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For people that don't know, Bitwig Studio is one of the few DAWs that support Linux officially. This is great news!

by whilenot-dev 1y ago

Leptonmaniac 1y ago
For the other people who don't know: What's a DAW?
- Twixes 1y ago
  Digital Audio Workstation, which is a fancy name for a kind of app where you can make a song on your computer. Whether that's a recording of an instrument or voice, or a digital instrument playing from MIDI signal (piano, synth, anything), or recorded samples from various sources, you can put all that together however you want, including all sorts of effects (lotta plugins).
- viraptor 1y ago
  Digital audio workstation. It's used for putting together music tracks, but... the scope of that is huge. It's probably best to find some demo/tutorial on YouTube to understand it. Even the ultra compressed bitwig6 announcement should give you an idea https://youtu.be/xJF7i3x46Ec https://youtu.be/xJF7i3x46Ec
- pjmlp 1y ago
  Digital Audio Workstation, basically all those programs with multiple tracks per music channel, tons of effects and plugins, with MIDI input to be controlled by any kind of musical devices, even macros can be assigned to specific chords or melody snippets. The audio version of Photoshop.
- enqk 1y ago
  an operating system for music making, usually hosted as an application
pjmlp 1y ago
And for others that also don't know, a great example on how to do cool UIs with Java.
- camtarn 1y ago
  Huh, I use Bitwig and I had no idea it was Java! Very neat.
  - coldtea 1y ago
    Only the UI is (and not using Swing, just Java). The engine and everything else is C++.
    - pjmlp 1y ago
      Exactly what I said, nothing else.
      - coldtea 1y ago
        Not really. Quite some more "else".You wrote: "And for others that also don't know, a great example on how to do cool UIs with Java" This is vague, and could mean either it's a "cool GUI app (end-to-end) in Java" or "cool GUI app (with just the GUI) in Java". Think how one could say the same thing you said for a 100% Java app too, e.g. "jEdit/NetBeans/etc is a great example on how to do cool UIs with Java". I added the explicit information that the Java part is constrained to the UI, and clarified what the backend is written in.
AlecSchueler 1y ago
And for those who are curious: the other big one is Reaper, from the creator of WinAmp.
- glimshe 1y ago
  Reaper is the closest thing to a "programmer's DAW". Highly configurable and scriptable, it's kind of a DAW toolkit that comes with a great free default. It also has the fairest pricing and upgrade policy I've ever seen in a software product. It should be Hacker News' official DAW. :)
  - AlecSchueler 1y ago
    100% It's very rare, especially in 2025, that I would use a GUI and think "I wish I could do x" and then actually be able to make it happen.
    - bravura 1y ago
      How easy is it to integrate reaper with hardware? I find it really frustrating that the Ableton format is closed, so you can't write software to generate projects for Ableton Push. Want I want is the fastest path to making beats using physical interaction with MIDI hardware based upon loops and one-shots I have, without endless coding or fiddling. Open to purchasing new hardware.
      - diggan 1y ago
        > I find it really frustrating that the Ableton format is closed Last time I checked, they're just plaintext XML, so while the format is proprietary, it's trivial to "reverse engineer", if you can even call it that. > Want I want is the fastest path to making beats using physical interaction with MIDI hardware based upon loops and one-shots I have, without endless coding or fiddling. Open to purchasing new hardware. If you're already using Ableton, this should be easy as long as your computer/audio interface has a midi out port, you basically just select what midi channel a Ableton midi track should use, and start sending stuff, no coding or fiddling required :)

For people that don't know, Bitwig Studio is one of the few DAWs that support Linux officially. This is great news!

Leptonmaniac 1y ago

For the other people who don't know: What's a DAW?

Twixes 1y ago
Digital Audio Workstation, which is a fancy name for a kind of app where you can make a song on your computer. Whether that's a recording of an instrument or voice, or a digital instrument playing from MIDI signal (piano, synth, anything), or recorded samples from various sources, you can put all that together however you want, including all sorts of effects (lotta plugins).
viraptor 1y ago
Digital audio workstation. It's used for putting together music tracks, but... the scope of that is huge. It's probably best to find some demo/tutorial on YouTube to understand it. Even the ultra compressed bitwig6 announcement should give you an idea https://youtu.be/xJF7i3x46Ec https://youtu.be/xJF7i3x46Ec
pjmlp 1y ago
Digital Audio Workstation, basically all those programs with multiple tracks per music channel, tons of effects and plugins, with MIDI input to be controlled by any kind of musical devices, even macros can be assigned to specific chords or melody snippets. The audio version of Photoshop.
enqk 1y ago
an operating system for music making, usually hosted as an application

pjmlp 1y ago

And for others that also don't know, a great example on how to do cool UIs with Java.

camtarn 1y ago
Huh, I use Bitwig and I had no idea it was Java! Very neat.
- coldtea 1y ago
  Only the UI is (and not using Swing, just Java). The engine and everything else is C++.
  - pjmlp 1y ago
    Exactly what I said, nothing else.
    - coldtea 1y ago
      Not really. Quite some more "else".You wrote: "And for others that also don't know, a great example on how to do cool UIs with Java" This is vague, and could mean either it's a "cool GUI app (end-to-end) in Java" or "cool GUI app (with just the GUI) in Java". Think how one could say the same thing you said for a 100% Java app too, e.g. "jEdit/NetBeans/etc is a great example on how to do cool UIs with Java". I added the explicit information that the Java part is constrained to the UI, and clarified what the backend is written in.

AlecSchueler 1y ago

And for those who are curious: the other big one is Reaper, from the creator of WinAmp.

glimshe 1y ago
Reaper is the closest thing to a "programmer's DAW". Highly configurable and scriptable, it's kind of a DAW toolkit that comes with a great free default. It also has the fairest pricing and upgrade policy I've ever seen in a software product. It should be Hacker News' official DAW. :)
- AlecSchueler 1y ago
  100% It's very rare, especially in 2025, that I would use a GUI and think "I wish I could do x" and then actually be able to make it happen.
  - bravura 1y ago
    How easy is it to integrate reaper with hardware? I find it really frustrating that the Ableton format is closed, so you can't write software to generate projects for Ableton Push. Want I want is the fastest path to making beats using physical interaction with MIDI hardware based upon loops and one-shots I have, without endless coding or fiddling. Open to purchasing new hardware.
    - diggan 1y ago
      > I find it really frustrating that the Ableton format is closed Last time I checked, they're just plaintext XML, so while the format is proprietary, it's trivial to "reverse engineer", if you can even call it that. > Want I want is the fastest path to making beats using physical interaction with MIDI hardware based upon loops and one-shots I have, without endless coding or fiddling. Open to purchasing new hardware. If you're already using Ableton, this should be easy as long as your computer/audio interface has a midi out port, you basically just select what midi channel a Ableton midi track should use, and start sending stuff, no coding or fiddling required :)