Well, the beta testing invites are starting for the completely new Bitwig Studio DAW. It looks like they have taken all of the very best features of both Ableton Live 8 and Reaper 4.x and put them together under an eye-catching new colour scheme. I’ll be taking a closer look soon, but the mixer below functions and looks much like Reaper’s, and the modular and loop-able, ‘drag and drop’ nature of the track area is like the ‘shoulda woulda’ that was to be Ableton Live 9.
Another German-created DAW, their offices are almost right across from Ableton’s in the same town, and at least three of their top employees recently were Ableton staff. Perhaps the nicest feature of all is that this is a spanking brand-new build, so it isn’t a bloat and float on top of some more primitive version, and they haven’t coded themselves into any corners quite yet regarding future feature additions and changes. The structure and degree of beta testing to be done is somewhat remarkable in itself. Actually, this new baby is ready to fly now.
On a more personal note, I’ve always been a sucker for the bright colouration on dark backing anyhow. The layout suggests a nice workflow as well, and note the browsing area on the right-hand side for their system. Too bad I’m already chuck full of software as it is.
Here’s a closer look, complete with cheesy Euro-Beat background sound:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyofAQ3ueDk
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