What's New in Bitwig 5.3? +Feature Wishlist

[@EdoardoMarcora]

+1 for audio and midi retrospective recording

[@kingofdjembe]

Won't audio retrospective recording be a CPU killer though?

[@EdoardoMarcora]

@@kingofdjembe many daw have this feature and the sound is being generated/streaming already anyway... so no extra CPU needed, it's just a question of storing some amount of audio (and midi, and automation, like in the Ableton Move) stream somewhere (memory or hard drive) to be recalled later, if needed.

[@kingofdjembe]

​@@EdoardoMarcora I didn't know that. I'm on Logic which has MIDI but not audio retrospective recording. Would have saved me many times when I was just setting levels or effects and the guitarist was like "What? you didn't record that take?". 😅

[@croay]

Nice summary. I agree with everything illustrated here, and I hope Bitwig devs watch this. That being said, I'm happy about this update, since I was one of the people complaining about Bitwig not having a good out-of-the-box sequencer after the S1 and Cubase updates lol

[@vroteg]

Still don’t have one. People seem to be very confused between what step sequencer is and what note device is. Introducing basic note device and call it a day is a very lazy solution. Well. It is expected from bitwig…

[@nowondr]

I want midi comping, ARA, and retrospective recording more than anything else. These are the features that are causing me to reach for other daws on occasion and I'd love to not feel that way and feel that Bitwig can do everything I need. I think it also makes with Bitwig being so sound design oriented to add at least basic video support too. Themes were a big ask for me for a while but Berikai's theme tool hack works wonders for me (on Windows). I'd also like something like track manager from Reaper (hide tracks, etc) and the ability to vertically resize tracks. I appreciate that they seem to be gearing towards piano roll/arranger workflow enhancements next update.

[@GermoStaalfeldt]

composition tools/midi tools/editing tools - full usage of efficiency cores on mac

[@bobbylucas13]

Would love to see a groove pool/global MIDI groove. Something I use a lot in Studio One, which the lack of has stopped me moving to Bitwig, as much as I like it.

[@mixxcustomsounds7702]

The drop-down menu on the play button has global groove options. Hope this helps!

[@jonirischx8925]

Global groove/swing already exists under the play button, and you can toggle it on/off per clip on the inspector panel when clicking a midi clip, and turning off 'shuffle'. It's on by default, which I actually don't like. They should have an option to decide in the settings, under the 'behavior' tab, whether newly created clips spawn with groove enabled or disabled, and not just have a separate button of whether global groove is on/off. What I'd like to see them implement in the future (and I know this might be a bit niche), is the option to implement different swing percentage per clip, or per track. Because as it works currently, you only have global groove. But you can get some really funky rhythms going by having different tracks be at a different swing percentage. I know you can just manually nudge the notes to a swing you like, but would be nice to see per track/clip settings for groove. What I usually do now, is to manually disable shuffle from all the midi clips in my projects, but keeping global groove on. And then apply groove to specific clips at a percentage chosen in the play menu, by enabling shuffle from the clip. And when I want to use other percentages, I just bounce the clips that have shuffle enabled to audio, turn the shuffle off from said midi clips, and apply a different percentage to some newly selected clips by changing the global groove from the play menu. As you can see this is a bit of a tedious workaround, as you have to constantly keep track of which clips have shuffle enabled, and which don't, and whether you have bounced them or not, and at what percentage of swing (if you changed it later) you bounced them. In larger projects this is really a pain, especially if it's a while since you worked on the project. All of this could be solved by having the option to apply groove per clip, and have the settings enable you to turn off 'shuffle' by default. I don't really understand why this isn't a thing already, since each clip already has the 'toggle shuffle on/off' button, so groove is already clip specific. It would be very logical to give us these additional options to control groove per clip, and not just globally. I might email them about this, actually, since it's been bothering me. Suggest you do the same if you like to have more control over groove :) This would also be a really simple thing to implement.

[@ReasonanceHead]

I would like the groove stuff from Reason that has like mpc style swings and some beats/drummer grooves

[@MusicDiedWithDad]

wishlist. sampler update (crop, better timestrech options, slicer). Ara support or native vocal tuner (like cubase vari audio). Then I dont need to record in another daw :)

[@matthewallthetime218]

We should be able to create and save sub-grids in the Grids! For visual organization, you could smash a complex thing into its own box… Modular software in other creative domains (like VFX) have been able to do this for many years and I wish Bitwig would do it too.

[@matthewallthetime218]

For what it’s worth, it’s *very* easy to record your steps into a pattern, then add trig conditions, timing offsets, whatever. Personally think stepwise adds *just* enough skeleton to get started without much fussing. I like it a lot.

[@Alckemy]

It’s not hard, no, but it’s a lot of steps over just using audio. I’m also super spoiled from having patterning 3 and elektron stuff

[@memecoinmafia2732]

the new version of Rolling Sampler has 30min option

[@EpsteezyFoSheezy]

I really like the points you raise about Stepwise; I would genuinely love if it had a bipolar modulatable microtiming adjustment, either in ms or subdivisions or both. You can certainly accomplish this through note effects, but that is one of the things I would love to see directly in the sequencer itself.

[@reaveraudio]

I probably agree on most things you mentioned here, but one thing that no one ever talks about that infuriates me about Bitwig, is the fact that clicking somewhere doesn't immediately move the playhead where you clicked. Sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't. Like brother, did I do something to you? (referring to playhead..)

[@Alckemy]

Great point

[@nick4410]

No yeah I notice that exact same thing. Clicking around in general can sometimes be very finicky and other times be fine. Very annoying at times

[@pnutbuttajellee1394]

I find it peculiar that Cubase 14 highlighted feature is a new drum machine with synth drum algoriths along with a step sequencer. And working with the Bitwig team, now includes DAWProject format. It does not work good, but its great they are moving in that direction. Cubase is becoming more like Bitwig, which is also great

[@conspiracyofanarchy]

++ Piano roll functionality Brick wall limiter Custom device for grid Reverb +

[@dubtube6691]

Right, more and more useless tools and basics are missing

[@DaKingof]

Stepwise is a little basic for my taste. It would b nice to be able to incorporate or have something like operators built in so that we can have variation without having to modulate stuff to create it. I should be able to make multiple loops!

[@Alckemy]

Note fx selector is the next best option

[@mudi2000a]

My biggest beef with it is that it’s too small. The should add some pop up to be able to view it bigger.

[@dubtube6691]

Nonsense tool, still no pianoroll

[@loueptme1778]

Stepwise: I agree with time offset per event. It is critical for my way of working with beats - As per FL Studio Step Sequencer & Teletone's Kontakt step sequencer (Tympo etc).

[@va941]

And what i really would like Is a Tool 2, i want a cut of point for the stereo width knob, to have an easy way to mono my bass under a certain freq.

[@ImaplanetJupiteeeerr]

Thought to myself that I'll just watch a few minutes for now and here I am at 25 minutes about to finish this awesome vid :DDDD Ps. Do you have preset packs for Bitwig by the way Alckemy? :) I notice that I have a slight aversion towards Phaseplant as I really wouldn't want to learn yet another synth and would be cool to use (and learn via the patches) your sound design stuff on BW devices. Psps. Also, I dont know if you listen to like psybass/psydub etc stuff but came to mind that it might be quite close to what you do and I haven't found any SD tutorials on Bitwig for those genres. Can see that there might be some people interested in that stuff. But yeah, lol just felt like rambling some thoughts I had. Great vid, big thanks as always! 👏

[@MrSimonjan78]

Great video. I noticed you're using a Mac; however, on my Windows machine, every time I launch Bitwig 5.3, it scans audio devices and a window pops up in the top right corner saying, "Audio settings changed - The changes will be applied when the Dashboard is closed," even though I haven't altered any audio settings and the Dashboard is closed.

[@va941]

Oh, id love if every native device had a switch to make it flip through the basic chain state and having it blow up ln the "bigger view".

[@TeslaOsiris]

The “master sampler” seems like it would streamline making throws and assorted FX

[@jeffgreenlee1226]

I find it surprising that no one seems to be discussing the fact that Bitwig has abandoned Core Audio in the release... Now I have to recreate my Aggragate audio system into something in side of Bitwig.

[@Dudderlyful]

I'd like to change the orange colouring, that's it. That's my wishlist for Bitwig.

[@GirlfightClub]

Still better than ugly Ableton

[@anupjsebastian]

Time stretch in the sampler. There is no way to play chords without the notes being unequal lengths. My alternative for now is to use the sampler within Current whenever I need to do this Some note preview improvements in the piano roll. Highlighting notes should preview them like in Ableton or better yet have something like FL Studios alt / right click preview A groove pool would be nice. A swing grid where you can actually see the lines on the grid move according to your set swing And yeah I agree with you. It needs some good solid stock devices. A lot of them are pretty good especially the newer ones like compressor plus, but the Ableton lineup is much better. A better way to quickly export single MIDI clips and to be able to quickly locate a used sample in the project without manually comparing specific file names in the files tab. And things like phase shift when using multi band effects, and the unreported latency of EQ+ (fixed now) should be mentioned in the manual if something like that exists, not leaving users scratching their heads. None of these are deal breakers though, and Bitwig is still the one that I believe have the best balance of features for me. And for specific things like groove pools or swing grids, I just quickly open up another DAW when I absolutely need it and import it back to Bitwig. My update plan just ended but the current release doesn’t excite me to upgrade. To be honest, the feature I was most excited about was the auto switching of audio devices, as I tend to work docked and undocked on a laptop and it is annoying to set the audio device manually always. But even better was that they mentioned that Arranger and piano roll updates are coming next, so I’ll wait until then.

[@Alckemy]

so there is a workaround to the first suggestion. if you set the mode to granular and use a ramp lfo on the playhead, it will actually do what you want it to. although not the most lavish solution. good points on the other stuff

[@StudyingVStudying]

Do you think bigwig will implement midi capture like Logic Pro that you can have it like comping, sample swap on drum rack and timeline, and be able to customize the interface colors and the mixer output meter move to fast not being able to see visually where is peaking? I’m just waiting for that to move to bitwig or wait for cubase to implement clip launcher or session view? Because the drum rack and step sequencer cubase added is just amazing

[@Alckemy]

Honestly I have no idea. But I’d say don’t wait. Juno in and get cooking on software fits you the most right now

[@DJminiLibra]

Nice Beat, and your CPU is so cold! ❤ What you have an setting?

[@neyopanda]

still no native video support

[@MelissaMiller-i6i]

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[@ollieark]

Exclusive Record option in preferences! (like exclusive solo) 🙏

[@honestaussie5064]

In regards to a solution for the Stepwise per note offset, what would you think about having the ability to drag the blocks wherever you want by using a keyboard modifier key + click and drag ?

[@Alckemy]

I see what you are saying and would be down for that

[@thesurgingmass]

I like the line under each block like in Fors Opal. Can see if you’re nudged forward or backwards easily per step.

[@Savagebeast83x]

How do u get the playhead to look normal again? Mine looks like a windshield wiper 😅

[@Alckemy]

Embrace the wiper 🧙‍♀️

[@colognialist1964]

Great Overview. Thank you.

[@dirkthelazybone1790]

There is the steps modulator. And there is the time offset parameter. Modulate it with the steps modulator and you get your timing offset per step

[@Alckemy]

I went over this in the demo stream. More trouble than it’s worth.

[@croay]

You could say the same about Stepwise: just use the grid. Thing is: people often go for a sequencer enough times that it makes sense to make it convenient to use right away. Having the step offset ready to go should also be one of these conveniences imo. It's great to have it in my Elektron box, and it would be similarly awesome to have it on Stepwise.

[@shaboogen]

@@Alckemy having offset be disaggregated from individual steps makes it more flexible. This system allows you to have polyrhythmic timing for offsets separate to steps, not sure what else is offering that.

[@Alckemy]

@ no. It’s super in-precise from having to adjust step timing via the step modulator and aligning which note you want to shift. Are there some cool experimental things you can do? Sure. I covered that in the video. But opening the other modulators just to shift one or two steps early exactly where I want them to be is not worth the time. Bounce to audio- place on the timeline and done. Look up patterning 3. You’ll understand what I’m talking about

[@playamaqui]

Thanks for the video!

[@DJminiLibra]

No random buttons 😢

[@angrytoken]

best review

[@va941]

Audio over dubbing & vertical arranger zoom.

[@sqwerty0829]

Hey just a tip to create that per note offset like you described at 13:05. Its quite simple, just add a step modulator to the offset parameter of that lane. Your welcome...

[@Alckemy]

I mentioned it in the video. You’re welcome

[@xlilxillx]

this sucks I WANT ARA INTEGRATION!!! why won't they finish the DAW?

[@vroteg]

They have no interest at making daw… that they make is synth with some basic daw functions. Its program to make sound design. Some people actually like it. I have moved on to different program for actual working as bitwig is letting down for a few years now….

[@prey76]

Orrr Just use the manual note delaying while using a drum rack

[@Alckemy]

I think you’re talking about time delay but can’t automate that. I mentioned the other note effects howver

[@prey76]

@Alckemy I agree I bet editing notes timing by hand feels better and you have more control but I see your point in the video

[@Alckemy]

@@prey76 nothing beats audio as of now. But having an elektron sequencer along with some other stuff does make that process a lot more manageable

[@prey76]

@@Alckemy agree one hundred percent, but see the problem with delaying notes not audio clips is complicated because when you shift something ahead it stays at its position on the audio of everything is delayed it's not the case with doing it manually where you place it by hand, it's similar to how compressors work they can't work ahead of time so that's why we have lookahead 😅

[@Alckemy]

@ moving midi early via a trigger is different than the time delay as you’re manipulating when a trigger happens vs midi hitting and then audio trying to adjust to the clock. Different processes^^

[@gylp2]

i do not like the why alltime i drag a audio file it does not automaticly set the bpm why the fuck does the developers program bitwig that why and also why the heck is it not in raw original speed as default like in logic pro x we do not have these trash settings that messes the audio up in a wrong why

[@paul_cochrane]

first

[@hamisheginet]

💩🏆

[@KG01101]

@@hamisheginet Come on man, he obviously won