When coming from an older generation DAW, which greatly assists the user in comparing takes, Bitwig’s comping seems rather impractical because the loop defined at the take (or CLI) level doesn’t automatically create a loop at the arranger’s timeline level.
The clip’s loop is therefore out of sync with the timeline. This greatly complicates comparing different sections of takes.
A workaround would be to cut the takes not in the comping view’s takes (as is intuitively done), but directly on the track in the arranger, so that each phrase of the track can be looped correctly. But the cut made with the cutter doesn’t propagate to the take level…
In short, it’s not a simple solution (or am I mistaken?).
It should be possible to switch from take to take without having to define a loop, and transport synchronization should be automatic.
For me, the natural comping workflow is as follows:
- Split the phrases in the comping view
- Play a phrase from a take using a shortcut, which creates a loop in the overall timeline
- Move to the same phrase on the other takes (using the up and down arrows)
- Press enter on the desired take
- Move to the next phrase using the right arrow (without exiting playback)
Steps 3, 4, and 5 do not interrupt playback but automatically resynchronize it.
Today Bitwig’s comping limitations prevent me from migrating all my projects to Bitwig.
Thank you for your attention.