Okay Bitwig Studio fans: your hardware has arrived. Bitwig’s own Connect 4/12 is available now (and yes, that includes the beleaguered market of the USA). Plus Melbourne Instruments’ appetizing-looking Roto-Control with its motorized knobs now has Bitwig Studio support, following Ableton Live support – and they say the integration is even deeper this time.
Let’s talk about the two together, because this looks like a dream setup. And there’s no hardware lock-in, either – if you swap DAWs as I do, you can still use both devices with your other tools. Bitwig will be showing both of these devices at SuperBooth if you’re here in Berlin this week.
Roto-Control integration
Roto-Control from Melbourne Instruments is seriously appealing: a colored strip of high-res displays, motorized knobs, and keyboard shortcuts with user-defined haptics and any assignments you want. It’s a mixer controller, a plugin controller, and a MIDI device with motion recording. (There’s no CV out, which would be cool but – mmm, those of us who think that way do all tend to have MIDI interfaces in our rig already, huh?)
Bitwig says this is the “most advanced DAW integration” for Roto-Control. MIX Mode shows colors and track names from your Bitwig Studio project automatically. Plugin parameters show up automatically, too – just touch once to map however you like, including mapping directly from third-party GUIs. Those are also saved locally on the device, not in the computer session file, so the mappings are retained between projects.
All remote controls in Bitwig Studio – even step parameters – get mapped, too. And most interestingly you get assignable haptics, too (which I think may be what makes this unique).
Outside of Bitwig Studio, you have some 64 MIDI setups onboard, too, which you can use with anything – lighting, gear, other DAWs, standalone operation, whatever you like.
RIght now, this seems like the controller to beat for general-purpose control. And it’s $449 on preorder, so nicely affordable. Perfect Circuit has it listed:
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Roto-Control Motorized DAW and MIDI Controller
Public beta for Bitwig Studio users: Roto-Setup download page
The setup app there is Windows and macOS only, but the device is class compliant – expect this will run under WINE, Linux users. (Haven’t tested it yet but will!)
There’s not a Bitwig video for this yet, but you get the idea:
Bitwig Connect 4/12 is available with finalized pricing
Bitwig’s Connect 4/12 audio interface is out, too. Fortunately, the pricing is stable too – just a slight adjustment to US$599 (only preliminary pricing was announced).
I’ve been testing it – review inbound. And this thing is fantastic, especially for anyone with modular or other analog equipment (these days that’s not only modular). What’s unique is having two DC-couple inputs as well as the four DC-coupled outputs, and having those be dedicated, and having actual minijack connections. Other devices lack the inputs, don’t support automatic calibration, and burn through other interfaces (plus don’t just easily connect via the minijack cables you have all around you).
I’ll be very curious to see how they set this up for demos.
Both Perfect Circuit and Sweetwater have this on preorder. Your mileage may vary but my understanding is these are arriving ahead of additional tariffs and that should lock in the pricing – for now; if you wait, that could be another story:
Perfect Circuit: Connect 4/12 USB Audio Interface
Sweetwater: Bitwig Connect 4/12 4×12 USB-C Audio Interface