What does "Drive" do in the BitCrusher drive model ?

VegaBaby

VegaBaby

Fractal Fanatic
is "Drive" just a volume control or does it actually add any kind of overdrive when the BitCrusher model is selected ?
 
javajunkie said:
It adds overdrive. You can also bit crush any drive block.
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so my ears weren't misleading me. not a big one, but would have made more sense to me to just have an entirely clean signal path with just bitreduction "messing up the tone" especially since it's available in all the drive models ... ;)
 
I would use the delay at 100% with delay at minimum or a fet boost with drive set low and bit reduction up
 
javajunkie said:
I would use the delay at 100% with delay at minimum or a fet boost with drive set low and bit reduction up
Click to expand...
yeah...I was thinking of those two alternatives. have to try it later, but the FET colors the sound as well. I didn't want to use the BitCrusher as a drive effect per se, but just to reduce bitrate before going into choruses, pitch etc. for nostalgic reasons, haha ! maybe Cliff decides at some point to have the bitcrusher model linear and its drive control just act like a volume...
 
is the Axe2 bit crusher similar to the one in Logic Pro where you can overdrive the tone and alter the bit length and sample rate?
 
clarky said:
is the Axe2 bit crusher similar to the one in Logic Pro where you can overdrive the tone and alter the bit length and sample rate?
Click to expand...
Thrive block has a bit reduction model. This is an overdrive of some sort with bit reduction set to 20.You can set the bit reduction on any of the drives though.There is also bit reduction in the delay block. No sample rate reduction.
 
cool.... I have a rough idea what it should sound like then....
a very fizzy inorganic sort of clipping...

you can do some cool stuff with this sort of thing if you parallel route your signal... especially with clean tones...
I guess in terms of the grid, you could have your amp/cab routed dry through to the output..
after the cab, split to send the signal to another row and then throw it through a delay, set the delay to 100% wet and then gently bit crush after the delay [so only the delayed signal is bit crushed]..
it's a kinda interesting way to make an unusual ambient effect by making it sound less pristine... a sort of dirty-ish / slightly messed up / lo-fi echo..
 
clarky said:
cool.... I have a rough idea what it should sound like then....
a very fizzy inorganic sort of clipping...

you can do some cool stuff with this sort of thing if you parallel route your signal... especially with clean tones...
I guess in terms of the grid, you could have your amp/cab routed dry through to the output..
after the cab, split to send the signal to another row and then throw it through a delay, set the delay to 100% wet and then gently bit crush after the delay [so only the delayed signal is bit crushed]..
it's a kinda interesting way to make an unusual ambient effect by making it sound less pristine... a sort of dirty-ish / slightly messed up / lo-fi echo..
Click to expand...
you don't even need to use a separate drive block for that since most of the Delay models in the II have a bitreduction parameter.

I needed to use a separate driveblock though because I wanted to bitcrush blocks that don't have bitreduction. didn't want to add overdrive or any other coloration though...
 
ahaaaa....

just looked at the available parms in AxeEdit and I see it has drive in there too.... so you can bit reduce and dirty in series with the main audio path.... very funky...

another cool application of bit crusher is to use it on acoustics or very very clean tones....
you use a tiny amount of drive and place it in parallel with the main signal...
the objective here is a sort of 'seen but not heard' thing.. so you don't really want to be hearing the effect as a such [certainly not in an obvious way]..
it'll make the overall tone ever so slightly 'grainy' and help it to punch through a dense mix in a slightly more energetic way....

in the studio I use this effect on vocals occasionally in a similar way to make them sound a little less 'pretty'
I guess you could say that this is - in a crude way - functioning in a similar way to tape saturation...
very slightly compressing and dirtying the tone but not in an obvious way... making it a little more punchy...
 
Q - the 'bit reduce' parm
can someone clarify what the settings mean

I'd assume that 24 = 24 bit and 8 = 8 bit

does 0 = no bit reduction [like a default 'off' setting]?
if so, is this not the same as setting it to 24, or does the value 24 have some other kind of impact on the effect's behaviour than if it was set to 0?
 
clarky said:
ahaaaa....

just looked at the available parms in AxeEdit and I see it has drive in there too.... so you can bit reduce and dirty in series with the main audio path.... very funky...

another cool application of bit crusher is to use it on acoustics or very very clean tones....
you use a tiny amount of drive and place it in parallel with the main signal...
the objective here is a sort of 'seen but not heard' thing.. so you don't really want to be hearing the effect as a such [certainly not in an obvious way]..
it'll make the overall tone ever so slightly 'grainy' and help it to punch through a dense mix in a slightly more energetic way....

in the studio I use this effect on vocals occasionally in a similar way to make them sound a little less 'pretty'
I guess you could say that this is - in a crude way - functioning in a similar way to tape saturation...
very slightly compressing and dirtying the tone but not in an obvious way... making it a little more punchy...
Click to expand...
and again, you wouldn't need a serial path for mixing, since the drive block has a mix parameter. so any kind of drive can almost not noticeable be mixed to the original signal, no matter where you place the drive block.
 
clarky said:
Q - the 'bit reduce' parm
can someone clarify what the settings mean

I'd assume that 24 = 24 bit and 8 = 8 bit

does 0 = no bit reduction [like a default 'off' setting]?
if so, is this not the same as setting it to 24, or does the value 24 have some other kind of impact on the effect's behaviour than if it was set to 0?
Click to expand...
0 is 24. the higher you go, the less bits you use.

and yes, in the delay block, 0 is pristine delay, no coloration.

in the drive block however, and that's where my problem comes in again, even at 0 it's not like it's bypassed, since the bitcrusher model in the drive block still adds overdrive coloration. so your question is exactly what I'm "asking" for. 0 should be like bypassed, you know ?
 
Bit crusher just sounds broken to me

I tried out the bit crusher for the first time last night. It did nothing at all except for a very short spit of distortion. Like a broken fuzz tone shorting out. None of the controls seemed to change anything at all. I thought it was defective. I can't imagine how anyone would want to use that sound. If that is not how it is suppose to sound, I'd love to hear audio clips of how it is suppose to sound.
 
I use this setting as a Velcro-ey sort of gated fuzz sound, very similar to a fuzz factory with the gate turned up, it's killer if you set it right, key is the mix setting
 
jdolll said:
I use this setting as a Velcro-ey sort of gated fuzz sound, very similar to a fuzz factory with the gate turned up, it's killer if you set it right, key is the mix setting
Click to expand...
That's how I use. It works well but takes some time to get the hang of.

I'm actually thinking bit-reducing a 100% parallel delay signal would be righteously awesome....
 
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