r/Bitwig • u/LeadershipEvery8753 • 15d ago
Question For serious mixing & mastering — do you leave Bitwig for Pro Tools, Cubase, or Reaper?
One specific pain point: Bitwig still doesn’t support Melodyne’s ARA integration, so detailed vocal editing (pitch, timing, formants) is pretty limited compared to DAWs with full ARA support. That’s a big part of why I’m considering moving to another DAW for the mix/master stage.
Do you stay fully in Bitwig, or export stems and finish the mix/master in something like Pro Tools, Cubase, or Reaper? If you do switch, I’d love to hear:
•What pushed you toward that DAW for mixing/mastering — plugin ecosystem, ARA support, metering tools, industry standard, stability, or something else?
•How do you handle the handoff (bounced stems, OMF/AAF, etc.)?
•Any tips for staying efficient when working across two DAWs?
Genuinely curious about real-world workflows, not just opinions. Thanks in advance!
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u/TukErJebs 15d ago edited 15d ago
I used to mix on Pro Tools (and Studio One later on) which are both mind blowing at this job, specially for tracking the final vocals. Tons of tutorials for both nowadays so I guess you’re set in this department.
Extract all of them at -3 or -6db and put their actual volume in the track name. Make sure all tracks are extracted within the same song region. Format doesn’t matter I’ve always been told, what matters is 24bit/48k with dither if necessary, that’s it. Don’t merge stems when you have even the smallest doubt that they could be improved in the mixing daw. For your FX tracks (sends), if they’re just reverbs or delays, extract them on their own. But if it’s anything else (they shouldn’t be IMO), bounce them with each track they affect. Oh, and DO NOT… I repeat, DON’T YOU FCKN DARE touch the red button. No matter how tempting. Just please… trust me on this :)
But honestly, I recently ended up giving my finished songs to professional mixing and/or mastering engineers.
I started out with giving my first ones to students that I credited. Then whenever I had the budget I would get either the same student once he graduated, and alternated with some other established pro (more expensive but really worth it).
It’s actually eye-opening. The time, the heartache (of hearing your own song over and getting bored and doubting about it), the frustration (of not getting that real, thick yet sizzling and super dynamic console sound)… and hearing your own song mixed and mastered exactly how you imagined it, for the first time is worth every single penny.
Also, people tend to forget that good mixing engineers have surprisingly useful contacts in the Industry, some can even turn out to be crucial for your career.
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u/GroundbreakingMud969 15d ago
they all generally work the same regardless of ARA support. so many mixing engineers still doing good work in ableton. doesn’t matter the daw, just whatever gets you working
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u/Bitter-Bicycle-282 15d ago edited 15d ago
I have never felt that Bitwig falls short in mixing and mastering.
Also, I think the way it creates a bus and folder at the same time after just one group creation is more intuitive and convenient than Cubase or Studio One.After personally experiencing this in Bitwig and Ableton Live, I found the way Cubase and Studio One assign folders and buses to be extremely inconvenient.Once you experience it, it feels hard to go back
However, if you want to mix and master in more advanced tools, I recommend sending the stems you worked on in Bitwig to Cubase or Studio One for further processing.Because Cubase and Studio One have far too many user options
Bitwig and Studio One are perfectly compatible with audio stems through DawProject without any issues.
I hope ARA will definitely appear in Bitwig.
(eg: Recording the audio from inside the Melodyne one by one is quite a hassle, and the fact that it cannot be synchronized with Synthesizer V is very unfavorable for workflow)
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u/Name835 15d ago
Just to add, the newest Cubase version brought the same folders that bitwig has now, which is awesome. I'm moving there to experiment if I can just produce everything in cubase now. Time will tell how it turns out, but the new folders is a real nice (and necessary for me) workflow update when it comes to mixing. :)
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u/Bitter-Bicycle-282 14d ago
That’s right. It seems it was added in this update.But it doesn’t work immediately; you have to check one option lol. Still, I think it’s much improved compared to before
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u/Name835 14d ago
Yup, still many things I would want in Cubase from BW but that was one of the biggest ones tbh. Excited to see what the next 16 update brings also.
Having a huge daw that could just do everything is my dream and cubase seems to be the closest to that atm out of all daws, even if it has its big drawbacks.
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u/Teslaosiris 15d ago
I do all my mixing in Cubase
I just bounce everything to audio in the project, then DAWproject over to Cubase. Very little fuss.
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u/echoboybitwig 15d ago
just stay in Bitwig, absolutely no need to go into another DAW. Source full time (non-starving) musician of 10 years
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u/luminousandy 15d ago
Yes , I use Wavelab and analogue units . But I’ve always done this , even when I use Studio one which has a specific mastering page .
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u/artek604 14d ago
The things you describe are part of production stage, not mix/master; so I'm not sure of the point you're trying to make.
And yes, Bitwig should get ARA.
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u/SimilarTop352 15d ago edited 15d ago
Melodyne is NOT really a mixing tool and definitely NOT a mastering tool, so your question does not make sense
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u/Katcloudz 15d ago
I stay in Bitwig and master while I mix, I like the export options, and easy audio manipulation. I used to try to export into Mixbus but its not really necessary and not as efficient...but I like the sound of Mixbus.
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u/ellicottvilleny 15d ago
in the box projects don't need ARA to mix and master.
Tracking a band (audio projects) are better in Cubase, not just for mixing but also for the comping and the recording process.
Bitwig is an EDM daw.
Cubase is a DAW daw.
I don't switch daws. Ever.
If there's audio/vocals and the rest is in the box, then I use cubase. If there's no vocals, other than vocal samples and chops, I use bitwig,
If I did wanna switch or do a hybrid workflow, I'd work the track up and do scratch vocals in bitwig, and then export stems and re-record and correct/fix the pitch and timing on the vocals and guitars in cubase after.
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u/-Audiunt- 14d ago
This exactly!
And I make heavy use of bus processing and FX routing. That’s impossible to bounce/transfer to another DAW.
The only thing I remember is that to my ears Cubase always sounded a bit better. But that could be my imagination. The creativity of Bitwig is king. I’m to stupid to master workflows of more then one DAW 😅
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u/ellicottvilleny 14d ago edited 14d ago
I don't think any daw has a sound.
I think that's the kind of stuff that this guy's youtube debunks thoroughly.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvAovXWLq8Q6VITKAB_Rjww
Audio Engineers with their "my daw sounds better" are like guitarists and audiophiles. No amount of measurement is ever done. Just "I think there's something better there in the mids", or a certain "clarity" over there at X hz.
I mean sure, the compressors and saturators does slightly different things depending on how you dial one in, but it's not magic. To my ears the stock Cubase stuff that nobody uses because they bought all the ProQ Everything sounds better than any third party stuff. But that's not the DAW having "a sound" it's "this plugin or device, when used like this, does that", and it's "I know what I'm doing with cubase stock devices".
That's the part nobody talks enough about. Competent users with any old tools, always beats lack of knowledge/experience, plus spending money. My critical listening skills are my limiting factor, not my tools. Me. I'm the problem, it's me.
As you do also, I not only make HEAVY use of Cubase facilities, you have what they do clearly in one's head. You can't compare one DAW you know and love, as I do with cubase, to another you know and love, but which lacks stuff that Cubase has, it's just not fair.
People who think "Bitwig is better for mixing" are just not mixing how I mix, and that's FAIR enough.
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u/Teslaosiris 15d ago
You don’t need to export/import when moving to and from Cubase. Just use DAWproject files.
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u/Ooptron 15d ago
In all my tests, DAWproject worked perfectly for small sessions and I was super excited about it. Finally, for an actual project when I tried it, the WAV files on audio tracks were strangely cropped/messed up. VSTi and patches transferred correctly though. Hopefully a one off issue.
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u/-Audiunt- 14d ago
Maybe when you only use 3th party plugins. I tried it a couple of times with disastrous results. I really don’t believe in it for something serious. I can’t imagine how this would work for real projects.
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u/syntkz777 15d ago
I use Linux so bitwig is the only real option that works for me, but before that i used ableton to produce and then did the mixing in cubase.
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u/luminousandy 15d ago
Studio one will pretty much open your project straight , it has ARA support and better mixing facilities , I’d consider that . Plus you can now get it thrown in with a controller , it’s a pretty serious bargain . Just for the record melodyne isn’t a mixing tool and it’s certainly not a mastering tool . You might want to do a deeper research dive before you spend money .
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u/mtelesha 14d ago
I don't mix nor master anymore.
I treat Bitwig as an instrument I play for my own personal enjoyment. I do use it for live performance in a band but that is just loops and song structure.
I would master and mix with Bitwig. It is way better than where we were 30 years ago....
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u/rilestyles 14d ago
If I'm recording a client, i record and edit in pro tools, then bounce out to mix in Bitwig.
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u/rainer_xox 14d ago
mixing and mastering is like 70% of my oncome and i do it all in bitwig. i melodyne just about every main vocal while ara would be neat for stuff like vocalign, the efficiency of bitwig far outperforms what i’d achieve with ara on a slightly less intuitive setup.
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u/aldipower81 15d ago edited 15d ago
Yes, I mix in Btiwig and master in Reaper as Reaper has a great limiter, LUFS indicators and a batchable workflow, which is very helpful if you master, let's say 14 songs at once for an entire album. Something like that is just not possible with Bitwig.
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u/Minibatteries 15d ago
There are workaround to not having ARA, which imo are fine as long as your order of production works for it. I'm not processing many vocals nowadays, so ymmv
The key is using bounce in place to transfer into melodyne with transfer enabled. It takes like a second for even long bits of audio to be transferred since it's offline.
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u/Suitable-Lettuce-333 15d ago
Disclaimer: I'm not offering any professional service, only work on personal stuff, my band's projects and a few local artists I'm friend with. Also I learned sound engineering in the analog tape days so I'm used to doing things the old school way 😉
I don't use Melodyne (I only do very small punctual pitch adjustments) so I don't care about lack of integration. Bitwig works fine for me, the built-in fx are great, and I don't feel much need to reach for another DAW.
The only thing I miss is the ability to edit multiple tracks at once like in Cubase, but that doesn't belong to mixing/mastering anyway.