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Bitwig is my favorite software - it really is all in one music production software, and they have great support for Linux. I have used it hooked up to a room fu

Bitwig is my favorite software - it really is all in one music production software, and they have great support for Linux. I have used it hooked up to a room full of synths, but these days (due to space constraints) I make music with just the software (with occasionally a midi keyboard). No need for any VSTs (unless you really want to) - the built in synths and effects plugins are high quality. (I started out using trackers in the 90s - Fast, Impulse, and eventually Buzz. I held off using DAWs for a long time because I didn't like the lack of information density that trackers are good at, but turns out I really don't miss that in Bitwig.) Here's a couple tracks I've made with it: https://synth8.bandcamp.com/track/spring-trap https://synth8.bandcamp.com/track/spring-trap, https://synth8.bandcamp.com/track/prompt https://synth8.bandcamp.com/track/prompt

Intermernet 1y ago
Good to see another fellow past Buzz user. Seriously underrated piece of software!
- smallerfish 1y ago
  Some background on Buzz for others: Buzz was a tragic case of not using version control. Apparently the author had a hard drive die, and his only copy of the source control went with it. It had a unique routing UX (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeskola_Buzz#/media/File:BuzzScreenshot.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeskola_Buzz#/media/File:BuzzS...) that allowed you to chain sources and effects using a graph. Bitwig has a similar idea in The Grid (https://www.bitwig.com/the-grid/ https://www.bitwig.com/the-grid/), though that's limited to just one track; Buzz did this for the entire composition. There was at least one rewrite attempt, and there are various clones (Aldrin) but they never quite made it.
  - stavros 1y ago
    Sounds like a tragic case of not making backups, to me. Even if the author used a VCS, when the drive died it would have taken the repo with it all the same.
  - HexDecOctBin 1y ago
    Is the "routing" similar to Sunvox? https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/images/t/01/01.png https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/images/t/01/01.png
  - pierrec 1y ago
    I believe the event you describe is pretty ancient, and Buzz recovered and continued development for many years after. I wrote some plugins for the more recent versions of Buzz, the plugin API was always nice to work with (compared to VST at least!)
    - Intermernet 1y ago
      It had a device called "amen" that did exactly what you'd expect. Pretty sure I used it on every track I made :-)
  - NetOpWibby 1y ago
    > Buzz was a tragic case of not using version control. Apparently the author had a hard drive die, and his only copy of the source control went with it. Yeah, lemme go ahead and commit this code I've been working on for weeks without creating a repo...
  - whizzter 1y ago
    Actually from 2008 to 2016 there was updates, they sent off the disk to a recovery firm and got a mostly latest copy and built from that. The newer versions used .NET and the main improvment in those builds was a new pattern-system (XP-patterns) so you could make patterns that selected parameters from one or more machines. So the annoyance of having to work in different patterns when your "instrument" was made out of a chain of discrete modules went away (also useful for making chords from primitive machines since you could hook multiple generators in one pattern).
- tomduncalf 1y ago
  Buzz was so great. I came across it when I learned James Holden produced his early stuff on it and was hooked. It had a good community with hundreds of synths and effects you could download from Buzzmachines. It was such a shame they lost the source code, I’d have loved to see how it developed.
  - tomduncalf 1y ago
    This made me google Buzz and it turns out it was recoded by the author and there was an update in 2022. Not sure if it’s still developed. I’m not on a Windows machine so won’t be able to try it easily unfortunately, wish it was open source so it could be ported to Mac https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=590922 https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=590922
  - easyThrowaway 1y ago
    I still can believe an album like "The idiots are winning" came out from that software. And there's even a friggin' video[1] explaining how he did it! [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtwJWhXceVg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtwJWhXceVg
multjoy 1y ago
Have you tried Renoise for your tracker fix?
- smallerfish 1y ago
  Yeah, I just never gelled with it.
- mock-possum 1y ago
  I really wish there was something between Furnace and OpenMPT - where you could mix hardware-reproducible chiptune sequencing seamlessly with more modern soft synth and samplers. Renose is plenty capable, but it’s felt awkward to fiddle with when I’ve tried it - I really just need to sit down and devote a period of extended experimentation to it.
- rootnod3 1y ago
  Highly recommend the Dirtyave M8 [1] for a tracker fix that comes in hardware firm and is a gift that keeps in giving with increasingly good firmware updates. [1]: https://dirtywave.com/products/m8-tracker-model-02 https://dirtywave.com/products/m8-tracker-model-02
  - multjoy 1y ago
    I have the Polyend tracker mini which is excellent, especially as they're updating in step with their desktop version. Also slightly easier to get hold of!
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
karlgrz 1y ago
Hey I played guitar on Prompt, small world, @smallerfish! Bitwig rules.

Intermernet 1y ago

Good to see another fellow past Buzz user. Seriously underrated piece of software!

smallerfish 1y ago
Some background on Buzz for others: Buzz was a tragic case of not using version control. Apparently the author had a hard drive die, and his only copy of the source control went with it. It had a unique routing UX (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeskola_Buzz#/media/File:BuzzScreenshot.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeskola_Buzz#/media/File:BuzzS...) that allowed you to chain sources and effects using a graph. Bitwig has a similar idea in The Grid (https://www.bitwig.com/the-grid/ https://www.bitwig.com/the-grid/), though that's limited to just one track; Buzz did this for the entire composition. There was at least one rewrite attempt, and there are various clones (Aldrin) but they never quite made it.
- stavros 1y ago
  Sounds like a tragic case of not making backups, to me. Even if the author used a VCS, when the drive died it would have taken the repo with it all the same.
- HexDecOctBin 1y ago
  Is the "routing" similar to Sunvox? https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/images/t/01/01.png https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/images/t/01/01.png
- pierrec 1y ago
  I believe the event you describe is pretty ancient, and Buzz recovered and continued development for many years after. I wrote some plugins for the more recent versions of Buzz, the plugin API was always nice to work with (compared to VST at least!)
  - Intermernet 1y ago
    It had a device called "amen" that did exactly what you'd expect. Pretty sure I used it on every track I made :-)
- NetOpWibby 1y ago
  > Buzz was a tragic case of not using version control. Apparently the author had a hard drive die, and his only copy of the source control went with it. Yeah, lemme go ahead and commit this code I've been working on for weeks without creating a repo...
- whizzter 1y ago
  Actually from 2008 to 2016 there was updates, they sent off the disk to a recovery firm and got a mostly latest copy and built from that. The newer versions used .NET and the main improvment in those builds was a new pattern-system (XP-patterns) so you could make patterns that selected parameters from one or more machines. So the annoyance of having to work in different patterns when your "instrument" was made out of a chain of discrete modules went away (also useful for making chords from primitive machines since you could hook multiple generators in one pattern).
tomduncalf 1y ago
Buzz was so great. I came across it when I learned James Holden produced his early stuff on it and was hooked. It had a good community with hundreds of synths and effects you could download from Buzzmachines. It was such a shame they lost the source code, I’d have loved to see how it developed.
- tomduncalf 1y ago
  This made me google Buzz and it turns out it was recoded by the author and there was an update in 2022. Not sure if it’s still developed. I’m not on a Windows machine so won’t be able to try it easily unfortunately, wish it was open source so it could be ported to Mac https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=590922 https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=590922
- easyThrowaway 1y ago
  I still can believe an album like "The idiots are winning" came out from that software. And there's even a friggin' video[1] explaining how he did it! [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtwJWhXceVg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtwJWhXceVg

multjoy 1y ago

Have you tried Renoise for your tracker fix?

smallerfish 1y ago
Yeah, I just never gelled with it.
mock-possum 1y ago
I really wish there was something between Furnace and OpenMPT - where you could mix hardware-reproducible chiptune sequencing seamlessly with more modern soft synth and samplers. Renose is plenty capable, but it’s felt awkward to fiddle with when I’ve tried it - I really just need to sit down and devote a period of extended experimentation to it.
rootnod3 1y ago
Highly recommend the Dirtyave M8 [1] for a tracker fix that comes in hardware firm and is a gift that keeps in giving with increasingly good firmware updates. [1]: https://dirtywave.com/products/m8-tracker-model-02 https://dirtywave.com/products/m8-tracker-model-02
- multjoy 1y ago
  I have the Polyend tracker mini which is excellent, especially as they're updating in step with their desktop version. Also slightly easier to get hold of!

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

karlgrz 1y ago

Hey I played guitar on Prompt, small world, @smallerfish! Bitwig rules.