Bitwig Studio: The Future Of Music Production?

posted in: Music News

Berlin-based company Bitwig are shaking up the music industry with their new product, Bitwig Studio. And it is not just because of a unique feature set”the main developers came from rival music software company Ableton. There is no denying that the first previews of this innovative software are remarkably similar to Ableton Live. We wonder if it’s just a matter of time before Bitwig has to deal with some pretty serious plagiarism allegations. The rumored story is that a handful of disgruntled Ableton employees were not happy with the direction of the company, so two years ago they started their own company and their first product is now nearly ready for beta-testing.

Bitwig, while reproducing some of Lives most unique features, is certainly not a carbon-copy. Some of the unique features of Bitwig include:

  • Linux support
  • Multi-monitor display
  • Audio and MIDI can occupy the same track
  • 64-bit capabilities
  • Per-note automation

But it is what is on the horizon for Bitwig that makes it one of the more exciting music technology products of the past few years:

  • Multi-user music production over the Internet (think of this as a Google Doc, but for music projects)
  • LAN multi-user jamming (ushering in the era of electronic jam bands?)

Bitwig promises that users will start to see these features in post-1.0 versions of the software, and we couldn’t be more excited! Any DAW based musician who has tried collaborating on a product with artists in different locations knows how difficult it is to share entire project files across the net, and keep up to date with changes. If the team at Bitwig can provide a well-thought-out solution, they will instantly create a niche in the industry for themselves.

Bitwig is aimed towards the same users who find Live appealing, a mixture of traditional DAW features through the eyes of a live performer. It does not try to compete with the giants of the industry ProTools and Logic, but rather takes what Ableton started as a jump-off point and alleviates some of long-time Live users biggest concerns. We think that if Bitwig can continue to innovate and distance themselves from Ableton Live, they will develop their own base of loyal users, and force Ableton to step up their game. Which can only be a good thing for us consumers!

Check out a full list of features, and even sign up for the beta-test over at the Bitwig site.