If you buy Maschine Mk3 or MPC-One (like I did) then you also have to pay for the software (3 licenses each/free updates). Companies cannot exist otherwise. But I know that there are many people that only use cracked software.
I don't blame you at all for sticking with what works. I'm pretty much the exact same way. I use Cubase because I know it. I first started using it way back when it came with the Atari 1040 ST. It was just a MIDI sequencer then. I've looked at other DAWs but I'm too old to try learning a whole new system. I got a free version of Studio One with my new mixer and I"ve poked around with it but holy crap! It's confusing. The only thing I wanted to use it for was because my mixer had motorized faders and I wanted to incorporate them into my workflow. Fancy toys. Ya know? I like having a mixer as my interface because I don't want to keep reconnecting my various synths. Plus I have a cable for my guitars/bass and I use the amp sims in the DAW. I also have 2 dedicated mic channels. If I could have afforded it, I would have bought the next size up with more inputs but as it is, this one cost me a lot.And I'll tell you, I've probably invested over $20K in gear that I've kept for the past twenty years and they all behave beautifully with my decades old hardware and software sequencers.
Not to mention the learning curve of getting into sound creation and production over that time.
Regardless, I'm confident that my work will survive longer than most of the companies who built the gear or sold me the software.
That's the problem with renting a piece of software.
You never know if they will stick around til the end of the party.
Even Cakewalk has changed hands a half dozen times in the past 4 decades.
To be honest, I truly do prefer the relative simplicity of recording with the 90's version of Cakewalk.
If anyone ever tells you they use and understand every feature of a modern DAW call them a liar to their face.
I've bitched about software bloat ever since the days of Win 3.1 but modern DAWs are like some horrible joke gone too far these days.
Apparently nobody thinks MIDI sequencing involves more than hooking up one controller and running 32 simultaneous soft synths on a computer these days.
Some of us prefer to create music on multiple instruments and simply do some MIDI & Sound recording.
And that's another bitch I have about Bitwig. Apparently it can export a MID file just fine, but seems there's no way in hell that you can IMPORT one.
Everyone wants to lock you into their ecosystem.
I'm too old to jump from Cakewalk versions to Abelton or Cubase or Some other idiot's format if there's no interchangeability between the softwares.
I'm sticking with what I've got.!!!
Gary
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I never use midifiles but I think it should be just a matter of dropping your midi file in the arranger. Bitwig should automatically create as many tracks as needed, with one long clip in each track containing all the notes/velocity/cc.
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