The Bitwig Way

[brownerthanu]

I’ve been using Bitwig since week 1 and was reflecting today on how my producing approach has changed to take advantage of Bitwig’s capabilities. In this thread I’d love it if people shared their Bitwig-centric ways of producing. I’ll start with some of mine.

• Cant decide in which preset sounds best for a part? Don’t. Use the instrument selector to semi-randomly or periodically change the instrument.
• If a part sounds too mechanical use subtle modulation to change parameters to keep it fresh.
• if you can’t decide on a setting eg cutoff use modulation
• In general, no sound never has to be played the same way twice. Just use modulation to keep it fresh whether parameter or midi. It takes 2 seconds.
• The launch drawer is a place to store ideas

That’s a start. I’d love to hear yours.

[Taika-Kim]

I should really start to use the launcher more for storage, I still drag stuff back an forth a lot on storage tracks in the arranger

Yes a bit of modulation on everything, and also MIDI effects, maybe a bit of generative things, I notice I use the Note Echo really a lot, by modulating the pitch parameter complex melodic and harmonic figures can emerge quite serendipitously.

[brownerthanu]

Yeah the launcher has had maybe the biggest impact in my workflow. Midi echo is awesome.

[Yokai]

Ableton users already know what the launcher is good for, although Bitwig's implementation of the concept is slightly more robust in useful ways. It's great for superlooping (recording and testing combinations of loops, where each combination forms the core of your different song sections) and it's great for storing ideas and unused loops. It's also the core of a "vocal comping" style of recording multiple takes of a thing, by using Play > Post-recording action/delay > Record into Next Free Slot.

For me, though, the Bitwig way (compared to Ableton) revolves around the following workflow speed and sound design benefits:

1. If you think the sound design possibilities in Ableton instrument racks and audio racks is impressive, Bitwig simply runs circles around Ableton in that department. You can build crazy huge instrument and audio racks in Bitwig. And yes, Bitwig modulators are what first tempted me away from Ableton to Bitwig.

2. Most other DAWs have terrible, barebones browsers (including Ableton). By contrast, Bitwig's browser is AMAZINGLY deep and feature-rich. I especially love its concept of "smart collections" and use them extensively to organize all my instrument and audio racks.

3. Bitwig is incredibly efficient at managing system resources for large, heavily-loaded projects. A project it its later stages of development that would LITERALLY take 1 minute and 45 seconds to open up in Ableton takes more like 15 seconds in Bitwig. And I have a huge, complex project template that is STUFFED with plugins that opens in about 5 seconds flat. That same type of template would take more like 45 seconds to open up in Ableton, and would be eating up like 25% of CPU or more even when idle, brand new, and with nothing in it. By contrast, in Bitwig it's using less than 5% of CPU.

4. The benefits in #3 are possible in large part because of Bitwig's concept of fully DEACTIVATING (not just bypassing) any plugin or device. When you bypass a device/plugin in Ableton, you eliminate it's CPU impact but not its latency nor its RAM usage. And the same is true in Bitwig too for simply disabling/bypassing a device/plugin. But Bitwig goes a step further and allows you to fully DEACTIVATE things, and when you do that, not only is the CPU impact eliminated, but also its latency and RAM usage.

5. Taking #3 and #4 one step further, Bitwig allows you DEACTIVATE entire tracks and groups, and even gives you a convenient button to automatically "hide" all such deactivated tracks/groups from the project. Out of sight, out of mind. Keeps the project views much less cluttered with junk and noise. Which brings us to...

6. Bounce and Deactivate workflow is superior to Freeze and Flatten workflow in Ableton. In Ableton, a frozen track frees up CPU resources (but not latency nor RAM), and is a godsend. But Bitwig does it better: Bounce a resource-hungry midi track to a new audio track, then deactivate the original MIDI track. Then the auto-hiding of deactivated tracks tucks the old MIDI track out of sight instantly. Now, in Ableton, to truly free up all the resources of a frozen track you have to subsequently FLATTEN the frozen track. This irrevocably loses the original MIDI track and the instruments and devices too! But in Bitwig you can ALWAYS re-activate the deactivated track and make some tweaks again. But as pointed out in #3 when you deactivate a track it might as well NOT BE IN THE PROJECT AT ALL from a resource-usage point of view. And--final cherry on top--Bitwig has two different ways to bounce, each with their own benefits.

7. Yes, the Selector devices in Bitwig are bae. They're great for exploring variations of a sound. Only the currently selected channel uses any system resources. You can load up a dozen different resource-hungry synths in an instrument selector, and the 11 un-selected ones might as well not even be in the project from a resource-usage point of view.

8. Audio editing and stretching/aligning to grid beat lines is actually REALLY fast and easy once you wrap your head around all the workflow gestures and build your muscle memory. The warping/stretching workflow in Bitwig is actually very good. And the "clean" warping algorithms are IMO better and more clean than in Ableton.

9. Layered editing of both MIDI and Audio Clips is IMO really strong too. Slightly better than in Ableton, which didn't even have such things until Live 10 or 10.1.

10. Keyboard shortcuts GALORE. Runs absolute circles around Ableton.

11. The Grid is very powerful for both instruments and sound FX, and yet also fairly user friendly for such things. Miss something like the Erosion effect from Ableton? We've already got an excellent look-alike that was built in The Grid.

12. Multisample instruments are hella fast to create and tweak to be just right in Bitwig's very powerful Sampler. Much faster than making them in Ableton's Sampler. Everything you can do in Ableton's Sampler can be done in Bitwig, probably faster and easier. The only thing missing from Bitwig--for now--are some of the auto-slicing/stretching features in Ableton's other "Simpler" instrument.

13. The Oscilloscope. Producers working in DAWs that don't have oscilloscope devices don't know what they're missing, and how much a good, accurate, easy-to-use oscilloscope can really speed up your sound design, mixing, and mastering. Bitwig's native Oscillscope is literally the best thing I've seen compared to every 3rd party plugin oscilloscope out there. Being able to compare L vs R or M vs S or current track signal vs some tapped signal from an entirely different place in the project is AMAZE.

[Taika-Kim]

+1 to everything above! I was just too busy/lazy to do a more comprehensive list! The layered editing is especially great, as well as the CPU saving deactivation features.

[kindoflazy]

Ableton users already know what the launcher is good for, although Bitwig's implementation of the concept is slightly more robust in useful ways. (...)

As a long time lurker that always had an eye on Bitwig, it strikes me as very peculiar that almost every single thread about the benefits of Bitwig almost immediately turns to "why Bitwig is better than Ableton". Is there some kind of massive inferiority complex going on that requires some Bitwig users to constantly and almost compulsively compare Bitwig to Ableton and how it is better in one way or another?

I think Bitwig has done enough of its own to be lauded based on its own merits, otherwise it will always stay in the shadow of that one DAW it is constantly compared to.

[JHernandez]

I agree with you kindoflazy, that last part, but in Yokai's case, well Yokai is or was a "Producer Dojo" (not sure of status) member and I think they all use Ableton Live, well ill.Gates does anyways. As far as I understand Bitwig came from programmers that left Ableton. Plus Yokai has made/makes videos specifically comparing the two DAW's, likely to make a case for why Live users should move to Bitwig. That's kind of Yokai's thing. My point is that there are some obvious similarities and some users are or were long time Live users thus the comparison.

[pdxindy]

I don't mind the comparisons... but this thread was just about Bitwig and I'd prefer it stay just about Bitwig. So I agree... don't need comparisons in lots of threads.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Bitwigs modulation system solved all kinds of things I couldn't do before. Here's a great example: Recording automation but then still being able to manipulate those parameters that were automated (in a relatiove/additive kind of way). You can do it a few different ways but basically you assign a macro to a parameter and then you can either automate the original control and then tweak the macro over top, or vice versa. It's like being able to manually record additive rather than absolute automation. Except you are still recording absolute automation but it doesn't matter because the macros are additive. It's a great looping feature but also great for arrangement because you can record the modulation manually but then adjust the overall relative parameter position without getting rid of the automation.

[Yokai]

I mention Ableton as a reference point because so many producers are familiar with Ableton. It's a common technique to explain something by first relating some general thing the reader probably already knows or understands and then comparing it or extending it to some new thing the reader might not yet understand.

Also, I came from Ableton (Live 6 through Live 9), so it is not natural that if things about Bitwig really turn me on, it's because similar things were absent--or less robust or less performant or slower workflow--than the DAW I came from?

[brownerthanu]

No worries about the Ableton comparison. But I would like to get back on track to think about Bitwig-isms, mostly yo think about the concept. Modulation seems to be central to producing with a Bitwig. But what types? I use the randomizes all over the place. It can make a digital synth sound surprising analog. And a drum sample sound surprisingly lifelike. Not like an actual drum, but having similar variety to a real drum.

I feel like with modulators I can recreate a lot of the analog aspects of plugins that sell for a lot of money.

[perpetual3]

Still on the fence between upgrading to Live 10 Suite or Bitwig. So I dig the comparisons.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Still on the fence between upgrading to Live 10 Suite or Bitwig. So I dig the comparisons.

Go Bitwig. You'll get used to things you can't believe you didn't have before!

[perpetual3]

Ok, so I know this sounds weird but does it have a resonator similar to live? I love that resonator.

[dakkra]

http://prntscr.com/qpxh7b

Yes, with a big screen version too