DAW of the Year

Studio 3 Professional €379

The ‘Best DAW of the year’ award is rather like ‘Best Film’ – it’s the one everyone wants, because we are talking about the very heart of your music production system. It’s the software you choose to get creative with, and whatever you choose is therefore almost like an extension of your personality. Logic? You’re logical. Ableton? You’re lively. Fruity Loops? Well…

Traditionally, the big guns always seem to walk away with the best DAW award but we’re no strangers to controversy here at Computer Music and would rather our gongs go to the best in show, rather than just the most popular. With that in mind, we’ve simply honoured the finest example of Digital Audio Workstation that graced our computers in 2019, so that honour goes to not the most widely used DAW, but perhaps the most elegant: Bitwig Studio.

Version 3 of the DAW finally delivers a longpromised goal of modular device design, so that users can build their own instruments and effects within the DAW. This new feature is called The Grid, sadly not quite a Tron- level futuristic data highway, more an area that allows you to construct devices from some 154 modules. There’s a Poly Grid for instruments and FX Grid for effects. Putting devices together is largely intuitive as you pick from 16 module categories (including Oscillator, Filter, Shaper, Delay and LFO) with plenty of options within each.

Overall, The Grid really does raise the bar in both DAW creativity and software modular synthesis stakes. As we concluded: “It’s by far the friendliest, most approachable and intuitive modular system we’ve ever come across, yet it manages to achieve that level of usability without making any compromises in terms of power and versatility,” and it certainly helps elevate Bitwig Studio 3 to the star DAW award.

275 » 10/10