Bitwig Studio 6 details revealed, and editing gets a big boost

Summary

We get it. After years of DAWs leapfrogging in similar directions, the new generation of music tools made it easier to start projects, get inspiration, and improvise. But sometimes they played catchup on editing and automation. Bitwig Studio 6’s details are here, and it feels like editing automation, clips, and more are looking as fresh as those other tools, all in an updated UI. The beta is out now. Beta testing is free now if you’re ready to give this a look. You’ll need an active Upgrade Plan (as of today) for Studio, Producers, or even Essentials. Final release is due in the fall. There’s something refreshing about v6. No AI or stem separation. No gimmicky effects or instruments. No wizards to Help You Start An Indie Rock Project With An Automated Player. (We’ll leave to FL to add some weird dancing anime character, but we love them for that.) No, this is more like the DAW update a lot of engineers and users would want. Make editing better. VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO Switch to Automation Mode. Hit ‘A’ to overlay each track with the last-touched parameter or any other single lane. (So that’s different than other DAWs like Logic and Live, which toggle on all lanes at once — this is nice for quick, focused editing.) Improved editing gestures. Grab/drag/overwrite more easily. Spread, hold, and curvature automation behaviors. Improved tools like the new Spray Can, an Audition tool for previewing tracks and clips, and more optimized Pencil. Pencil and Spray Can also now show previews. Automation Clips that exist alongside existing clips — with even a parent note/audio clip relationship. This is sort of like how we always wished “dummy clips” would work in Bitwig Studio and Ableton Live. Improved expression editing with gain, pressure, etc. directly on notes. (This will be familiar to Cubase users, etc.) Edit multiple clips together via Detail Editor Panel. VIDEO Clip Aliases. Instead of just duplicating a clip, you get a kind of master template that impacts all clips sharing t...