So, while being a Cubase lover, i tried Bitwig out of curiousity, drifting away with all the hype around it.
And man, do i love Steinberg even more, for having a DAW that’s so adult and big and so full of functionality.
I know comparing Bitwig with Cubase is nuts, but hey, indeed it’s nuts cause Cubase is the Big One and Bitwig, well, for me, is a little toy really, full of bugs and awful performance,
I am aware this is a completely subjective post in the eyes of many readers.
But with more than 25 of DAW experience (Cubase Logic, Reason, Reaper, Protools, and back to Cubase 7) ,i do know what i am talking about, so maybe it’s not so subjective …
Bitwig ? …nah … maybe in a year i will have a look at it again.
Or maybe not.
Hooray for Steini !!
I love you !
I would agree here. I’ve been working with the Bitwig demo and although it has some features Cubase does not have … At this point Bitwig is lacking many important features I cannot do without. I was underwhelmed to be honest. I’m sure it will mature into a favorite for many though. . But I’ll stick to Cubase as well. I’ve also used Logic and Sonar over the years and for me cubase has matured into an amazing product. … runs as smooth as butter compared to the competition that I’m familiar with.
in my personally opinion comparing both is a joke, specially when one is on version 1.0 and the other with many many years. Bug updates in bitwig are fast in contrast to cubase, i didn’t full tried it but i did not find any bug during the test i did with it in contrast with cubase. It is a strong base for them to continue… i am waiting for the update for cubase in 9 April and if the bugs that have been a pain in the ass for me are not solved i will change DAW for sure. Bitwig are mainly programmers who know what they are doing and it is their strenght. In contrast cubase, the development is a resource and they are mainly marketing heads. Features that exist in bitwig 1.0 will be buggy in Steinberg Version 8.5 for sure, but sold in version 8.
Peanut Gallery: Anyone actually expecting a 1.0 workstation to “replace” a v20 decades old workstation is somewhat delusional and should seek professional help.
The random comments about things like this are just “public reassurance” that what you own is better, which should be obvious enough even before you try it. The feature list (by omission) has been public for two years. With that bit of “Captain Obvious” being out of the way… it does have some nice design bits.
Route any track to any other, directly.
Put any media on any track, including busses and the master channel.
Turn any track into a FX bus via drag and drop.
All detached windows have - everything - on them, including automation envelopes.
There’s other good design stuff in there that will be really good to have once it develops more… but we all knew beforehand that it wouldn’t fully compete with Cubase, PT, Samp, Logic at v1 … didn’t we(?)… since that actually never happens?
It’s still fun (reassuring?) to point out the missing features though.
I also tried it. While its much easier to understand then Ableton it still has some similarities.
It has some nice new features like sandboxing VST, Modulate 3rd Party VST and Layered Midi Editing (works also in Cubase but in Bitwig its quicker to establish and you can overlay Waveforms e.g. a drum beat).
What I dont like is, I feel constrained. The Midi window is so small and in order to get it big I have to switch views etc. Maybe its because I only used it for a day but I keep searching stuff with the mouse while I am used to press buttons to quickly jump from one view to another etc… in cubase - so workflöow wise - no suprise - cubase still better… but after a day that was expected.
It feels solid but also kind of beta sometimes (tiny buttons are important sometimes when you search a function). Popping sounds with some internal stuff sometimes aswell… just irregularities her and there…
Whats a big plus is that it has good PDC. While in Cubase I often have timing errors
I didn’t try Bitwig. But why would I? Cubase is already for years the most awesome software of any kind that I own. I am still knocked out by the notion that a $1 million studio, way beyond my resources, could be effectively replaced by a cheap computer together with this inexpensive software. At this point, we’re not arguing whether Cubase can do the same functions; we’re arguing whether “analog-i-ness” is a valid concept and worth the price. You know, does the compressor have “character”. I never cease to be amazed!
GUI scaling works well in Bitwig,
In Nuendo, if you change the HiDPI scaling (+ values), VSTIs get bigger as well - they may get so big that you cannot operate them anymore.
Cubendo 13 is just… can’t use it. Why the inspector has so tiny unclear font, especially when there’s not much to do about it and if you scale the UI, you may well scale your VST instruments all over the place. What a mess.
