Bitwig vs Cubase: Which DAW is Best for Metal Producers?

The "DAW wars" are a pointless debate. We all know it. But when you’re staring down the barrel of a long-term commitment, the choice between two powerhouses like Bitwig Studio and Steinberg Cubase is a big deal. Does it really matter which one you pick for producing crushing metal?

The short answer is yes and no. Any modern DAW has the horsepower to produce a killer record. They all have track counts high enough for monstrous drum sessions and endless guitar layers. But their workflows, core philosophies, and creative strengths are wildly different. Once you’re locked into a workflow, you’re probably not switching.

So, let’s cut through the noise. This isn’t about which DAW is “better.” It’s about which one is better for you and the kind of metal you want to make.

Steinberg Cubase: The All-Around Metal Workhorse

If DAWs were metal bands, Cubase would be Judas Priest. It’s a legendary institution that’s been around forever (since the Atari ST days!), it’s still insanely powerful, and it pretty much defined the genre—in this case, by inventing the VST plugin format. It’s an absolute beast for traditional recording, editing, and mixing workflows.

Cubase Pros for Metal Production

• Rock-Solid Audio and MIDI: Cubase is built from the ground up to handle massive, track-heavy sessions. Recording a full band with 20 drum mics, quad-tracked guitars, bass, and vocals? No sweat. Its audio engine is robust, and its MIDI editing is second to none. For programming intricate drum parts with something like Toontrack’s Superior Drummer 3 or layering synths, Cubase’s key editor and drum maps are incredibly deep and intuitive.
• Top-Tier Editing Tools: Metal production is all about precision. Comping together the perfect vocal take from 15 passes, tightening up a sloppy drum fill, or nudging a guitar chug to be perfectly in the pocket is 90% of the battle. Cubase’s comping and audio editing tools are fast and efficient. Plus, it has VariAudio built-in, which is Steinberg’s answer to Melodyne, giving you powerful, native pitch and timing correction for vocals without ever leaving the DAW.
• Industry Influence: While Pro Tools dominates many US studios, Cubase is a massive player worldwide, especially in Europe. This means there’s a gigantic community, endless tutorials, and a high chance that collaborators will be on the same platform. Many of the world’s top metal producers—including plenty of Nail The Mix instructors—build their entire careers in Cubase.

Cubase Cons for Metal Production

• Can Feel a Bit Dated: With great power comes great complexity. Cubase has decades of features layered on top of each other. For a brand new user, the interface can feel a little dense and less immediate than more modern DAWs. Finding the one specific function you need can sometimes mean a trip to the 1,000-page manual.
• Less Focused on "Happy Accidents": Cubase is a precision tool. It does exactly what you tell it to do, which is what you want 99% of the time when mixing. However, it’s not designed for the kind of on-the-fly, experimental sound-mangling that DAWs like Bitwig or Ableton Live excel at.

Bitwig Studio: The Modern Sound Design Powerhouse

If Cubase is Judas Priest, Bitwig is Periphery. It’s newer, forward-thinking, and blurs the lines between genres. Built by ex-Ableton developers, Bitwig’s DNA is all about creative experimentation, modulation, and treating your DAW like a modular instrument. For metal producers looking to weave in heavy electronic, industrial, or cinematic elements, Bitwig is a playground.

Bitwig Pros for Metal Production

• The Grid: This is Bitwig’s secret weapon. The Grid is a fully modular sound design environment that lives right inside your DAW. Want to build a custom synth from scratch? Create a chaotic granular delay that mangles a vocal scream into an evolving texture? Design a multi-band distortion unit that reacts dynamically to your kick drum? You can build it in The Grid. For industrial metal or bands that lean heavily on electronics (think Mick Gordon’s DOOM soundtrack), this is an unparalleled creative tool.
• Blazing Fast Workflow: Bitwig’s UI is clean, modern, and built for speed. Its modulation system is a revelation—you can slap an LFO or an envelope follower on literally any parameter (including third-party plugin parameters) with a single click and drag. This makes creating complex, evolving effects chains that would be an automation nightmare in other DAWs incredibly simple.
• Stability with Plugin Sandboxing: We’ve all been there. You load up one sketchy freeware impulse response loader and your entire session crashes, losing the last 20 minutes of work. Bitwig’s sandboxing feature prevents this. If a plugin crashes, it only crashes that plugin, not the entire DAW. This is a massive win for stability.

Bitwig Cons for Metal Production

• Less Traditional Editing Focus: Can you record a full band and comp takes in Bitwig? Absolutely. But it’s not the DAW’s primary design focus. Workflows for hyper-detailed drum editing or comping a dozen guitar tracks might feel a little less refined than they do in Cubase or Reaper. It’s built more for a "one-person-producer" workflow than a traditional “engineer tracking a band” workflow.
• You're on an Island: This is the big one. Bitwig is a fantastic piece of software, but its user base is a fraction of Cubase's or even Reaper's. That means collaboration will almost always require bouncing stems, which kills flexibility. Finding metal-specific tutorials or community support will be much harder. If you choose Bitwig, you’re choosing to be the lone wolf.

The Verdict: Which One Should You Choose?

Forget which is "best." Ask yourself what kind of producer you are.

Choose Cubase if: Your priority is the classic metal production workflow. You’re recording bands, doing heavy-duty audio editing, comping the perfect performances, and programming realistic MIDI drums. You want a deep, powerful, and stable environment that is a proven industry standard for producing massive, punchy metal records.

Choose Bitwig if: You’re a creative sound designer at heart. You want to fuse your metal with insane electronic textures, build your own effects, and mangle audio in ways you haven't thought of yet. You prioritize a fast, modern, and inspiring workflow for solo creation over industry compatibility and traditional editing features.

Beyond the DAW: What Really Matters for a Killer Mix

At the end of the day, Pro Tools, Cubase, Reaper, and Logic are all perfectly capable of making professional metal. Heck, you could probably make a killer record in a shoebox if you had the skills.

And that’s the key—it’s the skills, not the tools. Knowing how to use your DAW is important, but knowing why you’re reaching for a tool is what separates an amateur mix from a pro one. Understanding the fundamentals of how to approach EQing metal guitars for maximum impact or how to apply compression to your drum bus to make it slam are universal skills that translate to any platform.

The single best way to learn that stuff is to watch the pros do it.

That’s exactly what Nail The Mix is for. You get the actual raw multitracks from massive bands like Gojira, Meshuggah, Loathe, and Lamb of God, and then watch the producer who mixed the record build the entire session from scratch, explaining every single plugin, every EQ move, and every decision they make along the way. It’s like being a fly on the wall in a world-class studio.

Check out the full catalog of Nail The Mix sessions and see for yourself. Now stop worrying about your toolbox and go make some heavy music.