Bit Designer
Version 1.0
User Manual
BitDesignerisanadvanceddigitaldistortioneffectthat,atitscore,givesyoucontrolovertherawbitsof
thedigitalaudiostream.Thismanualwillgiveyouanunderstandingofhowthebitdesignerworks,so
thatyoumaytakefulladvantageofit.
1. The Effect Section (Fuck Yeah!)
AtthetopoftheFuckYeah!sectionisarandomizerbutton.Itrandomizesallcontrolsintheensemble
excepttheThresholdDistortion,thePreandPostFiltersandtheDry/Wetmixthisistominimisethe
probabilityofhavinganinaudiblesettinggenerated.
1.1. The Tuned Buffer
Thetunedbufferisthefirststepintheeffectsignalchain.Whenactivatedwiththe!button,itholdsand
repeatstheaudioataratespecifiedbytheSizeknob.Therepeatrateistunedtoanequallytempered
chromaticscale(thestandardwesternkeyboard)andisplayableviaMIDI.MIDInoteonandoffmessages
activateanddeactivatethebufferrepeatandMIDInotevaluesspecifythesizeofthebuffer.TheSpeed
knobcontrolstherateofplayback,withnegativevaluesreversingthebufferplayback.
1.2. Pre Filter
Beforeanyofthedistortioneffectscomesaprefilter.Itisafairlybasicvirtualanaloguedesign,withone
resonancecontrolandtwocutoffcontrolsforthehighpassandlowpassfilters.Thefilterhasbeenfinely
tunedandwillsaturateathighresonancevalues.
1.3. Sample Rate (SR)
Thefirstlevelofdigitaldistortionisthesampleratereduction.ThissectionhasoneReductioncontrol
thatreactstoyoursystemsamplerate.Itreducesthesamplefrequencyinthepitchdomain,soasetting
of12correspondstoareductionofoneoctave,andthusahalvingofthesamplerate.
1.4. Bit Control
ThisistheheartoftheBitDesignereffect,andthesectionthatdoesthemostdamage.Thewholesection
isatan8bitresolution.Allcontrolsinthissectioninteract,soitisraretopressabuttonandhavenothing
happen.Ithas5maincontrolareas:
i. BitActivate
Hereyouhaveaseriesof8buttonsthatcanactivateordeactivatethecorrespondingbitofthe
audiostream.
ii. BitInvert
These8buttonsallowyoutoinvertthestateofthebit,soavalueof1becomesavalueof0and
viceversa.
iii. BitSampleOffset
Thisseriesof8knobsallowsyoutoapplyadelaytothecorrespondingbit.Thedelaytimeissetin
samplesandisthereforelinkedtoyoursamplerate.
iv. ErrorandSwap
TheErrorbuttonsetstheoutputoftheBitControltobethedifferencebetweentheinputand
theeffectedsignal.Thismeansthatitoutputsonlythedigitalquantizationerror.Itmakesthe
mostdifferencewhentheothersettingsoftheeffectaresubtle.
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TheSwapbutton,whenactive,swapsthetwonibblesoftheaudiobyte.Thismeansthatthefist
setof4bitsinthe8bitwordisswappedwiththesecondset.
v. Bitshift
Thiscontroloffsetsthe8bitwordtotheleft(ifnegative)orright(ifpositive)withawraparound.
So,ifwethinkofthe8bitwordlikethis:01234567;atavalueof1,thewordbecomes70123456,
atavalueof2itbecomes23456701andsoon.Thisisthemostextremeofthecontrolsinthis
section.
1.5. Threshold Distortion (Thres Dist)
Inthissectionyoucancontrolahardclippingdistortion.TheThresholdknoballowsyoutosetthe
clippinglevelofthedistortion.Theuniquefeatureofthisdistortionisthatyouaregivencontrolofthe
volumeoftheclippedsignal(Clipped)andthevolumeofthesignalthatistraditionallyremoved(++).You
canalsoinvertthephaseofeithersignalbysettingthelevelstoanegativevalue.Ineffect,thisdistortion
canalsobeusedasaverybasicwaveshaper.
1.6. Post Filter
IdenticaltothePreFilterineverywayexceptitspositioninthesignalchain.Ausefulfeaturetosmooth
outtheharshdigitaleffectsofthisensemble.
1.7. Out
Atypicaldry/wetcrossfaderisprovidedattheendofthesignalchain.Pleasenote:thedrysignalis
takenpostbuffer.
2. Modulation Section
AtemposynchedLFOandanEnvelopeFollowareprovidedasmodulatedsources.Bothsourcescanhave
twodestinations,withbipolarcontrolovertheamountforeach.
2.1. Input Envelope Follower (Env Follower)
TheEnvelopeFollowerfollowstheamplitudeoftheinputsignalbeforeitreachesanyoftheeffects.Apart
fromthestandarddestinationandamount,therearetwocontrolsforAttackandDecaytime,aswellasa
meterfordisplayingthevalueofthefollower.
2.2. LFO
TheLFOprovidedisthesameasanystandardLFO.Itissynchronisedtothehosttempoandyoucontrol
theRatebyspecifyingthenumberofcyclesperbeat.ThePhasecontrolsetstheoffsetinrelationtothe
hostclocksongposition.
WiththeWavecontrolyoucanmorphbetween3differentwaveforms(0=Triangle,1=Sineand3=
square)andwiththeSymknobyoucansetthesymmetryofthewaveform.
ThanksforcheckingoutBitDesigner.Ihopeyouenjoydestroyingyouraudio.
\\SpecialthankstoOTOmachinesandDoepferfortheinitialinspirationandtoMattforexplainingthe
usefulnessofCore.
\\KnobSkinsweretakenfromtheEzFFTmodules.
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