Bitwig Studio turns one year old this week, and they’re keen to use the occasion to convince you to try their software. But the pitch takes a different angle, focusing more than ever on the particular bundle of instruments and effects. There’s an artist pack by Cristian Vogel that makes it clear what’s possible (hello, granular) — and, ending on the 7th of April, deals on U-he instruments to sweeten the pot.
For soft synth lovers, it might be a haul of Easter candy that convinces you to bite.
We’ve already talked about my affection for Cristian Vogel: he’s an artist with a uniquely expressive sonic character, manifested in thumbprints on all his musical output.
And in a new creation for Bitwig Studio, he confirms some of my suspicions of the best potential of that software. When Bitwig Studio came out, many looked to it to be some sort of new direction for DAWs, in particular relative to Ableton Live, which it closely resembles. But the software, for now, doesn’t differ so much from other tools on the market.
Where Bitwig seems to come into its own is with its instruments and effects. If you’re looking for a bundle of new sounds wrapped inside its particular production workflow, in other words, it begins to come into its own.
In Vogel’s capable hands, that’s what you hear – granular and other effects producing a particular digital sound, like the white-pebble ice storms we’ve been seeing in Berlin the last few days. Watch:
Here’s what he writes about his contribution:
I mostly like the way that it’s a kind of modular effects rack with a lot more possibilities than first meets the eye. Actually, if you’re into making patches or modular synths, then you’ll get it straight away. You can wrap elements inside of other elements and control many parameters with just one turn. Really, you can imagine and invent all sorts of things… pretty wild combinations.
So after a few late nights of patching stuff up using only the built-in FX modules and some samples from my own archives, of course, I started to come up with unique inventions: like a kind of Bitwig-only-style crazy granulator. It chops up samples into little grains which turn into long clouds that rain down into a quantized dust and gets frozen into rainbow icicles … sort of thing.
But Bitwig really want you to buy Bitwig Studio. And this week’s deal is pretty stellar, if you’re interested: you get u-he’s amazing ACE or Bazille free when you buy Studio this week.
Already own Bitwig Studio? There’s a US$50 gift voucher for you toward the purchase of any u-he plugin if you’re an existing user.
More on that developer:
http://www.u-he.com/
Cristian Vogel artist pack:
http://www.bitwig.com/en/community/artist.html
And details on the plug-in deals and 1 year anniversary:
http://www.bitwig.com/en/bitwig_1year.html
Are you using Bitwig Studio? Care to share impressions or tips? Let us know in comments.