There are cases where it is useful to route the output of one or more tracks into another track. This effectively recreates the dedicated bus tracks found in hardware mixers and more traditional DAWs. However, bus tracks created in this manner then take up room in the arranger view despite contributing nothing to the arrangement. It would be useful if tracks could be hidden from the arranger view - but not the mixer view - for situations like this.
What problem(s) would this feature resolve?
While Bitwig’s groups, send-return tracks, and layer/chain devices cover most routing cases, traditional bus tracks can still be extremely useful or even necessary in some situations. For example, when doing complex routing with effects applied only to the send path of a track.
How does this feature fit in Bitwig as a product?
This would effectively add mixer bus tracks to Bitwig without actually having to add a whole new track type. It would improve the UX for this workflow while leaving existing workflows untouched.
Is there already an alternative way to achieve this on Bitwig?
Multiple bus tracks can be dropped into a dedicated group and collapsed to save space in the arranger. This doesn’t fully hide them though, and it can also have implications for routing, track soloing and muting, etc.
Could it be implemented using Bitwig components or APIs, without Bitwig team’s support?
No.
Could it be provided by a VST or something else reasonably integrated with Bitwig?
No.
Are there other products that offer this feature?
Many DAWs with traditional workflows such as Pro Tools, Logic, and Reaper offer mixer-only bus tracks.