Fanu/FatGyver
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Bitwig vs. Ableton Live?
🕑 Added 2021-08-05 08:51:32 +0000 UTCHola amigos! Hope you've been good.
I took this week as a holiday week as I haven't been able to do much of that this year, as it's been intense with work...feels good to recharge a bit a few times a year, and don't we all need it!
On my holiday, I've been testing Bitwig Studio.
Without further ado, here's a list of pros and cons of it – I'm kind of looking at this from the angle of a long-time Ableton Live user.
The list would be much longer after more use, but for now, here's some joys and pain points after having used BWS for a little over a week and finishing my first song.
I'd love to hear your thoughts regarding this topic if you have anything to add.
BTW! New video coming very soon; in it, I'm using BWS, actually, and talking about making songs, and in that, I'm using the song I just finished with BWS...
But without further ado, here's the list.
I'm writing stuff below + when I found it good, and below - when I found something I didn't like.
+
Mixer in arrangement.
Useful, and I miss this in Live.
+
In-clip editing in audio clips.
This is VERY powerful. You can gain, reverse, tune, fade etc everything inside an audio clip. So good.
It's crazy that chance/probability also works for audio events in a clip, so for example you can do probability for, say, ghost snares inside an audio clip.
It's nice taking a drumloop, shaker, etc., and adding fadeins/out to its parts to make it sound tighter.
+
Modulators (LFOs, envelopes, etc).
They feel very built-in and are very visual.
I guess in 2021, I'd expect everything to be visually informative.
E.g., what's confused me in the beginning with Live (also some of my students) is, for example, the Auto Filter device in Live, as you can't SEE what's happening.
+
Operators.
These have to do with how and when midi events are played.
A more advanced system than in Live (which now allows for probability, automatic velocity variation etc).
I've seen several Live users say stuff like it'd be nice to tell a crash cymbal at the beginning of the clip to only play once in four bars, for example.
BWS can do this, and occurrence can also be dependent on whether the preceding midi event just played, etc.
And this works for audio events in an audio clip, too.
+
MIDI parameter editing – "chaos" etc.
I like how thru the left panel you can add some randomization, scaling and "chaos" for MIDI notes (do this for velocity, for example).
(This'd call for a longer explanation, I know)
+
Custom shortcuts.
I feel this is a biggie.
You can give most actions your own keyboard shortcut!
+
Sandboxing.
This means when a plugin crashes, it'll crash in its own window instead of crashing the whole DAW.
E.g., recently I was trying to open an older Live project, pulling my hair out as the DAW kept crashing, and I'm wishing I knew what plugin did it.
+
Show item help.
A bit like M4L item help: the devie opens in its own nice pop-up window that has help regarding all its parameters.
Great visual help.
You also control the actual device whose help you are looking at in that very window.
+
Deactivate track. You can deactivate the whole track with one click.
+
Clip Launcher in both views.
I've seen Live users say it'd be useful for them if they had Session View (clip launcher) in Arrangement, too.
BWS allows this.
+
Quickly browse device-specific presets.
E.g., let's say you have lots of ProQ3 presets.
When you have it on a track, you click on a folder icon on the device, and browser opens up, listing all ProQ3 presets you've saved with BWS…very handy.
+
Hide deactivated tracks. You can hide deactivated tracks with one click.
Cannot hide any track in any way in Live…wish I could!
+
A + symbol at end of chain to add devices (no need to go to browser, necessarily, to add an EQ…just click + on the track and you're in the browser.
+
Pin actions to top bar.
You can pin your most-used actions from dropdown menus to the header as icons so you're able to customize what actions are up there as icons…mega handy.
+
Consolidate/reverse audio clip: no new file is created.
When you join/consolidate audio clips in Live, a new audio file is created. BW does not do this. Saves HD space.
Same goes for reverse: I've always found it nearly baffling why Live has to create a new file for reversed audio. BW doesn't do that.
+
Search for VST parameters inside a device.
Example: you have a synth like Serum or Diva with 100+ parameters.
You can actually search for a parameter thru a search field in the device: just type "filter" and you'll only see parameters with "filter" in them. Handy with VSTs where you have a gazillion parameters and you just want to locate an LFO, filter etc real quick and automate it etc.
+
The Grid.
It's BWS's "Max For Live", a modular system for building your devices (audio, midi, etc).
I haven't used it yet, but I'd say it appears way more accessible to non-nerds: it's somehow more visual and kind of requires no typing and things are laid out nicer and you can just add things from a menu on top…looking at this, this actually is enticing, while – being painfully honest! – I've never felt that so much with M4L! After all I'm a dude who wants to get that music done, and anything that feels or even looks like math makes me run away.
-
No scale in piano roll. Boo!
-
Thin grid.
For whatever reason, the grid looks _very_ thin for me, and I've seen ppl nag about this.
All hail thicc grids!
-
No converting midi to audio.
What's so great about Live is you can take the chord info out of audio and have Live convert it to MIDI…this cannot be done with BWS.
-
BW track color. Only a thin strip at one end of the track header.
I like seeing track headers fully colored…massive help in big projects.
-
Can't save default tracks or song templates.
-
Can't hear midi notes when selecting/lassoing several midi notes.
-
Browser collections.
BW browser still confuses me and I didn't find it intuitive...I'm still a bit lost with it.
E.g., if I download a "pack", afaik I can't access that pack per se and see everything it has, unlike in Live.
And I can't perform a search inside a certain location (e.g., enter a samples folder and search inside it).
-
Cant send send a return to other returns.
Sometimes I like sending my delay return to a reverb one. Afaik, cant do this in BW.
All in all, nice stuff, but no deal-breakers or deal-makers.
Is BWS good? VERY! Do I like it? YES! Will I be using it? Yup!
Do I recommend Bitwig Studio? YES.
Will I be fully switching over to BWS and leave Ableton Live behind (gasp)?
No.
But I'll keep it for added inspo so I can switch over sometimes (I spend a whopping amount of time inside Live every year, and sometimes, a change just for the sake of change is good for the human brain…that's why I sometimes work with my MPCs, too, while I don't necessarily find them better let alone faster than Live).
Comments
Janne Hatula
Hey thanks for this, George! I think I gotta get deeper with the browser then; even after my best efforts, I didn't know how to do what I mentioned about the browser.
George Ts
Great overview. I find Bitwig's browser superior to Live's and using it for about 10 years it always felt frustrating to me. You can actually access all folders inside any folder, and what I love is you can search the top level folder and get results for all the folders inside it, or browse each folder in "location" and search in any folder individually. You can also save a song template and set it in preferences to be the default one. Another great feature for me that totally frustrated me in Ableton is bouncing clips to audio, and only with one button, and you can even bounce a group track selection or even the master or sends (by creating an empty clip on the track and choosing bounce. Another pro for me is the container devices and fx/instrument selector. The grid is indeed a bit thin, and I'm not a big fun of the GUI in general.
Janne Hatula
Yes, much needed!
Soundboy Seb
the missing option to display scales without having to resort to multi-note plugin bugs me as well, hopefully they'll implement some sort of a scale highlight
Janne Hatula
Yeah, chains work well and I already created a default master chain and sure enough it's quick to load…but it can save you a bit time when each track will have the stuff you're very likely to use.
Andrew Hollis
I see. You would have to create a chain and save that as a preset for midi and audio and add each time.
Janne Hatula
By default tracks I mean a default configuration for audio or midi track: you create a track and it'll have plugins on it for example. E.g., in Live, whenever I create a new audio track, it'll have on the track (in a disabled state) an EQ, compressor, a gain device and a mid/side device, because I use them all the time…so I don't have to add them manually every time. This is super handy.
Andrew Hollis
Can't save default tracks or song templates: You can save as a template (file save as template) but it won't store as the default. You have to go to the dashboard and select the template. You can also save chains as presents too not sure if that's what you mean as default tracks.
