There are also hundreds of Poly Grid (Instrument) and FX Grid (Audio) Presets to use as a starting point.
The Grid in Bitwig offers over 150 modules so you can build all sorts of unique devices from scratch, from a poly synthesizer to a custom audio-level dependent FX chain. Devices can be nested in one another, there are loads of modulators, and pretty much anything can be dragged anywhere!
If you use a ROLI Seabord or Block, a Continuum, or a Roger Linn Linnstrument, you owe it to yourself to to try Bitwig as it’s MPE support might make your life easier allowing you to visualize your MPE MIDI data’s pitch and CC’s in an easily digestible way.īitwig has a modular feel that allows for some complex manipulation of effects and instrument settings that can be wonderful for those who like to get hands on with sound design. I first heard about Bitwig through a friend at ROLI and I have to say, Bitwig might have the best MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) editing features of any DAW I’ve used. Bitwig StudioīitWig’s modular approach to DAWs offers an inspiring approach to music creation and sound design in particular.īitwig is a relatively new DAW that was created by former Ableton employees, and therefore has a lot of similar DNA while still adding on new features and offering a different way of working. If you’re a producer, or a musician wanting to add electronic components to your live set, you absolutely need to try it!īut if you’re recording or editing a lot of live musicians and singers, or creating more sophisticated film scores, you’ll probably want to couple it with an additional solution for those purposes. It can be an incredibly quick and inspiring tool for producers to get ideas down on, thanks in part to the amazing options for saving and recalling your favorite plugins and sounds. There’s also no comping or takes feature built-in making it much less seamless to edit vocal takes or multi-mic’d instrument recordings than on some other DAWs.Ībleton has been growing constantly in popularity and is the most forward-thinking DAW for live performances. While you can assign custom key commands to the metronome, playback buttons-or virtually any on/off button in any plugin or in the DAW itself-it would be nice if you could assign custom key commands globally for all of your sessions.įor audio editors, it may not be ideal either as there are no easy ways to “Go To Next Transient”, or to batch the adding or removal of fades for multiple audio files, and there’s no built in timecode protocol, making it more difficult to sync to picture for working on media projects like scoring or sound design for film and TV. While Ableton has some very advanced functions, especially its seamless integration with Max For Live, it still lacks some features. While it does impart a bit of a sound on your productions if abused, it’s still pretty transparent. Since it first came out, Ableton has also had one of the best audio warping algorithms around, and many users still find it to be one of the fastest options for quantizing audio loops. On top of that, Live 10 introduced “Collections” which allow you to quickly organize your favorite sounds, presets, MIDI files, etc so you can have your sonic toolkit easily available for your next project! The drum rack implementation is also among the best options for contemporary beat-making and for quickly creating exciting-sounding drum performances.
The MIDI editing in Ableton is very fast, and while it lacks some of the advanced features that Logic and Cubase have (such as switch chord inversion) you can achieve great results and figure out how to make it do what you want quickly.
I constantly find myself MIDI-mapping the mod wheel on my keyboard to a parameter like the cutoff frequency of a synth filter and then performing my filter sweeps live, allowing me to lay down my automation super quickly and organically. This also makes it a phenomenal DAW for producers who like to be hands on in their mixing. You can select a knob in a softsynth or effect plugin, press Command+M to activate Midi Map mode, and then move a knob on a MIDI Controller and it’s instantly assigned-allowing you to map your MIDI Controller to your favorite synths for a live show or quickly map a fader bank to physical faders for individual tracks. As a live performance tool, nothing compares to Ableton.