One solid reason why the Clips Grid should be expanded upon into something great.

[Michael Canavan]

OK so I know that most DP users are not "loop" users, will never go near the Clips window, even if they should. As someone who rarely if ever uses the score editors, I am still really happy they're in DP.

Bitwig is a pretty small company with a core fanbase that just got thrown a curve ball. Bitwig has a mixed update/subscription model called the Update Plan, you pay a yearly fee to get all updates, new plug ins etc. that year for free. The problem is unlike upgrades it was 125-170 depending on where and when you purchased it, and you do not lose functionality of the DAW if you do not have an active plan, you're just stuck at whatever .1 release you're at when it ends. This IMO hemorrhaged them, they didn't make much money last year (someone looked them up, you can see profit loss etc. for German companies online), so they decided to release some embedded plug ins as separate from the Update Plan. This is obviously a bad move to anyone who has any common sense, people paid for free updates and they're charging for some now, with no indication of what in the future will be included in the Update Plan and what will be a separate paid release.

Point is Bitwig and Live both have super advanced Grids/Clip windows that allow for all kinds of sound design and odd things. DP's Clips window is as it stands too limiting for me to recommend to anyone who needs to jump ship from Bitwig. Too many UX issues to really apply. On the other hand now that MPE is fixed in DP, it's on par with Bitwig in terms of MPE support, much better than Live or Logic even. So the thing that holds it back on the sound design, experimental, electronic musician front? A limited and overtly complicated Clips implementation.

I think the core audience for DP is more than willing to get an upgrade that's all UX, major bug fixes,(cough, Windows version issues, REX and drag and drop crashes etc.), and minor updates to long standing features that have grown long in the tooth. What this would do is make it that much easier to evangelize about DP = cash for MOTU! $$ Anyway just a thought as I'm starting up DP here.

[nk_e]

Good thoughts. The current clip implementation has some good ideas. It just needs to be iterated upon.

The whole Bitwig fiasco was so avoidable had they thought about how to roll the change out and simply communicate with the user base about planned changes. Give everyone fair warning of some target date later in the year, have a clear policy, etc. Sure, there would have been some dust up, but people wouldn’t feel so bamboozled.

A shame really.

[Michael Canavan]

Good thoughts. The current clip implementation has some good ideas. It just needs to be iterated upon.

The whole Bitwig fiasco was so avoidable had they thought about how to roll the change out and simply communicate with the user base about planned changes. Give everyone fair warning of some target date later in the year, have a clear policy, etc. Sure, there would have been some dust up, but people wouldn’t feel so bamboozled.

A shame really.

They made right today. I'm happy for them, There's only about four companies that develop DAWs that have not been bought out by a corporation or conglomerate. Bitwig, DP, Reaper and Live are the only ones I can think of, and Ableton (Live) is HUGE, one of the biggest DAWs out there, and Reaper is developed by a multi millionare who made all his money off of WnAmp. Only Bitwig and MOTU develop DAWs without support from multinational corperations or investment firms, or as a hobby. So I root for them as well as MOTU, who have managed to keep DP going through Emagic Logics buyout and subsequent branding as the "premier" Mac DAW, Pro Tools as the "profeessional" recording studio DAW etc. etc.

[pencilina]

I've used bitwig as a sound design and synthesis playground for the last 4 years making mostly generative pieces and it got me into messing with clips. Most of what I do is based on playing instruments live into clips (as opposed to grabbing MIDI or synth loops). Interestingly, it turns out that DP is better suited to my clip recording workflow then BW because it amazingly provides for pre/post-roll handles in the audio outside of the clips it captures. BW does not, so in most cases I can get much more musical and natural sounding results editing pieces made w/DP's clips. That said, I also hope MOTU expands DP's clip functionality.

[Michael Canavan]

I've used bitwig as a sound design and synthesis playground for the last 4 years making mostly generative pieces and it got me into messing with clips. Most of what I do is based on playing instruments live into clips (as opposed to grabbing MIDI or synth loops). Interestingly, it turns out that DP is better suited to my clip recording workflow then BW because it amazingly provides for pre/post-roll handles in the audio outside of the clips it captures. BW does not, so in most cases I can get much more musical and natural sounding results editing pieces made w/DP's clips. That said, I also hope MOTU expands DP's clip functionality.

Cool, only a few of us DP/Bitwig users out there! Where DP is lacking in Clips is the stop buttons on Live and Bitwigs empty clips. In DP their solution was to populate the Scene with empty clips, that all take on the name of the track and the color. So with their compatible Clip launchers like Launchpad Pro MKIII Clips with dozens of empty clips in them become an unusable mess. Same on the screen, the clutter is pretty bad. It would also make more sense to have a Session/Arrange master switch like Bitwig and Live, and the ability to fire a clip with zero quantization, or at least less than a quarter note…

[pencilina]

So with their compatible Clip launchers like Launchpad Pro MKIII Clips with dozens of empty clips in them become an unusable mess. Same on the screen, the clutter is pretty bad. It would also make more sense to have a Session/Arrange master switch like Bitwig and Live, and the ability to fire a clip with zero quantization, or at least less than a quarter note…

Yikes....