The Bitwig evaluation thread

[re:dream]

I know we've had lots of BW threads, but they have been speculative in nature. Finally the Black and Orange Daw is living in many people's App folders.

What do ppl think? What do you think of the new kid on the block?

[regretfullySaid]

The threads that were speculative in nature are now not speculative in nature because the software has been released and in those same speculative in nature threads people have been expressing their opinions after using the software so the threads are no longer speculative in nature but opinions expressed from using the software so they are no longer speculative in nature.

[re:dream]

Is that a fact?

[re:dream]

Anyway, I will start - after one hour of dicking around with it.

Unlike Mobile Mimesis, who is scared he /she is going to like BW, I wanted to like it. And I am struggling to. It feels meh. Probably just adaptation issues. Things that come second nature in Live just have to be relearned.

One lil feature that is very nice is the contextual menu to add effects. Instead of having to dwag them from de bwowser. That's kind of cool. Though it will become tricky if they have many more effects

[H20nly]

by reading the KVR and Live forums i was able to conserve the hard drive space. i know, but my iMac is aking... what's Bitwig?

[H20nly]

... and one could argue that hard drive space is cheap and drives are a dime a dozen...

so is janky software.

[Angstrom]

I've tried it out, and there's lots they have got right, and of course lots missing.
I of course didn't bother to read the manual - and managed to get some pretty interesting noises coming out of it with no problems. It saw all my 32bit and 64 bit plugins, it had an interesting manner of nesting devices that made for a fun play about. It handled automation nicely enough, and the per-note automation was novel and produced some new sounds for me. The package managgement is good, the update system works, the indexing of my audio and music drives was so swift I blinked and nearly missed it. The browser is good enough. the multi monitor system seem quite flexible. The multi-document facilities look interesting but are unavailable to demo users. There are lots of very good features which I have not seen before, and they are implemented well.

there are flaws

It's version one software. All version one software has things missing, that's why its called version one. If it had all the things it would ever have it would be called Version FINAL.

I amazed at the children with the attitude of "well, my Mummy is Ableton and I kiss her evey night and this thing a bad bad man so me not likey. not looking. not looking" .

It's just some version 1.0x audio software. It will be flawed, it will have bugs, it will lack features. Has anyone ever seen version 1.0x software before? Christ, as V1's go this is about as good as it gets. In fact some version 8 software can be worse. Yet I see people claiming that "in this day and age software has to be X and Z". Pure bullshit. There's nothing special about this day and age. When Live came out it didn't have half the features Cubase had and was roundly mocked by "professionals" for years and years, at least up until version 5, when it drew slightly ahead of fruityloops in acceptability to "pros"

So for fuck's sake stop making yourself look like imbeciles. It's just a product, by a company. It's not a new man fucking your mom.

Either it has enough USP to appeal to a small start-up consumer base or it doesn't. If it does, we will see a version 3. If it does not we won't. Now unbunch your knickers.

[kb420]

[H20nly]

for 399 i can buy a lot of knickers and bunch them up. then, i can surround myself in piles of them while i read all the complaints about this V1 software.

on a happier, much more productive musical side note; i got a fretless bass on Tuesday. it worked right out the box!.. and it came with all the features i want.

[Angstrom]

Oh yeah, I mean. My next, uh? £239 , I'll probably buy an Epiphone Dot. I very very rarely buy version 1.0x software. Because it's not finished yet.

I didn't buy version 1,2 or 3 of Ableton either - because it didn't have the features. I tried it out from time to time until it had the features. Then I bought it.

So to be clear: I find people freaking out about software they aren't buying to be pretty odd. Regardless of whether they think it's "hyped" or not. Why so emotionally invested?

I can say: I'm not buying this until at least version 1.5, and not realistically until version 2. I bought StudioOne v2, and ignored version 1 of that also. I am not emotionally invested, it's like buying a socket set, if it's got the bits I need I'll buy it.

But some people, I wonder how they get so emotionally attached to software products! I tried Bitwig out, it's pretty good, some nice features - but not quite ready for me yet. I

[H20nly]

But some people, I wonder what the fuck they do with their software that they get so attached.

normally i would wonder this as well... but then there's Ballbag. that is some serious software with a legitimate reason to be attached to it!

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=202999&start=0

[re:dream]

@ Angstrom - good points.

I think BW's biggest problem is not going to be misplaced customer loyalty, but just the hassle of new learning curves. Old dogs, new tricks, that kind of thing.

[Machinesworking]

As it stands Live 8 and DP 8 are working for me, it's always possible that Bitwig grabs me though. I like the LFO and how intuitive it is. I do like the look better in general, but a big clue to Bitwig would be that most people used to Mac OS don't like seeing a white curser, it reeks of a Windows port and all the bugs and problems thereof. Not a fan of the way looping works in it. There are probably good reasons for the things it does, but without looking at the manual it's kinda whack. The Polysynth is sweat, which was expected, the 'engine' crashes, so you don't have to restart Bitwig on a hard crash, just turn the engine back on. I'm not sold on it, but it could be where my money goes in a couple years, we'll see.

Have to agree with Angstrom on this. I have and have used Logic, Digital Performer, Reason, ReNoise, and Live to make music.
For the most part I use DP and Live these days. My progression was from Reason and DP 2, to Logic 4, abandoning Reason for the most part and adopting Live 3 into the workflow, by Live 6 using Live primarily then eventually abandoning Logic for DP 7. At this point I mostly use DP8 but whole songs get developed in Live 8. Loyalty to me means doing unproductive things like using Live 8 for the first year it was a buggy mess, same could be said for Logic 7.0, and from what I hear DP6 was never that great...

[stringtapper]

on a happier, much more productive musical side note; i got a fretless bass on Tuesday. it worked right out the box!.. and it came with all the features i want.

Pffft. Another hipster proselytizing about analog gear.

[H20nly]

my bass tones crush PBR cans on contact! the spilled gushing swill engulfs scarves and skinny jeans for miles!