Update
Requires a full license to operate.
This version is an UPG (upgrade). It requires a registered Bitwig Studio Essentials or Bitwig Studio 16-Track license to activate the upgrade. An internet connection is required for installation and online activation. The product is delivered as a download: the activation code is provided after order processing.
Bitwig Studio is a music production software designed to compose, record, edit, and mix with a creative and performance-oriented approach. It caters to electronic music producers (sound design, clips, modulation, resampling) as well as musicians and composers seeking a solid environment for audio and MIDI.
Thanks to its clip-based structure and deep MIDI integration (including native MPE), Bitwig Studio facilitates writing, improvisation, and arrangement. In the studio, it becomes a comprehensive control center for virtual instruments, effects, automation, and routing. On stage, it stands out with a smooth workflow, synchronization options, and features designed to minimize interruptions.
The current version of Bitwig Studio offers a complete production environment with unlimited audio inputs/outputs and an unlimited number of audio, MIDI tracks, and effects. The software supports VST and CLAP plug-ins, with sidechain support for dynamic processing (compression, gating, rhythmic modulation) and modern mixing chains.
Sandbox mode isolates plug-ins to better protect the application from crashes. This is a major advantage in heavy projects, intensive sound design sessions, or live setups where stability is critical.
Bitwig Studio combines creation via a clip launcher and linear construction in the arranger. Quick switching between different projects supports a fast workflow, useful for live performance, scoring to picture, or writing sessions where you frequently switch between different worlds.
Clip-based composition includes color coding of takes to better organize variations, recordings, and ideas. The entire workflow relies on modern tools like the Dynamic Inspector, clip automation, and mixing/editing functions designed to stay fast even in complex projects.
For producers who enjoy evolving sounds, Bitwig Studio integrates a powerful modulation system. It features 5 MSEG (multi-segment envelopes) allowing creation, customization, and exchange of curve shapes to modulate parameters over time, with precision or in a very organic way.
Operators extend playback and transformation possibilities of clips and events. The Expression Spread function adds controlled random variations to playback parameters, useful for humanizing a pattern, creating micro-variations, and giving a more lively feel to repetitive sequences.
The Spectral Suite (Transient Split, Loud Split, Harmonic Split, Freq Split) allows splitting incoming audio data to process them separately. This opens the door to targeted processing (for example, working on transients without affecting sustain, or isolating a frequency range to animate it) and creative chains for resynthesis and sound design.
With The Grid, Bitwig Studio offers a modular sound design environment featuring 186 modules. The Poly Grid facilitates the creation of synthesizers, user sequencer patches, and custom musical architectures, while the FX Grid focuses on creating audio effects, with optional voice stacking as needed.
To speed up work from your own sounds, Slice to Multisample and Slice To Drum Machine help quickly map user samples, ideal for turning an audio take into a playable instrument or drum kit.
Bitwig Studio supports extensive integration of external instruments and effects. It can handle output of analog clock signals and control voltages, or full integration of control voltage instruments, as well as MIDI-controlled hardware instruments and effects (with appropriate audio-MIDI interface).
Synchronization remains flexible thanks to Ableton Link, MIDI clock, MIDI timecode, and support for analog clock signals. The software supports many MIDI controllers, native MPE, and offers an Open Controller API to create your own user controller scripts. Ergonomically, multi-touch support and 8 profiles for up to 3 screens allow adapting the interface to your setup.