I think it's biggest advantage/selling point is the modulation system. The grid is like an integrated modular synth that can encompass everything from external vsts to bitwig's mixer controls like volume/pan, etc., and one can use it to build stuff from scratch using fundamental modules.You ended preferring Live over Bitwig why so?
Now, modularity/flexibility to me is not a great important or great just by itself, it's about what purpose you are achieving with it, and it comes down to 3 things - building bespoke stuff that doesn't exist or does something unique from scratch, providing movement/interest by controlling parameters with complex modulations or creating dependancies within them, and doing let's say modular (fm) synthesis and adjacent stuff that relies on audio rate modulation.
For (1) building stuff from scratch, max is more flexible and low-level, (2) modulations providing movement/control are I think easy enough to do and chain in Live, and (3) for anything hardcore synthesis-wise, I just don't find any of the results that impressive for some reason. I've used Reaktor Blocks a lot and I think that sounds the best (Softube modular was also impressive), but maybe it's due to the rate of modulation (I'm not sure whether it operates or can do audio rate modulation) or something, maybe just personal taste, I just didn't find Bitwig compelling.
Apart from that, in terms of standard daw stuff or included content, I didn't test enough but feel like Live is probably more developed - e.g. integration with the browser, tagging, sound similarity, racks, automation selection in ableton having handles to manipulate akin to automation items in reaper, comping, audio to midi, resampling, polymeters in session view (automation and modulation), warping and time-stretch algorhithms, the new midi tools, etc. I'm sure Bitwig matches it in some aspects, but doubt it's as developed and polished in all of it, its main draw being the grid.
TL;DR - I'm not a big fan of the sound of the grid when it comes to typical modular stuff (much prefer Reaktor blocks) which seems to be it's main advantage, also not a fan of the UI for some reason
Statistics: Posted by Opaque — Sun Dec 29, 2024 7:49 pm