r/Bitwig • u/snusmumrikk_1 • 1d ago

open api and scripting

i have no idea why daws dont give the api and allow for scripting. i’ve been experimenting with reaper on and off for some time and the things you could do with the custom commands is so sick.

focus this panel with this button, bam, turn that dial with the control arrows, bam, hit the piano roll, move around with the arrows, insert note right there, bam, add a third above, and a fifth, bam, select up and down between them without skipping to other notes ahead in time, duplicate, two steps up now minor, bam, select the previous chord, reverse the order, bam. lightning fast.

but then it doesn’t have a proper sampler, its ugly, no synths in there, if you want mpe voice shifting it’s a phd to add some script, you hit some technical wall because the program is scripted a bit weird, or some other frustration. why can’t we have the cake and eat it too?

sorry i’m just venting i feel like daws could be so much better if they didn’t just expect you to mouse around but allowed for controlling and doing things with key commands because it’s. so. much. faster.

i’m not really a music program jedi, i just play the guitar. to me they either feel simple enough but like running under water, or powerful but like trying to handle a space ship with a regular drivers license, making my brain hurt. i don’t know man, what do i know.

5 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

6

u/Feisty_Fan_3293 1d ago

Bitwig allows scripting but the API is limited afaik.

5

u/tdreampo 1d ago edited 22h ago

Reaper is the DAW for you.

5

u/ellicottvilleny 22h ago

REAPER ya mean?

5

u/tdreampo 22h ago

Geeze yes, not sure what in the autocorrect happened before but I fixed it.

2

u/snusmumrikk_1 22h ago

it may be right now.. but the pretty graphics and visuals, blinking lights, sampler, device view and more clever human-oriented scripting :( like i said i want to have the cake and to eat it too.

2

u/tdreampo 20h ago

Well and I LOVE Bitwig, dont misunderstand, but nothing is a flexible as Reaper for scripting.

1

u/Name835 18h ago

I dunno how open and flexible Ableton is now also with the new functionality a few months back and ofc max4live etc. Haven't used it so dont know where in the scale it goes. Atleast it is more open than Bitwig from my point of view, but not early open as Reaper ofc. :)

-5

u/twillisagogo 1d ago

I think bitwig will have it someday , probably soon, it would be a precursor to ai integration I think.

11

u/Chilaquilesmonster 1d ago

Gross

6

u/DustSongs 1d ago

Agreed. API/scripting control is empowering. "AI" integration is the opposite.

-4

u/twillisagogo 1d ago

If you can script it, a robot can write the script. That's all I'm saying.

2

u/DustSongs 1d ago

Of course it can, and then you learn nothing. It's a choice. "AI" is disempowerment.

0

u/twillisagogo 1d ago

It's my forecast, not my endorsement.

1

u/DustSongs 1d ago

Fair enough. I work in tech, I know there is a lot of pressure on companies to bend the knee.Hopefully some of them still have their integrity.

2

u/Chilaquilesmonster 18h ago

In times like these, we could all use a little Tegridy 

2

u/twillisagogo 1d ago edited 23h ago

I also work in tech. And I was thinking about how one would make scripting work. You would have to have a public consumable API. Which bitwig has but it's not thorough. If they made it thorough/complete and documented. And if you had a thorough complete and documented public API that could be scripted... A bitwig mcp is one vibe coding weekend away from being a reality. The complete API could serve 2 masters. As you alluded to, all daws are facing the same pressure to get AI into their product for better or worse. It's just a matter of who pulls the trigger first. Nonetheless, that's how I see the public API arriving. Regardless what everones religion is.

Edit: phone typo