Review: Bitwig Studio 6

Josh Turvey of NoiseQuest returns with a review of Bitwig’s cross-platform music production software: Bitwig Studio 6.

Summary

Bitwig 6 represents a landmark release for a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that continues to evolve from strength to strength. Bitwig’s decision to prioritise quality of life improvements over creative features directly addresses longstanding issues, whilst catering to the needs and requests of an ardent and loyal user-base.

True to their pedigree, Bitwig has delivered an experience that pushes the boundaries of tradition and expectation, elevating the DAW’s technical and creative potential in a manner that will appeal to both new and veteran users.

Pros:

The updated interface is fresh, intuitive, and inspiring.
The new automation features are genuinely transformative.
Clip Aliases and Automation Clips streamline common workflows and production tasks.
Key Signature is well executed globally, in the piano roll, and throughout Bitwig’s scale-aware devices.
The new Clip Launcher updates improve live performance and non-linear workflows.
The upgraded Tool Palette offers novel and creative ways to enhance one’s workflow.
Bitwig provides an excellent selection of creative instruments, effects, and devices.
The spectral devices offer powerful and unique processing capabilities.
Bitwig’s system-wide modulation is still groundbreaking and ahead of the curve.

Cons:

Bitwig still lacks video support.
‘Take Lanes’ and Comping aren’t extended to MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) tracks.
Retrospective MIDI Capture and Audio Recording is still unavailable.
No Mixer alternatives or versioning.
No Project alternatives.
The implementation of Swing and Groove is underwhelming.
Pitch Correction (Realtime and Offline) features are missing and underdeveloped.
Stem Separation is yet to be implemented.
No ARA (Audio Random Access) support.

Intro

Since the release of Bitwig 1 in 2014, the increasingly popular DAW has garnered widespread acclaim for its unique workflow, innovative features, and maverick approach to modern music production. From its early integration of MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression), to its sophisticated hardware compatibility, Linux support, unique devices, and its groundbreaking approach to modulation, Bitwig has sought to create a unified platform that pushes the boundaries of digital music creation.

Its initial popularity was largely driven by its emphasis on creativity, sound-design, and sonic exploration, culminating in an experience that prioritised experimentation at every stage of the production process. Bitwig has maintained this spirit throughout every stage of the DAW’s evolution, deploying innovations that have drawn admirers and imitators–most recently from industry heavyweights Steinberg, who took their cues from Bitwig when introducing their DAW-wide modulation system in Cubase 14.

Since its inception, Bitwig’s commitment to, and execution of, their creative features has never been in doubt, with the developer’s ingenuity evident across the arenas of Sound Design, Audio Processing, and non-linear Arrangement. Whilst this has drastically reduced the dependency on large libraries of third-party plugins, the DAW has received criticism for neglecting basic workflows, common editing capabilities, and universal “industry standards” that users have come to expect through working with other DAWs.

Much to the excitement of its loyal community, Bitwig 6 aims to address these issues, delivering an update that prioritises multiple quality-of-life enhancements over the addition of more devices. Below, we explore these additions and the manner they’ve been implemented into Bitwig’s ethos, which is famous for challenging convention and orthodoxy.

Disclaimer: A full exposé on Bitwig’s extensive feature-set is beyond the scope of this review, which will focus on the major new additions included in this release.

Design & Features

Updated Interface

Long-term users will immediately notice the cosmetic changes Bitwig 6 (see image above) has undergone. In what is likely the most noticeable design overhaul the DAW has received since its initial release, the environment is cleaner, clearer, and sharper, with tasteful visual enhancements that modernise the interface whilst retaining its signature aesthetic.

Bitwig Studio 6 arrangement window and piano roll

Crucially, the reworked design improves the navigability of the interface by communicating essential information related to various functions. For example, the decision to move the upgraded Tools Panel to the right of the Arrangement Window (see image above–red box) prevents it from cluttering the transport bar. It also groups it with the window’s other settings, namely Grid Snapping, Grid Size, and the Follow Playhead function. This design is also implemented in the Piano Roll (green box), therefore maintaining design consistency between Bitwig’s various windows and panels.

The Arrangement’s Grid Lines are now visible through MIDI and Audio Clips. Whilst this is a seemingly small refinement, it’s much easier to align Audio and MIDI to the grid when using the Slipping function (see GIF below, click to play), massively improving the speed and the utility of the feature.

Having previously mentioned the relocation of the Tools Panel, it’s important to note that Bitwig 6 adds three new tool functions: Spray Can, Audition, and Step Input. The ‘Spray Can’ serves multiple purposes related to MIDI and Automation editing, and will be discussed in more detail later in the review.

Although undeniably useful, its addition somewhat frustratingly dilutes the utility of Bitwig’s classic Pencil tool, from which it owes much of its functionality. The ‘Audition’ tool allows for quick previews of selected tracks and clips, but is fairly underwhelming in its capabilities. This will hopefully be developed in future updates, whereupon the addition of modifier keys and time selections could extend its functionality. ‘Step Input’ brings analog-style step sequencing to Bitwig’s Piano Roll, expanding its MIDI composition capability. This enables users to create melodies and chord progressions note-by-note rather than recording them in realtime, automatically quantising the MIDI data to the currently selected grid size.

Bitwig’s Clip Launcher now includes a loop counter and improved animations (see image above–red box). Both additions provide the user with more visual feedback, which is useful when triggering clips for live performance and when creating non-linear arrangements.

Overall, Bitwig 6’s updated design represents a massive leap forward in both functionality and aesthetics. Now that it’s been given a refresh, it remains to be seen whether Bitwig will include a greater range of themes and skins in future updates, or grant users the ability to customise their own. Such developments would be an excellent way to celebrate Bitwig’s visual evolution.

Automation Editing

Bitwig 6’s approach to Automation Editing is a major beneficiary of the latest upgrade. A new, Global Automation Mode (see image below–green box) gives users a bird’s-eye view, which is fantastic for editing automation across multiple tracks and parameters simultaneously.

This mode, whilst new to Bitwig, mirrors the standard behaviour of many DAWs, and although it’s ideal for certain situations, veteran users may feel it disrupts the seamless workflow that Bitwig is famous for. Fortunately, upon the stable release of Bitwig 6, the optional Flying Automation Lane was added to the DAW. This reintroduces Bitwig’s original approach to automation, allowing for quick editing without breaking one’s workflow to enter a dedicated automation mode. Having the best of both worlds allows users to effortlessly switch between focussed and immediate automation editing depending on their preference.

With the introduction of Velocity Spread in Bitwig 4, users were able to introduce controlled randomisation when applying velocity to MIDI notes in the piano roll. Deployed strategically, this feature results in lifelike MIDI patterns that resemble the subtle inconsistencies of human performance.

Bitwig 6 elevates this concept with Automation Spread (see GIF below, click to play), which imports the same functionality onto individual automation points via a definable range of allowance (a.k.a. Spread) that’s configured in Bitwig’s info panel.

This feature completely transforms the power and capability of Bitwig’s automation editing, enhancing what is a critical music production function with organic variation, and therefore bringing automated parameters to life in ways not possible in other DAWs.

A new ‘Hold’ mode (see GIF below, click to play) introduces an easy way to perform stepped automation.

Essentially, this mode functions similarly to the ubiquitous ‘Sample & Hold’ feature found in synthesisers and modular systems. When engaged, Bitwig will retain the automated parameter’s value for a specified length of time. There are multiple ways this can be deployed when drawing automation, but it works particularly well when using the new ‘Spray Can’ tool and switching between different arrangement grid sizes to create stepped automation of various lengths.

Bitwig 6 also introduces automation ‘Gestures’ (see GIF above, click to play), which enables users to edit the lines in between automation points. This is a small but notable addition that enhances automation editing and improves the overall quality of the experience.

Finally, users also have greater control over automation locking, which defines whether automation edits follow the parent Audio or MIDI clip when it’s moved, copied, or deleted. Previously this was solely determined globally, and whilst that’s been retained, there’s also provision to set automation locking on a per-parameter basis. This level of granularity puts the control firmly in the hands of the user for ultimate flexibility.

Automation Clips

As self-contained blocks of automation data, Automation Clips (see image below–red box) help to organise, duplicate, and edit automated parameters within Bitwig 6.

This implementation appears to draw inspiration from FL Studio and signals a logical evolution in Bitwig’s automation capabilities, imitating the benefits and behaviour of Audio and MIDI clips. For example, Automation Clips can be Time-stretched, Looped, and Slipped. They can also be converted into Clip Aliases (discussed below), which radically improves repetitive automation tasks.

Additionally, as clips, users can save custom automation shapes as presets to be reused across projects. This is particularly useful for common automation curves such as Noise Sweeps, Risers, and Downers. True to Bitwig’s penchant for innovation, automation clips can also be deployed in certain Bitwig devices, such as the Curves modulator (green box), and the Scrawl oscillator (blue box), therefore enabling users to harness their custom automation curves as modulation and oscillator sources respectively. Automation Clips also share a close relationship with their parent Audio and MIDI Clips, the behaviour of which can be configured with the previously discussed automation locking options.

Finally, users can engage the ‘Free Time’ mode (yellow box) to uncouple the length of the Automation Clip from its parent clip. This is extremely useful when using the Clip Launcher because it enables Automation Clips to loop at different lengths, therefore introducing variation and unpredictability even to short Audio and MIDI clips.

Clip Aliases

Clip Aliases (see GIF below, click to play) offer a streamlined solution to working with duplicated MIDI, Audio, and Automation Clips. The ability to link duplicates together as aliases (via a context menu or an assignable hotkey) simplifies the process of editing multiple identical clips simultaneously, which can be altered from any instance of the alias throughout the track.

Aliases are indicated by a ‘Paper Clip’ icon and can be converted into independent clips via the ‘Make Unique’ function. The implementation of this feature is intuitive and is especially useful when copying identical clips between the Clip Launcher and the Arrangement views, ensuring that any edits remain consistent. This feature also excels in situations where non-adjacent clips are identical, as shown in the GIF above.

It’s worth noting that Clip Aliases can only be linked to duplicates on the same track, so this feature doesn’t extend to identical clips that have been copied to different tracks. Whilst this limits the ability for users to create aliases across stacked tracks, Bitwig’s comprehensive selection of Container devices ensures that complex layering techniques can easily be achieved within the same track. However, it will be interesting to see if cross-track aliases will be explored in future versions of Bitwig, as this would provide an interesting alternative to working with layered material.

Key Signature

Throughout its evolution, Bitwig’s inability to handle key signatures has been a concern consistently raised by users in various online forums. Bitwig 6 has gone to great lengths to address this issue, providing an optional solution in the Transport Bar that gives users ultimate control over its implementation.

Whether one has an advanced understanding of music theory or not, a global Key Signature (see image above–yellow box) is an essential feature for modern music production that is an undeniably useful compositional tool for both practical and creative applications.

Bitwig 6 fully embraces this potential, extending the functionality to the piano roll and Bitwig’s six note-shifting devices (see image above–yellow and green boxes), thus enabling users to snap and quantise MIDI information to the chosen global key. For example, when used with the new ‘Spray Can’ tool, users can easily generate melodic ideas by quantising MIDI notes to the piano roll and ‘painting’ melodies at random, automatically locking them to the global key signature.

High-Level Editing

Bitwig 6 also brings a host of editing features designed to improve and accelerate common workflow tasks. These refinements centre on Bitwig’s Editor panel, including adjustments to Audio and MIDI Clip Expression editing, as well as Bitwig’s ability to edit multiple clips simultaneously.

Of particular interest is the Editor’s ability to display and manipulate selected Audio and MIDI Clips side-by-side (see image above–blue box), offering a hybrid workflow that makes it easy to view and align MIDI notes to audio waveforms, or the vice versa.

In Use

Bitwig 6 ushers in a new era of professionalism and maturity for the DAW. The new features have all been thoughtfully designed and implemented, seamlessly integrating into Bitwig’s established workflow with minimal friction and disruption to the existing ecosystem. Similarly, the updated design of the interface enhances the immersion of the user experience, prioritising the convenient placement of essential features so that users can maintain their creative focus.

The developers deserve immense credit for ensuring that the new features have not come at the expense of Bitwig’s commitment to sonic experimentation. If anything, they’ve enhanced this capability, elevating the DAW from a niche creative sandbox, to a bonafide music production powerhouse that encourages exploration and creative expression, whilst streamlining productivity and common workflows. Most importantly, Bitwig’s new features have been designed with flexibility in mind, allowing the user to adapt them according to their needs and requirements.

Overall, Bitwig 6 manages to cater to the demands of its existing user-base, whilst simplifying the transition from other DAWs for newcomers. This is not to suggest that no learning curve is necessary; any software possessing Bitwig’s capability requires a period of adaptation, and it would be unreasonable to expect otherwise. However, given the scale of creative potential it provides, Bitwig deserves plaudits for its ease of use, versatility, and adaptability, as it strives to push the boundaries of music creation across multiple genres and musical applications.

Conclusion

With every generation, Bitwig takes immense strides forward, further cementing its status as a major operator in the industry. Having firmly established the DAW’s reputation as a creative powerhouse with previous generations, Bitwig 6 refines the user experience by prioritising community feedback and quality-of-life improvements that elevate the DAW’s environment and comprehensive feature set. True to their ethos, these additions have been treated with the signature Bitwig “twist”, thus delivering an experience that challenges convention through its fresh, innovative, and highly adaptive implementation.

Whilst there’s still some way to go before Bitwig reaches feature parity with its established competitors, the latest version is a landmark release that lays strong foundations for an exciting future of development. Deftly balancing the needs of their loyal users with an uncompromising vision for innovation, Bitwig has managed to evolve without sacrificing its inimitable approach to creativity. The result is a polished and professional solution that champions integration, modularity, and experimentation to deliver an experience that suits musicians of all genres and experience levels.

Technical Info

Simple download, installation, and authentication process. A Bitwig User Account is required.
Additional content included with the purchase can be downloaded, installed, and managed directly within Bitwig.
Mac, PC, and Linux are supported.
The manual for Bitwig 5 is available online and as a downloadable PDF. Bitwig 6’s full manual is yet to be published at the time of writing, but there is a Quick Guide available as a PDF that covers the new features.
Bitwig 6 is superbly coded, with the CPU usage well-optimised.

Disclaimer: This review was conducted on a MacBook Pro M4 Pro with 48 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD (macOS Sequoia 15.7.4). User experience with the reviewed software may vary with different technical specifications.

Alternatives

Although there are a myriad of competing DAWs for users to choose from, the suggestions listed below share certain similarities with Bitwig in terms of their features and creative approach. This is by no means an exhaustive list of DAWs, of which many incredible options have naturally been omitted.

Live (Ableton)
Reaper (Cuckoos)
Cubase (Steinberg)
Reason (Reason Studios)
Logic Pro (Apple)
FL Studio (ImageLine)
Fender Studio Pro (Fender)

If Josh’s review has sparked your interest, you can give Bitwig Studio a try for 30 days, without limitations. More information at the Bitwig website.

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