Also can nab deals if your a student or teacher.
I can’t speak for the lower version of Bitwig (I have the full one) but Ableton Intro is very powerful, it has bundled synths and FX, 16 tracks etc. It’s very well-featured for the low price.
I have to say as well, the stock Abelton devices are really excellent. One of the reasons I keep considering getting Ableton (again) is that the built-in devices are really good.
It tends to be tiny UX features that you either love or hate, that’s why it’s worth trying some demos first. I think both Ableton Live and Bitwig have full-featured demos that run without limits for a period of time.
I have an issue with the Ableton browser that seems to be a deal-breaker for me, but that’s a story for another day…
Yes, you can do whole songs with 16 tracks. But I hate that. I already have that in a lot of hardware. I’ve made music that I love in Digitone, tracker, etc… So I want a little more space…
To the people who have Ableton… Which version do you have? Great advise here, now I’m doubtful to pay a license… Reaper can do everything, everything, but I’m a little bit tired after all these years.
I have a bunch of NI products, maybe I should try machine again, I think that last time that I upgraded was 2 or 3 years ago… And they have made improvements in arranger view… But never did any usable with machine, although the workflow is fantastic. Another thing is that I have literally no space for hardware in my desk.
Sorry, English is no my main language…
What is Zero fuss? Is non transferable?? Thanks
Sorry, let me try again!
What I mean is that they allow licence transfer with no problem. You can transfer as much as you like with no fees to pay. So if you buy and you don’t like it, no problem, just sell it again.
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I get why you think you need more than 16 tracks. I’m just telling you: based on the use case you are describing for us, you probably don’t.
Consider:
- You want to TRY OUT Ableton
- You don’t want to spend a lot of money (and Lite + Intro are near-free / cheap)
- Some of the best albums and songs in the world have been made with imposed technical limitations
It’s not what you’ve got, it’s how you use it.
I can promise you that if the point is to experience the Ableton workflow and evaluate whether it is “for you” is what you’re wanting - then Lite is perfect, and you will have a built-in upgrade path to Standard if you decide to exercise it.
But sure, by all means sit here complaining about it’s limitations rather than making music… 
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I think I have a spare Ableton licence from a novation product I bought ages ago. (Had several, gave some away)
You would be more than welcome to have it so you can try Ableton for free. Even though it’s the most basic version, you could at least get a feel for the general navigation/structure.
I have suite and love it although I’ve used very little since getting some Elektron stuff.
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Spent almost a year only with 8 tracks with polyend tracker and I’ve made music that I love. Yes, the intro is a good start. Let’s see thanks both
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Another vote for Bitwig.
I love it like I like using groove boxes. It doesn’t feel like another boring DAW.
Get the free trials and see how you get on.
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Big fan of Ableton. Live 12 update added a lot of features and workflow improvements. Would recommend downloading a trail of Ableton and Bitwig and see which one you prefer.
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Suite is around 540 dollars/pounds/euros
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Getting BitWig through Spotify rent to own might make sense if you wanted to go that route.
I chose this route when I picked up BitWig (I’m an Ableton guy since live7) so I could get continual updates over the 2 years.
But Ableton is still my main DAW. BitWig is just to learn something new and experiment with.
You won’t go wrong with either. If Ableton speaks to you, go for it. Get the standard then wait for special upgrade offers from Ableton for the suite down the road.
Enjoy!
Ableton user since v3, primary daw since about 2009: it’s fine. It can be really annoying sometimes, if I was starting today I’d be going with Bitwig, which is a real playground for audio and midi.
Find the intro versions and try both out, they’re very similar in workflow.
That said, I rarely use clip view anymore, except for sketching out basic patterns, and that’s mainly just because the loop behaviour in the timeline is annoying. I’m just using it as a linear sequencer for the most part.
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another vote to trial both Bitwig and Live before committing, and there were couple of Suite licenses for sale for about half a price on the marketplace so worth taking a look there
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Thanks all. I’ve just downloaded a demo of Ableton. I’m going to try to familiarise with it a couple of days (maybe more) and then try Bitwig.
What I’m really want it’s a different workflow, different user interface, not the typical arranger view always… Learn something new. I think it’s one of the reasons we buy new gear, to get more ideas, something fresh…
The downside of the Ableton demo is that it’s suite; downgrade to intro may be painful heheh. Thanks. I appreciate a lot your experiences.
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if you settle for Live then second hand license will cost pretty much as new Standard, and honestly if you go with Live you want the Suite if you plan to actually do music with it and not just recording hardware, the extra instruments/fx and m4l plus the additional packs are well worth the extra and then some, you can also find a BW license second hand, I’ve seen these for sale too, the Grid alone worth the price
…reaper is the fresher take on pro tools…aaaaaaaand bitwig is the fresher take on ableton…
if u feel like, it’s time for a daw change, i hardly suggest to try the bitwig demo version first…
way less and more reasonable investment…
i’ve seen and worked with all the most common usual suspects…pt, logic, ableton…each for ages…
since 2019 i run a bitwig license and i never experienced such a smart bliss in daw coding…
and even if u come from reaper, which has actually the smoothest take when it comes to edit and record audio afaik, u will be blown away how flexible bitwig handles that…while it’s the only daw, next to logic, where i can say, end of the day, u don’t really need any other third party plugins for real anymore…
run the demos of ableton AND bitwig and see for urself…
keep in mind, there’s no downgrade from the bitwig studio demo…what u see, is what u get for pretty much half the price…while bw’s paymodel is way more fair and consistant than ableton ever was…it’s totally same same but very different, smarter and cpu efficient in all it’s details…and clearly more up to date and ready for tomorrow…the only truu modular but easy to grasp daw out there to find…
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