Bitcrusher

ATMOSYNTH built-in module

A converter with not enough of either thing a converter needs. Bits is how many levels are left to describe the sound with: at sixteen the steps are far too small to hear, at eight the quiet parts start to grow a fizz that follows the note, and at three or four what is left is a shape rather than a sound. Rate is how often a new sample is taken at all, and everything between one and the next is held flat — that is where most of the sound comes from, because every partial above half the rate folds back down under it and arrives at a pitch that has nothing to do with the note. Bringing the rate down is the metallic ringing tail; bringing the bits down is the grit underneath it. At the top of its range the rate holds every sample and does nothing at all, so the bits can be heard on their own. Rate is an input as well as a knob, and Rate amount is how far, in hertz. Dry/wet keeps the sound that went in beside the crushed one rather than replacing it. This module carries code: nothing in the node vocabulary holds a value from one sample to the next, and a curve that could round one is fixed when it is built, so neither knob here could turn.