8-Track gives you a free taster of Bitwig Studio’s easy-to-use interface. Let’s look closer…

> Step by step 1. Install and activate

1  Bitwig Studio 8-Track looks and feels just like the full version but has some intentional limits such as track count, inserts and included content. That said, the installer is the same whichever version you have and is available at their home page www.bitwig.com.

2 To get started, download and run the correct installer for your platform. We’re using Mac OS X and you’ll notice you simply need to drag and drop the application disk image into your applications folder. 

3 Next up, you need to set up a user account here www.bitwig.com/ account-register. Make sure to verify your email address by clicking on the link they email you, then log in and go to your Account Info page. At the bottom there’s an option to add a serial number. Enter your special Computer Music Bitwig code.

4  When you first launch Bitwig Studio it will prompt you to log in. This is used to check your authorisation and activate the correct version. It will then run a plugin check for third party plugins.

Subsequent launches will be more straightforward as they will go straight to the Bitwig Studio 8-Track splash screen.

5  Next it will ask you whether you want to install any content. Bitwig Studio 8-Track includes the Essentials bundle which is 500MB of instruments, loops and presets. We’ll be using this in the tutorial so go ahead and install it. Ignore any other packages that are listed, as they need additional authorisations. 6

6 With everything checked and installed, you’ll land on the Dashboard screen. This handles upper level features including content packages, templates, projects and help files. You can also access the main settings pages which includes everything from audio interfacing to plugin management. Dashboard can be accessed at any time via the Bitwig dotted icon at the top.

7 At this stage, it’s worth checking the audio interface settings are correct, so select the Audio tab in the Settings page. Select your input and output device. Note, in this page you could, if you wish, also change the audio buffer size and sample rate if required.

8 Finally it’s time to launch a project. Select the user name tab as this opens the project options. On the next page we’ll run through how to navigate Bitwig so it will be useful to have a complete song to look at. From the quick start folder load the Berlin Mornings demo song.

> Step by step 2. Navig-8-ing 8-Track

1 Bitwig Studio is very similar in layout and operation to many other DAWs. The workspace includes both core and foldaway panels and your song is built from audio and MIDI clips. Double click on the second track, Drums. The panel at the bottom will show the Drum Machine. Now click on the next track, Keys, and it will show the Polysynth.

2  Bitwig’s main central panel has three views – Arrange, Mix and Edit. Select one of these at the bottom left of the overall window footer. Arrange is the main view and actually hosts two panels, the Arranger Timeline and the Clip Launcher.  You can view them individually or together using the icons in the top left of the panel.

3 Arranger Timeline and Clip Launcher are fundamental to how Bitwig works. Each track can work as a traditional linear timeline or as a performance style clip Launcher. Both views are available together making it easy to combine Launcher and timeline tracks in your production. With both panels active, try dragging the window splitter to resize each panel.

4 The Inspector is a foldaway panel on the left of the main DAW window. This is opened using the ‘i’ icon at the bottom left of the overall window footer. The inspector follows whatever is selected elsewhere. Select the Classic Polysynth track and you’ll see track details including the fader. Select a clip and you’ll see the clip details.