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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