[LAU] Fwd: bitwig announcement

[Alan Russell]

On 15 January 2012 12:11, Jeremy Jongepier <jeremy at autostatic.com> wrote:
> On 01/15/2012 02:35 AM, Nils wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:38:58 +0100
>> Jeremy Jongepier<jeremy at autostatic.com>  wrote:
>>
>>> On 01/13/2012 05:16 PM, Renato wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi, someone might be interested in this news:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://www.ubuntuvibes.com/2012/01/bitwig-professional-music-creation.html
>>>>
>>>> Some developers of Ableton Live have announced this new software,
>>>> Bitwig, which seems will have a Linux version.
>>>>
>>>> cheers,
>>>> renato
>>>
>>>
>>> Exciting but also kind of scary. It seems as if everyone is using
>>> Ableton Live these days. What if a very similar application becomes
>>> available for Linux?
>>
>>
>> Just today Harry van Haaren announced this on LAD:
>>
>>
>> http://harryhaaren.blogspot.com/2012/01/luppp-source-opened-but-still-pre-alpha.html
>
>
> Yup, I've seen it. I've seen Luppp evolve from the very beginning, when
> Harry showed me his first ideas during LAC2010.
> And about the scary part, news like this brings up questions for me. What
> kind of users will it attract? How many users will switch and drop software
> like Ardour and Qtractor? The Linux audio is a very small niche and even
> though it's a very hypothetical thought, software like Bitwig could damage
> the Linux audio ecosystem.
> But maybe I'm thinking too much ahead. Maybe Bitwig will run directly on top
> of ALSA, or even use something like PortAudio. And it will most likely not
> support LV2.
>
> Best,
>
> Jeremy
>

I have to disagree with the notion that paid-for software on Linux is
going to damage the free software scene. Look at what's going on at
the other end of the scale, in the closed-source, proprietary hardware
world.

Apple brings out the iPad, a tablet with multi-touch capabilities and
obvious audio processing chops (it's the son of the iPod). The
developer world jumps on it - mobile apps are new and sexy. The OS is
derived from Mac OSX, itself a Unix variant, which they've been
collectively developing on for decades. Audio apps start to carve out
their own niche. The iTunes App Store must be the only app store where
the 'Music' category has more synths and sequencers than MP3 players.
The hardware itself is successful enough that Apple brings out a
sequel, this time with USB connectivity which promises connection with
MIDI and audio interfaces. Developers are just getting their teeth
into it and apps are getting more and more 'pro' when Apple goes and
ruins it.

Last year they brought out Garageband. It's not the first DAW on the
iPad, but it's by far the best. The problem for money-making
developers is that Garageband is priced well below its competition -
£2.99 in the UK. That's less than a quarter of the £13.99 price of
both its nearest competitors, StudioTrack and Meteor Multitrack
Recorder, and they still don't have anything like Garageband's feature
set.

The impetus for developers to develop a full-featured DAW on iPad has
now gone. No matter how much innovation they throw at it, they're
always going to be up against Apple's marketing clout. Apple know that
for 3 quid, even people who wouldn't call themselves musicians will
try out Garageband. And that company makes its money from hardware
sales anyway, so an app like Garageband would always be a loss-leader
for them. For the finished indie DAW product to be competitively
priced, the developers are never going to be recompensed for their
time.

My point being that cheaper software outsells more expensive software,
and free (meaning no cost) will win everytime. As far as Bitwig goes,
I'm sure it will have its own niche of Linux users who made the jump
from Win/OSX and miss Ableton enough to shell out, but it's not the
first commercial Linux audio app either. The LinuxDSP plugins haven't
put off developers. Neither have the cross-platform energyXT and
Renoise. Linux FLOSS devs are always going to have the advantage of
price over commercial developers.

And just want to add that I'm actually pretty excited about a Bitwig
beta or demo. I think it looks like more than Ableton, I see some
modular-looking screenshots. If they've gone and 'borrowed' the Max
functionality of Ableton (though it looks more like Reaktor to me),
I'll be getting moist.

-A