The Bitwig evaluation thread

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.

Bitwig is...

Awesome: well designed, suits my workflow, I am gonna switch
18
13%
A curate's egg: Good in parts. But there are flaws and missing features
51
36%
Meh: a big letdown. Bring back Cakewalk!
17
12%
I don't know. It's too early to tell.
40
28%
What's Bitwig?
15
11%
 
Total votes: 141

ezelkow1
Posts: 366
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Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by ezelkow1 » Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:48 pm

Angstrom wrote: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.
Wondered if you would comment on the browser :)

One thing I did notice, while it did the initial scan pretty fast, once I shut it down and re-opened it later at the bottom there was an 'indexing' message about all my samples basically running for the next hour or more that I used it until I closed it again. At least it did make the samples available while it was doing this though, but I do wonder what it was gathering during all this indexing

Angstrom
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Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by Angstrom » Thu Mar 27, 2014 8:53 pm

It's quite hard to comment on their browser because I've not really used it. In the case of Ableton Live I had a lot of content that I was hoping to group and sort, I had my own content, and I had some factory content I liked and had re-edited, and I had some factory content I didn't like and wanted to hide.
but in the case of Bitwig I don't have all that to judge it by, I haven't the depth of content.

I could list what I don't like about their browser, but having only used it very briefly on nearly no content it's hard to comment.

That said : this is what I like.
  • the visual division between different items is very clear,
  • limited used of colour and iconography helps separate different types of element
  • the use of panes is nice, with a coherent metadata section
  • it has (some sort of) non-exclusive tagging system for users
  • when you textually filter a main category the filter remains associated with ONLY that category.
  • when you move between browser categories and all the sub folders remain open - meaning you can keep your place in each section and move back and forth.
  • you can browse your computer files & locations directly ! :wink:
Of course, I have no idea what I am doing here.

A comparison: looking at the same file in both browsers.
Image

It's smaller and delivers more information more clearly.

Tags, a bit like NI's method, but not quite as good.
Image

I fully expect Ableton to step up their game with the Browser in Live10 of course. L9 was the Windows Vista as far as the Browser went.

Samuel L. Jizzle
Posts: 466
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 12:42 am

Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by Samuel L. Jizzle » Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:20 pm

Here's a deal breaker for me, unless I'm overlooking something: I couldn't find a way to use a kick within a drum rack as an external side chain source for a compressor on another track. This makes Bitwig significantly less modular than Live, hence: :x

Image

Image
Last edited by Samuel L. Jizzle on Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ezelkow1
Posts: 366
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2009 6:22 pm

Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by ezelkow1 » Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:31 pm

yea I dont think you can. You cant pick individual elements from other racks to use as inputs to other things, sidechain or otherwise. You have to take entire tracks audio output, or maybe just whole devices (cant remember which at this point)

Samuel L. Jizzle
Posts: 466
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 12:42 am

Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by Samuel L. Jizzle » Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:32 pm

Well there goes my workflow. :x

infernal.machine
Posts: 1051
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:34 am

Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by infernal.machine » Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:34 pm

I think a major plus to sticking with Ableton is that funken is banned from these forums :roll:

eyeknow
Posts: 5822
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:16 am

Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by eyeknow » Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:42 pm

H20nly wrote: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. :D
Which one did you get??????

andydes
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Location: Bremen

Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by andydes » Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:48 pm

I was disappointed as soon as they started releasing details of what they were up to.

They placed it in exactly the same position as live, with the same mix of real time mixing and production functionality. Sure, there's some different features, some new, some missing, but it's it's a direct competitor. Presumably all the things they wanted to do at ableton, but weren't allowed.

If they'd done something different, for example concentrate on making the best live performance program they could, with a little studio capability, or dare I say it, did something no one had thought of before, I'd have been interested.

If you ask me, should have done something to compliment Live, not compete with it.

geekbeats
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Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by geekbeats » Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:20 pm

I fully expect Ableton to step up their game with the Browser in Live10 of course. L9 was the Windows Vista as far as the Browser went.

Perfectly stated!

stringtapper
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Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by stringtapper » Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:22 pm

So far the only thing I've found that seems fresh is the one-click modulation routing. That's actually pretty awesome.
Unsound Designer

deva
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Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by deva » Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:46 pm

stringtapper wrote:So far the only thing I've found that seems fresh is the one-click modulation routing. That's actually pretty awesome.
I agree it is awesome... for Bitwig devices... not so awesome for VST's

One Reason
Posts: 89
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2011 12:04 pm

Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by One Reason » Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:48 pm

stringtapper wrote:So far the only thing I've found that seems fresh is the one-click modulation routing. That's actually pretty awesome.
Maybe Ableton can include that in next update.. u know in return for Bitwig thieving 80% of their DAW :mrgreen:


My feelings on Bitwiggy are as follows;


After the long wait pretty bummed that my APC 40 is not working the same as it would in Live.. To bitwig, apparently its just another mappable controller now. Meh

my MPK61 controls also arent mapped. Meh

I assume this is because they will be pushing their own controllers and keyboards.

also not digging the position of the transport and some of the other frequently accessed buttons.

Instability problems, had to close it almost everytime via task manager, wont close by itself. :x

Its a few parts from different daws added to live 9.. with better graphics... but no themes or way to adjust colors \ brightness.

the record buttons red is overpoweringly bright and all in too.. too ... much.... orange.

The menu font must be for blind folks, too black too bold.

Renamed... Orangecrashwiggy.

Just my initial feedback. :D

Machinesworking
Posts: 11416
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Location: Seattle

Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by Machinesworking » Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:05 pm

OK this is pretty big! 8O
As stated in another thread I was interested in doing a CPU test.
The Machine is a Mac Pro 8 core 2.66 Xeon with 24mb RAM, RME Fireface interface.

[[[ The caveats- Live 8 32bit VS Bitwig 64bit and DP8 64bit.
I'll run the same test with Live 8 64 bit later when I download and instal it. Ableton claim no difference in CPU but I seem to recall a 10% bump? Also since DP beat the crap out of the other two so badly I didn't bother raising it's buffer to 256. ]]]

Massive running the patch 1991 single bass not, 8 bars with an audio loop of a guitar note playing as well.

Live: 15 instances.
256 sample buffer.
Activity Monitor showing 312% CPU

Bitwig: 38 instances
256 sample buffer.
Activity Monitor in OSX shows around 750% CPU usage on the three threads Bitwig has there.


Digital Performer: 60 instances
This is at a 64 sample buffer!
Showing 1,499% CPU. DP seems to be handling multithreading/virtual cores very well.

So Bitwig beats the shit out of Live CPU use wise, actually kind of surprising.
Last edited by Machinesworking on Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

panten
Posts: 924
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Location: South of London

Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by panten » Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:08 pm

Metronome in Bigwig is better. Play Ticks.

1.234 2.234 3.234 4.234

Awesome.

Machinesworking
Posts: 11416
Joined: Wed Jun 23, 2004 9:30 pm
Location: Seattle

Re: The Bitwig evaluation thread

Post by Machinesworking » Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:11 pm

panten wrote:Metronome in Bigwig is better. Play Ticks.

1.234 2.234 3.234 4.234

Awesome.
If anything in Live is total shit, it's the metronome.

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