The Great BitWig Migration

[wehkah]

When they will offer a 199€ introducing sale im on it.

[designwebuk]

Well I have been playing around with BitWig for the last couple of days and I must say, it is very easy to use and there are some great new innovative features.
If you come from Ableton, you will find it very easy to pick up. Some of the key commands are the same and many of the plug-ins look and feel the same.

Having invested in Ableton Suite, Push and many Ableton Live packs, I don't think I would jump ship and to be honest, even though Bitwig has new features that Live does not have, Ableton has lots of features that Bitwig does not have.

Bitwig is a brand new code base, built from the ground up using the latest technology and it does run very efficiently. The UI is very slick and the animations are top notch.

However Ableton may have it's faults, but I think it still offers a lot more than Bitwig at this time, but that could change if Ableton don't start listening to their customers a bit more.

The features in Bitwig that I would like to see in Live, are features that Ableton customers have been asking for, for ages.

The features I would like to see in Live are:

1. Edit audio in clips
2. Layered midi editing
3. Better VU displays and more metering options
4. Sharper UI, Ableton does not seem as sharp in contrast to other DAW's
5. Bounce in place
6. Hybrid tracks
7. More view options

Anyway if you have not tried Bitwig, give it a blast, I do like it and will be watching it's progress.
I just hope the Ableton dev team are watching and step up to the plate and give us the features we need.

[eyeknow]

I really don't get a lot of the comments in these threads, aren't people getting there music made in Ableton?

Nope, you have to have bitwig to make the fat beats!

On a serious note, I am. But apparently many people are having problems with live. For them I hope bitwig is what they want (though reports are that it's really not, at least not yet)

[Grappadura]

You really need to work with bitwig for a while in order to appreciate it. Its impossible to say if live is better than bitwig or the other way. It depends entirely on your workflow. Right now thinking, bitwig is way better for me to get things done, while live might be better to fool around. Live is better for many things, no doubt. Bitwig is still limited compared to live, but it might be a good limitation for getting things done. Specially because the GUI is very well designed in terms of functionality.

f. i. there is a cool button that will stretch or shorten your arrangement clip by 2. (Not talking about doubling, its stretching. I know live has something similar but it doesnt work as smooth as here. You click it, and the clip doubles in size, without you having to set new clip lenght. Its a lot of small pleasant improvements that Im attracted to)

[deva]

Specially because the GUI is very well designed in terms of functionality.

Unless you primarily work with VST plugins and then it isn't.

[eyeknow]

I have no doubt that bitwig is a cool product. My musings and fun poking are not to say it's shit, just that I'm happy with what I have.

If it had a good price point I'd be more interested (from a buyers perspective) but at that price, and what I'm hearing from people, I'm avoiding the demo like a plague. BUT it is of great importance for me because it's the closest thing to a direct competitor for live.

1.03 was apparently just released for you guys....

[fishmonkey]

my favourite tragic irony so far is the fact that delay compensation for automation is actually a bit fucked up in Bitwig...

[eyeknow]

Well, we don't really know that. In fact, bitwig wrote off a note saying that they are working on it. So, it's too early to tell. But yeah, if for ANY REASON they can't fix it, it's really going to put some people off.

[Willyum]

I really, really thought I would love the Edit Audio in Clips where you could add different things and mix it all up and stuff within one clip....
But I actually don't like it at all! Maybe I have gotten too used to looping a small area in arrange view, dropping clips, messing with them there THEN consolidating... But I really like that nothing is hidden in Live, a clip is a clip and you See the whole thing as it is and do what you need to do with it.

In Bitwig I found myself losing parts of files if I overlapped one piece of audio with another part of audio, then I'm trying to move start points... and it just felt really messy to me. I do however REALLY love the Bitwig metronome with the 'play ticks' button.
I really just think I was interested in 'New Skin' (like cheating on ya chic and coming back home).

[eyeknow]

I find some of the metronome comments interesting. I always thought of live's click to be good enough. Studio one has the ability to change the metronome dramatically, and it's "ok" but overall it's not really anything that is better in the sense I can hear it more or make better timed parts.

[Willyum]

I find some of the metronome comments interesting. I always thought of live's click to be good enough.

For faster tempo, 4 on the floor music I'm fine with Lives metronome, but once I'm working in the 70-90 bpm the clicks are just too far apart for me to get funky and keep proper timing. I usually have to make a double-time (8ths) clip and launch it (one and two and...). Bitwig does One 234, Two 234... (16ths) which is more than what I need but it doesn't interfere. And although I can create the timing clip, I'd really prefer to use my 'metronome' button on my apc to just cut it on and off when needed.

[Hermanus]

put time signature to 8/8 and you'll have enough metronome clicks in live

[eyeknow]

I find some of the metronome comments interesting. I always thought of live's click to be good enough.

For faster tempo, 4 on the floor music I'm fine with Lives metronome, but once I'm working in the 70-90 bpm the clicks are just too far apart for me to get funky and keep proper timing. I usually have to make a double-time (8ths) clip and launch it (one and two and...). Bitwig does One 234, Two 234... (16ths) which is more than what I need but it doesn't interfere. And although I can create the timing clip, I'd really prefer to use my 'metronome' button on my apc to just cut it on and off when needed.

Interesting

[Willyum]

put time signature to 8/8 and you'll have enough metronome clicks in live

I've done that in the past, a long time ago but there was something that bothered me about that... if I remember correctly it altered the grid and some of the tempo synced devices. I don't remember exactly but there was something big that changed when I went 8/8, it might have even been the clips. But thank you though for the suggestion.

[Willyum]

oh, and that was back when there was Global swing and I think it used to mess with that too... Also I think back then if you went into 8/8, newly recorded clips were recorded in the 8/8 time signature to match the global setting.