At the 2019 NAMM Show, Bitwig introduced Bitwig Studio 3, an update that promises to deliver a fully-modular approach to sound design.
Bitwig Studio 3 introduces The Grid. The Grid is an open modular environment, built into three new devices: Poly Grid, Mono Grid and FX Grid.
There’s been some good discussion online since the original announcement and since the first few videos started trickling in.
Sounds to me like the overall vibe is pretty positive, in part because Bitwig went in its own direction with its flagship DAW. There are some obvious features it lacks but, in BWS3, this “Native Modular System” (as they promised since before the first release) is an extension of the modulation system which already made BWS2 a pleasure to work with.
Put another way, their emphasis on making the workflow as fun as possible makes a lot of sense for musicians of all types. And since this DAW supports many cool things (like MPE and touchscreen and Linux and per-voice modulation and a crazy sampler which does granular and wavetable in a new way), it’s the first DAW which actually resonates with my own vibe.
I didn’t realize that Bitwig’s sampler had a cycles mode. That’s so cool. Thanks enkerli. (just googled a demo here for anyone that’s curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWFvXSbsbyM)
I think I’ll download the demo.
Yeah, that BWS Sampler is an unsuspected thing. The cycles mode is a very neat approach to wavetables, with tons of control (thanks to the whole modulation workflow). And the textures mode is a pretty deep granular synth. Since it’s MPE (and so is the onscreen keyboard, which supports touch on Linux and Windows), you can easily control wavetable “index” and grain position through gestures, on a note-per-note basis.
To me, at least, it was an ear-opener to have the same device work as a sound generator of different types. There’s a real sense of discovery when start processing the same sample in diverse ways.
Also, because it’s integrated in the DAW, it benefits from first-party sample and patch management. You can keep everything pretty tidy. Of course, Bitwig doesn’t have a perfect way to handle all of this, but it’s pretty decent for elaborate yet easy-to-build workflows.
Really hope some of the 120+ modules we’ll get in The Grid will bring some of this Sampler goodness to unexpected places. There’s a lot we can do with the existing devices but it’s easy to imagine a workflow where wavetables, grains, and multisample sets are all part of the same system as classic oscillators and wavefolders.
BWS is now its own DAW and has moved on since V1 (when most people just seemed to view it as a copy of Live as the guys left Ableton to set up BWS).
Yes, BWS does all the Live stuff, but it also does a lot of the Logic stuff (liniarvDAW) and now it will also do the Reaktor Blocks type stuff integrated in the DAW.
All that is great in one DAW, but that isn’t what makes BWS great, what makes BWS great is the way all of this has been put togeather with workflow and musicality put first. The complexity his hidden, things just work…drop down menus are minimal, pop up windows banished – making music is fast and FUN yet the possibilities for unique sounds and workflow seem endless.
If you haven’t had a good look at BWS since V1 I highly reccomend trying the V3 demo when it’s out!
The workflow looks like the killer app here:
Keeping it cabled up when you add/remove modules saves a lot of click&drag.
That part is clearly ahead of previous systems (NI, Max/msp, Kyma).
WiIl be interesting to see how they’re doing with the actual modules, how advanced possibilities there are.
For ex, on the webpage you can se an SVF filter, but this has only one output?
The point of SVF is to use all 3 outputs, route them to different effects and mix dynamically…