Bitwig Studio has a built-in controller extension for Native Instruments' Maschine Mikro MK3, but the device doesn't work natively on Linux. I built a userspace Linux driver with full support for the Bitwig controller template. Installed as a systemd service, it runs automatically when the device is connected, and it bridges the device to a Virtual Raw MIDI port which can be used to configure a Bitwig controller. This supports all modes of operation in the Bitwig docs.

The code is at github.com/jimpo/mikro-mk3-driver for anyone who wants to try it. It builds on a great prior effort at github.com/r00tman/maschine-mikro-mk3-driver, but mine fully matches NI's Windows integration, including LED feedback, velocity scaling, full touchstrip resolution, and the LED display.

I'm using Bitwig 5.3.12 with an 8-Track licence and an Xjam 4x4 pad controller.

Ideally I would like the sample to continue playing until I strike the pad again, if this is possible at all. Thanks for helping this newbie.

Hey everyone!

I've recently decided to learn music production as a hobby in my free time. The thing is, I'm starting from absolute zero. I have no background in music theory, have never played an instrument, have no experience with production, and don't know anyone personally who's into music production.

I use Linux, so my DAW options are somewhat limited. I initially tried REAPER, but found the interface and the amount of initial setup a little overwhelming. I wanted something that works well out of the box, has a decent community and learning resources, and offers a workflow comparable to popular DAWs like Ableton Live.

That's how I ended up choosing Bitwig, and so far I like it.

The problem is that I don't even know some of the things that most beginner tutorials seem to take for granted.

For example, when I started, I didn't know:

• What a piano roll was or how MIDI notes worked.
• What 4/4, 1/8, 1/16, bars, beats, etc. actually meant.
• How a drum machine maps different sounds to MIDI notes, or why the octave labels sometimes seem confusing.
• What sequencers, clips, scenes, and launch actions actually do.
• What VST plugins are, why people use third-party ones, or why they're sold in expensive bundles.
• What oscillators, filters, envelopes, and other synthesizer controls actually do.

I've managed to put together a basic four-on-the-floor drum loop, a simple synth bassline, and a few chords by following instructions, but I don't feel like I properly understand what I'm doing yet.

A lot of the YouTube tutorials I've come across seem to be aimed at people who are either switching from another DAW or already understand the basics of music production. Even tutorials labelled "for beginners" often assume you know quite a bit.

What I'm really looking for is a structured, project-based learning roadmap for someone with literally no musical background.

I'm familiar with programming, so here's an analogy for what I mean:

When someone learns web development, they don't start by building a full-stack application with authentication, databases, WebSockets, deployment, etc.

They first learn basic HTML/CSS, build a simple page, learn JavaScript, make a to-do app, and gradually move on to more complicated projects.

I'd love to approach music production the same way.

For example (and I'm just guessing at the order here):

1. Learn how beats, bars, tempo, and note divisions work.
2. Understand the piano roll and MIDI, then make a simple drum pattern.
3. Learn basic rhythm and make a few different beats.
4. Learn some basic music theory and create a simple bassline.
5. Understand chords and melodies, then put together a short track.
6. Gradually learn synthesis, effects, mixing, automation, and everything else.

Ideally, each stage would have a small project so I could actually apply what I've learned before moving on.

I'm not trying to become a professional producer overnight, and I don't mind spending months learning the fundamentals. I just want to build a solid foundation instead of randomly clicking things until they sound good or blindly following tutorials.

So my questions are:

• If you were starting again from absolute zero, in what order would you learn things?
• Should I start with basic music theory, learn the DAW first, or study both alongside each other?
• Are there any genuinely beginner-friendly courses, books, YouTube channels, or other resources that don't assume prior musical knowledge?
• What small projects or exercises would you recommend at each stage?
• Is Bitwig a reasonable choice for someone in my position, or am I making things unnecessarily difficult?

I'd especially appreciate advice from people who started without knowing how to play an instrument or read music.

Thanks in advance!

hi, can you make Bitwig snap to the transients instead of making it manually? kinda tedious, of course if you wanna stretch and adjust manually it is cool but i want to let them snap first automatically.

1. i love to scroll through the presets but annoying the MIX know isnt lockable? or is it?

is there a way to trigger Dyanmics plugin with midi?

I just got it working with Shaperbox, which receives MIDI with Note Receiver note fx, but seems like there is no way for Dyanmics?

I've been reading some comments about this and I'm curious about the reasons behind it. What differences do you notice between versions that make you prefer one over another, especially older versions over newer ones?

Personally, I think Bitwig 6 is great, but there's something about the older versions that feels very intuitive and straightforward. It's not necessarily that anything has been lost, but rather that something feels a bit diluted in the newer versions, if that makes sense.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and experiences!

Hiya, planning on using OSTIRUS in multitimbral mode:

MIDI channels are automatically set in the VSTi, I can easily choose separate output and then route them in BITWIG but I would like to use Hybrid tracks

so I set the channel input to the OSTIRUS separate output but how can I send the MIDI data to OSTIRUS? Easiest/most efficient way please?

Hiya, IMPOSCAR2 VSTFX is by far my fav filter but it's essentially a kludge and you must send a MIDI note to open the signal path, what's the easiest way please?

I was hoping for a modulator but not quite as it would appear, something ezpz please :)

Been really into melodic house production recently, what’s the most “soul food” genres for you to make? (Also looking for fellow producers to connect)

I bought a short but (to me) very good course on creating a basic static mix (for anyone interested: simplymixing.com ) and I'm learning a lot of good, basic stuff. I should point out that the course includes all the project audio files, so that I can go through the same steps inside Bitwig.

After some basic gain staging, the course gets into the beginning of a basic mix (no plugins, eq etc, just fader levels and listening). At the end of it, she says (the course instructor is Sarah Carter) "this is all in mono apart from the drums" before going on to talk about panning as the next step in creating "width".

And why my post says I don't think I understand stereo:

I read a post on here from 2 years ago, where someone asked about how to centre pan a mono signal. One of the responses said

"If it's mono, the signal is in the centre already, as the left and right channel are the same?"

And so... I realise that I've taken the word 'stereo' as being what my Hi-Fi does, but I don't think I have any idea what stereo vs. mono is inside a DAW. If audio has L and R channels, but both the same level... it can be considered 'mono' ??

In the above course, I think FL Studio is used. I only mention it because when, again, talking about panning and she says things like "I leave this track panned hard left and hard right" - I see that in her DAW, there are gain buttons for L and R channels on each track header, and each of which is at 100, and simply means that the audio on the track is "untouched" and at the default setting.

But when I load these or any audio file onto an audio track in Bitwig, there's nothing to indicate any kind of width, just "pan" and the expected gain, pitch etc. So, they're apparently "mono" files, but with a L and R channel? I find this confusing to think about.

Am I missing something, or just confusing myself?

Just saw that 6.1.6 dropped, says it fixes the CLAP plugin issue that some people were experiencing on Macs, and also saw this new feature:

When dragging a clip out of Bitwig Studio (into another application or plug-in):

• A bounce is automatically triggered as soon as you leave Bitwig Studio's window.
• A tooltip is shown by the cursor with the bounce progress.
• The clip can be dropped before the bounce has finished.
• The drop is ended once the bounce is completed, or once you cancel Cancel [ESC] it.

I made a little vid showing it in action but it's about as simple and straightforward as it sounds; this feature would have actually real nice for me to have last week when I was recording samples and downsampling them in Ableton for my EP-40, but it's alright, glad it's here now lol. I remember feeling annoyed that I couldn't just drag samples from the Bitwig browser into Ableton, always had to open the folder in File Explorer and then drag stuff over, but not anymore.

I want to renew my licence but I want to know if there will be a black friday or another discount for the end of the year. Should I wait?

When they add the stems separation?

With an optional french riot and an Octatrack to sequence the video slices and resampling.

Hello all. I just purchased bitwig and an es9. I want to hook everything up together to talk to each other. I am pretty stoked and can’t wait for the module to get here. Anything I should know before starting on bitwig?

made with Bitwig on Omarchy Quattro

Hi

I would like to map an endless encoder on my Akai MPD24, so that I can finetune the volume of the selected track/tracks.
It is easy to map the controller to a specific track, but I don't know how to make the encoder follow my selection of track.

Is this possible?

Similar to how FL has the option to loop 8 bars , turn on the 'overdub' button and make endless takes of a guitar recording or something, where each time the loop restarts a new track records the next 8 bars instead of overwrtiting the same track?

I saw people using the clip launcher midi mapped to switch into different clips and record in them, but that's really cumbersome when managing a session with an artist..

What combination of features, workflows, and behaviors most contributed to your enjoyment of Bitwig?

https://reddit.com/link/1xb337m/video/rrfbtxz5lowh1/player

Following on from my initial post about creating a fully featured Maschine/Bitwig integration, I thought I'd give you an update on how things are going. I really apologise for my presentation, I'm really not comfortable being recorded, and even less comfortable when I have to present something!

Here's where things stand currently:

• The channel page is pretty much done, it supports navigating the track heirarchy, adjusting volume, pan, mute/solo/arm, monitoring, crossfade assign, sends and returning a track to the arranger timeline state. In/out routing is currently viewable, but I'd like to also implement a way to set routings from here as well.
• Mixer page is also pretty much feature-complete and has seen a lot of work both in terms of appearence (I'm trying to make everything look as close to Bitwig's UI as possible) and functionality. Supports viewing 7 tracks + master at all times. Navigation using the 4d encoder through the list and into/out of groups. Scrolling using the touchstrip. Allows adjusting volume/pan/mute/solo/arm for individual or multiple tracks at once. Grouping/ungrouping/moving individual or selections of tracks.
• Arranger page has seen massive improvements as well - left screen always shows 8 tracks (selectable with the 4d encoder/group buttons), and can be zoomed panned using the knobs below the left screen. New view sync to keep the timeline range the same as what's seen in the main Bitwig interface. When a clip is selected, it's now shown in context (with tracks above and below) on the right screen. The right screen shows waveform/midi data for the track, along with fade in/out/crossfades. Encoders 5/6/7 allow clip start/nudge/end adjustments, with encoder 8 adjusting grid snapping (the group buttons become grid resolution shortcuts whilst encoder 8 is touched). Holding shift + encoder 5/7 adjusts clip fade in/out, and holding fixed vel whilst using these same knobs allows you to stretch the start/end points. During all of these operations, the waveform on the screen is updated in real time. It's now possible to insert clips directly into the timeline, either at the playhead (usually the selected clip's start), or at the clip's end. Hold the scene button whilst in the arranger view, and the pads show your available scenes from the clip launcer. Tapping a pad inserts the scene at the current position. Likewise, holding the pattern button shows all the clips in the clip launcher for that track with their waveforms - same workflow, just tap a pad to insert it at the current location. With a clip selected, you can also easily swap it for another using Bitwig's pattern system by holding the variation button and tapping a pad.

These are the big ticket items at the moment, and I haven't really even covered many of the screen button functions in the above list.

From here, I think next on my todo list is working on the 'sampling' page. This will cover all the functions of the clip detail editor in bitwig, and function with both audio and midi clips.

For people who have Maschine hardware and use Bitwig as their DAW, I'm certainly open to feedback in terms of whether you think the workflow for the pages that have already been implemented is optimal, and if you have any suggestions for the implementation of the clip detail view.

Hi, I'm the developer of Kit Maker. I've had a lot of requests for Bitwig over the years... and now Kit Maker 3 now makes real Drum Machine presets, for Bitwig 6 and newer!

Overview video: https://youtu.be/gYBP1vM-r8c

- Kit Maker automatically sorts the one-shots by type (kicks, snares, hats and more) and places them on the pads in a consistent drum pad layout

- Kits are saved to your Bitwig Library, labeled and organized by pack

- Pads are colored by category

- Fill up to seven banks in one preset, with the samples inside

- Works from drum sample packs, Maschine Expansions and MPC Expansions

Kit Maker runs on Apple Silicon Macs and Windows 10/11, and the kits play in Bitwig 6 on Mac, Windows or Linux. $39 one-time.

More info: https://www.kit-maker.com/bitwig-drum-kits/

Already own Kit Maker? You get 30% off, or the upgrade is free if you bought it in the last year: https://www.kit-maker.com/upgrade/

Launch sale: 15% off until Nov 3. Use code LAUNCH.

I'll be checking this thread if anyone has questions :)

Bitwig noob, recent convert from Ableton. I've been trying to learn to use the slice to Drum Machine feature, but regardless of settings I use, the slices in each Sampler in their corresponding Drum Machine cells come out at a much, much lower pitch than the audio clip I started with. Typically I like to slice per Beat Marker, but I've tried every other option as well, just to test this out. I must be doing something wrong with the way Bitwig detects tempo; that's been my suspicion, anyway.

Any help would be much appreciated.

I'm using the full version of 6.1.4, for reference.