A couple of years ago, we made the case that Bitwig Studio, having just launched version 5, was worthy of our annual ‘DAW of the Year’ accolade
With that 2023 update, the audio-manipulating scope of this most flexible of DAWs was significantly boosted, facilitating what we said was the, “deepest track and project-level control we’ve ever seen offered by a DAW.” And we meant it.
The advancement of Bitwig v5’s multi-segment envelope generators presented both complex, yet fun routes toward carving new frontiers of sonics, and increasing the colour and dynamism of our sounds tenfold.
In all honesty, we weren’t sure how much more Bitwig could add to this expanded toolkit. We were perhaps a little short-sighted, as with the newly announced version 6, Bitwig has both simultaneously grown - and simplified - the abilities of Bitwig Studio.
Time-saving is the watchword here, with the most significant update to Bitwig Studio 6 being the smoothing of its automation abilities, with a ground-up re-think of just how the DAW - and its user - thinks about automation. Clip-based automation is the new order of the day, with the ability to pinch, stretch, drag and reuse automation curves, housed within a clip, across various parts of your project, and in other projects.
It seems so obvious now that Bitwig has made this switch, but thinking (and manipulating) automation in this way is an inspired move.
Not only does this save time on meticulously and laboriously drawing in automation curves, it also makes you think about that automation movement in a similar way that you might think about the interplay of melody and harmony within an arrangement. It’s all part of Bitwig’s enduring quest to seamlessly bridge the musical and technical.
This new design/functional choice encourages experimentation whilst also making simple effect programming far less complicated. Dragging and dropping these directions as colourful blocks makes the whole process way more intuitive and instinctive. A simple shortcut (pressing A, in this instance) presents the dedicated Automation Mode, revealing the sub-lanes of automation clips within each track.
Those automation curves themselves are now way more responsive in v6, and allow you to bulk adjust a selected section without impacting on the surrounding automation information. Another headache removed.
Whilst we’re on the subject of reducing your studio stress, another major new addition here are Clip Aliases. This new feature provides the means to chain together certain separate clips within your project. Make an edit to one and the whole lot mirror that exact change. A simple example would be multiple instruments playing the same MIDI note sequence. Shifting a note slightly higher on one clip will be reflected elsewhere - you don’t need to tediously copy/paste or manually adjust each one.
Further creative opportunities present themselves via the new ‘Spread’ automation behaviour. This throws in subtle (or not so subtle) random variations to your automation curves, the values adjust on each playthrough. Useful for quickly nudging the track out of a rigid template, and adding a touch of humanity.
Speaking of randomness, there is also a similar tool for when it comes to melodic generation. The Spray Can tool (selected from Bitwig Studio’s all-new-‘Tool Palette’ on the right-hand panel) allows you to ostensibly ‘paint’ notes into the piano roll which scatters them intelligently (whilst being key-aware). It’s perfect for filling out the bones of an arrangement with a series of potentaily melodic pathways, or can be shaped into pulsing arpeggios or lead lines to taste.
And yes, Bitwig Studio 6 now features a project-wide Key Signature setting for your track - or section of a track. The ability to choose from 23 scales is something that has been long wished-for within the Bitwig community and has been implemented perfectly here, without inhibiting the sonic-shaping potential of the DAW.
Snap to Key helps your improvisations to operate within your theoretical parameters, while empowering you to not be fearful of venturing a bit more off-road. Note-specific FX and Bitwig’s Arpeggiator will also obey the overall dictates of your currently selected scale.
All these improvements have been framed around assisting the music-maker to save time and focus on the music, and this is reflected also in the larger visual improvements that have been made to the DAW. Auto-Zoom and adjustable grid visuals and track headers aid navigation and make project-editing a far less daunting task.
Version 6 then is a robust update that very much does not over-stuff itself for the sake of it, but instead works cohesively to empower and assist the 21st century music-maker.
Bitwig itself has numerous deep-dives across on its website which explores each new aspect in greater detail, we recommend you head over there and check them out. With version 6, Bitwig has shaped itself into the most comfortable and supportive environment for all creative musicians.
Bitwig Studio 6 is now in public beta. The beta is free to all Bitwig Studio, Producer, and Essentials users with an active Upgrade Plan (as of August 27, 2025). Users will find the beta installers in their user profile. The release of v6 is planned for the fall 2025.
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