[LAD] OT: Bitwig beta for Linux reviewed

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Sat, 2013-03-09 at 07:56 +0300, Louigi Verona wrote:
> Giada plays fine in sync. So does lmms. Test it yourself. I don't
> think an all-in-one sequencer needs to use jack transport.

Correct, an all-in-one solution, sequencer + hard disk recorder doesn't
need jack-transport, but so I can't use Qtractor + Ardour 2 together.
Ardor 3 doesn't fit to my needs. I never tested Giada, it doesn't look
very promising, but I tested LMMS. LMMS is completely unusable for my
needs. Personally I don't know any musician using such software on any
OS, I know this kind of thing from techno consumers, who play a little
bit with their laptops.

> As for muting individual clips, a little weird requirement, IMHO. In
> fl studio you also can't mute individual clips and I don't ever
> remember needing that in all the 15 years I've done music.

It's a very important feature available by all Cubase versions for the
Atari (and for Windows) I know.

> Bitwig looks like a normal sequencer, which looks like smth special
> only in comparison to what we don't have on linux . I did not have
> YouTube blocked and I saw the demo. It looks what you would expect
> from a project that was done commercially, I see nothing that would
> suggest it is claimed it solves 'all the problems'. It solves many
> problems for ppl like me who just want an all-in-one sequencer, where
> the project is saved not by scripts, but by pressing one button.

Did you test energyXT? I never tested it, but years ago I heard that
people like it. Perhaps it already does provide what you want.

> So to me your criticism looks like pointing out the lack of some weird
> feature you personally want and which none of the software I know on
> windows even has, and concluding bitwig is a myth.

No, regarding to the mute-able tracks, Bitwig perhaps does provide them.
I'm missing it for the FLOSS Linux software I'm using.

I'm just sceptic about the hype of Bitwig. At the moment it's not
available and we read the report, it has got technical issues. VST and
AU seems to be the dominating plugin protocols. What is about LADSPA and
DSSI?

I don't understand the Jack related thing. Isn't it possible to use the
ALSA backend? The author has written about a different audio binding,
than Ardour does use.

Do you believe that they will fix all bugs soon? Do you believe that you
can sync it with another Bitwig perfectly by a network? Don't you want
to have LADSPA and DSSI support? I don't need VST and AU support, I'm
only using LV2, LADSPA and DSSI plugins.

I suspect you prefer a studio in the box, instead of hardware equipment?
There is so much talk about plugins, but I'm missing features to control
hardware gear with a sequencer. With the Atari I edited sounds by SysEx
editors included to Cubase in real-time, for the Roland MT-32 (not a
toy, if you can use it as real pseudo analog synth) and Oberheim
Matrix-1000.

As an Ubuntu and Arch user, I'm also very sceptic about the idea to
provide Ubuntu packages or an USB stick solution only. On Ubuntu Studio
lists all kinds of rumors about Ubuntu's future are discussed. At the
moment the situation for Ubuntu already is borderline.

Regards,
Ralf