Bitwig Studio 4 unveiled

New version adds conditional triggering, comping and more

Bitwig have just announced a major update to their innovate DAW, Bitwig Studio. Version 4 introduces a number of new features, some of them commonly found in other major DAWs, and others a little more unusual.

In the former camp, we have Comping - the process of assembling a single perfect take from multiple recordings. Bitwig say that their version of it is particularly streamlined, though, with colour-coding for take identification, and a simple swipe-based means of selecting which part you want to keep from a given take.

A little less ordinary is a feature Bitwig call Operators. Building on their extensive implementation of parameter modulation, Operators add Elektron-style control over MIDI data, including things like probabilistic and conditional event triggering. This means you can set the probability (as a percentage) that a snare hit will land on a given beat, say, or tell your kick drum not to sound while a bass note is being triggered.

Also new to the MIDI side of things is something called Expression Spread. Rather like MPE, this allows you to apply per-note automation to your MIDI data, but it goes a little further in that it allows you to set a range of values for a given parameter, with the actual value varying each time, for a more human feel.

Other enhancements include the ability to export to a wider range of audio formats, the ability to import FL Studio projects and Ableton Live sets, and compatibility with the new Apple Silicon architecture.

The Beta version of Bitwig 4 is available to download now, with the actual release expected early Autumn.

https://www.bitwig.com/whats-new/

LINK:	https://www.soundonsound.com/news/bitwig-studio-4-unveiled...
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