DAWs don't come much more creative than Bitwig Studio, which we declared as our favourite DAW of 2023 at the end of last year. This colourful, creative powerhouse has recently had a slew of updates that has only enhanced and widened the decade-old DAW's abilities. Until the end of the month, you can get up to $100 off on all Bitwig Studio licenses - including upgrades and renewals. It's among our top Cyber Monday deals.
So why should you pick it up? Well, simply it's a modulation-lovers' paradise. Since its v5 update in April 2023, five MSEGs (Curves, Segments, Scrawl, Transfer and Slopes) offer up new ways for users to shape pretty much any parameter at will.
These sound-manipulating additions led to a complete boost to Bitwig Studio’s entire modulation system, enabling the deepest track and project-level control we’ve ever seen offered by a DAW.
Recently, Bitwig's latest update to version 5.3 brought with it a range of new Roland-inspired drum instruments, a playful and creative sequencer, an all-new Master Recording section and support for Windows on ARM. There's also a glut of speed improvements, in tandem with the swift auto-configuring of any external hardware.
Central to the full version of Bitwig Studio is 'The Grid', which is ostensibly a virtual modular environment for making instruments, effects or - anything you like really! The clip launcher and the Arrange timeline can be side-by-side in the same tracks, which means you can have unprecedented oversight over your developing arrangements. In our mind, it's a level of control that leaves most other DAWs in the shade.
There's three versions of Bitwig you can get, each of which are currently reduced. With Essentials (currently at $79) you get 40 instruments, audio and note FX, as well as the devices Polymer, Sampler, Delay+, and Arpeggiator and a starter modulation system. This goes up to Producer ($149) which increases the number of instruments, devices and more to 92 and ups the number of modulators from 10 to 18.
Then there's the full-fat Bitwig Studio ($299) which contains 154 instruments, audio and note FX, adds the full gamut of devices, as well as the complete 42 modulator-strong modulation system, a massive library of sounds, loops and presets and the aforementioned The Grid. At its current price, it's this last - everything-included - version that we'd recommend you grab.
We had a chat with the team behind Bitwig earlier this year, and they expounded on why Bitwig Studio is so venerated after just a decade of existence; "I think the biggest [overall selling] point that we have in our favour compared to other products, is not single functions, but the whole Bitwig philosophy. That’s really our strong point. It all fits together so well. The modulators with the workflow," said Head of Technical Support, Dom Wilms.
