Superbooth 24: Bitwig will celebrate 10 years of Bitwig Studio DAW with a new version, 5.2, with new features and a big 50% OFF sale.
Bitwig 5.2 is out now and is a free update for Bitwig users with an active Upgrade Plan as of April 25, 2024.
Article From May 10, 2024
Happy birthday, Bitwig Studio. Bitwig Studio 1.0 was released on March 26, 2014. Crazy hat this was already ten years ago. It started as a DAW reminiscent of Ableton Live; 10 years later, it is an independent, very modular DAW with its own concept.
The Superbooth 24 is a great time to celebrate this achievement. That comes with a fresh update, 5.2, as well as a big sale. For a limited time, you can grab the full version. crossgrade or extend your update plan with a 50% discount.
Bitwig 10 Years
Bitwig Studio’s first steps started late. Not ten years ago, but 12 years ago, the company presented the DAW at NAMM 2012. However, it took another two years until version 1.0 was released on March 26, 2014. From then on, it was steeply. New features were added every year. In recent years, even several times.
- 1.0: March 26, 2014, + more updates from 2014 – 2016 (new devices, pop-up browser, group tracks, touch support)
- 2.0 February 2017: all about modulation + updates up to 2019 (Link support, MIDI clock sync, Phase-4 Synthesizer, Sampling…)
- 3.0 July 2019: The Grid, the modular update + updates up to July 2021 (wavetable synth, pitch, and scale, shaping tools…)
- 4.0 July 2021: sequencer update + updates up to June 2023 (note effects, new FXs, Polymer/Grid synths, spectral suite…)
- 5.0 June 2023: more modulations + ongoing updates (filters + waveshapers…)
New features were added every year. In recent years, even several times. Above all, the engine became more and more modular and powerful. A promise that they already made at the very beginning of version 1.
Today, Bitwig Studio has one of the deepest and most versatile sound engines in a DAW.
The number of features added to Bitwig Studio in the last 10 years is impressive. This is an evolution that took place. I wish you all the best and at least ten more years, if not more, of Bitwig’s evolution. And the journey continues with the new upcoming update 5.2.
Bitwig Studio 5.2: Compressor+ and EQs
Not only is Bitwig celebrating 10 years this year at Superbooth 24, they are also showing another update with Bitwig Studio 5.2. It comes with a new set of sound-shaping tools.
First, you can explore the new Compressor+ device, described as an all-in-one compressor for any use case. It hosts six different compression characters (vanilla, smooth, over, glue, etc.) based on various gain reduction, envelope behaviors, and other “under the hood” settings.
Then, you can customize the compressor’s behavior using one of the three modes (standard, beyond, dual). Plus, you can tweak the VCA color with four different styles: clear, prism, transistor, and saturate.
There are a lot of customization options in the new Compressor+ device with which you can put together your very own compressor that fits your music and sounds precisely.
In addition, Bitwig Studio also comes with a new trio of EQs inspired by classic hardware: Focus (Pultec EQP-1), Focus (MEQ-5), and Tilt. The latter offers a simple interface that lets you rebalance any sound to be brighter or darker, with additional choices for the center frequency. Plus, you can adjust how steep the slope is.
A Stereo-ize option is available in all three EQs for effectively duplicating the unit and then tilting it a variable Amount in the Stereo field (to push up frequencies and gain in the left or right channel), or to apply in the mid-side domain.
Other New Features
Other improvements in Bitwig Studio 5.2 include dynamic beat detection and a rewritten graphics engine that takes advantage of hardware acceleration. The Bitwig team promises better responsiveness and efficiency.
That’s not all! It also introduces several major workflow enhancements. According to Bitwig, you can now use the arrow keys to navigate between “points of interest” in clips or the arranger timeline.
Similarly, it is now possible to move along the timeline in small increments like beat divisions, automation points, clip start and end points, and more. That sounds like a neat improvement. Read all the details in the changelog here.
Availability & Bitwig 10 Years Deal
You can save 50% off the whole Bitwig Studio lineup, including the update plan. This deal is valid until May 20th, 2024. The new Bitwig Studio 5.2 update is now in beta and will be released in Summer 2024.
This is a free upgrade for all customers with an active Upgrade Plan as of April 25, 2024. The developers will have a booth (Z105) at Superbooth 2024 where they will showcase the new update.
Starting with this version, you’ll need at least Windows 10, macOS 10.15 or later, and Ubuntu 22.04 or later. And for graphics, on Windows you’ll need DirectX 11 or higher, and on Linux, DX11-level Vulkan.
More information here: Bitwig
Available at my partner
lol Bigwig
Very good for Linux music production, but still no Max like scripting, also they completely ignore iPads, which seems to be a grotesque blindness for a software company. Or does it work on IPads?
1) Max For Live as the same say will not arrive to Bitwig as Max is a company of Ableton. It’s one of Ableton key features so no 😉
2) Bitwig is a small small company and for making it ready for iPads, they need to hire a complete different team etc that takes over the work as
the other team is constantly working on Bitwig on the other three versions. So it costs a lot of money for them. So I don’t expect an iPad release.
Apple offer Logic Pro for iPad because they have the manpower and the financial options.
3) No doesn’t exist but works on touch devices with Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Yes, of course they need developers, but iPad is a platform for music where a company can actually make money. It’s not like other companies are doing it just for fun. So this smells like some heavy management mistake. Or something is seriously wrong with the development process, they seem to be stuck on past mistakes. Very sad, was a promising project.
Very few developers of iOS music apps make a living from it. Most people do it as a second job or just as fun project because it’s not enough. A reason many apps ended to be discontinued. Developing an app is one thing and cost money. Updating an app is another thing that cost money but you don’t get something back from your user base. Apple doesn’t offer ways to charge for updates. So that’s why some developers releases complete new version and charge again.
If you make more money, Apple takes 30% of every purchase, plus you have to play taxes etc. As much I’m an iPad pro user, beta testing stuff, writing about it, using it, I know that it’s not easy at all to make and live from apps.
Respectfully you have no idea what you’re talking about (from someone that works in this field)
I trust him more than someone who declare he “work in the field” but have no argument.
The fact, that they don’t have a native iPad app is bearable, because I think the users of Bitwig have a more “alternative” attitude – far away from mainstream, in this case Apple with all their restrictions and user-unfriendly policies. So it is more important they have a Linux version, because Linux is the diametrical opposite of Apple and all what it stands for. Nevertheless as a heavy power-user of the iOS System – especially for making music – I think it is a more serious problem or let’s say a fatal error of decision, that they don’t support the AU format, in this case the AUv3 format, because there are really a lot very creative and fantastic apps available on the iOS plattform for fair charge of money. Even NovoNotes SideRack is only available for the macs. So maybe we should convince NovoNotes the nessessity of a Linux Version ;).
Leave it to someone on the internet to declare something is bad because it doesn’t have the niche features no one else is asking for. Ableton Live doesn’t run on an iPad, you only have Ableton Note. Supporting a full DAW on the iPad would be a difficult and expensive endeavor, and a bad experience for the user. You can use Touch OSC to remote control both DAWs with an iPad. Ableton Live doesn’t have Bitwig’s Grid, which is the same but different than M4L.
Thanks BitWig for supporting Linux. I took advantage of the discount.
Still no scale mode for piano roll available 🙁
just learn how to play scales, there’s a lot of features we want still.
I love Bitwig, many days even more than Live, but I have no desire for either on the iPad. For the better part of a year I’ve been focusing on production with only an iPad and recorder-mixer and it’s abundantly clear that apple views the ipad as a toy or gimmick whereas the MacBook Pro (and corresponding Desktop Studio models) are about all that’s left of Apple’s old “productivity for creatives” business model of yesteryear. This lack of seriousness about the platform has allowed some amount of inexpensive, valuable, creative audio software tools but with no disrespect to AUM (which I own, use, and generally appreciate) the closest things to a functional DAW, without being Apples in-house *coughing fit* SUBSCRIPTION ONLY tool are Cubasis and Korg Gadget, which, while being very good tools, both demonstrate well the limitations of shoehorning a DAW-thing into a tablet/touch-interface platform.
could be nice having it in on ipad, but i puke a little in my mouth with this “know it all/entitlement/pretentiousness״ comments.