3 Ways To Make The Bitwig 5 Browser Less Awful

In today's video, we look at three changes we can make to the default Bitwig 5 browser that don't just return the functionality to that of the previous version, but actually add some pretty fantastic personalisation prospects to your individual workflow. When the beta version first came out, I felt rather disappointed with the changes they'd made but after checking out the manual, I was pleasantly surprised by what I could do to make my workflow quicker and my file collection more organised.

0:00 Intro
0:40 Panel Browser VS Pop-up Browser
1:09 Browser Context Overview
1:32 Browser Context: Inserting New Track
2:41 Browser Context: Adding to empty Instrument Track
3:36 Browser Context: Adding to empty Audio Track
4:39 Browser Context: Inserting Note FX
5:32 Browser Context: Inserting Note FX or Instrument
6:07 Browser Context: Inserting Audio FX
7:06 Browser Context: Inserting Audio FX or Note Detector
7:43 Browser Context: Inserting new Note FX Layer
8:11 Browser Context: Inserting new Instrument Layer
8:42 Browser Context: Inserting new Audio FX Layer
9:06 Browser Context: Inserting empty Drum Machine cell
9:54 Browser Context: Inserting Content Into Sampler
10:56 Browser Context: Inserting Clip on Instrument Track
11:13 Browser Context: Inserting Clip in Audio Track
12:03 Browser Context: Inserting a Periodic Curve
12:46 Browser Context: Inserting an Envelope Curve
13:15 Browser Context: Inserting a Sequence Curve
13:36 Browser Context: Inserting a Lookup Curve
14:00 Creating Collections & Common Issues
17:12 Creating a custom Side bar in Pop-up Browser
19:19 Creating a custom Top bar in Panel Browser
20:17 Outro

[Moreslaw]

Over the last year I've only watched your videos (and admittedly Polarity videos also) and have grown exponentially as an artist and as a person. I think your videos helped me break out of depression by discovering music. Thank you so much, you gave me a reason to get out of bed in the morning. <3

[ragnarroeck]

There was this questgiver with a green diamond over his head so I approached him. "Can I tell you about how to customise the new Bitwig-Browser?" he asked when I approached him. I was intrigued, so he told me all about it Thank you, good man, thank you!

[OfficialMIMmusic]

Opened B5.0 for the first time today and immediately jumped on this video.

[ScottGarman]

Thank you - I've been confused by the new browser and something about the written documentation just didn't gel for me. Now I see what's going on, and agree that the customization of default context views is really nice to have.

[Sheenrocks]

RE: Your creating collections tip, there’s a better way so it will auto includes items in a folder:

1. Go to the right search browser
2. Click Location to filter based on folder
3. Select your folder
4. Right click on the file browser to get a drop-down
5. Select “save smart collection” and there you go

[storkontheroof]

This is a huge welcome to me, since I was really getting frustrated with the whole new browser...
Thanks a million!

[thepedalpress]

When I firsted start I was more dumb butt I hunged in their til the end... and Lo! I've emerged a brighter, more erudite Bitwig user. Many and much thanks. (But seriously, this tutorial, especially near the end, what with the Collections, etc., is exactly what I needed.)

[semyonboyk]

I used to love Bitwig for how intuitive and well-designed it was out of the box. With the new browser, while I can appreciate the idea behind it, the execution destroyed the intuitiveness. Of course, you can read the manual, learn about "contexts" and create 19 presets of what you want to see when. And eventually it might be a better experience than the old browser when you put your time into it, but I can see how it can be a big turn off for new users trying Bitwig for the first time.

[nickwatson]

Amazing video and really nice to have you back. And in full denim too!

I see you’ve got your own samples very well organised! I’d love to hear what your process is for organising your sample folders…

Its something I’ve struggled with for a long time and am trying to find a solid system to follow before I have another go at really getting my wavs in a usable order!

[theRumbleChannel]

Thanks for this video Tâches :)!
I have to say though that most of the features you show here where already available in Bitwig 4.4. Search preferences were just called "remember selected filters when adding new ...". Collections and smart collections existed as well (and they displayed their name instead of a generic icon). I suppose the sidebar browser really has been improved.

[beatweezl]

I'm new to Bitwig and really loving how intuitive it is but this browser thing is an absolute nightmare. So ridiculously and unnecessarily complicated. As organized as it tries to be, it still seriously unorganized. I hate it.

[danikoenig]

Very helpful, thank you. I've had a few near breakdowns because I couldn't find things.

[Renato.P]

Thanks for this, really makes sense to set these up. The sample collection issue (not including more than 1000 samples at once) is now fixed with 5.0.2, I could add 2600 samples at once without issue.

[johnghadimi]

The last part is exactly what I was looking for!! Life saver! Thank you :)

[suntanbear]

Awesomely helpful, I have been getting my head around the new browser, it now feels actually useful

[EzraExan]

Hi, how do you rescan plugins on Bitwig? also why does Bitwig take forever to load up samples and plugins in comparison to Ableton?

[f_stop]

Thank you! I've been dreading opening 5 because of the new browser.

[sternenherz]

Haha, i love the video-title!! Straight to the point, and a constructive/helpful approach :)

[pbrninja]

Thank you. Very useful stuff. Hope you're well and safe.

[passive.resistor]

Re: adding lots of files to a collection.

Bitwig doesn't have a loader animation so it can be confusing but if you just don't touch your mouse (ie. just walk away for a couple of minutes), the loading will complete and include all your material. Was having this problem last night and after a couple of different folders loaded partially, I was able to load 30k samples on the first go.