Bitwig Studio
More info
- Owner
- Bitwig GmbH
- Released
- Type
- DAW
- Website
- bitwig.com
A Berlin DAW built by former Ableton people, with modulation as its organising principle and Linux as a first-class platform.
Bitwig was founded in Berlin in 2009 and shipped its first version in 2014 after years of previews. The resemblance to Ableton Live is no accident, but the difference lies in modulation: any parameter, including one inside a third-party plugin, can be driven by LFOs, envelopes and step sequencers dropped onto the device. Version 3 in 2019 added The Grid, a modular environment along the lines of a virtual Eurorack.
It runs natively on Linux, still unusual among commercial DAWs, and can host plugins in separate processes so one crash doesn't take the whole project down. In 2022 Bitwig and u-he introduced the CLAP plugin format as an open alternative to Steinberg's VST.