ableton's interface. Bitwig has chunkier controls, and more primary colours to help with finding things. Accessibility is becoming increasingly important to me as I get older. I hope this is something they don't change - or at least, if they were to add interface customisation (which would be a great idea), then there should be an option to keep the original skin, for us oldies ;-)
You can increase the size of Lives interface
@@xkidmidnightx I didn't know that - thanks! Interesting that I've never seen it done, though. I wonder why. Can you also move the track headers to the left side? It's always bothered me, seeing them on the right.
@@macronencer That part you cant. The zoom is great on high res small monitors though. Really helpful is you have bad eyesight. I keep my at 140% on my MacBook Pro
@@xkidmidnightx Thanks, I appreciate the detail. I'm used to Bitwig now, but I like to check what else is out there, just in case.
I fully agree with you!! I went back to Ableton.... Default settings for piano roll view, Piano Roll default zoom is a nightmare, Scale highlight and quatize (Cubase ist the best), Midi capture and comping, Gridlines, Automation are horrible, Sampler Warping and slicing, Chord track, Groove Pool AND the last feature is Undo support for third-party plug-ins!!!
V5 was a not bad but is a 4 point version..... Thank you for this great video! I That's what i wanted always to say to the Bitwig team!!!
I'm on day one with Bitwig as my problem can't be solved by Live Support - though they tried for a week. It's interesting how every user values certain features and devalues others. For example Warping and slicing I agree is critical. But the chord track - I'm not sure that there aren't a million Max for Live solutions for you.
The Groove Pool. I get groove from my own playing and I always thought Groove Pool did a terrible job of interpreting subtle grooves, so subtle that I literally couldn't hear it working in some cases. Again, I think Max for Live has your back on this.
Good luck to us all!
You are the legend!!! Everything you said is absolutely needed!
I have some more things you have not mentioned, but I believe they’re REALLY important for composers like me who do film scoring.
1. Ability to resize tracks like in Logic, Cubase or Studio One.
When I’m working on large electro- orchestral production I need to have an ability to resize tracks just by using mouse wheel like in many other DAWs. Bitwig has a button which makes tracks tiny but this is not a solution at all. We, film composers, need to freely resize tracks in large projects with 100+ track string templates.
2. When I want to record a midi note in the current region, Bitwig just splits the region. That behaviour looks like a bug and make Bitwig totally unusable when I want to just add a midi note by playing it on my keyboard. Every time I want to edit midi I need to hit cmd +j to join midi region which is absolutely crazy to me. I wondering why nobody talks about it, but it’s absolutely true.
3. Unable to “play from playhead” in the piano roll like in Studio One. It’s really inconvenient to hit this upper panel on the piano roll to move playhead starting position. I want to just hit anywhere and then hit spacebar for playback( like in Studio One)
4. Unable to organise deactivated tracks. If there are many tracks being deactivated there are no way to organise it. You need to create a folder with audio bounce and deactivated tracks which is absolute workflow killer for all of us.
5. Unable to draw smooth automation in track view by mouse. I can do it in clip view but it getting buggy as I adding many points.
6. Video support is absolutely needed.
All these things are not just small inconvenience. It’s absolute dealbreaker for me, unfortunately.
I love Bitwig soo much and I hope developers will see this video and WILL FOCUS ON BASIC STUFF IN THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT.
Bitwig is already innovative product. Just give people DAW functions, please, guys!
In general, if Studio One and Bitwig could be one program it seems like it would be ideal daw for 95 % on this planet
So much respect to @Sternenhertz for this video!
I did ask them about stickiness of automation nodes and acceleration of moving nodes. Their reply was that actually users like this and I can use fine adjustment through shift… well, I guess I’m not one of their favourite users who like it.
Also about polarity. He was a fanboy and now he works for them so I wouldn’t listen to his talks. He will always find workarounds and will always and sometimes in a rude manner defend bitwig. For example he was openly talking for years that bitwig don’t need mseg. Now when they are out he says it’s is the best thing ever happened.
ARA support, no thank you. It may and will make engine unstable.
Grid lines. I couldn’t understand why I liked interface of Ableton so much. I didn’t even notice bars but yea, this is number one!
The looper is my biggest wish item. But the grid lines would be really appreciated as well. Great list!
Wohoo! Make sure to vote for it (if you wish) :D bitwish.top/t/looper-live-looping-functions/4610
This is one of the reasons why I am constantly going between Reaper and Bitwig.
Voting for sure!
I hope Bitwig 6 Has more of this stuff like midi comping, ARA, track link, audio to midi. A way to comp different performances of automation would be very cool
My main reasons for switching to Bitwig from Ableton were the mixer in arrangement view, audio editing in the clip launcher, bounce in place and plug-in sandboxing. I’d love them to add scales in the piano roll, a chord and arranger track and themes as the UI isn’t great to look at! What would be amazing is if they teamed up with Pure Data to give a Max for Live experience in Bitwig.
Yes, A good m4l integration would be insane! Some of the Feature requests then would be solvable by the community 😊
yes piano roll scales highlighting and midi capture is a basic must !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@armonic7956 Midi Capture NEEDS to be implemented. Its the main thing from keeping me from 100% moving from ableton live to bitwig
version 5.1.8 is out and FINALY theve done something about the horrendous stubby little vol mixer. its now resizeable in both hight and width. i love it a lot taller and slimmer
Yea, true, i loved that mixer update, too :)
There are still some downsides and a lot of work to do, but it's a good development.
Awesome list. So many basic features that are missing that I don’t use Bitwig as much as I use to. I know to most people it’s a small gripe, but I can’t stand the orange default system color of Bitwig. Customization like most other daws is greatly needed.
99 of 100 people will complain about anything... length, message, etc. but the 100th person is the one who really appreciate what you´re doing! for those people these kind of videos are made for! it´s a great video with lots and lots of information and btw a great combination of facts and fun - the lenghts only shows your passion for this specific DAW and its potencial! thx for this video!
Sternahertz…Bitwig should employ you mate. How I’ve missed your Bitwig channel is astonishing. Pity it’s too late for me. I’m too ill to use Bitwig much now. Even though I have Omnisphere, Soundtoys 5 and some other top plug ins. But I’m. Rey impressed with your video. Brilliant work man.
Thank you! Well, it's my first video about Bitwig ever, and only 3 weeks old now, so you haven’t missed much with my channel, haha :) it's a pity to hear that you're too ill! I wish you all the best and peace within!
I love your style and the way you speak. Such a pleasure to listen to! Make more videos!
29:19 - "the most obvious thing missing" for bounce in place is hubrd comping, because bounce in place removes the MIDI notes completely; instead, it could put them in a separate comp lane, so you could mix & match bounced audio with source MIDI as you wish :)
Oh, sounds nice, too! Could be a useful additional way for BiP to work, yes. The other thing coming to mind is, that "freeze track" sometimes also has its advantages.
I was thinking the exact same thing as I watched the video. Seems obvious and super useful.
Nice comments on Bitwig 5. I dedicated numerous years (and financial resources) to Bitwig, holding onto my affection for its concept. Nevertheless, my dissatisfaction grew due to the excessive emphasis on introducing new features, often at the expense of addressing and enhancing the fundamental functions of the DAW. Despite submitting more than 50 feature requests, I witnessed none of them being put into action. Particularly disappointing was the lack of progress in enhancing the piano roll. As a result, I made the decision to part ways with Bitwig and invest my resources in a DAW that offers superior support for piano roll functionality. While Bitwig excels in sound design, it falls short in the realms of composition, mixing, and mastering, leading to a challenging experience in those aspects.
Hi, would be interesting to me, which DAW you chose. I would have stayed with Cubase forever (i think), if Cubase would include Live Performance abilities. But Cubase is absolutely not built for live performance - and my personal way of making music changed to a more live-approach, which "forces" me to choose between Ableton and Bitwig.
Concerning Features not being implemented in Bitwig i also want to add, that part of the problem is in fact the community. On KVR and reddit more than 50% of the users i encountered were seriously defending Bitwigs status quo ( secretiveness about feature implementation, and not listening to basic DAW requests). So sadly, also a community can have a negative effect on a DAWs direction, when people are stubbornly defending whatever the developers do or dont do. With my video i hope to give a neglected part of the community a voice. I'm seriously interested in Bitwig 6. Will it be "just more additional features" instead of fixing old problems and adding long wished for basic functions? Unlike you i havent been disappointed since a very early version, but started with v4, so i still have a bit hope ;)
@@sternenherz currently i'm using presonus studio one
I agree with you on a lot of these things. I'm not using Bitwig as a tool for live performances though so to me a great chunk of your feature requests are moot. Still very valid suggestions!
I fell in love with Bitwig two years ago and sold my Ableton license a year after. Never ever looking back. Ableton feels absolutely ancient in comparison and the reason I actually switched to Bitwig was Abletons stubbornness and terrible support while having HUGE issues under the hood. Abletons has big problems with delay compensation and timing which made it completely unusable for me and to this day I am astonished that so little people talk about this. Everything with internal LFOs\sequencers that need to be synchronized to the host on playback are out of sync as soon as you introduce plugins with latency in front of them (AutoPan, Cableguys Shaperbox, Kickstart, Dmitry Sches Tanra, Devious Machines Infiltrator......). This has insane consequences and I was just so sick of finding workarounds instead of actually being creative.
My most beloved feature is definitely the whole audio rate modulator stuff in Bitwig and how great it is integrated. It blew my mind and I couldn't live without it. Max For Live feels like a Frankenstein patchwork in comparison. And YES... PLEASE give us a Sampler+ with transient detection and sensitivity. I dearly miss Logics Quick Sampler or Ableton Simpler in my workflow.
Your word "Frankenstein Patchwork" for m4l is really funny haha. I partially agree, because in many cases, m4l has buggyness and crashes written all over it. But in some rare cases, m4l plugins are really really good and working smoothly, like the One button looper, or some other tools, which enable users to have features which Ableton never ever implemented, like Bounce in Place by valiumdupeuple, or Shortcut Buddy by noir labs. And i miss similar workaround-possibilities in Bitwig. The grid is nice, but is restricted to its own "place" - thus it can't access fundamental parts of Bitwigs API like the post recording functions, etc - while m4l plugins have access to a high amount of API functions for general DAW control.
Abletons latency issues are really fascinating. For example, I never understood why they don't warn people that turning monitoring on causes latency compared to monitoring off tracks (Empty Tracks, without! any plugins inserted). Had to find that out by trial&error, and then watched many youtubers sharing their workaround for that issue (e.g. using 1 track for monitoring, and another for recording)
@@sternenherz The whole latency thing is a rabbit hole. The deeper I dug the more I just wanted to throw the DAW out the window sadly...
I made a small video for my fellow classmates a while ago (in German) where I explain how to use the Shaperbox 2 MIDI trigger in Ableton to circumvent the issue.
In the first two minutes I briefly explain the problem and you'll see and hear what exactly I mean. It's absolutely nuts and a no-go for a professional DAW imho.
It even affects stock plugins.
Also the only video I uploaded so it's not hard to find 😅
ableton is such an old daw comparatively
And here I thought I was the only one with huge Ableton issues under the hood. You literally wouldn't believe what my issue was - just how serious.
The crazy thing is that I thought I was being unreasonable and that other Ableton users just lived with these show-stopping bugs. I was wrong.
erm.... after using BITWIG for a long time... I have to say that BITWIG is more of a platform for sound fricklers. It´s a "random DAW" of sound and clip patterns...
This is a strength - but also an absolute weakness. BITWIG lags in so many ways... I'm using BITWIG less and less and I'm back on Cubase and Ableton plus modlation plugins like Kiloheats. Best compromise.
I also share your assessment of "BITWIG is more of a platform for sound fricklers.", BUT that's exactly why i made this video! I think the Bitwig-community could greatly help to improve Bitwigs overall usability, if we, the "non-fricklers" make ourselves heard and seen. And make bitwig remember its own claim, which is the very first thing on their website "Bitwig Studio is the single solution for realizing any musical idea across every stage of production."
yes, yes yes - especially loop station like features + chord track features. And please bitwig stop developing features I can get using modular synth plugins. Yea the grid "was" nice with lot potential but I really do not want to build features in the grid that could be much more easy done with dedicated DAW feature. THX for this great Video .
Reaper, Cubase, Ableton . Bitwig 5 and no scale highlight in pianoroll in 2023????????
Great well structured take on what is missing! I do think DAWs like Ableton are basically in maintenance mode (Cubase is another). While Bitwig isn't transparent hopefully they get to fixing some of the basic however the folks over at Ableton have clearly shown they will ignore the community and just keep up with basic patching of the product. Let's hope Bitwig learn from that and don't make the same mistake.
This is really good! Right on with all your points, the looping enhancements would be so nice and so easy for them to implement.
Bitwig user since v1 here and also Cubase user since 1995... Bitwig for Ideas and fun, Cubase for serious productions... With all your Ideas, maybe switching 100% to Bitwig. Awesome Video and nice track at the end.
I've never used Bitwig but have been eyeing it for a while. Yea, the gridlines are a dealbreaker for me. Thanks for the video
Video support, Automation lane QOL would be nice like not having percentages but actually having the number from inside the plugin for the thing you're trying to automate.
Having different GUI colours would be great. It’s been the same colour for years. It’s beautiful but it’d be nice to have a change.
Great video
Only one thing, I absolutely need the horizontal scenes :). It’s much more intuitive to work from top to bottom imo. The vertical view is good though when switching to an arrangement.
gawd absolutely. for me it's the looping. LET US CHOOSE OUR OWN LOOP LENGTHS DO NOT MAKE ME SLAVE TO THE PROJECT TEMPO
I am only a few days into Bitwig (after using Reaper and Ableton Live and many others in my life) and found your overview of good and 'bad' very interesting and entertaining. You got yourself a new subscriber.
I agree. I stopped upgrading, but it is my favorite DAW.
Thank you so much for this video! I agree with all your complaints, and have been very frustrated with their lack of attention to basic features, and popular demand...
I started with FL Studio in 2004 but switched to Ableton after one year. I used it for nearly 17 years before I switched to Bitwig. Thanks to that, I got used to switching between the vertical and horizontal layout of Ableton's different views right in the beginning.
And I think a vertical layout for the session view/launcher really makes sense. A mixer has a vertical layout, most MIDI controllers have a vertical layout, so having a vertical layout for the session view/launcher makes absolute sense. Also, when we arrange different things in front of us that are equally important, we want to use, and want to have a good access to all of them, then we arrange then side by side in a row. Those things could be tools or channels. Arranging equally important things next to each other in a row just feels natural and practical because they're all in good reach.
Because of that, I barely use the launcher in Bitwig's mix view and nearly exclusively the dedicated launcher. The only purpose I use the one in the mix view is for is moving clips between the launcher and arrangement.
And I think making the layout of the arrangement vertical to have a consistency, also wouldn't be very helpful. We primarily read from left to right and only move vertically at the end of the line. When we draw a time line, let's say to show the history of life on Earth, we draw it from left to right. Also, when we have an automation curve where a certain parameter is automated upwards, the curve would go to the right with a vertical arrangement. That's not very intuitive. It's "pump up the volume" and not "pump right the volume".
So I think that in the long run, it's best to just get used to switch between a vertical launcher and a horizontal arrangement because in itself, it's most logical and intuitive to be vertical or horizontal respectively.
Hmm is it possible that by "Mix view" you actually mean "Arrange view" (with Clips showing)? Did i understand you correctly, that you prefer the vertical TRACKS, over the horizontal TRACKS when you launch clips? That would mean that you prefer the MIX view.
I agree with your argument, that a mixer and mixer controllers usually have a "vertical track" layout, and that's engrained in muscle memory. Since i used Cubase the most, i m very used to having the mixer layout open, while seeing the Arranger with its horizontal Tracks - thus horizontal Tracks for Clip Launching also feel good for me personally. But i fully understand the logic behind the vertical tracks being an extension of the Mixerpanel.
Very nice song at the end!
and absolutely gorgeous I forgot to add!
Such a Cubase song... especially the intro and the third part after that bridge
I feel Cubase is the most cinematic DAW out there. Very cheeky to put a Cubase song in a Bitwig video hahaha nice touch :P
Personally I use Live + Cubase + Reaper for various reasons and use cases... also have Bitwig for sound design and toying around on laptop with multiple touch screens so I feel you on that as well..
I really hope BW goes all the way. Such a refreshing and incredible little DAW...
And for version 5 I think they really show great potential
Thanks again for the music and the excellent breakdown of this fantastic DAW
From the first frames it became clear that this master of magic with a tiger jacket knows his business!
I've been using bitwig since V1, and I can't disagree with any of this.
Agreed, they do need to stop focusing on new features and spend a year or 3 working on the core. I would love to get rid of that double select range thing and have all that functionality wrapped up into 1 area selection with edge grab, the white and black selection areas, the white for me stops me dead in my tracks so many times because it's not what I wanted or just need to get it out of the way. Grid line colour changes would be great to make them more defined, piano roll needs a huge amount of work, 1 that annoys the hell out of me is that the auto zoom when you click on a midi clip often has all the notes off the screen then, you double click the clip again and it may or may not bring them into view. I also hate having note selection play a preview so I always have that turned off, but when I click on the piano keys to the left they are turned off also... Come on... lol. The little things matter, they matter a lot. I do love the MSEG stuff though, when I made a feature request to them I designed UI/UX interfaces in bitwig for using them, what they did took it a step further and I do love them.
Its been a year since you made this...with bitwig 5.2 i believe they adressed a few issues. Would love to see a follow up 🙌🙌👏👏. I love bitwig, been using it for 3 years.
@@eliteonlinetrainers ruclips.net/video/qlvqXtq2Wgc/видео.htmlsi=RvZBKYCI7iNdkJrA
@@sternenherz just watched, thank you! 🙏
I love the outtro track.
Thanks so much. This video just saved me money. I was considering the switch but some of these missing features are too glaring to overlook.
Some are coming with 5.1, like audio quantization and a better mixer, which is great :) They’re listening to the community, but being a small team, they need their time. I would give the free 30 day trial a chance, unless you 100% need a specific feature that’s missing. Then it would be awesome if you wrote them a little mail. I think they do not realize how many people would love to switch, but don’t, due to certain things missing.
thank you! i'm just searching about bitwig, hoping to get out of PT hell...and your video helped me realize i can't switch yet either. i'm a drummer and no grid lines are an immediate deal breaker. as well, the lack of overdub/loop recording. (pro tools calls it playlists, which are critical) i also learned that searching about someone's disappointments is a great way to learn about a DAW haha
I want midi comping
Ditto!
G for me. Sampler time stretch much much needed.
as a software developer, this is very much in the same vein as video game players when it comes to delusional feature requests. The reality is that it is incredibly easy to dream up features but each of these features could take weeks of man hours and thousands of real dollars, and prioritizing development is a really hard challenge. Things like touch control are incredibly hard to justify when it’s used by such a small part of the user base. Some of these are rightfully frustrating to not see after many requests, but these things take time and I’m sure if requests keep coming in it’s planned for development and only a matter of time
Maybe the thought that certain feature requests can be implemented easily is delusional, yes. Because sometimes even the "easily implemented" feature requests are much harder to implement in reality. That doesnt make any feature request delusional per se. It just further proves my point how important transparency is! Communication about why something takes a lot of time, or why something will NEVER be implemented due to some company decision, etc etc, is vital to building a good relationship between company and customers. Besides, don't forget that we, as customers, are the ones paying real dollars to the company. Hence my case for more transparency, as it enables us to make a informed decision if we want to continue putting our money where it's not used for our own vision of DAW improvements. Because i agree with what someone else commented here: Paying customers should at least get 25% of the developers time and their own "user wishlist" which can be publicly voted on. More clarity for all, and no more disappointments for several years. 75% of all developer resources should be enough for the company to stick to their "own" path and work on their "own" priorities.
I have to disagree. As a software developer I am so thankful for elaborated user feedback. It is my job to make clear what the cost of features are. And as you always have to prioritize it is helpful to have an active community that tells you what really matters. The touch features mentioned in the video are present in Bitwig from the beginning and they where never improved despite lots of user feedback.
The thing is, Bitwig has developed very custom touch screen gestures which work great for a very select few tasks. But when it comes down to basic tasks such as using touch screen like a mouse, Bitwig will not let you do that. I much prefer using touch screen in Ableton and it has very basic support with not even multi touch.
@@Username_Invalid yea - imagine Bitwig finally fixing their touch-support! Will be a new dimension... I really hope they wake up
Funny you should say this, Dan. I just spoke to a software developer today as I had to make the switch to Bitwig (my first day) because of confirmed, show-stopping bugs with Live - that won't be fixed. I agree that, as interesting as this video is, and reasonable some of the requests, has the video maker any idea of how much coders are paid? Bitwig is a tiny company. Ableton has only 100K paid users not 'millions' and is a medium-sized company. Bitwig is TINY. One bad move and their gone.
Only place I disagree with you is things being a "matter of time." The time was 20 years for Ableton to get comping. Twenty...YEARS.
No scrubbing is a pain in the ass. By the way this is day ONE for me, switching from Ableton after 13 years.
Bitwig Released on 25.03.2014 & Abelton 1998 / Cubase 1993 ... give them some time to make it right and try to find a way around.. no big deals for anyone...
i understand your points, but i am shure they will implement any requests or the communit will... love! :*
this
you have no real clue about developing. Developing Gridlines would cost two engineers day but say a week. not decades.
idk about gridlines... :D @@MoonWalkersbin
Grid lines and piano roll improvement for sure, but for me the #1 reason not to switch is : VERTICAL ZOOM ...Click and drag up/down in the tracks section is painfull and slow, and even worse if you're on a laptop with trackpad only ... the one in Ableton is good, but the one in Logic is perfect : Zoom in all direction with 2 fingers by just pressing Alt ... so fast !!!
I come from ableton too, but man, using bitwig recently, I am sooooo gonna move, there are a few other things that bother me in bitwig as well but the positives are just overwhelming (no no file normalization on bouncing is literally a sin, there is a workaround but its long).. I mean i am in fulll support, i can only imagine what bitwig 7 or 8 would look like.
All that shiny stuff doesnt matter when Bitwig doesnt show gridlines. A DAW without visible gridlines is 100% unusable to me.. Absolutely insane that someone thought this would be a good idea and even more insane that people accept it. True Reality-Check-Truman-Show-Moment..
I absolutely agree.
@@sternenherz Perhaps there's a third party "set of lines" that some community could develop. On a serious note - Bitwig seem very friendly - perhaps you could simply - as your accent makes me think you're closer to Berlin than I am here in the states - call them on the phone and ask them?
@@allancerf9038 hello, although i m german and can write my emails in german (they dont offer phone numbers...), this fact alone doesn’t help this cause. Haha! I have sent this feature request a while ago now, and There have been far more people asking for this than suspected. It is one of the most asked for features, actually. (Also represented on Bitwish) If you read comments about this feature on Bitwish, you ll see that Bitwig knows about that wish of many people since several years.
@@sternenherz I now understand!
Holy crap. I was considering Bitwig but how can they omit gridlines!? My jaw dropped when the video came to this moment I dunno… kinda like a car without headlights? I’m out.
I was considering trying Bitwig after 15 years with Ableton (+occasionally Reaper) but this video was exactly what I needed to understand that basically all the things Ableton version 8/9+''s updates have left me disappointed with... are nearly all the same degree of neglected or even *worse* in Bitwig. I appreciate some generative music toys but deeply do not care about them if i don't have good tools for writing music WITH INTENTION first. it's making me wish these DAWs were more modular in design so I could just have FL Studio's piano roll without committing to how to handles channels/groups/etc. as it is, with all DAWs trying to both do "EVERYTHING" (in theory) AND be distinctive, it seems like *every* developer will get at least one aspect dead-wrong, and our choice of DAW comes down to deciding which thing we can accept being dead-wrong. Yeah, sodium has accumulated.
Thanks. I'm moving out of FL Studio - was going to get Ableton, but took a pause to consider Bitwig. Those lack of grid lines alone is enough to walk away. There are other things I don't like either, but that is a no no.
hello, i hope you share your thoughts with bitwigs support email :))
Auto fades on start and end for recorded audio on clip grid is a must. Can't use it as a looper for live synths otherwise - recorded clip is clicking on loop! Ableton do it easily...
Hey, i must have overlooked your comment! Have you put this feature request to Bitwig? Because i have just written the same to them two weeks ago about this :) i really hope they listen. Autofades for recorded audio make 100% sense, Ableton has a button for it in each clip.
Good song at the end - and enjoyed watching it all.
One thing that baffled me about Bitwig was that group and my pre-master channel's faders get ignored when exporting individual tracks via post-fader. This is really annoying when you want your bounced pre-master volume to be equal to the exported individual tracks. Unless there is something obvious i am missing, this makes group processing of any kind difficult to handle as well. It's not a problem as long as you don't have that requirement but some beat selling sites demand this.
Otherwise I absolutely LOVE Bitwig. I haven't been this creative in years since I started using it. Oh and best feature might be multiple sessions and the ease of copying things over.
the thing that bugged me with bitwig is the color thing for some reason, because like let's say you add an audio/instrument track the color would be always different and i would always have to click to that color unlike in ableton but bitwig's performance tho, it's really good, you can run plugins 2x than that of ableton (resorting to either freeze of flatten tracks)
if they get the scale lock mode like Ableton I'll switch
Everyone asks for improvements in the software, but very few people know the hard work behind programming, sometimes functions are not implemented simply because of the initial design of the software, it is possible that to implement a single function they have to modify other things that are already well established and functional and not introduce too many bugs, it wouldn't hurt Ableton, for example, floating windows, but they would probably have to change the core of the program, and only they know the lines of code that would have to be modified.
That’s why i love it when devs tell me/educate me about how hard certain things are. For example i remember a mail in which they told me that a fix for a certain issue requires deep "under the hood" changes - so i immediately got a better picture about the issue, and knew that i cant expect that to be solved quickly:)
1 year after switching from Cubase to Bitwig and my productivity and creativity has increased 10 fold. The one thing a lot of people don't talk about is how much Cubase crashes, and how much work you lose in the process. There are workarounds but working with it every day, means several hours of work a week down the drain. BW has not crashed on me without a perfect crash resolution yet.
Ahhh this reminds me of another Feature request: Autosave :) Although Bitwig runs pretty stable, and i agree that Cubase is a crash-master, it would be the most awesome "stableness" experience if they add autosave with automatic versioning. People discuss it here for example www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=593589
Bitwig has a tiny autosave function, like autosaving a backup when manually saving - and nice restore functions after a crash - but seems, in the case of the crash described in the forum that wasnt enough
I'm so lucky. As many times as Live crashed on me (this is day one for me on Bitwig) I never once lost my work forever.
To all arguing on the complexity of implementing core features requests, that's true. But the reality, is that we see a lot of niche sound design features at the expense of DAW ones and more important, live creative friendly features. This is so obvious, that I have seen synths threads where users where comparing Polymer to Serum and hopping for a VST version. Is this what we expect from a tool that was sold as a live oriented DAW? Users are stuck with it, not knowing where they go with their time and money investment? Maybe it's more simple for devs to outsource some independent Grid modules dev than working on the core of the DAW.
Basic examples, there is no way to modulate the reset of the note counter or the release of latch. Of course it could be looked as side features. But it's not. Counting notes and releasing them is a core feature of any sequencer.
What we are missing is an alternative to Live, not to the whole bunch of already exiting modular synths. Ok, they do what they want but, don't pack it in a live DAW looking alternative.
And note, that I was not one of these crying people about the Spectral Suite paid feature. I'm ok to pay for what I really use if it can improve dev resources.
The radial menu on the touch is really bad. Amazing that it opens UNDER your finger. How are we supposed to use the menu we can't see? The menu should expand to the sides of the finger and above the finger, leaving underneath clear.
There's so much which could be improved about it, that i tend to just ask Bitwig to please let us deactivate it completely. How much of developers time could it take to just implement an on/off shortcut for touch UI/radial menu? I can’t imagine that could take long, especially compared to a complete overhaul of the touch UI... Still hoping for that simple on/off shortcut to happen:):) If it's a pinnable shortcut, one could use the normal mouse emulation via touch, AND if needed the radial menu, without having to dive into Bitwigs settings.
One funny positive side effect i noticed about touch control recently: you can move clips without ever accidentally changing clipGain. I hate that so much with mouse control, haha! I personally never want to adjust the gain of a clip in the arranger directly, and every missclick is deeply annoying.
I get the gridlines problem in arranger view but its not as big of a problem people think. In the detail editor BOOM transparent lines over the waveform. Keep the arranger for arranging sections of your song instead of waveform chopping ;^)
To each his own. I used the Cubase arranger like a semi-detail view since 2009, and i love it, and this workflow is fucking awesome, and i will ask for it till Bitwig implements it ;)
It's funny what you're saying about the touch going horribly wrong.. I also had that same experience, like I wanted to use touch screen to just simply record loops as I would with Push 2, and the fact that I MUST have the clip launcher in view in order to record a clip and there's no 'session record' button (also does not exist with the Push 2 support from DivenByMoss) and this drives me absolutely mad to the point where I'm actually considering starting songs in Ableton and importing them to Bitwig using the Ableton import features (which work surprisingly well if you're only using VST).
And if I record a bunch of midi and then want to select a section of that to loop after the fact, its nearly impossible to do on a touch screen... I suppose I am very used to the Push 2 workflow in Ableton but I wish every other DAw would just copy that workflow as much as possible.
Great video and pretty much sums up my experience. I love Bitwig and my first DAW was Ableton and I would love to fully make the switch and just go deep with Bitwig but too many basic things like you mention that frustrate me to no end.
I left Cubase for Bitwig years ago and never looked back.
Very interesting to see other people's perspectives on the shortcomings of a DAW. For example, the touch screen issues are completely irrelevant to me but I can understand why they are important to you. I agree with a lot of the points you covered. Some of the flaws were things I' hadn't realised were broken because I haven't been using Bitwig very long. Others were things I'd already found myself (lack of transparent clips to show bar lines, lack of MIDI comping).
There's one thing that bothers me a LOT, because I'm a pianist: Bitwig treats piano pedal CCs (64 and a couple of others) as controller information, which means it doesn't stay with the notes when you move a clip around. This is INSANE. Piano pedals are part of the note information, and should be stored and moved around with the notes. End of story. This is simply wrong and broken. I did email them about this and was told that it's "on the roadmap" to be changed, but I'm not sure the fix is in BW5 as I haven't tried that yet. Probably it isn't.
Another thing: you can't export individual tracks or clips as MIDI. You can ONLY export the entire project. This is also a bit weird. Perhaps the reasons relate to the Bitwig policy of discarding MIDI internally and using proprietary formats... but it's still a massive pain if you're collaborating with other producers/composers. I recently tried to record a piano part for a friend, and both this and the way CC64 sustain is handled caused me so much trouble that in the end I couldn't do it and had to give up (Cubase would have let me do this in no time).
Like you, I love Bitwig and would like to stay with it. But they need to communicate better with customers and listen to what we are saying.
Hello, concerning the piano pedal issue: For me, it actually moves along the clip, when the clip is moved (in arranger). Maybe you have turned "automation follows when clip is moved" OFF. You find that little symbol in the timeline, on the left to the grid settings. Alternatively, search for "automation" in the shortcut list, you'll find it. You also write "piano pedals are part of the note info, should be stored and moved with the notes" -> in case you mean, that by moving the notes WITHIN a clip, the pedal info should also move, that's something that doesn't work in Cubase 12 either, unless there's an option i missed.
There's one thing i forgot to mention in the video though, which i really miss: Not seeing the pedal info in the "normal" detail view. It's only visible in the Automation view. But i guess my "give us more control over the interface" should also cover an option for letting us see pedal info in the normal detail view.
Thank god though, that we can see the midi CC lane in the expanded detail view (edit view), that's good.
Also, Bitwig does something right compared to Ableton: In Ableton you can't even see the Pedal info in the arranger. I m not even joking: You have to edit CC64 within the Clip-detail-view in Ableton! CC64 isn't part of the normal automation-lane editing in Abletons Arranger. That's crazy :D
I agree with the Midi Clip export. In Ableton, you can rightclick export any clip. In Cubase, you can drag&drop individual clips out of cubase.
But at least there's a workaround, if you have several daws, you can export the big midi file out of Bitwig, import it in Cubase, then export the single file.
Alternatively, copy&paste the single midi clip into a new Bitwig Project, then export.
@@sternenherz Many thanks for the reply!
I know what you mean about moving CC64 events within a clip when the notes are moved - I agree, this is not something that I would expect Bitwig to do (I am also a Cubase user, though my last version was 9.5 and I haven't used it for a while).
I might look again at the option to move automation along with clips, but the point is that even if this fixes the issue, it would mean that the setting applies to ALL automation (I assume), which means the piano pedals can't behave in a different way from, say, CC11 or CC7. So maybe this still isn't ideal.
The other thing I forgot to mention is that when I exported the MIDI, the pedals were not exported with it (presumably because Bitwig assumes that automation is a separate creative process from making notes). That's where there is a really important problem to solve, to be honest - I was trying to collaborate by sending a MIDI piano part to a friend, and the fact that it was literally impossible to get the pedal information into it made it a complete wash-out... utterly unfit for purpose :(
I think I might install Cubase alongside Bitwig to give myself more options in future, until Bitwig wake up and sort this out.
I just purchased BitWig on their 10th birthday celebration sale. And when I was looking around and trying out a few things out.
I started creating a few melodies and working with the midi notes. And for almost 2 hours I was searching for gridlines, only to find out 2 days later that it doesn't exist.
I wanted to change from 32 to 16 and could not find it. I got frustrated and closed the DAW.
Do you mean gridlines in general or gridlines which are visible through Clips? Gridlines in general exist, and there is a slider to determine their strength in Bitwigs Interface Settings. But Gridlines cannot be seen through Clips, that's true, and it sucks :D
I think your point about "developing niche functions vs. targeting core features" is actually a tough dilemma. I feel like Ableton is an example of the opposite. I think Live is a victim of its success; used by all kinds of different music makers, who all seek different workflows and features. Including "never using it live", or never using the Session View. I feel like Ableton may be too small to cover all this ground, and may have trouble keeping a sense of focus for their feature development.
Because of that, I'm not sure how mad I can be at Bitwig for prioritizing its uniqueness. At any rate, coming from the hardware world, I think there is always a feeling that we have as musicians that "the perfect tool never exists, unless you are willing to build it". I would still love to see your suggestions implemented though! I never used Bitwig (yet) but these sound like very useful changes.
ps: I have to admit, like some have pointed out, I prefer Live's horizontal scenes, precisely because I don't want them to feel like a linear arrangement. It helps me visualize them as easily movable bricks that I don't commit to yet. Still, I would prefer vertical scenes to be an option for people who want them :D
Seriously, Bitwig should hire you as a consultant.
Great video , I dream of a functional implementation of the touch screen.
i want bitwigs devices, abletons automation and browser. If they could just fuse both of them itd would be my favorite daw
Midi control and cc automation capture is like the only thing that keeps not just me but many people from using bitwig.
In many ways it is way better than any other daw.
But these few basic features keep it from being truly amazing.
Hey, would be interesting to me what you mean by "cc automation capture"? Do you mean something like an upgrade to "normal midi capture for notes", also working for CC automation movements?
@@sternenherz what I meant is midi cc translating into automation data.
Take cubase as an example. In any Vst you can use your midi controller by simply clicking on the Parameter of your choice and assigning the Pot by just moving it on your hardware.
Then click on the write button to record automation data as you want.
In Bitwig you have to assign through the browser and turn the button on so it captures the movement. After capturing you have to clear the control from the Hardware in the browser again to enable the "read" function of the automation and hear what you just did.
Now if you don't like what you have captured, you have to do the process again.
This is very long winded to simply record a modulation with a Pot.
In Cubase you have the "read" function enabled by default if you recorded any automation. Even if you activate "write" you can listen to what you have just automated without having you reassign anything.
It is a workflow thing and for anyone out there recording with Midicontrollers or Hardware Synths it is a no brainer to make it as accessible and easy to use as possible.
I mean, why should I care about MSEG and all that modulation stuff if I can't easily send Midi CC data to and from any Parameter I want as much as I have to.
At 11:40…the intuitive dragging does says Bitwig’s menu that it’s for a Tablet computer.
A "Tablet" formfactor like a Surface Pro would have 100% the same dysfunction when using your fingers to touch!! And switching between Display Profiles (from studio to Tablet setting) also doesn't change the dysfunction. If you can name me a windows device/tablet, where you can grab and drag a single automation point with your fingers, i would be very happy to hear about it. But it doesn’t exist, sadly.
If they do a function where i could render as loop like in Live and FL Studio, i would not think two times before buying a license.
and we need scale highlighting
Great video, even though a bit too long ;)
Bitwig has't, well... touched the touch features since they were released in v1.3 :(
However, 80% of your FRs are related to live performance, which is a very small portion of user base, so I'm hoping they'll not throw ALL dev efforts towards it :)
Personally, I want midi and hybrid comping, midi capture, alias/linked clips, note step input, scene follow actions, an action called "play the same clip/scene from start" (I often loop clips of weird length in a regular 4/4 music), new synths based on additive, granular and physical modelling synthesis, pattern tracks, sidechain inputs for all midi & audio triggered modulators. Basic stuff, really ;)
Bitwig really needs to touch the touchfeatures😅
I think except for "live performance" and some of my "interface" FRs, also the non-live-performers would greatly benefit from all of the FRs:)
I absolutely understand your concerns though, i wouldnt want Bitwig to go "all in" on anything which makes too many users feel neglected! It's quite a task to prioritize FRs.
"Scene follow actions" i forgot about those!
"Play the same clip from start" - i m not sure, but isn't that possible since Bitwig 5, when the new next action button is activated?
@@sternenherz I tried everything and I couldn't make e.g a 3/4 clip start looping again after e.g. 4 bars. It can be done oscillating between two copies of the same clip in a block.
please, no more devices before these other things are taken care of : (
@@Artek604 haha i just realized you made the "linked clips" feature request on bitwish, right? :D
@@sternenherz Technically the admin of Bitwish took my KvR post and turned it into feature request. But yeah :)
That outro beat is too fire!
SuperCollider integration would be nice. I'd love to write my own SynthDefs than can be played like any other plugin. Or write patterns that control other plugins.
I know it will never, _ever_ happen, but I can dream, dammit!
i also dream of a daw like this. it can kinda be done by routing midi and audio between Bitwig and SC, but its cumbersome enough that i dont often bother
Im working only a few days w Bitwig. Great Daw. But only some day of playing around and I find many of your issues too. Especially the music theory functions like Chord Track. Assign a key to song and show pressed chords in piano roll .... the modular concept is awesome...
i have no live intensions so I stay at my current daw and don't switch :-)
Yo Bitwig hire this guy as UI/UX intern
Great list! Also, expanding your request about UI tweakability, this maybe very subjective, but I find Bitwig's very high contract colour scheme nice but quite hard to look at for long periods of time; I think it should be tweakable and themeable like in Ableton where it's very simple but efficient. Bitwig should be at least able to switch between light and dark colour themes which almost every app already does in 2023!
And yes, I second the chord tracks request! Or at least display which chord the selected MIDI notes form.
Continuing with the topic of UI / UX, I would also like to have a lane for articulations. That is done very well in Cubase as far as I remember, basically you have another lane in the bottom of the piano roll which displays current articulation. You select a portion of the timeline (or some MIDI notes) and change the articulation, and that is reflected in the lane.
The thing with these UI / UX fixes, Bitwig don't even have to invent anything, it is already implemented (mostly) in different DAWs and tested by time :)
As for the looping fix, I don't think the fix you mentioned is very easy to implement: it requires tracks below the current to have exactly the same settings as the current track; imagine the user has something completely different on those tracks. What should Bitwig do then? I'm not saying it's impossible but I just don't think it's an easy fix. Maybe it can be implemented as 'clip folders', similarly to comping in Ableton, but instead of playing only selected clip, play all of them at once; then, after the jam, the user could 'explode' the folder into many identical tracks and work with those.
Themes/interface options are high up in the feature request ranking yea. Concerning the "record in next free scene slot", i m not sure if i get what you mean - because i don't see the problems you see. First and foremost, this feature is required for having audio-overdub-capabilities And it would be the responsibility of the user to make sure that the currently selected Track has several usable "ready-made" Tracks below, to make a proper overdub recording! Besides, if "imagine the user has something completely different on those tracks" is refering to the case where the user already has a recorded CLIP in the Tracks below - those Track will of course be excluded automatically, hence the name of the function "Record in next FREE scene slot" :) Furthermore, as you already mentioned, using Groups would make the whole thing extremely easy, as "next free group slot" would just automatically stop, when the whole group is full of new clip recordings. Also, i wouldn't even see any problem if the "record in next free scene slot" function just runs through the whole project and records in each and every Track which has empty slots -> it would switch from Audio to midi Tracks without any problem, wouldn't it, just like when you press the downarrow on your keyboard? It would be the responsibility / the skill of the user to make use of it and record some awesome musical patterns ;)
@@sternenherz yes, if we assume this to be the user's responsibility to organise and prepare their workspace accordingly, then it would work! :) I missed you mentioned 'FREE' slot, right :) then we're good! I was just concerned about user not fully realising what they are doing and messing up the project. But yes, I guess it's an advanced performance feature and thus should be used with knowledge :)
Very insightful video. About Touch Control however, can't you get a Stylus pen for your Touchscreen Monitor, or if it's not supported, get a Touchscreen Monitor that features Stylus input?
Hello, thank you! :) my touchscreens dont support a pen, and i honestly dont want a pen. For faders, clips and almost anything important to me for live performance/jamming, fingers on a 24inch screen are 100% accurate enough. Hence my complaint that the "good" functionality is restricted to pens: i want the same for "real touch" as i call it
the simple ability to use a daw as a looper and hang onto all the layers as audio tracks would be an instant buy for me.
Yea, but that’s why i built a Looper for Bitwig on my own :) (it's one of my newer videos)
Precise editing is impossible with touch controls because your finger gets in the way. I prefer a Wacom tablet with a stylo.
Yea, my main complaint is not lack of precision, which of course will always be limited to the fingertipsize - i just would love to be able to edit certain areas of the interface AT ALL. :D I wouldnt use touch control much for the production phase, it’s 99% about adjusting things while live-jamming, which of course is something almost no musician does, thus i m relatively alone in my workflow: live jamming with 2 24inch touchscreens ;) Thankfully i ve built my own touch osc interface now which almost replaces the Bitwig interface
@@sternenherz I see. Yes, maybe it makes more sense for jamming. I have a Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga 460. Might be fun...
God tier video!
Great video.
Re: automation, I feel like that with Reason4, I haven’t used it in.. 13 years? But I remember the way it put automation into its own clips, independent of notes, was amazing. You’d set a default value, for when the play head isn’t over a relevant automation clip, it didn’t read the situation like a continuous graph that could break as you cut and paste sections in your track.
The “automation simplify” tools. Were super useful.
Compared to that, ableton ^and^ bitwig, feel like swimming through glue 🤣
Plenty of other reason features came far too late for me to stick with the platform.
But I’d love if bitwig could implement some of these features that made this part of its sequencer so great.
Thanks!
Oh yes, i heard about Reasons way of handling automation now - if i would have known earlier, i might have included it in the video, since it appears to be a very smart way!
The more i went into the whole user experience and features topic, the more i would love to make my own DAW, haha. Would be awesome, but i can’t program at all.
28:39 It's the "Toggle Active" keybind that you're looking for, it also works on entire tracks and individual Grid modules.
P.S. Linked clips is my top request switching from FL, it makes iterative composition so much easier.
When I was looking to switch my main issues were lack of custom MSEGs, seeing v5 have them integrate into it's system that lets you build your own behaviors and create an infinite amount is such a relief now.
Also, I never realized the lack of grid lines as someone who uses 95% MIDI but that would be very useful, along with being able to see MIDI notes at all arranger track sizes.
im going to implement a chord generator in Bitwig
That LIFE...or ....LIVE......
or Yeah ,.....Bitwig.....
p.s. Soundesign , modulation , Midi controller device Banks , Grid...
and some other fancy stuff are really cool and I think Ableton will never have that... awesomeness... even in 10 years..
But capture even a crap looper and all the other stuff you miss ,... I miss too and brings me often back to Live too
....
......Thats LIFE
I built a looper for Bitwig, it’s my latest Video, feel free to check it out :)
23:04 and speaking of handles.... in Live's MIDI editor, when a loop bracket extends beyond the visible screen, hovering over the end of the visible portion causes a small handle to appear on the loop indicator. This handle allows you to drag the end of the loop to adjust its length. The is extremly handy for large loops or if you are zoomed in. However, in Bitwig, how often did I have to zoom out of the current MIDI view just to see the end of the loop selection, before I could grab the end of the loop indicator. super annoying.
Just recently, with 5.1 beta 5, they changed the way the arranger loop bracket is handled, in a very good way, modifier keys for start and end loop. Especially with beta 6 now it feels great. However, i m not sure if the clip detail view has the same smooth loop bracket behavior - cant test it right now. If the loop bracket of the clip detail view still doesnt have that new behavior (you could end the loop bracket with ctrl+alt+click immediately), then let's write that suggestion to Bitwig :)
YesYesYes!!! I thought I was the only ony hating the time range selection always getting in the way, it's highely frustrating !!!!! Please Bitwig make the time range optional or come up with a better approach but this SUCKS!!
wow what a video! well done.
As per lore, Ableton implements one user suggested feature every 10 years.
Hahaha yep. I hope Bitwig will always have a better rate than that!
I asked years ago, for a glide button in the key track modulator. Simular to uvi shade.
It makes such a difference, when modulating filter cutoff by key tracking. So you wouldn't get those ugly jumps, you usually get without glide.
Maybe that's a function licensed by uvi otherwise I see no reason, why it's not in there allready 😢..
And I do hate, when you colaps autmations that you don't have a visualization of them in the clip. But maybe that's just me beeing unable to use bitwig properly 😅
Concerning Automations: Do you mean, you want to see Automation within the Clip, exactly like in Ableton? That's not possible, no. However, when using the Cliplauncher in Arrange-view, the Automationlane gets "baked" into the Clip, visually, so technically, it's "within" the Clip there, hehe. Just not within Clips in the Arrangement Timeline
@@sternenherz I mean in the arrangement view. When you do automation there, but not inside a clip you can't see it on the lane, when you colaps then. I come from FL and there it's everything kinda Messi, but you are able to just through automations on a lane and more over it and see everything 😅... You can aswell make one automation and have it automate completely different things on different instruments and different lanes, but that's FL...
@@leonfriedemann9151 One Automation-Lane controlling many different things on different Tracks is possible with global modulation :) Here's a tutorial. It works differently than FL though, of course.
ruclips.net/video/UHust6xONJg/видео.html
I want to be able to quantize wave onsets in one click in the clip view.
Hope bitwig watches this
midi comping is my #1
It's ALWAYS some changes, LOL.
I've been trying Bitwig for at least 2 years.
Ableton is so much better still.
Absolutly agree!