r/Bitwig

hi all, sorry for having another topic but you help me a lot and I find it hard to look for these specific infos, maybe it is because Bitwig is a more traditional DAW and FL Studio makes things different I dunno how to look for some things.

it seems that this might be different in both DAWs and i dunno which workflow i like more yet, what advantages each brings and so on. so let me explain please, in FL Studio you work with Patterns and for example I got 1 instance from Serum 2 where I can create hundreds/infinite patterns and let them play at the same time, I dont need another instance of Serum 2 which is great, like in this example I can play the same sound/instance and have melodies played the same time (of course if you use ARPs etc. and other stuff they are dependant so you should create a new instance if you wanna have them independenty played when they use Legato, ARP etc)

FL Studio patterns

https://i.redd.it/cr10qosogkbh1.gif

As Bitwig is the first DAW im learning more after FL Studio i think I get some points what people said with linear? DAW etc. so first I thought this is great, i can do multiple midi clips without having to create EVERY TIME patterns but I also see how used i am with FL Studio so in some situations where i use the same VST Instance multiple times I cannot do it in Bitwig?

Here I show it to you, I want as the above example the 1st Serum 2 instance connected to the midi clips i have in the 2nd and 3rd row, I dont want to use 2 more Serum 2 instances, as this would also consume more performance, and i simply dont need 2 additional ones for this sound, i just wanna have all 3 meloies/midi notes played the same time from the same Serum 2 instance. is this possible like in FL Studio?

https://i.redd.it/wlnxu23bhkbh1.gif

thx

I'd not updated my 12-month sub since 2024 but recently did due to, primarily, the new sampler.

I'd been on BitWig since 1.0. To be honest I only bought it as it was cheaper than Ableton and, at the beginning, the inference was that it was effectively the 'real next gen Ableton'. I also use Logic as I record live bands and musicians but for anything hiphop or electronic it was BitWig for years.

However, a couple of years back I did invest in full version Ableton as, working in education, the pricing wasn't too bad. I make such extensive use of Simpler, not having something like that in BitWig was a show shopper, a huge irritation. That said, there were ways to be creative in BitWig I missed after using it for so many years but I'm not one to juggle multiple DAWs: I just want to sit down and make music, not learn DAW software endlessly.

Well, the Sampler--for me, at least--now does everything I need it to do and more. Okay, something like this should have been in 1.0, or at least 2.0, and we've waited until 6.1...

But, okay... I FORGIVE YOU BITWIG.

I am, once more, a fan and advocate.

In this modular Bitwig patch, I tried to create the feeling of floating at the edge of the universe, far away from everything. It’s built from soft noise, slow-moving oscillators, long reverb tails, pitch shifting, random notes, and tiny details that drift in and out like distant signals. The patch keeps evolving on its own, never quite looping the same way twice. It’s calm, spacious, sleepy, and a little mysterious, somewhere between deep space ambience and a generative dream machine. This one feels less like a track and more like a quiet place you can disappear into for a while. You can download the patch for free, as always.

Download: https://polarity.productions/dispenser/

hi, seems im really not getting it, i thought this is easy and i watched 2 tutorials but I CANNOT believe it is so time consuming and fiddly?

1. DRUM BUS /BUS

i want to route these 3 instruments to the DRUM BUS, i know you can change the routing from MASTER to DRUM BUS i marked it, but it is tedious to click there and change it, is there no fatser way, like marking those 3 and send to DRUM BUS?

https://preview.redd.it/ugikjytecgbh1.png?width=1337&format=png&auto=webp&s=3488d985f97078c372ee56dbd9e0b4ac15681fc2

for example in FL you can just mark the tracks you want -> right click here at the bottom and ROUTE TO THIS TRACK ONLY.

https://preview.redd.it/91zfmwamcgbh1.png?width=707&format=png&auto=webp&s=9ad69c1ceeb9afea92183e0a7d1be0a476939eab

2. i dunno if i like the Bitwig mixer GUI, so tiny everything.....

here i added 4 effects and the list is soooo tiny you can only see 3 tiny entries

https://preview.redd.it/phebpqq0dgbh1.png?width=129&format=png&auto=webp&s=a4ba8afdb09cbd99b97e7e09633bb0c62dda3d57

ok i see in the bottom you have them in a row but hmmm i dunno, i would love to have a bigger list view if possible?

in FL Studio I really like this style sadly it is limited to only 10 FXs.... without patcher

https://preview.redd.it/6bv1zyb8dgbh1.png?width=301&format=png&auto=webp&s=62ceae8bcf130eae0a45ff3768d828d23185995b

3. oh i see it myself now, the MIX button of each effect is only in the bottom row, different approach i guess but yeah maybe there are more options to the view of the bitwig mixer i dunno yet?

thanks a lot

whats good, so i have been intensively doing more work with Bitwig this weekend and also checked your points from before, this will be my last topic for some days i guess cause i needa focus on trying to do some first beats and see how all the help from you helps me out, i got some points i might been missing out or just are not there or sadly not as well as in fl studio and i dont care about this daw, that daw is better, i care about my workflow and if something is somewhere else better then i point that out and hopefully it gets worked on, nothing more nothing less.

1. clicking a sample in the browser has a small timeframe of delay, it doesnt play instantly, small detail but i wonder why is that? in FL Studio clicking a sample BOOM without delay played

2. this is a thing getting used to maybe but would be cool to be able to switch sides of browser <---> Events etc. so all things from right to left side

3. ahhh this drives me nuts, is this an APPLE thing? why cant i use the mousewheel on SO MANY things? e.g. BPM change etc. why?

https://preview.redd.it/50qaevayrdbh1.png?width=574&format=png&auto=webp&s=43c84ff0995dbedf0ead98ea96b7f3e410772762

4. would be cool to double click an instruments’ name or field to also have it popped out, then you dont need to always click the open icon down below, this is really cumbersome if you wanna open the VST right away, double click while listening to your beat, BOOM

https://preview.redd.it/8obt3rz2sdbh1.png?width=400&format=png&auto=webp&s=bb77113d3c0444e67b3e2b5d3f529bb07d1aeb85

5. isnt it possible to having the midi notes snapped to a selected scale? i think in Ableton it is possible? so if you got notes in C Major and change to whatever E Minor that all notes get transposed which are not in scale, of course you needa adjust but would be a time saver...

https://preview.redd.it/fm7veizdsdbh1.png?width=1383&format=png&auto=webp&s=7b97d7cc49dbef77bfc9621abaead0fdfaeaf0bf

6. also i saw in Ableton you can ONLY display notes from a scale, not possible in Bitwig, would be cool! call me noob, i dont care, just small cool feature.

7. Resizing Notes with Brush/Spray Can, this f*cks me really up, cannot believe what i read, that Bitwig had no spray can before.... i mean come on... and now it gets a spray can and why leave out a feature like resizing notes? no logic not to give me the option, check what FL Studio does with the brush, like the Spray Can but you can resize, result, not having to switch a tool. so i see only improvment in this

https://i.redd.it/qhv3bzavsdbh1.gif

i wanna use Bitwig for less clicking and not more.

in Bitwig, wow so ugly

https://preview.redd.it/uojywc5zsdbh1.png?width=342&format=png&auto=webp&s=20f5ce41df2c1177ad0469e31eb7e28e5510e977

8. Midi Note Panning is really cumbersome? You have to be so specific with the mouse pointer and cannot just click in the field, check this is FL Studio, you dont have to pinpoint so specifically and can also click in the free field and the panning will be put

check FL Studio

https://i.redd.it/soof7943tdbh1.gif

in Bitwig it is so fiddly, you cannot change the panning when you got the pencil tool or brush tool selected. Why…

https://i.redd.it/pboqb9x6tdbh1.gif

CONCLUSION

just to be clear, this is no "Bitwig is so bad, FL is better", no just asking and checking if im missing something and showing what might be better in FL Studio, it would be awesome to have better workflow in these regards, Bitwig already has for me so many better workflow points i will switch and there are A LOT of other FL Studio users not happy with Image Line and Bitwig would suck them over easily if they would improve some more points. that would be a win win for Bitwig as well. Truth be told, FL Studio isnt cheap anymore, you buy it have lifetime upgrades but in the end you have to buy lots of additional plugins if you want more cool stuff which Bitwig seems to offer out of the box....

hi guys, trying to learn the grid step by step, this module works

https://preview.redd.it/cvljzxaty5bh1.jpg?width=702&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=44a6503a77e676995c2d651d080fa9d637a24719

but i wanted to understand the above (i switched the triggers to inactive)

and buily a simpler one and i dont understand why i cannot connect the WAVE Module to my pitch quantize? above you can connect the WAVE Module to delay -> attenuate -> s/h -> pitch quantize, so if you remove the delay + attenute + s/h then it would be also a direct connect wouldnt it?

https://preview.redd.it/g0aht695z5bh1.jpg?width=876&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3df0c17597e2351c01ff5e8efa196a949b96b05c

im too dumb for this maybe.... this is more frustrating than i thought. thx

I’m working on an album with what are supposed to be smooth transitions but bitwig always exports with the tiniest little silences at the end of a track which makes smooth transitions virtually impossible when, for example, loading all the mastered tracks into a project and exporting them from there with transitions between them. I know this issue is likely hyper specific and I may just need to bite the bullet and load up Cakewalk or some other free daw to export from there.

Switching from Windows to Linux and unfortunately, Studio One's Linux support is a joke. I can't for the life of me figure out how to make Ardour do the most vital part of it's job and output audio, and Reaper is stuttering like mad.

Bitwig is the only native Linux daw that works outside of the box and is playing quite nicely, with with my yabridge third party vst2 plugins (Bias FX 2, EzDrummer).

I don't know much about Bitwig. I've messed around with the PolyGrid for a bit, but I haven't figured out how to make it take multiple midi inputs at once.

What are you guys' favorite parts about Bitwig? What should I be looking / getting excited for? I really don't want to go back to windows.

In this video I take a look at the new Sampler features in Bitwig Studio 6.1, especially the new analysis output ports inside The Grid: Onsets, Pitch, and Envelope. These outputs make it possible to use any sample as a source for rhythm, pitch information, modulation, generative patches, glitchy ideas, scale quantization, and even rough pitch correction experiments. I also show some limitations of the current pitch and onset detection, where manual correction would be really useful, and why direct recording into the Sampler would make this workflow much more powerful.

Video transcribed, summarized and Q&A on my Blog (no ads): https://polarity.me/posts/polarity-music/2026-07-03-bitwig-grid-sampler-analysis-outputs-for-pitch-and-onsets/

Link From lobotix on youtube

I'm not sure the title explains my issue so I'll try to be more precise lol.

Whenever I record a launcher clip, audio or MIDI, when I stop the recording (using the space bar) the clip end is quantized to the next beat.

So, let's say I record something where the last note or audio ends at 3.2.2.0 (let's call it "irregular beat end") If I stop recording at that exact moment, the clip doesn't end there, instead going up to the next "regular beat start" which is 4.1.1.0.

In other words, Bitwig doesn't let me decide when a launcher clip stops, and stretches the clip so it will loop "perfectly". So I have to manually drag the loop end back where I actually want the clip to loop. The clip length is quantized.

If I want unequal, unquantized of clips to loop at the same time, I have to go back and edit each clip by hand, which makes it impossible to do it live.

I could of course create empty clips at different length and record overdubbing, but that takes away from the spontaneous improvisation.

Is there a way to prevent that ?

If my explanation isn't clear I could post a video to explain better.

Thanks

the reverse button disappears when going into slice mode, is there a way to reverse the slices? the only way I've come up with is to freeze and modulate the position backwards(and it doesn't seem that the freeze button can be modulated). would be great to still have just a reverse button that can be triggered or modulated, or let me know If I'm just missing something. thanks

So I have been a user of FL for close to 7 years now, and I decided to finally do the switch. I did so since FL is not natively supported on Linux (f*** Windows), and I have heard that at its core Bitwig is extremely capable for electronic music production, either through sampling or sound design using the Grid. FL has also not been running well in general, and for the hardware that I have, I don't think that should be the case.

I exported all of my beats and samples to audio so I can use them in Bitwig. I would love to hear some of your favorite ways to experiment in Bitwig.

Tell me your favorite tips and tricks regarding sampling, automation, sound design, anything you got!

hey ya!

still love my FL Studio but things get worse and i am testing Bitwig 6 now, I dont like Ableton's graphics, just doesnt catch me at all, Cubase is strangely feeling, dunno, hard to describe, and Studio One was also not mine, so i am considering Bitwig heavily after seeting some promo for v6.

i just started to learn it and watched some tutorials, i try to re-create my fl studio behaviours and of course i dont get it 1:1 but some points i dunno if im missin out something? just dunno why it doesnt work yet?

1. i love to split some notes for drill beats, you know i can chop marked midi notes to get fast playing hihats, in FL Studio i hit ALT+U and can adjust how my midi note is split, nice, in Bitwig i thought this is maybe cumbersome but it seems the operator might be even faster, but man, i cannot use this with mousewheel? dragging is ok but just 1-3 mousewheel moves would be faster....

https://preview.redd.it/hi1b6fmbivah1.jpg?width=207&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6cbab13c667dc515602bfd83985752a26a927ecc

2. i dunno the differences between the operators note split vs note length option? but when you click the arrow there then this menu pops up, nice, but come on why dont i hear a preview how my sound/midi note gets changed by my selection? i always have to hit APPLY first, so annoying, if you wanna play around you have to repeat this process on and on...

https://preview.redd.it/qzjmlzsoivah1.jpg?width=935&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2f43344df89350df863f8da1fe1fb1e84b38425

3. so this one i dont get at all, also love to mark some notes in FL Studio and you can drag and drop on the end of one note and all notes you can adjust in lenght, with hold ALT button you can fine tune, look here, i split this note into 4 notes but i cannot adjust em, i manually painted how i wanna have it to showcase

https://preview.redd.it/cyupqmo0jvah1.jpg?width=754&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=959289b5649a717eb6f3191e180ae583350aef18

4. also same topic, why cant i shorten my notes with the spray can at the end of the note? this is a missed function...

https://preview.redd.it/qre68irbjvah1.jpg?width=342&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b0876f5a97b70fcb5abe39c33a99c4226b249313

in FL Studio, easy

https://preview.redd.it/lwd37v3djvah1.jpg?width=350&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f86bcdf16594f8db19f61a170a217aa43db772a8

hope i just dunno how to do, otherwise hope Bitwig will add these, appreciate