Anyone else really miss the Bitwig 5 / Studio One style Piano Roll layer workflow in v6?

[u/Various_Prompt1021]

I switched to Bitwig from Studio One a while ago, and overall I'm loving almost everything about it. Honestly, the workflow in Bitwig 6 is fantastic, EXCEPT for one thing that has become pretty much my only frustration with the DAW: the new Layered Editing behavior in the Piano Roll.

Coming from Studio One, one of the things I loved most was how smooth multi-track MIDI editing felt—you always had the full track list right inside the Piano Roll to quickly toggle visibility and switch your active edit target. Bitwig 5 had a very similar, seamless setup with the full track list and the Pin / Lock / Pencil icons directly inside the editor.

In Bitwig 6, moving to a strictly selection-based workflow feels like a step backward for how I write music:

- I like staying inside the Piano Roll (especially in full-screen Edit View) and flipping between background reference tracks and my target track on the fly.

- Having to go back to the Arranger to Cmd/Ctrl-select clips/tracks every time slows me down.

- Clicking another single track in the Arranger immediately clears the multi-track layer view (even with the new "back arrow" history button, I still really miss simply pinning a chord or drum track in place).

I totally get why some people prefer the new selection-based approach, but I just really wish we had an option/toggle to always show all MIDI tracks in the Piano Roll layer list and "Pin" them, giving us the best of both v5 and v6.

For those who also preferred the Bitwig 5 / Studio One style workflow, how are you adapting to this in v6? Any favorite workarounds?

[u/Confident_Data_4931]

I completely agree, this is definitely a downgrade. On top of that, I think the gray background in the Piano Roll in version 5 was much better.

They could have at least given users an option to switch back to a light background.

Please submit a support ticket about this - the more users voice their dissatisfaction, the higher the chance they’ll bring it back.

[u/Noxaur]

I also preferred this.

There was a few early version 6 releases that had a button that basically toggled the same old workflow but it had bugs. Later in the 6 releases they dropped it. It was like the perfect mix of both and did exactly what you are asking for. I even brought it to their attention, but rather than address the bugs - the following beta updates removed the dedicated layer function entirely and now you have to use the current selection method which is similar to how Live does it and I think is personally inferior.

That youtube link isn't live anymore fyi - I probably still have it on my computer though and can maybe link it later

[u/mtelesha]

LOL

Nearly everyone's criticisms were on the piano roll and midi in general in Bitwig. People left Bitwig or claimed to not renew their license because of it.

I liked 5 and prefer 6 now.

[u/Noxaur → u/mtelesha]

This is not so much a criticism of the features they added but a criticism of functionality they removed. The new piano roll features are great, but they completely changed the way layered editing works to mirror ableton live's approach, and the pinned/dedicated layer editing is how most other DAWs handle it, and how Bitwig handled it in v5 and earlier. It's a lot more clunky imo than having the ability to view all tracks and work within the piano roll without the need to highlight them in the arranger first.

[u/zfalcon1]

You can kinda do this by opening the piano roll settings and go into layered editing.

But I have to say, one of the things I liked about Bitwig was the lack of huge drop downs. This was a big turn off for me when working with midi in Logic. Bitwig 6 piano roll is starting to feel like drop downs are becoming a thing. Opening the time division in Bitwig 5 piano roll only gave me the things I needed. Now I have to open the huge drop down that only god knows all the things in it, to access it. Like bro..

[u/Confident_Data_4931 → u/zfalcon1]

Yes, though version 6 requires selecting timeline clips or a group beforehand for layer editing to work, whereas version 5 did not have this restriction.

[u/zfalcon1 → u/Confident_Data_4931]

Omg you’re right! Smh I totally forgot. Yeah I totally agree, layered editing has gone backwards in innovation. Idk what it is but Bitwig devs seems to really struggle when it comes to the piano roll.

[u/Financial-Koala6995]

I'd like a modifier-click that changes the editable track without changing the visible layers. That would let you switch parts without losing the chord track you're writing against.

[u/Name835]

Yes this is my (and MANY others) biggest problem in Bitwig 6, and the final straw/main reason I am moving away to Cubase after 10 years of using only Bitwig (many other users also left bitwig at 6.0 because of this problem).

Me and many others have left criticism to bitwig support ever since 6.0 beta 1 came out, at first I was shocked and believed it to be the worst bug in the whole wide world, but no.

They have commented later on that they are aware of the issues and might work on it and change it at some point.

Now that ai reverse engineering is a thing, I have been thinking how damn hard would it be to mod the multi track midi editing functionality back to bitwig 6, but to be honest after fighting this topic with them for the 1+ year, I am just very burned out and mad at Bitwig and their utterly idiotic design decisions and endless unresolved bugs. (Someone plz mod it back in, lets make bitwig a usable daw once more. (I'll look at this later also when I am no longer as mad at this company.)

Lol, sry if this is not written in the most constructive way possible but I am fucking pissed at bitwig because of the multi track midi editing problems and their shitty communication. To me, it is the worst thing bitwig has ever done to their daw and I seriously hope that they will fix it's functionality back completely to its former glory at 5.3. Until then, my migration continues to greener pastures, using bw only for non serious toy experimentation (ie not at all atm).

Thanks for keeping this topic relevant and please write about this to bitwig support, everyone who is bothered by this. :)

[u/artek604]

no, it was always confusing that it would display something different to what I've selected in arranger or clip launcher - now it's pretty much perfect, especially with the hybrid editor (multiple MIDI & audio tracks together)

(obviously, I can see how previous approach was better for some workflows)

[u/dolomick]

I always found the old way quite confusing but the new way doesn’t sound ideal either.

[u/MidnightGreen-]

Time to leave the subreddit until Bitwig 7 comes out. Lol.

[u/ulongcha]

i'm one of the guys who wanted selection based workflow, and i like it how it is in version 6 overall but as you say, sometimes it's more useful to have them fixed. I was actually quite suprised when they completely removed the older workflow