Bitwig vs Ableton in general and as a host for Reason Rack Plugin

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ShelLuser
Posts: 358
Joined: 25 Aug 2019

25 Jun 2021

Sterioevo wrote:
25 Jun 2021
Does this behaviour only occur with the demo, or with a licence as well?
With the license as well.
--- :reason:

Sterioevo
Posts: 407
Joined: 02 Apr 2015

25 Jun 2021

ShelLuser wrote:
25 Jun 2021
With the license as well.
Dealbreaker for me, same with Reason+.

slic
Posts: 130
Joined: 01 Jun 2021

26 Jun 2021

Bitwig and Live are both great, I own and use them both. You could list a dozen unique advantages for either…they are very different despite appearing similar, so not that easy to compare. Live also has PUSH2 which is next level hardware control and a different thing again….

In many ways Reason is the better linear DAW, better mixer, audio pitch correction etc…so you will be giving up a lot if you switch completely…the grass isn’t always greener….

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StephenHutchinson
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26 Jun 2021

lecafard wrote:
24 May 2021
I am a long time Ableton user. Bitwig is a refinement of the system with instruments, effects and modulators far superior to what I found in Ableton. I am delighted with Bitwig + Reason working as a team. Bitwig is my DAW since I tried it and there is no going back.
I couldn't agree more. I have both Ableton Live Suite 11 and Bitwig 3. I use both for different purposes but I'm mainly using Bitwig now for all that you have mentioned. It just plays so nicely with the RRP and setting up Reason's Players to drive Bitwig instruments is just phenomenally easy to do.
:reason: Reason User Since Version 1.0
:refill: Reason Sound Design & Content Creation
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ReFiils: Ambientia Cinematic Soundscapes | String Theory (Friktion) | Algoritmo (Algoritm)

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StephenHutchinson
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27 Jun 2021

ShelLuser wrote:
25 Jun 2021


You do realize that if you're not online then Bitwig refuses to run? At all? Think "Reason+ with extra "motivations" on top".
What are you talking about? What version of Bitwig are (or were) you using when you came to this conclusion?

I just killed the wi-fi on my MacBook Pro, opened up Bitwig and Boom... easily working on a project, with no issues at all.
:reason: Reason User Since Version 1.0
:refill: Reason Sound Design & Content Creation
Sound Dimension https://www.sounddimension.io

ReFiils: Ambientia Cinematic Soundscapes | String Theory (Friktion) | Algoritmo (Algoritm)

korvaxsound
Posts: 6
Joined: 25 Sep 2019

27 Jun 2021

To the OP IMHO Bitwig > Live but I'd demo both and see how you feel about them.
ShelLuser wrote:
25 Jun 2021
(edit) This is not to be mistaken for offline activation. All I did today (in preperation for a blog post) was rip out my network cable. Lo and behold... a demo product refused to run due to a network disconnect... for crying out loud.. this a bad joke.
That is incorrect I use Bitwig offline all the time and that's how it's meant to work by design. There's a difference between needing online to work and a bug that lasted for a day and got patched quickly. They came out publicly and apologized assuring they will put in place the necessary fixes and changes for this to never happen again. What more do you want exactly?

jlgrimes
Posts: 661
Joined: 06 Jun 2017

07 Sep 2021

I'm guessing you can't go wrong either way.

Ableton is probably a more mature DAW but Bitwig has been making fast paced improvements and have pretty quickly excelled in areas where Ableton falls short (viewing mixer and Arrange simultaneously), so I'm not even sure if that is a valid statement anymore.

Bitwig seems to have put more love in their midi editor but I'm guessing Ableton still have better 3rd party midi controller support out the box although I hear Bitwig makes it easier to customize controllers.

Ableton probably has better/ more varied instruments and effects, but Bitwig has a more modular approach similar to Reason. Ableton has modular support too with M4L but it is more buried than Bitwig with M4L being a more convoluted but probably more powerful program. That said M4L can be buggy. M4L is similar to Reason REs in a way with many 3rd party devices but also have a gangload of free stuff as anyone brave/smart enough can make devices and post online. Ableton overall has great included content (Suite).

I think both though do a fairly good job of trying to outdo one another.

Bitwig that said is more affordable so without Suite, probably does more than Ableton standard.

That said I'm not sure how good Bitwigs Drum Racks, Instrument Racks are but Ableton's implementation here is top notch and hard to fault. Ableton probably still have more features overall as Bitwig is alot newer but they are closing in fast.

I'm guessing though nobody will be able to really tell you which is better.

Troy
Posts: 1
Joined: 04 Sep 2021

07 Sep 2021

lecafard wrote:
24 May 2021
I am a long time Ableton user. Bitwig is a refinement of the system with instruments, effects and modulators far superior to what I found in Ableton. I am delighted with Bitwig + Reason working as a team. Bitwig is my DAW since I tried it and there is no going back.
Agree 100%. Bitwig and Reason Rack VST are a marriage made in heaven. Also they are PC and OSX friendly. Including M1. :D

avasopht
Competition Winner
Posts: 3931
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

07 Sep 2021

Troy wrote:
07 Sep 2021
lecafard wrote:
24 May 2021
I am a long time Ableton user. Bitwig is a refinement of the system with instruments, effects and modulators far superior to what I found in Ableton. I am delighted with Bitwig + Reason working as a team. Bitwig is my DAW since I tried it and there is no going back.
Agree 100%. Bitwig and Reason Rack VST are a marriage made in heaven. Also they are PC and OSX friendly. Including M1. :D
Hmm ...

I also like that Bitwig has good support for Presonus ATOM, Push and Maschine.

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SoundObjects
Posts: 119
Joined: 10 Dec 2018

07 Sep 2021

DrivenByMoss Bitwig extension have a lot of controller options.
http://www.mossgrabers.de/Software/Bitwig/Bitwig.html

eg. I can now use my old Push 1 again and with more new functions than in Ableton Live. :-)
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SoundObjects
Posts: 119
Joined: 10 Dec 2018

08 Sep 2021

After about a month with Bitwig I am just blown away.
I have used many other DAWs but Bitwig continues to surprise me.

One of many things is all the modulater tools where you can modulate almost everything (also in RRP).
It's even possible to modulate a modulator.

An other thing is the interactive help system.
Just activate a module or synth and "?" - then a window with detailed description of the object will pop up
and it's then possible to try the effect of each knob or button inside the help window.

Lots of commands can be assigned to hotkeys also if they not already have a assigned key.

Note modifyers and separate colored notes in the arrange window.

And so many more unique features.

A very important thing - it seems to me that it's very stable and CPU friendly.
I have not yet seen a single bug or crash.

(and no - I am not getting paid by the Bitwig studio company) :-)
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Tiny Montgomery
Posts: 439
Joined: 22 Apr 2020

09 Sep 2021

I use Ableton and love using the RRP in it but one thing to be aware of is that if you create audio in your session and want to drag that onto Grain or Mimic etc it does not allow, whereas I think Bitwig does allow this.

You can drag existing WAVs from your own or the Ableton library onto them but not aiff from the Ableton library as far as I can tell.

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SoundObjects
Posts: 119
Joined: 10 Dec 2018

09 Sep 2021

Tiny Montgomery wrote:
09 Sep 2021
I use Ableton and love using the RRP in it but one thing to be aware of is that if you create audio in your session and want to drag that onto Grain or Mimic etc it does not allow, whereas I think Bitwig does allow this.

You can drag existing WAVs from your own or the Ableton library onto them but not aiff from the Ableton library as far as I can tell.
Just tried and dragging some Bitwig audio files to RRP Grain (Reason 11)
It works but it's also normal .wav files inside Bitwig.
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The_Real_DeanC2000
Posts: 49
Joined: 04 Mar 2017

05 Oct 2021

I'm going to try to use both for now. I used to use Ableton back when it was at version 7. I was just a beginner at that time so really didn't get to know it much.

I transitioned to Reason shortly after that, and got into music production big time using Reason stand alone DAW. Now that Reason is now pushing the plugin instead of the DAW, I have to start looking for my next DAW. I like the clip launcher/session view functionality, but do record live instruments too.

I was waiting for comping to arrive, and now that both of them have comping I can use both. So I will try out both to see what I fancy more.

Ableton seems more popular, but Bitwig seems more creative. It's a hard decision to make actually.

D.

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