Musician Software Review – Bitwig, Calendly and Good-Feel

By Dzhingarov

Musicians need a way to manage their audio files and metadata easily and conveniently, using DISCO can ensure this happens easily. They can also utilize Calendly for appointment scheduling purposes.

No matter whether it be reading sheet music, composing, or editing pictures – this free software is an outstanding musician solution. Packed with tools that mimic professional DAW software – making this software indispensable.

Bitwig

Bitwig departs from traditional DAW practice by acknowledging that musical information does not consist of individual clips alone but is composed of them playing alongside each other either on an Arranger Timeline or non-linear Launcher area. Thus, no single clip ever truly stands alone but rather edits with regard to all clips present – an invaluable feature which allows gain expression envelope editing on multiple clips simultaneously without altering their automation.

Event editor is another key feature, offering similar drag-and-resize functionality as Live’s Track View but with additional flexibility: these events may contain multiple samples from one instrument played across various pitches and velocities allowing more granular control of clip content; for example you could slice drum loops on beat divisions, then shuffle them around in time to form new patterns.

Another excellent feature is the ability to freeze tracks and MIDI effects, making it simple and quick to set up projects from scratch, then render for performance or playback. Furthermore, advanced editing functions include groove quantize, humanize, de-flam, transposition mapping selection and filtering features for improved editing workflow.

Key for those using DAWs for live work is the ability to comp performances together, taking the best bits from different takes and mixing them into an outstanding track. While rarely found elsewhere, this feature is extremely valuable to musicians who wish to optimize their recording equipment and skillset.

Bitwig features an extremely useful Note FX option which enables you to alter the midi notes being sent through a particular device, providing additional control. This feature could be utilized alongside existing device effects like distortion and reverb for maximum effect.

Cubase

Steinberg Cubase, from Germany’s Steinberg Music Software GmbH, is widely considered one of the premier DAWs available today. Although initially criticized as too complex and CPU/DSP intensive for some users, recent improvements and updates have caused its popularity to resurge as many issues were addressed that led people away from Steinberg Cubase and into more accessible alternatives such as Pro Tools or Reaper.

With its host of creative features that open up new creative vistas, this DAW should be considered by any serious composer or producer. Its Key Editor and Drum Editor provide plenty of room for melodies and beats creation while its Sample Editor and AudioWarp tools offer endless ways of editing audio files with tempo changes or key conversion without losing quality sound quality.

Cubase offers an impressive collection of VST plugins and the Control Room feature makes tracking your tracks simpler than ever. There is also an entry-level Cubase SE version and the full-scale Cubase Pro edition to choose from based on your needs.

Cubase is used by musicians and recording studios worldwide for music composition, arrangement and editing purposes. First created in 1989 by Steinberg as a MIDI sequencer for their Atari series computers, later becoming a DAW with Virtual Studio Technology (VST) support. Mini versions are even provided as part of Yamaha audio/MIDI hardware packages.

Cubase’s latest update introduces Chord Tracks as one of its key innovations, making chord creation easy and intuitive. You can change chord voicings, tensions and parameters instantly to meet your specific requirements, harmonize audio/MIDI tracks automatically or generate arpeggios/chords based on any scale chosen.

Cubase SX3.0 introduced another feature called Tempo Anchor that allows you to set a fixed tempo for any audio file or project, making it easy to work with music recorded at different tempos or keys. Furthermore, Cubase features Audio Warp Quantize which non-destructively quantizes audio events or even an entire project without cutting up into individual clips.

GOOD-FEEL

Good-Feel‘s latest offering is a braille music transcribing suite that works in tandem with Lime(r). This software enables blind musicians to review braille scores with optional verbal descriptions before creating print and braille transcriptions to share with sighted teachers, colleagues or students.

Features of Finale and Sibelius music notation software used by band, orchestra and choir directors). Also compatible with Lime and other JAWS-compliant notation programs that import MusicXML. A synchronized scrolling feature allows simultaneous display of print and braille scores for current musical measure; Silenzio mode uses talking score features to silence metronomic clicks while muzzling or altering note duration descriptions so users can focus on hearing just notes and chords without hearing descriptions in words.