LEAVING Ableton for BITWIG.. AFTER 1 DAY!!!!

okay before I get completely roasted in the comment section I understand the absolute irony of this video because in a previous video posted right up here I said this number one pick one and this is in reference to your Daw now I do stick by that advice that you should just pick a single do and learn to master it and for me it's always been Ableton I have taught Ableton in the past for a couple years I use it I find myself very comfortable inside of that do but last week I did a session with a new producer and I saw how fast this guy was building things inside of his session I saw him flying around the screen popping up things left and right and I said damn and he was actually on bitwig now I've known of bitwig for quite a long time I've never tried it before so I spent one week really digging in and watching as many videos as I possibly could and yesterday I downloaded the free trial spent about 6 and 1/2 7 hours inside of bitwig so after spending just one day with bitwig I could honestly say that I might end up switching well at least for my own personal stuff see I do so much stuff with clients that are already inside of Ableton I kind of have to keep going with Aon for that sort of client work but for my own personal work I think I might switch over because I'm kind of Blown Away with how quick you can become inside of the software now I've only been on it for 1 day so I'm sure as I start to use it more and more I'm going to find frustrations but in this video I want to share with you the five things inside a bitwig that just got me gravitating towards it every time I wanted to work on things now they're simple things but for me these simple things add up to just becoming quicker and more efficient inside of the software which means that when I want to get an idea out in my head I have less steps to do and it just makes the whole experience a lot more enjoyable so let's jump into the video and check out what are these five things that I think is going to get me to switch over to bitwig even though I've only been on it for one day so if we look up here in the toolbar we can see that we have two sessions open if I want to switch over into a new one I just hit this I activate the audio engine I can copy and paste select anything I want from here go over into the other session and then paste it in now in Ableton I can only have one session open at a time now there's workarounds where can come into a project right here and go into a project and let's say pick what I want out of that project and drop it in but that's going to bring in the entire track so I'm going to have to bring that in grab the part that I want delete everything else if it's a big stack of instruments that I want it's going to all be in there whereas inside a bitwig I can just go into the actual specific section that I want and and let's say I want this section right here and I want to copy that come back over here and just paste that in I can do that I can grab ideas from other sections of other songs and even though I've only spent one day on the software it's actually got me thinking a lot about how I can use this to really speed up my workflow let's say I have one session here that's the full instrumental of the track when it's time to record vocals I can just bounce that open the vocal session here with all the vocal stat going on track all the vocals in select that group of vocals and then come back over to the instrumental just paste in that entire group of vocals and then start working on the mix in that session without having to constantly close down and then reopen the other session like I would have to do inside of Ableton so first point to bitwig it's a simple thing but having multiple sessions open at the same time and accessible is for me a a very huge benefit now Point number two is regarding the browsing experience so inside of Ableton here we have our typical browser over on the left we have all of our shortcut folders here and then all of our effects and devices right here so let's say in this scenario I wanted to drop in a loop let's say I wanted to drop in this high hat Loop right here but then I wanted to add let's say an effect to it an effect that I didn't have already down here as you can see I have my tracks preload with a bunch of effects that I constantly use but let's say there's an effect on here like a chorus that I typically don't have down here so I hit command F and type in let's say chorus Ensemble click and add it so now let's say I wanted to go back and add more Loops I'm going to have to first come over to Loops oh I got to clear this out up here now I'm back in my loops and I can repeat the process again and now this isn't a a bad way of working once once you get used to it you become fairly quick but if there's a better way of working I'm always open to that so let's jump over here to bitwig and take a look at that same scenario and how it would work in bitwig so in bitwig you actually have two browsers you have your constant browser that's over here on the right side and then you have what's called a popup smart browser so anytime you see a little plus button it does a popup and it only shows you the actual things that are applic able to inserting it on the specific track that you're working in so if I'm here on an instrument and I click on the plus it's going to only show me the instruments if I'm here on the audio track and click on the plus it's only going to show me the audio effects now this may seem like a small thing but once you get used to it it's hard to go back to the other way case in point let's say I drag in this top Loop right here and I wanted to add a audio effect to that I simply click down here and then I type in what whatever I want select it add it now that's added I don't have to change my browser view over here like we did when we have a single browser pane in Ableton this browsing experience doesn't just apply to adding in effects or adding in instruments now you can actually customize it based on the specific scenario that you're actually in at the moment and a good example of this is let's actually add a drum machine so we just click the plus button and since it's open space it's going to add an instrument and now inside of the drum machine I've already pre-loaded it with a bunch of Samplers here but if I click on the sampler and then add I'm going to automatically pull up the smart browser and it's going to go to the folder that I specifically set up as the default for this scenario so let's say instead of going to My overall oneshot folder I really wanted to go to argon kicks right here I could select that right click and go set this as the default location for this scenario and then when we click on this again we're going to go right to that exact spot now I like it to go to My overall oneshot folder so I'm going to save this and now when I click on this again it goes to that specific folder now let's take a look here on the drum machine when I just have an empty cell and no sampler loaded on there I set up the exact same scenario so when I'm going to load in a sound into my drum machine I click on the plus it's going to go to that exact same location but I could have it go to this specific folder right here if I set that as my default so when I click here it's going to go to that exact kick folder but if I'm over here with a sampler and I click on that it's going to go to that folder so every single scenario that you could think of you can set a custom location to speed up your workflow and go to that specific location based on that specific scenario now that really speeds up the workflow but it can actually be even faster than that when we talk about Point number three that's really pulling me into bitwig is the keyboard shortcuts and the ability to customize everything so we'll come back to this browsing scenario but let's first take a look at how we're going to set up all of our shortcuts so inside of the settings right here which you can get to with either command comma like every other program out there or you just hit this little bitwig guy right up here and now we have access to every single thing we could possibly do inside of the program and we can add a custom keyboard shortcut to that so since it is my first day on the program and I am so used to Ableton I've gone ahead and done a bunch of customized keyboard shortcuts that are the exact same as Ableton such as when I want to mute something I just hit zero and that's going to mute that clip I can change my grid by holding down command and one and as you can see down here it's going to change my grid size by going in and out of that right there so already switching over from Ableton into bitwig I've made it so most of my key commands that I use on a constant basis are right there at my fingertips but now let's go back to this browsing experience and see how the custom key commands can make the brow housing experience even faster so what we have the ability to do is use these custom key commands to access the browser and insert different things in different locations so I have the instrument track highlighted here now if I hit D it's going to shift my focus down to the lower section here and highlight this open instrument slot I hit B to pull up the browser and without using the mouse or anything of the sort just D and then B I can now just start typing let's say drum machine enter that in and I've entered in the drum machine let's say I want to add an audio effect after that drum machine well that's going to be on the track so I'm going to hit t for track and as you can see on the left side of the screen it now highlighted the focus to the track I hit B again and I can just type in EQ and add my EQ right there now let's say I wanted to add a note repeat or some sort of other midi effect onto the same channel I don't have to touch the mouse I can simply hit D for device go over twice I select this open slot that comes before the instrument I hit B for browse and then I have access to all my different note effects let's say we want to put ARP on there click okay so the ability to use key commands to access all the different scenarios of browsing and the fact that the pop-up browser has a smart filter feature it really makes the workf flow extremely quickly and something that we do constantly in sessions is insert a effects insert instruments and insert samples so if there is a quicker way to do it as opposed to using a single browser pane right here I'm going to gravitate towards that and even after just one day of using bitwig and figuring out these key commands and getting used to them I find it a little bit frustrating when I come back here and I have to clear out a search field and I have to select the folder again and it's not a deal breaker for Ableton in any sort of sense but once you get used to how quick the workflow can actually be when it's done correctly it's really hard to actually go back to the old way and not get frustrated with it now the fourth Point that's really drawing me into bitwig is this concept of hybrid tracks you can actually have both midi and audio on the same track at the same time so an example of that is that if we wanted to let's say take this amazing little piano Loop and I wanted to let's say have this cord reverse into this cord right here so if I was in Ableton here with the exact same scenario there's a couple of ways I could do it let's say I could duplicate this track I could freeze the track I could then flatten the track and then I could take this section separate it delete these guys out and then reverse it right there and then I've accomplished what I need to accomplish another way I could do it is let's say I could pull up a new track right here I could have resampling which is my default I could solo this if there's other things open in the project I could click here record [Music] in and then take this guy and reverse it and and now we've accomplished the same thing but it does add a whole another track to my project just for this one little reverse swell that we wanted along with the piano and as you can see it does take quite a few steps now let's take a look at how we do that over here in bitwig so since I can do a hybrid track with both audio and midi on the same channel I'm simply going to select that chord I want to reverse hit my command B to bounce in place and I'm going to quickly just copy that over and then reverse that and we've created the same thing and what's Happening Here is it's playing the VST Whenever there is midi right here and then as soon as there is audio it's going to play the audio and then go right back to triggering the VST with midi notes so with all the steps over here in Ableton it took to accomplish this we did it with about half the steps over here and it also exists on the exact same track now this isn't just for this simple effect right here as you can see it does open up a whole new world of possibilities where let's say on this first note I wanted to stutter this a little bit before I actually trigger it so I could do the same thing separate it bounce it in place and then take this note and maybe just stutter it a few times here or I could even let's say reverse this guy and reverse this guy so as you can see having access to the audio and midi on the same track really can open up a whole bunch of new creative ideas and the audio editing inside a bitwig is better than any other Daw I've tried and that brings us to the fifth point of audio editing where even after just one day of using bitwig I'm already starting to gravitate towards it so let's go back into Ableton and take a look at the scenario where we're going to make a whole song inside of session view here now I want this Loop and it's a great high hat loop it's going along but I don't want to have it just as it is I want to do some editing and switch it up so what we'd have to do inside Ableton is click on this Loop hit tab drop it here and then activate it and let's say I just wanted a little pickup note right here so I'm going to select that I'm going to separate it and I'm going to drag it over here then what I'm going to do is I'm going to come in and consolidate it and then click and hold on it and then bring it back in and I've just done that audio edit so in order for me to do any sort of editing of audio inside of the session view I have to bring it over into the arrange view do my audio editing bounce it down to new clip and then bring it back over into here and it's quite a few steps but let's go over here into bitwig and say we're only working in the session view here and with tab you can change it if you want the traditional up and down look or if you want the left and right look which makes more sense when you're using it in conjunction with the arrange but let's go in here so it's a true representation of Apples to Apples so now let's go over and drag in a loop and we have this Loop now what we find is this is actually just a clip and there's a full audio editor down here so I don't have to bring this over into the arrange View at all I can just literally go down here and have access to an entire audio editing system down here so I can duplicate that out I can take an individual section I can reverse it I can cut Parts out if I don't want them I can add Fades to individual sections here so if I split this and come up I can actually add individual Fades to all these different sections that I'm editing right inside of this clip without having to go back and forth bring it over here do the cutting eding rebounce it and then bring it back down now traditionally inside of Ableton I would shy away from doing too much work inside of the session view because I knew if I wanted to use Some Loops over here which a lot of times this is predominantly used with loops I know that I'd have to go over into the arrange do all my editing and bring it back now inside of bitwig the fact that I can have full access to all the audio editing down here and that doesn't even include doing the crazy stuff with all of the operators over here where you can click and drag on probability of a note you can have a note repeating and that's just scratching the surface I haven't even touched that again I've only been on this software for one day but just the fact that inside a session view I can do all the audio editing I want without having to flip-flop in between the two screens has really made me want to go back to start using this session view a lot more and go back to creating things inside of there so let's be honest no Daw is absolutely perfect and I'm sure the more I use bitwig there's going to be things that come up and it's not just all rainbows and butterflies right off the bat the first thing that I don't like about it the blocks are not somewhat transparent where inside of Ableton you can actually see the grid lines behind the individual blocks which make it a lot easier to move audio around and sometimes in bitwig I find myself wishing that the blocks were transparent maybe it could be a user setting where you could adjust the transparency but I really miss being able to see those lines behind the blocks when I'm moving around audio another thing inside of bitwig and maybe this is something I just have to get used to is that the pointer is also a smart tool so you'll notice that when you drag your pointer over parts of the clip you can actually adjust the gain of the clip and in order to highlight different sections of the timeline you either have to switch tools or you're going to have to go to the lower section of that I kind of wish to start that that gain tool could be turned off it's something I'm not used to and I find myself getting a little frustrated that it keeps popping up on the screen I'm sure the more I use it I may find a benefit to it but I just wish there was the option to turn it off and if there is an option to turn it off and you know of it please leave that in the comments down below now I'm not going to leave Ableton because 90% of my business does involve Ableton users I go back and forth with projects all the time not only with collaborations but also when I'm producing on the back end for a lot of other artists out there they want the files inside of Ableton so they can put their little touches after I'm done with it so ableton's going to be sticking around but I find now that when I go to make my own personal music that I'm not going to be doing with anybody else I kind of want to get more into bitwig and try it more and more it feels inspirational to me and I know this is just the honeymoon phase let's be honest I've had it for one day and I've tried it for one day but there's so many little things that are popping up where I'm like that's cool that's neat I really like that I can customize that now as I go into it more and more I'm going to keep pumping out the videos so make sure you like And subscribe down below so you can get the updates that's going to be coming out next week the week after that week three and on week four we'll do a full recap of everything we've learned now if you've made it this far in the video I hope it's kind of opened up your mind and made you consider the possibility of looking over here and seeing if bitwig might be a better option for you compared to Ableton now Ableton is much more established they have a huge user base out there but for me if I find a better tool to get the ideas out of my head and that tool is more of a musical instrument I don't care what the majority is using I'm going to go with what feels better for me so that being said my name is Stu this is create educate and Inspire like always thank you for your time thank you for your attention and I hope you go make something cool regardless of what Daw might be using just go make some music

Channel: CREATE EDUCATE INSPIRE

Views: 97,231

Keywords: ADAT, MIDI, audio production, mixing and mastering, music produciton, music, recording vocals, Universal audio, studio one, logic pro, pro tools, Firewire, recording a live band, music studio, studio production, recording audio, recording studio, studio tour, in the studio, type beat, mt-48, apogee, audient, apollox, uad, universal apollo, sweetwater, how to produce music, working in audio, recording studios, latency, ableton, bitwig, dawless, Bitwig studio, digital audio workstation

Id: aVTZ07sNXJU

Length: 21min 13sec (1273 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 12 2023