We’ve been hearing a lot recently about Bitwig, a new player in the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) market.
If you haven’t heard about Bitwig here is a quick overview (taken from the Bitwig Website)
Bitwig Studio is a dynamic software solution for music creation and performance to realize all of your musical ideas in every stage of production.
From sound design to music creation, discover the new standard in customized workflow. Bitwig Studio inspires you to take greater control of your productions, giving you access to every aspect of your workflow as needed. Streamline your creative process and quickly take your music from ideas to complete songs, tracks and compositions. With Bitwig Studio, you’re in command of a workflow that works best for you.
One of the big features is that Bitwig is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. So if you are a music producer running Linux this is exciting news for you. For the rest of us it simply means we have the ability to run this DAW in any OS with no problems.
There is also “sandboxing” for virtual instruments , which essentially makes each vst plugin run inside it’s own protected area of your computer memory. If it is causing problems, it will not take down the whole project or cause a crash. Very nice feature especially for producers who have lots of plugins and face crashes and corrupted files potentially . This feature alone is very big since it means that Bitwig should be very stable compared to other DAWs.
Bitwig also has a Clip launcher feature similar to Ableton Live allowing you to quickly sketch out song ideas on the fly. This combination of DJ style composing integrated into a full DAW has been getting more and more popular in the last few years. We’re guessing it has to do with the fun it brings back to making music which can feel very mechanical and uninspiring sometimes when using a computer.
Another feature is the Unified Modulation System, which is slightly more complex so we will quote the Bitwig website directly :
Modulating one parameter from the next often means losing hands-on control – until now. Bitwig Studio is hard-coded with a Unified Modulation System, allowing you to easily link any device parameter, including nested internal devices and VST plug-ins, without losing hands-on control. Never before has modulating virtually any parameter between devices been so simple. Nothing is locked, so you can manipulate on the fly to find the perfect range of modulation. Make your devices take on a life of their own, create dynamic relationships between sounds, and hear your music begin to breathe.
Overall the demo of Bitwig looks great and we are excited to see where the developers take this New Digital Audio Workstation. Even though the market of DAW makers has become more crowded in recent years with new software like Presonus Studio One and Native Instruments Maschine entering the market , it looks like Bitwig has a good chance of competing with the other major DAWs.
