Bitcrusher
A digital effect that reduces the resolution or sample rate of the signal, producing gritty, quantised distortion and aliasing.
A bitcrusher works by lowering bit depth, which quantises the amplitude into coarse steps, or by lowering the sample rate, which adds aliasing artefacts as high frequencies fold back down into the audible range. Unlike analogue distortion, which clips a waveform smoothly, the effect sounds digital and brittle, and it is used for lo-fi textures, glitch passages and retro video-game flavours. Most versions let the player blend the crushed signal with the dry one, which keeps the effect usable in a musical context.
Example: A clean guitar part that suddenly sounds like an old eight-bit video game console is passing through a bitcrusher.
See also
Related
- PageModulation effect
- PageDigital delay
- PageNoise floor
- Page18-volt operation
- PageAnalogue delay
- PageAuto-wah
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley