Welcome to the enlightened path! I switched to Bitwig after using FL/Ableton for 15 years, after only using it for around 2 hours. This was over a year ago, I still keep finding amazing new tricks and quirks that makes this DAW so frickin' amazing. In the beginning I found a few frustration points, but all that needed to be adressed was my creative workflow to work around it, and now it's even faster than before. I have never been happier with any DAW.
I really appreciate you showing the workflow for both. I’m a visual person, so even if I know something, sometimes it won’t click until I see it. I’ve seen a lot of bigwig videos over the last few years, but yours is the first one that’s made me give it a shot.
Another thing is that the midi controller integration is just amazing out of the box. I have a launchkey mini and launchkey 49 and when you plug them in the buttons and sliders get assigned in a useful and reasonable way to specific things for each instrument or fx. These things are made for Ableton and while navigation works okay there, you kinda have to map everything by hand for each instrument or fx. In bitwig you even have a dedicated controller menu bar to tinker with your specific controller. That’s what did it for me!
This is what I was wondering about Bitwig! Ableton user for years and one of the main things keeping me from trying some other daws including bw are controller integration. Live is spoiled for choice with dedicated controllers and it would be a rough transition for me since I like tactile control. Thanks for the insight
For creative work, Bitwig ist massive. For straight linear mixing-work, I export stuff to Cubase. Having two DAWs for two different tasks helps me a lot. Live and Bitwig are inspiring ways to jam with myself. Cubase is the hub where I can go very deep at the mixing stage. Stop the DAW wars. :)
Agreed. I have main daws I use for production and I some daws I use strictly for mixing. Some daws are simply great at certain things why have restrictions. I understand the one daw principle if you are new, but vets should spread your wings. It's great for inspiration and yes Bitwig has been one of those daws since 4.3.
I agree!! And i just wish more DAW's would jump on the DAWProject train, that sh#t is fire!! The only thing i miss in Bitwig is the ability to change skin, or at least change the color of the timeline. I prefer working with dark backgrounds.
I’m a multi-DAW advocate actually. I enjoy mixing elements from various tools together for unique results. If starting out from scratch I’d agree with pick one until you master it.
I would agree with this, I have tried many DAW's and every single time I realize "Yeah, Reaper does that too", and often times better, and if it doesn't well someone probably made something that does. So, I have realized that sticking with Reaper and learning it inside and out has really helped me become a better and quicker producer. But, to each their own. @@9thplaceprizewinner
I studied Electronic Music Production at a Technical College and one of the Teachers put me onto BitWig Studio 5 for sound design which I love. I am back studying after a break and I have a student license and am looking forward to getting into BitWig
For the clip volume thing at the end you mention, if you hold down the number 2 key it will temporarily switch to the time selection tool so you can make a selection without having to worry about where you are on the clip. Then when you release the 2 key it’ll snap back to whatever tool was previously selected. That functionality works with the other tools as well, normally I always keep the pointer tool active and temporarily switch to other tools like that. It’s a nice workflow I think.
It is possible to work in multiple Ableton sessions at the same time! I use it all the time. Check "allow multiple instances" in the look/feel preferences🎉 (windows)
Bitwig is the best! As far as I know, you can transfer your project from Ableton to Bitwig. I recently started creating music and of all the DAW I chose this one. At first it seems difficult, but in principle not difficult. But the best part is that you can create a whole melody from a single note by applying modules. Everybody have a great day.
Welcome bro! Like how you focused on the user experience in the review but are so many more amazing features like the plug-in crash protection and the modulation system and so many more! Really feels like bitwig is ahead of the curve and are really innovating and pushing forward where ableton seems to be stagnating. They are constantly working on major updates too and are always improving! We just got v5 and they already just released another major update today! Love bitwig so much
Haven't even watched one second of this video mate... but that THUMBNAIL! WOW! Who could resist that click!?!? Please take note... thumbnail masterpiece, pat yourself on the back here.
I have found my past year in BW very pleasant. The overall engine, performance, tools, etc are all top notch. My ONLY issue is that it is very clearly built with a HEAVY emphasis on the modulators, which are entirely up to the user to build and understand in order to maximize the daws capabilities. It can be very overwhelming and even after a full year I only feel like I grasp 10% of what is possible. Obviously that’s a me issue, ymmv.
Though this won't be of use for your work with clients, for your own personal use, one of the more compelling aspects of Bitwig for me was the fact that I can open my Ableton projects in Bitwig which, depending on various factors, will be between 98-100% ready to go once opened. Of course, any further saving of the project from that point on can only be as a Bitwig project (which won't work in Ableton for obvious reasons) but the fact that I can continue work on my Ableton stuff with nary an interruption was a big part of the reasoning behind the choice of Bitwig as a new DAW.
I'm not very familiar with bitwig but I'm wondering how that is possible if you're using Ableton's stock plugins? Or are you talking about only using your own vst's.
@@Pazaluz I use both stock plugins and VSTs. Since Ableton and Bitwig both access the same VST folders, Bitwig will populate the VST slots with the appropriate VSTs. As for the stock plugins, Bitwig looks at what was used and recreates the Ableton plugins using its own onboard FX and that works really well.
Wow, that's actually impressive if Bitwig can do that. I might give it a try. I worked with FL for over a decade, switched to Ableton last year. Might as well try other DAW's. Thanks for the info.
The #1 reason why I'm using Bitwig is because it can do plugin sandboxing. Be sure to turn that on in the plugin section of settings! I use the "By plug-in" mode. The #2 reason is because (unlike Ableton) it can put third-party MIDI-to-MIDI plugins (such as Cthulhu) inline rather than having to devote an entire track to each such plugin. The #3 reason is because it starts up much much faster than Ableton.
The automatic tool switching (and lack of gridlines behind clips) is my number one complaint about Bitwig. I never got used to it, even after 1.5 years of daily usage. I still use Ableton and Cubase from time to time, and the muscle memory just tells you "you can click ANYWHERE in the arranger, to select clips". In Bitwig, you have to hit a specific spot in each track lane in order to have the right tool. Also, often times you accidentally hit the time range handle instead of the note range handle in the piano roll. This should be deactivate-able ASAP. You might soon find additional things which you miss from Ableton. For me it's Being able to scroll horizontally via Shift+Mousewheel. Being able to doubleclick in the piano roll to create notes based on Gridlength (instead of ALT+doubleclick) Being able to adjust automation points vertically without having the feeling you’re moving the mouse through pudding! Being able to quickly insert shapes in the automation lanes, and quickly create automation segments via selection + moving ONE point. Being able to play from the cursor in Detail View with CTRL+space. Having a one button audio quantization via warping. . In Bitwig, when you press record in the launcher while a long sustained note is already playing, the beginning of the clip will have a clearly audible ClickNoise. In Ableton, this never happens by default, due to the automatic Fade being active. Bitwigs AutoFade ONLY affects audio EDITS. No groove pool (only workarounds). No scale highlighting Playhead disappears when playback is paused. There’s no Looper / i ve made a feature request for turning the Cliplauncher into a Loopstation, which would be even better than a Looperplugin, it’s on Bitwish All in all, i prefer Bitwig, but it comes with downsides. I hope they will alleviate those. I made a 30min video about "5 reasons why i would love to switch to Bitwig, but still cant" - but i actually switched, since the downsides of Ableton are bigger 😅
Yo!! I watched your video while researching Bitwig, thanks for posting it. I have started to find some similar frustrations but im trying to find simple solutions like mapping the tools to keys that make it easy to switch, but dam I still miss the "I click and drag and things are highlighted." And the automation pudding is also a pain in the ass... time will tell but I still enjoy it more then Ableton.. at least for now.
@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE i'm honored that you watched my video :D On the positive note, IF Bitwig decides to add some of those 'basics', to me, it will be the best all-round-DAW ever.
"Also, often times you accidentally hit the time range handle instead of the note range handle in the piano roll." dude this is #2 that i hate about bitwig, this makes me mad sometimes big time. its unbelievable that they still have this BS. i hate it since the beginning of using bitwig like 2 years ago. and the #1 that makes me mad even a bit more is, that on some vsts you cant do stuff in bitwig and play the vst at the same time. you have to go back, click into the vst window, just then you can play the vst again. i have this on every izotope plug in. before i switched from cubase, i never heard of something like this. and its just mind blowing, that this still exist. after years and years of complaining. i love bitwig, but dude, those things just drives me crazy.
@@rallzam Hey dude, I think you can solve this VST issue by changing plugin-host mode to Within Bitwig in the settings. This will deactivate the anti-crash though, and is the reason why Bitwig never crashes if a VST crashes.
@@geggveck hey mate, thx for the tip. it works for the synth vst, but when i put some effect from izotope on the synth vst chain and start manipulate the effect, i cant play the synth anymore. after clicking into the synth window, it works again. but as soon as i start fiddeling in the effect, i cant play the synth anymore with the keyboard. its very annoying. but thank you very much anyway dude.
Omg as a programmer this looks like my dream daw. Contextual UIs, global pooup smart navigators, and deep keyboard control is essential in software you use daily
Nice first impression. Thank you! Bitwig is really great. I stumbled upon it while using Ableton with windows but was searching for a DAW for Linux. Had nearly the same experience, tried it for some hours and bought it right away and am happy since that day. Sure there are as well downsides, like in every other DAW , but overall it fits my workflow needs a lot and my wish to work under Linux. And for the nice tricks and little magic things, me and others creating videos to help others too.
I used ableton for 5 years maybe more. Learnt everything in that daw, bought the push 2. Basically all in on ableton. Then I buy the linnstrument one day and get bitwig 16 track free with it and discovered poly grid and boom. Never looked back, bought the full version and have been on bitwig for the past 3 years. Their approach is unmatched and by the time they incorporate all the features that people think are lacking in bitwig, they’ll do it so much better than almost every other daw if not every other daw in the market. The true DAW from the future.
I had to smile when I read your video title.. As a person who grew up with the birth of most all DAWs From Pro-Tools to Reason etc.. I at once fell for Ableton from its creation.. That was until Bitwig one came along.. As it was founded from some of the best coders from Ableton, I tried it out.. But like all Daws, it needed time to mature, and come into its own..So as I was with Ableton and knew it like the back of my hand, It was my go to.. On the 1st of January, a friend called ranting about Bitwig 5.1 After 2 days on the free trial, I was sold.. What a magical place Bitwig has become.. Just the sound quality out of the box is mind blowing.! Want a synth that only exists in your head.. Just build it in Bitwig ! Like you, I have to run multiple DAWs for clients that rent our Recording facility.. But anytime I play them a reference track I wrote in Bitwig, and they see “The Grid” no time is lost in downloading the trial for themselves.. With constant free updates, and open source code.. The sky is literally the limit.. Cheers, from Ireland/Germany 🔉🎶🎵🎵🎶
Great video showing some of the differences. Been using BW for over two years - really is a great DAW and becomes its own creative instrument. Never used a DAW with so many modulation/note FX/MSEG options and the real-time help feature is next level (no other program has anything like that). The only things I really dislike are the piano roll and sampler (Ableton's is better). Ableton also has the glue compressor -- BW really needs a good one.
@@tonogram buy it! its one of the best mastering compressors you can buy, trust me. i never heard a single person, saying anything bad about it. would be heresy anyway.
I left Ableton after one hour. The colorful UI is fantastic, the software is much more intuitive, easy to understand and the DAW is more cost effective. The Push 2 works perfectly with Bitwig with the DrivenbyMoss driver, so this is no reason to be locked into an antiqued design.
the waveform blocks are transparent in the automation lanes, click the hamburger menu of the track to fold it open in the arranger and see the transparent waveforms with the master track time division clearly visible
the modulation in bitwig, including track level and project level modulation / remotes is where ableton should have been at ten years ago. They really seriously dropped the ball and I think a lot of electronic producers will move to bitwig over the coming years as it becomes more widely known.
I've been in Bitwig for about a year now. I'm still a raving fan. There are things I wish were different, but I'm still taken back after 12 months in it. I came from Logic and Ableton, so a familiarity with the latter really took me a long way. I'm an audio engineer by trade, so Pro Tools will always be a necessity for big mixes and tracking sessions, particularly for my contract work. But when making my own content, I'm Bitwig all the way now.
Right now Abeltons R&D team is studying your video LoL. Awesome vid. I have dabbled with Abelton and probably still will as most use it as a daw of choice. However I am not completely commited and find Bitwig, which I have heard of before very interesting. Great stuff! 👊🧡👍
@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE I have yet to purchase a DAW soon... will definitely follow up on your experience with Bitwig for sure. I am running full on stand alone and not in a rush to get anything just yet. Keep up the stellar work for sure! ✌
The only thing that really caught my attention was that you can open multiple projects at the same time. Now that is a game changer when it comes to creativity. So many times I do not not know where my project is heading. Having all my ideas open parallel and the possibility of exchanging those ideas would be such a good thing for Ableton. Yeah, some will say you can use the session view for that but I'm an arrangement guy. And this is what I'm really missing.
Exactly ! Really don't understand why this is missing from Ableton. I know that you can drag&drop tracks, folders etc into a personal folder, and vice versa, but that doesn't cover the real need : being able to quickly get an idea out of your head, without interrupting the workflow. An alternative could be an ever-open idea-pad.
Love that you don’t ever need the audio engine active to copy and paste. I have a master template. With complex stacks and routing I can copy and paste from
Thanks for the video. It had some approaches to some of Bitwig's features that I hadn't considered. I would like to add at 12:10 that you can insert effects into the individual drum slots in the drum machine as well as after the drum machine device itself. Useful for creating treated percussion or "bit kit" samples.
Welcome to the BW community, there are a few things I miss about Ableton but I find myself opening it up less and less. Looking forward to some interesting content on Bitwig. My omg was the hybrid session and arrangement view, so useful for generating clip variations in timeline then just plonking in session view.
I like Abletons groove pool, I love that you can generate and save snapshots on macros and I like that Ableton allows for defaults devices for when you add tracks. Thats about it.
Really surprised how good this DAW is. The only things I miss are a quick freeze (BIP is not the same, needs two tracks to retain all instruments for later editing, and muting of the instrument track etc) and dynamic clip gain. Yes it HAS dynamic clip gain but you need to manually draw dots, you can't just use the range selector then grab up or down like in PT or S1 and Bitwig create automatic border nodes for you. There are so many midi plugins, so many ways to see info on your data, good performance, very clean GUI.. I have managed to learn how to use the program within 2 days without looking at a singe guide. I am comfortable enough with it already to create a song, mix it and automate it and export it. The delay compensation is just exceptional, it can keep everything in time with multiple linear phase plugins with massive delay, but the best part is, it can automate parameters of those plugins in time AND any plug in before or after the latent plugins in the same chain. You have no idea how many DAWs fail at this (hint, a lot, I have tested them all).
really tempting! thanks for the video. After the last ableton money grabbing "upgrade" I'm starting to consider switching some time. That audio/midi clip on the same track thing is really cool. I hate having to create separate tracks for that in Ableton especially in big projects that already have lots of tracks. What would you say is missing on Bitwig's piano roll that Ableton has?
Super video - made the switch about 3 years ago, and for the most part absolutely loving Bitwig, nevertheless I've still a tonne to learn as bitwig goes deep, very deep, and it would be awesome to watch your journey into using bitwig and the transition from Ableton. Interesting to try the ALS ableton import, and also the implementation of the DAWproject file import/export as time goes by, will make it super easy to switch between DAWs like bitwig and Studio One, as for me I prefer Studio One for final mixing and Bitwig for the creative/composing side.. Amazing times for music production, looking forward to your series on Bitwig, I'm sure I'll learn lots of new tricks, Awesome !
Today in Bitwig I added a global control to my project to pitch shift all my instruments with a single knob so I can try different keys - with both audio and midi tracks - and I can automate that control, modulate it, whatever. So cool.
I'm an ableton user considering switching to BW and your comment caught my attention. Is there a device to do what you mentioned or you had to spend a long time configuring it inserting devices on each track, assigning them to a macro knob, etc ? thanks
My biggest issues with Bitwig are the unchangeable orange palette, the inconsistent arrangement window (i wish it could be dark) and lack of retrospective recording. Other than that ive enjoyed messing around with Bitwig a lot these last few weeks, and deep diving into the keyboard shortcuts has helped me with ableton too since all the menu hotkeys are very similar (alt + b opens browser in BW, ctrl+alt+b does it in ableton). The amount of overlap between these two is wild.
Ableton or Bitwig , what ever you use is pretty powerful! But if your ideas are wack , it won’t matter what you use , your music will be wack. I won’t switch just because it’s a shiny new tool. Sound design techniques takes time to develop , switching DAWs may be a learning curve , maybe wasted time that you could have put into making music on a DAW you already have. Take it with a grain of salt
Well I hope your musical ideas aren't as wack as the ideas in your comment. They're both powerful but they have different workflows and capabilities, so they inspire you in different ways. It's not about shiny new tools, it's about the more tools you master, the less limitations on your creativity. A learning curve is more likely to be a positive thing than a negative one. Take it with a grain of salt
The moment i first installed bitwig in 2016, i knew it was the future. I cannot stress enough on how much i have argued with people and educated them about bitwig and how it pushes ableton to the grave.
I've always had a love/hate relationship with Ableton and have always preferred to work in Reason (and yes: Reason). But Bitwig looks like a happy medium between the two, and has some very convenient features above the two. People may defend their DAW of choice, but it's good to be informed that there may be other options out there with features that we didn't have before. Plus, it may not crash all the time, LOL.
Ableton can blow me. Last time I was supporting it, it couldn't even handle a 4K screen, if that's how they treat their users then I wont spend anymore time wasting my time. Fwiw, I was forced to learn using this in class whilst doing my bachelor, my lecturer was biased and we could never ever get unbiased "education" as the whole push (pun not intended) was for w/e reason that Ableton was a product the school was promoting. Work flow is what is important to me, and Ableton seemed counter productive when I was using it.
Another thing you may be interested in. Is the fact Bitwig can actually load up Ableton projects. And recently added support for OpenDAW format letting you open up projects in StudiOne too.... It's the future of crossplatform music making. The modular system in bitwig is completely unmatched too. I also personally LOVE the ui.... But I'm heavily biased towards Bitwig as I've been a user since version 1 :)
I actually had a few Ableton projects from old sessions that just wouldn't open, they would crash due to some plug issues... open great in Bitwig, saved the sessions! Love it
I just switched to Bitwig from FL Studio. That is because I don't like FL Studio crashes from time to time. It was way too many popups and it's not possible to set a negative offset to tracks (for slow orchestral instruments). Bitwig solves all that and more.
Bitwig has been super stable for me too. I legit got a little emotional the first time plugin sandboxing caught a session from crashing after a plugin crashed.
you should do a follow-up video covering the new changes in Ableton 12, specifically how some of those changes appear to be responding to features present in Bitwig.
1. You can easily drop down another session's tracks/clips/instruments/whatever and drag it onto your loaded session... i do this a lot actually. I also drop down samples in user library and have all my tracks/presets/favorites FROM OTHER SESSIONS. (Collect all and save puts everything piece by piece in the User Library). Ableton Live also allows dual monitoring for both session and arrangement view simultaneously. Also in Live 11 you can click "multiple instances" in the preferences and run multiple Live 11s simultaneously. [Which blew my mind] Ableton Live can also run other DAWS in Live as if they're another plugin [meaning... if you can do it in Bitwig, you can do it on a bitwig loaded in Live, destroying this concept of "theres things that can be done in this that cant be done in Ableton"] ... I'm not sure if any other daw can accomplish that. Also transients... every track has transients... you could split up any clip by transients... into a bunch of samples, grab any of these clips and add them into a new session. Thats a cool thing about Live, anything you want done could be done at least 5 different ways... you just have to put in the effort of learning how to.
2. There's audio effects drop down menu that does the same exact thing as clicking the plus sign in bitwig. A pop up with all the audio effects just like Live. There's no loading other things or whatever... it's all there on session view. Or if you saved a preset+clip in user library. Or favorites folder if you don't want a bunch of scrolling. But simply typing what you want in Live's search makes everything happen with 0 wait time. I have chains saved and labeled for specific type of sounds, I type in "sexy vocal chain" and BOOM... I have a full chain of vocal plugins in less than a second, simply drag that to my vocal clip [saved presets on the "sexy vocal chain"... mixing everything in less than a second]. The browsing speed is based on your RAM. Any standard PC today with a Solid State Hard Drive browses and loads any clip/plugin chain in less than a second.
I just switched from Ableton Live to bitwig, and I'm not comfortable with the browser...I was more used to Ableton browser. The new browser is nice but there's a learning curve...your tips about setting the default view of various browsers is neat...I'm going to try this out. I'm new to bitwig but I'm finding it like Ableton Live on steroids. Also my experience with hardware controllers has been very nice. I have installed some custom scripts for my midi controllers and I'm doing a lot of stuff without even touching a keyboard or mouse. Really fun when you can interact with software in a hardware-like manner.
im trialing different DAW's since i cant afford any of them right now, and let me say that Bitwig is going to be the one i buy. I went from messing with FL, to messing with FL and Ableton and comparing them, to now Bitwig. I installed it 3 hours ago... This is one of the best Software Experiences that ive had... EVER. not only DAW's
That’s awesome, welcome to the family. I’ve worked in so many different laws, I wish I would’ve found Bwigg earlier because it checks all the boxes I have now I’m in the long and tedious process of converting all of my projects from logic, studio, one, and Ableton to Bitwig
I'm using bitwig for a couple of years now and I still learn new things everytime i use it. Sometimes I miss little things of ableton (have bin a user) but overall I love Bitwig and not planning to switch again
Ableton user's take on Bitwig-- Zactly ,, what i was lookin' for-,, -- i jumped to Ableton years ago because i loved what seemed to be endless possibilities to manipulate audio-,, still ride for it but yea-,, honestly.... i've started using session view alot more than i used to-- but the holdback was always,, damn,, i need to change this loop.. or i need this particular part shorter,,- so jumping into Arrangement view is definitely counter productive,, and honestly when i explain that point to people that are thinking of using ableton ,, they're like ? .? huh? that's dumb -so then why are u in session view?..-- Anyway,, thanks for the thorough breakdown-,, Really appreciate the time taken-,, .. .
I would like to hear more on your BW experiences onward. I was or I'm thinking about it too. But then again, the third sequencer switch in one life time kind of sucks. I also love Ableton's Push powers especially since the the third version is a standalone. A hybrid setup is still is one of my final goals. Unlike others maybe, Ableton Session View is the unique selling point, the wonder-Pony, feature set of Live. I need to take a look at BW myself, and how automation, modulation presentation in Bitwig session view, and all of that jazz is taken care off. I do hope Ableton is paying attention on the great things in BW.
@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE I'm going to dive in as we speak. There's no way I can test BW setup in 30 days, especially with the things I want to investigate. I've found a a way to rent to ownership. In the past I've seen solutions for the Push controller for the usage on BW. But honestly, I'm not expecting a deep level of integration between the two. I think I will be more surprised by the BW philosophy on the music production thing. Both in session as in the arrangement view. But really, I'm hating that third hop to a new sequencer. I'm also thinking on the addition of Max devices to Live witch make the whole experience almost picture perfect. The time has come to brake or bust the BW-hype. :)) Looking forward to your experiences on BW!
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I was FL user and then switched to Ableton. Then I encountered couple of Bitwig videos and people in the comments were reacting it like it's a merged power of Ableton and FL. And it's still something in my mind to check later on, but as you said, my business is going inside Ableton currently and I don't have much time. I very liked the things you shared here. Very very interesting and could be extremely useful for speeding up. Yet at last, those little frustrations are great minuses for me. I switched to Ableton for everything is in one screen, nothing continuously pops up like in FL but just to drag a clip, if I'll have to change my tool or if I'm gonna encounter that gain indicator (seriously, how often do we arrange the gain in itself, right?) so if you find a way to turn that shit off, that seems pretty appetizing. As you said no DAW is perfect. I still don't understand how in Ableton's arrangement view CTRL and SHIFT do the same thing for highlighting clips. You know what I mean, in note view/piano roll, with CTRL we can choose different notes but in arrangement view CTRL behaves like SHIFT. Unbeliavable. In that case, I find Ableton kinda otistic, it's able to do hardest tasks but these little but extremely important things were unfortunately overlooked. Or just to create a clip, hitting CTRL + SHIFT + M is still pain in the ass imo. Like what were you guys thinking when you were putting this shortcut? Ahaha. Anyway. We'll see. In the future, if I can find a peaceful time, I'd like to inspect Bitwig.
Some cool points…that hybrid track is slick…you can edit your face off in Ableton session view by using simpler and sampler, don’t see that as a win for bitwig… Definitely not enough for me especially considering I’d have to give up M4L which I use tons of in every project, and various native Ableton instruments I love. For a person choosing new, maybe so. FYI, to your first point, you can easily bring assets from any Ableton project into an existing one at a very granular level. It might be nice to actually flip back and forth and work in two projects at once but I haven’t ever needed that as much as needing access to assets from any existing project, which Ableton has on lock. Nice run down…thanks.
hahaha, exactly the same here, i think after 4 hours even :) for me (especially for playing livesets) the sandboxed plugins is a game changer as well. When a plugin crashes it doesn't crash the whole DAW.
Hey man, im looking for a daw to learn. I bought FL and since then i tested myself out here and there. I always threw an eye on ableton and am close to buying it. Now I found your vid. Would you rather recommend bitwig over ableton for a person, who learns from 0?
I would say they are both going to have a learning curve. If I was starting new, I would do Bitwig, even though Ableon is more popular. I will have a multipart series coming up, starting from zero to completed track. Stay tuned, it should help.
Thanks for the video. Since I prefer to work OTB I’m still searching for the right daw beside my setup. So far looked into Reaper and Logic. How is bw handling outboard gear and synths?
Bitwig has it's annoying parts too (not being able to pitch an audio clip by semitones??) but at least it doesn't crash if you unplug your headphones or take 10 minutes to load plugins. The search functionality, the better automation, and the sheer speed at which it loads things is just *SO* much better. Some parts of ableton feel stuck in 2004.
So have you tried Reaper? I'm asking because over the holidays I plan to woodshed on a DAW to use after starting a project on MPC. I don't care about virtual instruments -- have plenty of VSTs as well. I want something with great intuitive workflow ideally and high reliability. Less hassle, more efficiency. The less I have to stare at a laptop screen, the better. (I work in software industry during the day :) Thx.
I have never tried reaper before, but heard great things. The reason why I’m sticking with Bwigg is I really like the Ableton style workflow being able to switch in between a session and arrange review
I was never an Ableton fan but made the switch because I was moving away from a DAWless setup and thought Push was the solution… prior I was just using Logic as a recorder. I’ve gotten used to Ableton but find it phenomenally clunky, however I’ve really enjoyed the M4L aspect and a few of its FX. This past weekend I was at Superbooth and stopped by the Bitwig booth, where they gave me a great demo. I went home and downloaded the Studio 8 track version and after 1 day I was sold. This weekend they had a 10 year anniversary price to upgrade and I went for it. What an amazing DAW, somehow it’s the first time I feel inspired to use the computer. For me it’s like Ableton with the comfortable simplicity of Logic, minus the tacky skeuomorphic design. Gonna sell the Push and just live in Bitwig.
2:20 mate just a tip, you dont have to activate the project to paste it in or copy it from. now those in the video are small projects you have, they load fast. but when you have big projects it takes some time too load them, thats why its much quicker just to copy and past without activating the project.
@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE yes! i have templates for mastering, building snares or kicks and so on. where there are specific analysing tools right for the task. and sometimes you have some old unfinished project, where you have some nice synth or what ever and you want to try it in your actual project... it works very fast, when you dont activate the project, where you want it to take from. i dont know any daw that can do stuff like this.
I’ve tried for a day or two, I’m learning bitwig at the moment after several years with Ableton. I feel naked without my max for live devices and rack presets.
There are always exceptions. I think you should master your workflow(s) and adapt softwares to the way(s) you work. In addition, different DAWs may inspire different approaches, leading to different results. Reason might put me in a mindset different from how I may approach creating in FL Studio, Cubase, etc. In addition, there may be tools available in 1 DAW that may not be available in another. Or there may be tools in 2-3 DAWs that function the same, but employ nuances that may affect the result. There are some DAWs better suited for Mixing, where some are better for production. They're just tools. Because I know how to use a screwdriver means I shouldn't use a drill? No. Learn how to use all the tools, and pick the one that is best for the task is my philosophy.🤷🏽♂️ EDIT: btw I plan to use your video to get familiar with Bitwig. The presentation was on point! 👍🏾
@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE there is no competition at the end of the day, use what works, but its funny he obviously doesn't know ableton fully either to settle for some of these bigwig subtleties... Madness tbh
You can actually allow Ableton Live to open multiple instances of itself from the settings and open multiple projects. Its not as integrated and clean like how Bitwig does it with the tabs.
I have a Macbook Air, and am very grateful I can zoom Ableton's GUI to the exact size where my aging eyes can read it, and no larger (for maximum interface real estate). *¿¿Can Bitwig's GUI also be precisely zoomed??*
Great vid. Yea I think it’s good to not become tribalistic about what DAW you use. My friend told me about Bitwig in 2009. I probably should have listened to him 😂
Best part about this video is the legitimacy. Left ableton after 1 day with Bitwig and he has 29 days left in the 30 day trial. Would have been funny if the video title was "Left ableton after 22 days with bitwig". Good show.
Now fully on Bitwig and can’t imagine going back. I used to use Ableton when collaborating with other techno artists but now… I just ask for stems and dump into Bitwig. Love it.
Great video, thanks! And maaaan.... that audio editing in session view is so clean. I LOVE the session view in Ableton because it has encouraged some of the most fluid development and arrangements I've experienced yet. I use Push 2 with it and it's great. But it always baffled me that you can't edit the audio of an audio clip like this. As much as Ableton is a huge improvement from my experience with Logic, which I really DO NOT like for writing music, there are some features in Ableton that make me scratch my head haha. Overall, I'll still really happy with Ableton and have started using strictly stock plugins and love it. But I might have to try Bitwig. I only got Ableton Intro to give myself some serious time with the flow of Ableton, so I might do a similar thing with Bitwig.
@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE I'm definitely gonna give it a try. Hopefully Push 2 works pretty well with it. I really want to use the controller more than the mouse haha.
@remyvegamedia look up Drivenbymoss, it’s a free extension that has all the mapping for push 2 and Bitwig. Watch the videos and check the manual, it’s insanely powerful. On my little Akai fire I can do everything a push does
The best part about Bitwig is the tools they give you to create. It’s single-handedly the most creative software I have ever used
I’m starting to get fast on it. And only been a week. Lovin it
I agree and the built in synths are really nice as well.
bitwig native stuff is really really good - i try and use less and less 3rd party plugins
Welcome to the enlightened path! I switched to Bitwig after using FL/Ableton for 15 years, after only using it for around 2 hours. This was over a year ago, I still keep finding amazing new tricks and quirks that makes this DAW so frickin' amazing. In the beginning I found a few frustration points, but all that needed to be adressed was my creative workflow to work around it, and now it's even faster than before. I have never been happier with any DAW.
Loving it so far.
Me too. After 15 years)
I really appreciate you showing the workflow for both. I’m a visual person, so even if I know something, sometimes it won’t click until I see it. I’ve seen a lot of bigwig videos over the last few years, but yours is the first one that’s made me give it a shot.
Anytime, new video coming next week with a 7 day update.
Another thing is that the midi controller integration is just amazing out of the box. I have a launchkey mini and launchkey 49 and when you plug them in the buttons and sliders get assigned in a useful and reasonable way to specific things for each instrument or fx. These things are made for Ableton and while navigation works okay there, you kinda have to map everything by hand for each instrument or fx. In bitwig you even have a dedicated controller menu bar to tinker with your specific controller. That’s what did it for me!
Amazing!
This is what I was wondering about Bitwig! Ableton user for years and one of the main things keeping me from trying some other daws including bw are controller integration. Live is spoiled for choice with dedicated controllers and it would be a rough transition for me since I like tactile control. Thanks for the insight
Bitwig Studio Opens not only Ablethon projects, but also FL STUDIO. They've also implemented export to dawproject.
Amazing tip
ohh, that's crazy!!!!
it can open my Ableton projects?????? and it opens fl projectS???
@templeofg and studio One project
@@templeofg Yes 😛
For creative work, Bitwig ist massive. For straight linear mixing-work, I export stuff to Cubase. Having two DAWs for two different tasks helps me a lot. Live and Bitwig are inspiring ways to jam with myself. Cubase is the hub where I can go very deep at the mixing stage. Stop the DAW wars. :)
Ha! Agreed, they all have there benifits
Agreed. I have main daws I use for production and I some daws I use strictly for mixing. Some daws are simply great at certain things why have restrictions. I understand the one daw principle if you are new, but vets should spread your wings. It's great for inspiration and yes Bitwig has been one of those daws since 4.3.
I agree!! And i just wish more DAW's would jump on the DAWProject train, that sh#t is fire!! The only thing i miss in Bitwig is the ability to change skin, or at least change the color of the timeline. I prefer working with dark backgrounds.
Same, I use Bitwig for creating and I bounce everything and mix in Reaper.
Likewise. Bitwig for creative tinkering and sound design. FL Studio for arranging, mixing, mastering, and everything else.
I’m a multi-DAW advocate actually. I enjoy mixing elements from various tools together for unique results. If starting out from scratch I’d agree with pick one until you master it.
that's it bro 🍻
I'd argue pick one and learn the fundamentals on it and then explore the market and find which ones you want to master.
I would agree with this, I have tried many DAW's and every single time I realize "Yeah, Reaper does that too", and often times better, and if it doesn't well someone probably made something that does. So, I have realized that sticking with Reaper and learning it inside and out has really helped me become a better and quicker producer. But, to each their own. @@9thplaceprizewinner
I studied Electronic Music Production at a Technical College and one of the Teachers put me onto BitWig Studio 5 for sound design which I love. I am back studying after a break and I have a student license and am looking forward to getting into BitWig
For the clip volume thing at the end you mention, if you hold down the number 2 key it will temporarily switch to the time selection tool so you can make a selection without having to worry about where you are on the clip. Then when you release the 2 key it’ll snap back to whatever tool was previously selected. That functionality works with the other tools as well, normally I always keep the pointer tool active and temporarily switch to other tools like that. It’s a nice workflow I think.
Awesome! Thank you
It is possible to work in multiple Ableton sessions at the same time! I use it all the time.
Check "allow multiple instances" in the look/feel preferences🎉 (windows)
Wish it worked like that on a Mac.
Bitwig is the best! As far as I know, you can transfer your project from Ableton to Bitwig. I recently started creating music and of all the DAW I chose this one. At first it seems difficult, but in principle not difficult. But the best part is that you can create a whole melody from a single note by applying modules.
Everybody have a great day.
Its amazing. New video this coming week about Bitwig and vocal production, I like it better then protools.
Welcome bro! Like how you focused on the user experience in the review but are so many more amazing features like the plug-in crash protection and the modulation system and so many more! Really feels like bitwig is ahead of the curve and are really innovating and pushing forward where ableton seems to be stagnating. They are constantly working on major updates too and are always improving! We just got v5 and they already just released another major update today! Love bitwig so much
Do you know how to download the beta 5.1 that was just released?
Haven't even watched one second of this video mate... but that THUMBNAIL! WOW! Who could resist that click!?!? Please take note... thumbnail masterpiece, pat yourself on the back here.
I have found my past year in BW very pleasant. The overall engine, performance, tools, etc are all top notch.
My ONLY issue is that it is very clearly built with a HEAVY emphasis on the modulators, which are entirely up to the user to build and understand in order to maximize the daws capabilities. It can be very overwhelming and even after a full year I only feel like I grasp 10% of what is possible. Obviously that’s a me issue, ymmv.
It’s interesting because it looks somewhat “simple” on the outside but it’s soooo deep.
Though this won't be of use for your work with clients, for your own personal use, one of the more compelling aspects of Bitwig for me was the fact that I can open my Ableton projects in Bitwig which, depending on various factors, will be between 98-100% ready to go once opened. Of course, any further saving of the project from that point on can only be as a Bitwig project (which won't work in Ableton for obvious reasons) but the fact that I can continue work on my Ableton stuff with nary an interruption was a big part of the reasoning behind the choice of Bitwig as a new DAW.
I'm not very familiar with bitwig but I'm wondering how that is possible if you're using Ableton's stock plugins? Or are you talking about only using your own vst's.
@@Pazaluz I use both stock plugins and VSTs. Since Ableton and Bitwig both access the same VST folders, Bitwig will populate the VST slots with the appropriate VSTs. As for the stock plugins, Bitwig looks at what was used and recreates the Ableton plugins using its own onboard FX and that works really well.
Wow, that's actually impressive if Bitwig can do that. I might give it a try. I worked with FL for over a decade, switched to Ableton last year. Might as well try other DAW's. Thanks for the info.
@@PazaluzMy pleasure, glad I could help. 🙂
The #1 reason why I'm using Bitwig is because it can do plugin sandboxing. Be sure to turn that on in the plugin section of settings! I use the "By plug-in" mode. The #2 reason is because (unlike Ableton) it can put third-party MIDI-to-MIDI plugins (such as Cthulhu) inline rather than having to devote an entire track to each such plugin. The #3 reason is because it starts up much much faster than Ableton.
#2 is in next weeks video, love it!!
The automatic tool switching (and lack of gridlines behind clips) is my number one complaint about Bitwig. I never got used to it, even after 1.5 years of daily usage. I still use Ableton and Cubase from time to time, and the muscle memory just tells you "you can click ANYWHERE in the arranger, to select clips". In Bitwig, you have to hit a specific spot in each track lane in order to have the right tool. Also, often times you accidentally hit the time range handle instead of the note range handle in the piano roll. This should be deactivate-able ASAP.
You might soon find additional things which you miss from Ableton. For me it's
Being able to scroll horizontally via Shift+Mousewheel.
Being able to doubleclick in the piano roll to create notes based on Gridlength (instead of ALT+doubleclick)
Being able to adjust automation points vertically without having the feeling you’re moving the mouse through pudding!
Being able to quickly insert shapes in the automation lanes, and quickly create automation segments via selection + moving ONE point.
Being able to play from the cursor in Detail View with CTRL+space.
Having a one button audio quantization via warping.
. In Bitwig, when you press record in the launcher while a long sustained note is already playing, the beginning of the clip will have a clearly audible ClickNoise. In Ableton, this never happens by default, due to the automatic Fade being active. Bitwigs AutoFade ONLY affects audio EDITS.
No groove pool (only workarounds).
No scale highlighting
Playhead disappears when playback is paused.
There’s no Looper / i ve made a feature request for turning the Cliplauncher into a Loopstation, which would be even better than a Looperplugin, it’s on Bitwish
All in all, i prefer Bitwig, but it comes with downsides. I hope they will alleviate those.
I made a 30min video about "5 reasons why i would love to switch to Bitwig, but still cant" - but i actually switched, since the downsides of Ableton are bigger 😅
Yo!! I watched your video while researching Bitwig, thanks for posting it. I have started to find some similar frustrations but im trying to find simple solutions like mapping the tools to keys that make it easy to switch, but dam I still miss the "I click and drag and things are highlighted."
And the automation pudding is also a pain in the ass... time will tell but I still enjoy it more then Ableton.. at least for now.
@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE i'm honored that you watched my video :D On the positive note, IF Bitwig decides to add some of those 'basics', to me, it will be the best all-round-DAW ever.
"Also, often times you accidentally hit the time range handle instead of the note range handle in the piano roll." dude this is #2 that i hate about bitwig, this makes me mad sometimes big time. its unbelievable that they still have this BS. i hate it since the beginning of using bitwig like 2 years ago. and the #1 that makes me mad even a bit more is, that on some vsts you cant do stuff in bitwig and play the vst at the same time. you have to go back, click into the vst window, just then you can play the vst again. i have this on every izotope plug in. before i switched from cubase, i never heard of something like this. and its just mind blowing, that this still exist. after years and years of complaining.
i love bitwig, but dude, those things just drives me crazy.
@@rallzam Hey dude, I think you can solve this VST issue by changing plugin-host mode to Within Bitwig in the settings. This will deactivate the anti-crash though, and is the reason why Bitwig never crashes if a VST crashes.
@@geggveck hey mate, thx for the tip. it works for the synth vst, but when i put some effect from izotope on the synth vst chain and start manipulate the effect, i cant play the synth anymore. after clicking into the synth window, it works again. but as soon as i start fiddeling in the effect, i cant play the synth anymore with the keyboard. its very annoying. but thank you very much anyway dude.
Omg as a programmer this looks like my dream daw. Contextual UIs, global pooup smart navigators, and deep keyboard control is essential in software you use daily
Actually fully left ableton at the moment. Only time I’ll use is for ghost production if the client wants the project after.
Nice first impression. Thank you! Bitwig is really great. I stumbled upon it while using Ableton with windows but was searching for a DAW for Linux. Had nearly the same experience, tried it for some hours and bought it right away and am happy since that day. Sure there are as well downsides, like in every other DAW , but overall it fits my workflow needs a lot and my wish to work under Linux. And for the nice tricks and little magic things, me and others creating videos to help others too.
Amazing, do you have bigwig videos?
I used ableton for 5 years maybe more. Learnt everything in that daw, bought the push 2. Basically all in on ableton. Then I buy the linnstrument one day and get bitwig 16 track free with it and discovered poly grid and boom. Never looked back, bought the full version and have been on bitwig for the past 3 years. Their approach is unmatched and by the time they incorporate all the features that people think are lacking in bitwig, they’ll do it so much better than almost every other daw if not every other daw in the market. The true DAW from the future.
Im discovering more and more every day I use it.
I had to smile when I read your video title.. As a person who grew up with the birth of most all DAWs From Pro-Tools to Reason etc.. I at once fell for Ableton from its creation.. That was until Bitwig one came along.. As it was founded from some of the best coders from Ableton, I tried it out.. But like all Daws, it needed time to mature, and come into its own..So as I was with Ableton and knew it like the back of my hand, It was my go to.. On the 1st of January, a friend called ranting about Bitwig 5.1 After 2 days on the free trial, I was sold.. What a magical place Bitwig has become.. Just the sound quality out of the box is mind blowing.! Want a synth that only exists in your head.. Just build it in Bitwig ! Like you, I have to run multiple DAWs for clients that rent our Recording facility.. But anytime I play them a reference track I wrote in Bitwig, and they see “The Grid” no time is lost in downloading the trial for themselves.. With constant free updates, and open source code.. The sky is literally the limit.. Cheers, from Ireland/Germany 🔉🎶🎵🎵🎶
Hell ya man!!! I feel the same way when I use Bitwig, even after so many months I feel inspired when the simplest things are instant and logical.
Great video showing some of the differences. Been using BW for over two years - really is a great DAW and becomes its own creative instrument. Never used a DAW with so many modulation/note FX/MSEG options and the real-time help feature is next level (no other program has anything like that). The only things I really dislike are the piano roll and sampler (Ableton's is better). Ableton also has the glue compressor -- BW really needs a good one.
Fully agreed, ended up buying the cytomic glue plugin cause I missed it so much
What's so special about Cytomic's Glue Compressor?
I’m so used to how it sounds and dialing it in. I found some additional features on the purchased one that I’ll cover in the next video
@@tonogram buy it! its one of the best mastering compressors you can buy, trust me. i never heard a single person, saying anything bad about it. would be heresy anyway.
Hybrid midi/audio channels is an absolute gamechanger! That feature alone kinda makes me want to move from reason 12 to bitwig
I run reason as a plug in BW cause in love the synths
It is really cool, but not enough for everything I’d miss, starting with M4L community.
Excellent presentation! Bitwig looks amazing. I'm blown away by the browser and the keyboard shortcuts
Can’t go back to older workflow
Claes Johansson & other ones now developing Bitwig worked for Ableton for years shaping Live.
Bitwig Pro is the natural evolution of Ableton Live.
Completely agree!
I left Ableton after one hour. The colorful UI is fantastic, the software is much more intuitive, easy to understand and the DAW is more cost effective. The Push 2 works perfectly with Bitwig with the DrivenbyMoss driver, so this is no reason to be locked into an antiqued design.
ya, I don't miss the excel spreadsheet vibe.
the waveform blocks are transparent in the automation lanes, click the hamburger menu of the track to fold it open in the arranger and see the transparent waveforms with the master track time division clearly visible
Great work around
the modulation in bitwig, including track level and project level modulation / remotes is where ableton should have been at ten years ago. They really seriously dropped the ball and I think a lot of electronic producers will move to bitwig over the coming years as it becomes more widely known.
It’s amazing man !
Iv been hearing this for years
people wont move to bitwig till it looks like pocket tanks from 1994 and the sampler is shit. im a bitwig user btw.
Well they did add Max4live
I'm sticking with LIVE
Cheers 🥂
I made that move since they released Bitwig, and I don't regret it at all! Love the daw!
Im liking it more everyday.
Bitwig5.1 is goin wild. I am switching as well.
Thank you for your video.
Love and blessings!
I've been in Bitwig for about a year now. I'm still a raving fan. There are things I wish were different, but I'm still taken back after 12 months in it. I came from Logic and Ableton, so a familiarity with the latter really took me a long way. I'm an audio engineer by trade, so Pro Tools will always be a necessity for big mixes and tracking sessions, particularly for my contract work. But when making my own content, I'm Bitwig all the way now.
Same here. I mix on other DAWs when clients want it. But all my stuff is start to finish in Bitwig.
Been using bitwig for a couple of months after cubase and years of ableton.. bitwig is head and shoulders above the rest for work flow
Im finding that out every time I start it up.
Right now Abeltons R&D team is studying your video LoL. Awesome vid. I have dabbled with Abelton and probably still will as most use it as a daw of choice. However I am not completely commited and find Bitwig, which I have heard of before very interesting. Great stuff! 👊🧡👍
Would love to stick w Ableton but just having more fun and inspiration in Bitwig. Thanks for watching, going to have a follow up in a week.
@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE I have yet to purchase a DAW soon... will definitely follow up on your experience with Bitwig for sure. I am running full on stand alone and not in a rush to get anything just yet. Keep up the stellar work for sure! ✌
The only thing that really caught my attention was that you can open multiple projects at the same time. Now that is a game changer when it comes to creativity. So many times I do not not know where my project is heading. Having all my ideas open parallel and the possibility of exchanging those ideas would be such a good thing for Ableton. Yeah, some will say you can use the session view for that but I'm an arrangement guy. And this is what I'm really missing.
Exactly !
Really don't understand why this is missing from Ableton. I know that you can drag&drop tracks, folders etc into a personal folder, and vice versa, but that doesn't cover the real need : being able to quickly get an idea out of your head, without interrupting the workflow. An alternative could be an ever-open idea-pad.
Love that you don’t ever need the audio engine active to copy and paste. I have a master template. With complex stacks and routing I can copy and paste from
Same here. Bought it after a few days of using the demo! It changed my life 😅❤️🍀🌹
It's so good! Sort of brought back an excitement to make music again for me honestly.
Thanks for the video. It had some approaches to some of Bitwig's features that I hadn't considered. I would like to add at 12:10 that you can insert effects into the individual drum slots in the drum machine as well as after the drum machine device itself. Useful for creating treated percussion or "bit kit" samples.
Thanks for sharing, awesome tip.
Welcome to the BW community, there are a few things I miss about Ableton but I find myself opening it up less and less. Looking forward to some interesting content on Bitwig. My omg was the hybrid session and arrangement view, so useful for generating clip variations in timeline then just plonking in session view.
Thanks for the tips! What are the things you still miss about Ableton?
I like Abletons groove pool, I love that you can generate and save snapshots on macros and I like that Ableton allows for defaults devices for when you add tracks. Thats about it.
What about comparative cost?
Really surprised how good this DAW is. The only things I miss are a quick freeze (BIP is not the same, needs two tracks to retain all instruments for later editing, and muting of the instrument track etc) and dynamic clip gain. Yes it HAS dynamic clip gain but you need to manually draw dots, you can't just use the range selector then grab up or down like in PT or S1 and Bitwig create automatic border nodes for you.
There are so many midi plugins, so many ways to see info on your data, good performance, very clean GUI.. I have managed to learn how to use the program within 2 days without looking at a singe guide. I am comfortable enough with it already to create a song, mix it and automate it and export it.
The delay compensation is just exceptional, it can keep everything in time with multiple linear phase plugins with massive delay, but the best part is, it can automate parameters of those plugins in time AND any plug in before or after the latent plugins in the same chain. You have no idea how many DAWs fail at this (hint, a lot, I have tested them all).
really tempting! thanks for the video. After the last ableton money grabbing "upgrade" I'm starting to consider switching some time. That audio/midi clip on the same track thing is really cool. I hate having to create separate tracks for that in Ableton especially in big projects that already have lots of tracks.
What would you say is missing on Bitwig's piano roll that Ableton has?
I haven’t really missed anything from Ableton except the legato that extends to end of clip without the need for a second not
I really like the Hardware Synth/Effects integration in Bitwig. Blows my Maschine 2 out of the water
been using since 1.0 after many years of Live. Would never go back. Soooooo much better.
I’m making all kinds of ideas with the crazy modulation work flow
Very interesting, I like the hybrid track! Thanks for sharing
Been using them daily. awesome workflow enhancement.
Super video - made the switch about 3 years ago, and for the most part absolutely loving Bitwig, nevertheless I've still a tonne to learn as bitwig goes deep, very deep, and it would be awesome to watch your journey into using bitwig and the transition from Ableton. Interesting to try the ALS ableton import, and also the implementation of the DAWproject file import/export as time goes by, will make it super easy to switch between DAWs like bitwig and Studio One, as for me I prefer Studio One for final mixing and Bitwig for the creative/composing side.. Amazing times for music production, looking forward to your series on Bitwig, I'm sure I'll learn lots of new tricks, Awesome !
Learning more every day, going to keep updating the videos!
Today in Bitwig I added a global control to my project to pitch shift all my instruments with a single knob so I can try different keys - with both audio and midi tracks - and I can automate that control, modulate it, whatever. So cool.
I'm an ableton user considering switching to BW and your comment caught my attention. Is there a device to do what you mentioned or you had to spend a long time configuring it inserting devices on each track, assigning them to a macro knob, etc ? thanks
pretty sure you can do that with a M4L device
My biggest issues with Bitwig are the unchangeable orange palette, the inconsistent arrangement window (i wish it could be dark) and lack of retrospective recording. Other than that ive enjoyed messing around with Bitwig a lot these last few weeks, and deep diving into the keyboard shortcuts has helped me with ableton too since all the menu hotkeys are very similar (alt + b opens browser in BW, ctrl+alt+b does it in ableton). The amount of overlap between these two is wild.
Tervetuloa perheeseen!
Youre a wighead now son, it aint no hobby , but a lifetime deal for real!
😂😂❤❤
im down, it keeps impressing me more and more
Ableton or Bitwig , what ever you use is pretty powerful! But if your ideas are wack , it won’t matter what you use , your music will be wack. I won’t switch just because it’s a shiny new tool. Sound design techniques takes time to develop , switching DAWs may be a learning curve , maybe wasted time that you could have put into making music on a DAW you already have. Take it with a grain of salt
Well I hope your musical ideas aren't as wack as the ideas in your comment. They're both powerful but they have different workflows and capabilities, so they inspire you in different ways. It's not about shiny new tools, it's about the more tools you master, the less limitations on your creativity. A learning curve is more likely to be a positive thing than a negative one. Take it with a grain of salt
@@9thplaceprizewinnerright I hope he posts his beatport page
Ableton has some nice stuff but bitwig feels like the daw of the future when it comes to sound design
The important is to do it the most easy and intuitive way, so yes it depends of the software
Yeah it be Whack
The moment i first installed bitwig in 2016, i knew it was the future. I cannot stress enough on how much i have argued with people and educated them about bitwig and how it pushes ableton to the grave.
Agreed!!
Great video! I'm impressed by how quickly you picked it up, after being on Live so long I found it so confusing
downloading the demo now..this is an awesome introduction
Awesome. A new video coming next week.
I've always had a love/hate relationship with Ableton and have always preferred to work in Reason (and yes: Reason). But Bitwig looks like a happy medium between the two, and has some very convenient features above the two.
People may defend their DAW of choice, but it's good to be informed that there may be other options out there with features that we didn't have before.
Plus, it may not crash all the time, LOL.
Used to love Reason but ya. Bitwig has a similar vibe. I click region on the top and edit below in the detail editor. Very similar
Ableton can blow me. Last time I was supporting it, it couldn't even handle a 4K screen, if that's how they treat their users then I wont spend anymore time wasting my time.
Fwiw, I was forced to learn using this in class whilst doing my bachelor, my lecturer was biased and we could never ever get unbiased "education" as the whole push (pun not intended) was for w/e reason that Ableton was a product the school was promoting.
Work flow is what is important to me, and Ableton seemed counter productive when I was using it.
Another thing you may be interested in. Is the fact Bitwig can actually load up Ableton projects. And recently added support for OpenDAW format letting you open up projects in StudiOne too.... It's the future of crossplatform music making.
The modular system in bitwig is completely unmatched too. I also personally LOVE the ui.... But I'm heavily biased towards Bitwig as I've been a user since version 1 :)
I actually had a few Ableton projects from old sessions that just wouldn't open, they would crash due to some plug issues... open great in Bitwig, saved the sessions! Love it
I just switched to Bitwig from FL Studio. That is because I don't like FL Studio crashes from time to time. It was way too many popups and it's not possible to set a negative offset to tracks (for slow orchestral instruments). Bitwig solves all that and more.
Bitwig has been super stable for me too. I legit got a little emotional the first time plugin sandboxing caught a session from crashing after a plugin crashed.
Hahahahah! I feel like I take it for granted now, but it still makes me smile when a plug crashes and Bitwig keeps going
Welcome to the family brother !
you should do a follow-up video covering the new changes in Ableton 12, specifically how some of those changes appear to be responding to features present in Bitwig.
Ya, definitely working on a follow up. Are any of the new features standing out for you? Not sure if I’m going to upgrade
Welcome friend!! Bitwig is so much fun!
It really is! Can’t wait to get deeper into it!!
1. You can easily drop down another session's tracks/clips/instruments/whatever and drag it onto your loaded session... i do this a lot actually. I also drop down samples in user library and have all my tracks/presets/favorites FROM OTHER SESSIONS. (Collect all and save puts everything piece by piece in the User Library). Ableton Live also allows dual monitoring for both session and arrangement view simultaneously. Also in Live 11 you can click "multiple instances" in the preferences and run multiple Live 11s simultaneously. [Which blew my mind] Ableton Live can also run other DAWS in Live as if they're another plugin [meaning... if you can do it in Bitwig, you can do it on a bitwig loaded in Live, destroying this concept of "theres things that can be done in this that cant be done in Ableton"] ... I'm not sure if any other daw can accomplish that. Also transients... every track has transients... you could split up any clip by transients... into a bunch of samples, grab any of these clips and add them into a new session.
Thats a cool thing about Live, anything you want done could be done at least 5 different ways... you just have to put in the effort of learning how to.
2. There's audio effects drop down menu that does the same exact thing as clicking the plus sign in bitwig. A pop up with all the audio effects just like Live. There's no loading other things or whatever... it's all there on session view. Or if you saved a preset+clip in user library. Or favorites folder if you don't want a bunch of scrolling. But simply typing what you want in Live's search makes everything happen with 0 wait time.
I have chains saved and labeled for specific type of sounds, I type in "sexy vocal chain" and BOOM... I have a full chain of vocal plugins in less than a second, simply drag that to my vocal clip [saved presets on the "sexy vocal chain"... mixing everything in less than a second]. The browsing speed is based on your RAM. Any standard PC today with a Solid State Hard Drive browses and loads any clip/plugin chain in less than a second.
Yup! Thats why I switched
In the words of jack baker, “welcome to the family son”
Love your video man! You have taught me a LOT.
@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE aye thanks so much^^
I've been a Bitwig user for 5 years now and own Ableton and Bitwig is on another level!
Do you miss parts of Ableton?
I just switched from Ableton Live to bitwig, and I'm not comfortable with the browser...I was more used to Ableton browser.
The new browser is nice but there's a learning curve...your tips about setting the default view of various browsers is neat...I'm going to try this out.
I'm new to bitwig but I'm finding it like Ableton Live on steroids.
Also my experience with hardware controllers has been very nice. I have installed some custom scripts for my midi controllers and I'm doing a lot of stuff without even touching a keyboard or mouse.
Really fun when you can interact with software in a hardware-like manner.
The shortcuts you were using for various plus buttons...are they your own customised shortcuts or default shortcuts?
im trialing different DAW's since i cant afford any of them right now, and let me say that Bitwig is going to be the one i buy.
I went from messing with FL, to messing with FL and Ableton and comparing them, to now Bitwig.
I installed it 3 hours ago... This is one of the best Software Experiences that ive had... EVER. not only DAW's
That’s awesome, welcome to the family. I’ve worked in so many different laws, I wish I would’ve found Bwigg earlier because it checks all the boxes I have now I’m in the long and tedious process of converting all of my projects from logic, studio, one, and Ableton to Bitwig
I'm using bitwig for a couple of years now and I still learn new things everytime i use it. Sometimes I miss little things of ableton (have bin a user) but overall I love Bitwig and not planning to switch again
What are you still missing?
Ableton user's take on Bitwig-- Zactly ,, what i was lookin' for-,, -- i jumped to Ableton years ago because i loved what seemed to be endless possibilities to manipulate audio-,, still ride for it but yea-,, honestly.... i've started using session view alot more than i used to-- but the holdback was always,, damn,, i need to change this loop.. or i need this particular part shorter,,- so jumping into Arrangement view is definitely counter productive,, and honestly when i explain that point to people that are thinking of using ableton ,, they're like ? .? huh? that's dumb -so then why are u in session view?..-- Anyway,, thanks for the thorough breakdown-,, Really appreciate the time taken-,, .. .
Bitwig is great my first foray into a daw since I was like 15-17 using Sony Acid Pro and Garage Band
I would like to hear more on your BW experiences onward. I was or I'm thinking about it too. But then again, the third sequencer switch in one life time kind of sucks. I also love Ableton's Push powers especially since the the third version is a standalone. A hybrid setup is still is one of my final goals. Unlike others maybe, Ableton Session View is the unique selling point, the wonder-Pony, feature set of Live. I need to take a look at BW myself, and how automation, modulation presentation in Bitwig session view, and all of that jazz is taken care off. I do hope Ableton is paying attention on the great things in BW.
Have a 1 week follow up next week on how it’s going. Found some awesome things regarding controllers.
@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE I'm going to dive in as we speak. There's no way I can test BW setup in 30 days, especially with the things I want to investigate. I've found a a way to rent to ownership. In the past I've seen solutions for the Push controller for the usage on BW. But honestly, I'm not expecting a deep level of integration between the two. I think I will be more surprised by the BW philosophy on the music production thing. Both in session as in the arrangement view. But really, I'm hating that third hop to a new sequencer. I'm also thinking on the addition of Max devices to Live witch make the whole experience almost picture perfect. The time has come to brake or bust the BW-hype. :)) Looking forward to your experiences on BW!
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I was FL user and then switched to Ableton. Then I encountered couple of Bitwig videos and people in the comments were reacting it like it's a merged power of Ableton and FL. And it's still something in my mind to check later on, but as you said, my business is going inside Ableton currently and I don't have much time. I very liked the things you shared here. Very very interesting and could be extremely useful for speeding up. Yet at last, those little frustrations are great minuses for me. I switched to Ableton for everything is in one screen, nothing continuously pops up like in FL but just to drag a clip, if I'll have to change my tool or if I'm gonna encounter that gain indicator (seriously, how often do we arrange the gain in itself, right?) so if you find a way to turn that shit off, that seems pretty appetizing. As you said no DAW is perfect. I still don't understand how in Ableton's arrangement view CTRL and SHIFT do the same thing for highlighting clips. You know what I mean, in note view/piano roll, with CTRL we can choose different notes but in arrangement view CTRL behaves like SHIFT. Unbeliavable. In that case, I find Ableton kinda otistic, it's able to do hardest tasks but these little but extremely important things were unfortunately overlooked. Or just to create a clip, hitting CTRL + SHIFT + M is still pain in the ass imo. Like what were you guys thinking when you were putting this shortcut? Ahaha. Anyway. We'll see. In the future, if I can find a peaceful time, I'd like to inspect Bitwig.
check out BW, custom shortcuts are great.
Some cool points…that hybrid track is slick…you can edit your face off in Ableton session view by using simpler and sampler, don’t see that as a win for bitwig… Definitely not enough for me especially considering I’d have to give up M4L which I use tons of in every project, and various native Ableton instruments I love. For a person choosing new, maybe so. FYI, to your first point, you can easily bring assets from any Ableton project into an existing one at a very granular level. It might be nice to actually flip back and forth and work in two projects at once but I haven’t ever needed that as much as needing access to assets from any existing project, which Ableton has on lock. Nice run down…thanks.
Bitwigs sampler is very cool for making instruments but i wish that it had sample chopping, especially via hardware like maschine or push.
I got Bitwig and Renoise. Iam very happy. I can smell sample warping is coming soon also.
Well done! Good move....
hahaha, exactly the same here, i think after 4 hours even :) for me (especially for playing livesets) the sandboxed plugins is a game changer as well. When a plugin crashes it doesn't crash the whole DAW.
Game changer!!
I swapped a year ago, haven't looked back. The only thing I really miss are the DNA groove templates SP1200, MPC or Notator swing.
Would love some basic improvements. Automation and grooves.
when adding effects or instruments, you can also just double click anywhere in that space, not just the plus button
Going to try that!! Thanks for the tip
Hey man, im looking for a daw to learn. I bought FL and since then i tested myself out here and there. I always threw an eye on ableton and am close to buying it. Now I found your vid. Would you rather recommend bitwig over ableton for a person, who learns from 0?
I would say they are both going to have a learning curve. If I was starting new, I would do Bitwig, even though Ableon is more popular. I will have a multipart series coming up, starting from zero to completed track. Stay tuned, it should help.
Thanks for the video. Since I prefer to work OTB I’m still searching for the right daw beside my setup. So far looked into Reaper and Logic. How is bw handling outboard gear and synths?
Handles them great. Ill cover that in the next video.
Bitwig has it's annoying parts too (not being able to pitch an audio clip by semitones??) but at least it doesn't crash if you unplug your headphones or take 10 minutes to load plugins. The search functionality, the better automation, and the sheer speed at which it loads things is just *SO* much better. Some parts of ableton feel stuck in 2004.
So have you tried Reaper?
I'm asking because over the holidays I plan to woodshed on a DAW to use after starting a project on MPC. I don't care about virtual instruments -- have plenty of VSTs as well. I want something with great intuitive workflow ideally and high reliability. Less hassle, more efficiency. The less I have to stare at a laptop screen, the better. (I work in software industry during the day :) Thx.
I have never tried reaper before, but heard great things. The reason why I’m sticking with Bwigg is I really like the Ableton style workflow being able to switch in between a session and arrange review
@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE thanks!
im a long time user of ableton live but i always ask myself why ableton dont make such eazy but effective changes in the updates...
You are going to find so much to love! Welcome to the BW community! :-)
Can't wait! Its an awesome DAW. I think ill keep making beginner videos, forces me to keep learning everything about the DAW.
Whenever I see videos like this I realize how much I take Bitwig's features for granted
I fully understand after being fully in Bitwig for the last 6 months
I was never an Ableton fan but made the switch because I was moving away from a DAWless setup and thought Push was the solution… prior I was just using Logic as a recorder. I’ve gotten used to Ableton but find it phenomenally clunky, however I’ve really enjoyed the M4L aspect and a few of its FX. This past weekend I was at Superbooth and stopped by the Bitwig booth, where they gave me a great demo. I went home and downloaded the Studio 8 track version and after 1 day I was sold. This weekend they had a 10 year anniversary price to upgrade and I went for it. What an amazing DAW, somehow it’s the first time I feel inspired to use the computer. For me it’s like Ableton with the comfortable simplicity of Logic, minus the tacky skeuomorphic design. Gonna sell the Push and just live in Bitwig.
Hell ya! Congrats on the switch. Welcome to the family
I kind of left DAWs altogether, feels like fresh air! 🌬
I’m loving it.
Ableton allows you to have 2 sessions open. The option is in preferences menu
Unfortunately not on Mac’s
2:20 mate just a tip, you dont have to activate the project to paste it in or copy it from. now those in the video are small projects you have, they load fast. but when you have big projects it takes some time too load them, thats why its much quicker just to copy and past without activating the project.
Awesome!! might be good to make a template of common situation and have that open on the side. Great tip.
@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE yes! i have templates for mastering, building snares or kicks and so on. where there are specific analysing tools right for the task. and sometimes you have some old unfinished project, where you have some nice synth or what ever and you want to try it in your actual project... it works very fast, when you dont activate the project, where you want it to take from. i dont know any daw that can do stuff like this.
I’ve tried for a day or two, I’m learning bitwig at the moment after several years with Ableton. I feel naked without my max for live devices and rack presets.
It’s a whole new world
There are always exceptions. I think you should master your workflow(s) and adapt softwares to the way(s) you work. In addition, different DAWs may inspire different approaches, leading to different results.
Reason might put me in a mindset different from how I may approach creating in FL Studio, Cubase, etc. In addition, there may be tools available in 1 DAW that may not be available in another. Or there may be tools in 2-3 DAWs that function the same, but employ nuances that may affect the result. There are some DAWs better suited for Mixing, where some are better for production.
They're just tools. Because I know how to use a screwdriver means I shouldn't use a drill? No. Learn how to use all the tools, and pick the one that is best for the task is my philosophy.🤷🏽♂️
EDIT: btw I plan to use your video to get familiar with Bitwig. The presentation was on point! 👍🏾
Great way to put it. Every tool has its strengths and we just need to find what fits best for us… no wrong picks.
@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE there is no competition at the end of the day, use what works, but its funny he obviously doesn't know ableton fully either to settle for some of these bigwig subtleties...
Madness tbh
That gain tool is what I've always wanted in Ableton Live
Never know how quick it is until you have it
If you right click on the sample in ableton you can select find in folder. That will take you to the folder you were using in that section.
Thanks for the tip.
Bitwig just released a new beta (5.1) and it looks so damn good. 🤤
How can you get the beta? can you send a link?
@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE just log in to your account.
You can actually allow Ableton Live to open multiple instances of itself from the settings and open multiple projects. Its not as integrated and clean like how Bitwig does it with the tabs.
It seems it’s only a windows option
@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE I did not know that thanks!
I have a Macbook Air, and am very grateful I can zoom Ableton's GUI to the exact size where my aging eyes can read it, and no larger (for maximum interface real estate). *¿¿Can Bitwig's GUI also be precisely zoomed??*
I believe so
Great vid. Yea I think it’s good to not become tribalistic about what DAW you use. My friend told me about Bitwig in 2009. I probably should have listened to him 😂
Nice video! Just wait until you discover the modulation system and of course the mighty Grid :)
Can't wait! im a little intimidated but it also seems like a great way to learn synthesis in general.
Best part about this video is the legitimacy. Left ableton after 1 day with Bitwig and he has 29 days left in the 30 day trial. Would have been funny if the video title was "Left ableton after 22 days with bitwig". Good show.
Now fully on Bitwig and can’t imagine going back. I used to use Ableton when collaborating with other techno artists but now… I just ask for stems and dump into Bitwig. Love it.
Excellent, thanks!
As a Reaper user, you can only laugh at such “reliefs”.
Plus modulators, plus operators, plus the grid plus plus plus...
Fully!!!!
I use bitwig since version 1.4 I never regret it. the most stable piece of software I know. I never would go back to ableton.
I’m realizing that everyday I use it
Great video, thanks!
And maaaan.... that audio editing in session view is so clean. I LOVE the session view in Ableton because it has encouraged some of the most fluid development and arrangements I've experienced yet. I use Push 2 with it and it's great. But it always baffled me that you can't edit the audio of an audio clip like this. As much as Ableton is a huge improvement from my experience with Logic, which I really DO NOT like for writing music, there are some features in Ableton that make me scratch my head haha.
Overall, I'll still really happy with Ableton and have started using strictly stock plugins and love it. But I might have to try Bitwig. I only got Ableton Intro to give myself some serious time with the flow of Ableton, so I might do a similar thing with Bitwig.
Give Bitwig a shot, im loving it.
@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE I'm definitely gonna give it a try. Hopefully Push 2 works pretty well with it. I really want to use the controller more than the mouse haha.
@remyvegamedia look up Drivenbymoss, it’s a free extension that has all the mapping for push 2 and Bitwig. Watch the videos and check the manual, it’s insanely powerful. On my little Akai fire I can do everything a push does