Win Bitwig Studio - 10 years of Bitwig

Talk | May 10, 2024

In the video, I share my experience with discovering and using Bitwig Studio over the past 10 years. I talk about how it brought back the joy in making music for me, the power and flexibility of the software, and how it inspired me to start my YouTube channel and Patreon community. I also announce a competition where viewers can win the full version of Bitwig Studio or other prizes by commenting the year the software was released.

You can watch the Video on Youtube - support me on Patreon - 10 Years of Bitwig - Picking Winners

I'm celebrating Bitwig Studio's 10th anniversary by hosting a competition where you can win various versions of Bitwig Studio software. Just comment with the year it was first released to enter. Given it's 2024 now, the year you need is 2014.

The prizes are:

1. Full Version of Bitwig Studio, which includes all presets and devices, including the grid.
2. Producer Version, which has fewer devices and presets.
3. Essential Version, which offers fewer resources and lacks the grid feature.

There might also be additional rewards, such as one-year upgrades for existing users and possibly some 8-track licenses.

Reflecting on my own journey, I transitioned from Cubase to Bitwig Studio, which reignited my passion for music production with its dynamic, modular approach that made music creation fun again. This pivotal change inspired me to start my YouTube channel, fostering a supportive community and allowing me to share my love for music production. Through this channel, I've connected with a fantastic audience that supports my endeavors, allowing me to focus full-time on creating music and content that continues to inspire both myself and others.

Questions & Answers #

Maybe you dont watch the video, here are some important takeaways:

How long has Bitwig Studio been around and what is the competition about? #

Bitwig Studio is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. The competition requires participants to comment with the year when Bitwig Studio was released to the public. The winners will have the chance to win the full version of Bitwig Studio, the producer version, or the essential version, depending on their placement.

What were my initial thoughts on Bitwig Studio compared to other music production software? #

When I first downloaded the demo version of Bitwig Studio, I thought it felt like a toy and didn't expect to use it to make music. However, I found myself using it more and more, eventually purchasing the full version. It brought back the fun in music production for me and allowed me to approach making music in a different way than I did with other software like Cubase.

What did Bitwig Studio bring to my life? #

Bitwig Studio not only brought back the joy in making music for me, but it also made me relearn sound synthesis and the inner workings of instruments. I started dissecting and replicating plugins in Bitwig Studio, which led to new ideas and a deeper understanding of sound design. Additionally, Bitwig Studio inspired me to start my YouTube channel and share my passion with others.

How has the support from the community and Patreon subscribers impacted my journey? #

The support from the community and Patreon subscribers has been invaluable to me. It has allowed me to make a living doing what I love and explore music production, research, and content creation without limitations. I am grateful for the core audience who have stuck with me and the Patreons who continue to support my journey.

Transcription #

This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by AI, so it might not be perfect. If you find any mistakes, please let me know.
You can also click on the timestamps to jump to the right part of the video, which should be helpful.

[00:00:00] So Bitwig studio is 10 years old this year and they ask me to do some kind of competition
[00:00:07] and you can enter this competition by just putting down the year in the comments when
[00:00:12] Bitwig studio was released to the public just the year when Bitwig studio was released.
[00:00:20] It's actually not that hard.
[00:00:21] You can probably do the math right.
[00:00:23] It's 2024 and it's 10 years and you figure it out.
[00:00:27] Just put it down in the comments and you can win.
[00:00:29] In fact, you can win the full version of Bitwig studio.
[00:00:32] So the big one, right?
[00:00:33] All the presets, all the devices, the gritters in there, so everything.
[00:00:38] And the second price is the producer version and the third price is the essential version.
[00:00:43] So less devices, less presets and I think the essential version is missing the grid
[00:00:49] if I'm not wrong.
[00:00:51] So if you already own Bitwig studio and the probability for this is probably pretty high
[00:00:58] because you're subscribed to my channel.
[00:01:00] So in this case, you can win instead one year of upgrades.
[00:01:06] So the normal one year upgrade plan and I guess you get a license key then and you can activate
[00:01:12] it in the future, but you already know how this works, right?
[00:01:16] So we will figure this out.
[00:01:17] So put down the year in the comments down below and you can win something.
[00:01:22] Maybe I throw in some 8-track licenses on top for some other people.
[00:01:27] I don't know.
[00:01:29] You can win something.
[00:01:30] That's all you need to know.
[00:01:34] So back when Bitwig studio was released for the first time in this year, I don't want
[00:01:40] to say because it's you will figure it out for yourself.
[00:01:43] Back then I was using still Cubase six or seven.
[00:01:47] I think it was six.
[00:01:49] And it already felt pretty stale and boring to me before I even discovered Bitwig studio.
[00:01:55] It wasn't on the on the plan back then.
[00:01:59] So I was doing drums on audio tracks.
[00:02:02] I was dragging in the kick drum to an audio track and the snare drum to an audio track
[00:02:07] and it felt like doing audio like an Excel or word.
[00:02:10] It felt like pretty old and archaic.
[00:02:13] I don't know what the right word is for this, but felt like all to me.
[00:02:17] And it was also pretty stale to use Cubase back then.
[00:02:24] Like LFOs.
[00:02:25] You had only LFOs inside of plug ins.
[00:02:28] We had like a VST instrument in synthesizer and there were only three or four LFOs you
[00:02:34] could use.
[00:02:35] And that's what you run out of options.
[00:02:39] Basically, if you want to use more yet to use different plug ins or maybe use automation
[00:02:45] or something like this, this was basically how it was back then for me.
[00:02:51] So then I discovered Bitwig studio and I downloaded the demo version.
[00:02:54] I tried all the demo version and it felt like using a toy back then.
[00:02:57] I thought to myself, I probably never use this to make music.
[00:03:01] It's just, it's too, too much fun.
[00:03:04] It's just a toy, right?
[00:03:08] But the problem was I was using the demo version more and more and from one day to the other,
[00:03:15] I was buying the full version.
[00:03:18] And for some reason, I never touched then Cubase again for the next two years.
[00:03:24] So this was basically, this was not like a decision I made.
[00:03:28] Like I never use Cubase.
[00:03:30] I use Bitwig from now on.
[00:03:32] It was not a conscious decision.
[00:03:35] It was just like a transition.
[00:03:37] It just happened.
[00:03:38] It was like, I never just never used Cubase again.
[00:03:41] That this, this was like how it happened, right?
[00:03:45] And I found out that Bitwig actually brought back the fun in producing music to me.
[00:03:52] I had a lot of fun enjoying Bitwig, making music in Bitwig, rediscovering, making music,
[00:03:59] doing music also in a different way.
[00:04:01] So like I said, I did drums in Cubase on the audio tracks, like a drag in the samples.
[00:04:07] And I rediscovered basically making drums with MIDI or note clips in Bitwig.
[00:04:11] So I used the sampler.
[00:04:12] I dragged and basically snare sounds into the sampler and using notes again to trigger
[00:04:18] the sample.
[00:04:19] And the benefit was basically that I could modify modulations and note FX, these note
[00:04:28] triggers.
[00:04:29] So I had like this generative approach before I needed to dial in small little changes in
[00:04:36] Cubase on each sample, on each audio clip, right?
[00:04:39] I want to have a reverb here and I want to have a low pass there.
[00:04:43] And here I want to have to snare a bit longer and here a bit shorter or stuff like this,
[00:04:48] right?
[00:04:50] So I needed to dial in every small little change in a static way.
[00:04:55] And in Bitwig, it was like dynamic.
[00:04:57] I could apply some note FX and just let it evolve over time and rediscover what happens
[00:05:03] when I, you know, modulate this knob or modulate the decay time or modulate the reverb mix
[00:05:10] here.
[00:05:11] Or so it was more like it was more like this dynamic workflow and letting the music evolve
[00:05:18] and behave like real in the real world.
[00:05:22] So it was more like a dynamic workflow.
[00:05:24] And I really enjoyed this and it brought back the fun.
[00:05:28] I didn't need to dial in all the little small changes and I had like this, let's say, generated
[00:05:33] rate of approach to audio or to sequencing.
[00:05:39] So I really enjoyed this and I enjoyed toying around with the small little devices in Bitwig
[00:05:44] Studio.
[00:05:45] And it was also nice that you could use these small, simple devices and recombine them,
[00:05:52] make bigger devices out of it.
[00:05:53] Like I said, multiple times, it's like Lego bricks, right?
[00:05:57] There are like these small little simple bricks, but you can combine into different things.
[00:06:02] A spaceship, a car, whatever.
[00:06:06] And a lot of people didn't understand this back then because they were like in this mindset
[00:06:12] of, oh, I need like a full-fledged plug-in.
[00:06:18] And in this plug-in, everything is possible I want to do.
[00:06:21] But for me, it was like, no, I don't need this.
[00:06:24] I need this and this, but in a different context or in a different combination, right?
[00:06:30] And I could do this in Bitwig.
[00:06:32] I could create my own devices in my own pace and, yeah, basically creating my own effects
[00:06:41] in my own workflow and my own sound design.
[00:06:43] It was like heaven for me, basically more or less.
[00:06:47] I agree that a lot of features were missing back then and a lot of features are still
[00:06:53] missing in Bitwig compared to, let's say, Cubase or Ableton Live.
[00:06:58] But it doesn't matter to me.
[00:07:00] For me, it matters more that you have fun, that you have fun exploring, that you have
[00:07:04] fun making music and that you can learn things.
[00:07:10] That's why I also recommend Bitwig Studio for new musicians or if you want to dive into
[00:07:17] making music, Bitwig Studio is basically perfect because you can learn sound design and how
[00:07:24] instruments work from the ground up, from the base level.
[00:07:27] You can start with simple devices.
[00:07:29] You can combine two simple devices.
[00:07:33] And then at the end, you have like a big complex device or big complex synthesizer game built
[00:07:38] in the grid.
[00:07:39] You can start small and then get bigger and complex over time.
[00:07:44] And on each step, you learn something.
[00:07:46] So this is basically perfect for people that are new to making music.
[00:07:53] So yeah, this is basically my story of how I discovered Bitwig Studio and what it brought
[00:07:59] to my life.
[00:08:01] It's actually not all.
[00:08:02] There's a lot of stuff to it.
[00:08:04] So I basically discovered Bitwig Studio.
[00:08:09] It brought me back to joy in making music.
[00:08:12] It made me relearn making music and how I make music.
[00:08:16] It made me relearn sound synthesis in terms of how instruments work, the internals, how
[00:08:24] they are constructed and so on.
[00:08:25] Because people ask me all the time in the comments, "Can you actually redo this VST
[00:08:30] plug in Bitwig Studio?"
[00:08:33] And I have no idea.
[00:08:34] I have to try it out.
[00:08:35] So then I went into researching what these plug-ins actually do.
[00:08:39] I dissect them, put them apart, and then I try to replicate them inside of Bitwig Studio.
[00:08:46] And then sometimes I come up with different ideas and adding a twist to these devices and
[00:08:51] so on.
[00:08:52] So it's like a constant learning.
[00:08:54] So joy and learning and new possibilities and also pretty important, it made me start
[00:09:04] this YouTube channel.
[00:09:05] So because I had a lot of joy doing these things inside of Bitwig Studio, I want to share
[00:09:11] actually this joy with other people.
[00:09:13] So I not only sent Bitwig Studio around to my friends and they were also immediately hooked
[00:09:19] to Bitwig Studio and bought the license back then, Skyence and Dave and so on and Jericho.
[00:09:28] And yeah, it was like rediscovering a new world and I want to share this with other people.
[00:09:37] And I started basically this YouTube channel.
[00:09:40] And a lot of people subscribed and supported me in this journey, asking for new videos
[00:09:45] and watching new videos, giving likes and comments.
[00:09:49] And later on also hate.
[00:09:51] This is a normal state probably for bigger YouTube channels.
[00:09:56] And I also got a lot of Patrons.
[00:10:00] So I started the Patreon at some point and it got more and more and more people subscribing
[00:10:06] to Patreon, wanting more presets, wanting to supporting me.
[00:10:11] Because sometimes I write some polls on Patreon, like what do you want from this Patreon, right?
[00:10:18] And most people vote for just do whatever you want and we will support you, which is
[00:10:25] basically like heaven.
[00:10:27] I never actually imagined when I started making music 25 years or 30 years ago that I can
[00:10:34] actually live from that.
[00:10:37] But in that sense that I don't sell music, I actually sell all the stuff around it, right?
[00:10:43] How to make music inspire people, make solutions or presets or samples or stuff like this.
[00:10:50] Of course, there's music part of this, right?
[00:10:53] But it's not the biggest part.
[00:10:55] So a lot of people actually support me and I'm very, very thankful for that, that a lot
[00:11:00] of people stuck to my Patreon supporting me.
[00:11:04] Because it's not like that I have a lot of fluctuations on the Patreon, right?
[00:11:09] It's always like that, that people join and go out and rejoin or sometimes two people
[00:11:15] go out and two people come in.
[00:11:17] So it's always this back and forth with Patrons.
[00:11:22] But there's also a big core audience that stuck with me for the whole journey.
[00:11:28] So they subscribed on the first day on Patreon, I started Patreon and they are still subscribing
[00:11:34] to this day.
[00:11:35] So there's a big core audience there on Patreon who support me in this journey and I completely
[00:11:41] thankful for that.
[00:11:43] And it allows me to do a lot of things I never imagined to do because it's not like I'm going
[00:11:52] to to work.
[00:11:53] I just wake up in the morning and I research, I make music, I make videos, I make presets,
[00:11:59] I make everything that I think needs to be done and I want to do and I want to research
[00:12:06] and so on.
[00:12:07] And sometimes people ask me, can you, you know, redo or replace this plugin with a bit
[00:12:12] big reset and so on.
[00:12:13] And I have fun doing this and researching and answering questions.
[00:12:17] So it's basically exactly what I want to do and I can do this because of Patrons and
[00:12:22] because of people subscribing here to this YouTube channel.
[00:12:26] So in fact, I mean exactly you.
[00:12:28] So thanks for that.
[00:12:30] Thanks to the community and thanks for all my Patrons supporting me.
[00:12:34] And this is basically my journey.
[00:12:37] So I still doing it.
[00:12:40] I still have fun doing it at the moment.
[00:12:42] I'm taking a bit of time off because I need some some breaks in between to get new ideas
[00:12:49] and you know, to refresh my my thinking and just take a break from things.
[00:12:56] It's always healthy, in my opinion.
[00:12:59] So that's it.
[00:13:02] That's my journey.
[00:13:03] And that's also the competition I want to make in this video.
[00:13:06] So make sure you write in the comments down below the year when Bitwig Studio was released
[00:13:12] and hopefully win this competition.
[00:13:15] Okay, that's it for this video.
[00:13:18] I talk now for 30 minutes.
[00:13:23] Thanks for watching.
[00:13:24] Leave a thumbs up.
[00:13:25] Subscribe if you want to.
[00:13:26] And thanks to everyone and see you in the next video.
[00:13:31] Bye.