Bitfight 83
Cascading Bit Reconfigurator
Part of Studies
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Description
Bitfight 83 is part distortion machine and part lo-fi chip emulator, inspired by 1980s video games, bit-smashing effects and the Commodore 64.
It's more than a bit crusher, though. Bitfight 83 runs two cascading distortion chains with separate modulation, and as the two chains interact they make strange, unpredictable artifacts, including alias harmonization, phase effects and other oddities. Fans of the Commodore 64, Atari, the SidStation and other vintage 8-bit technology will find it has a sound all its own, and it can make anything sound like it came straight out of a 1980s game console.
It isn't limited to typical bit-crushing sounds either. You can keep the distortion subtle, or use the sample rate foldover for brick wall effects. Add a reverb or a delay after it and your Bitfight sound goes somewhere else entirely.
Your input goes into two crushers side by side. Both use the same BITS and FOLD settings, and the cascade LFO moves the foldover of each one, with crusher B's modulation offset by SPREAD. The two are summed and run through the VIBRATE tremolo, and BLEND mixes the result with your dry sound.
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Cascade LFO
- CASCADE
- Sets how deeply the LFO moves the foldover of both crushers. At zero the foldover stays where FOLD puts it. Fully up it swings between no reduction at all and twice the FOLD setting, which makes the aliasing shift and wobble.
- RATE
- Sets the speed of the cascade LFO, from 0.01 to 4 Hz. The VIBRATE tremolo runs 11 times faster, so RATE sets its speed too.
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Crusher A
- BITS
- Sets the bit depth of both crushers, from 16 bits with the knob fully up to 2 bits fully down. Lower settings give coarser, noisier steps.
- FOLD
- Lowers the sample rate of both crushers by holding each sample, in whole steps from 1 to 8. At 1 the rate is untouched, and at 8 each sample is held for eight, which gives harsh, brick wall aliasing.
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Crusher B
- SPREAD
- Offsets crusher B's foldover modulation from crusher A's, so the two chains drift apart and play against each other. Even with CASCADE at zero it gives crusher B a lighter fold than crusher A. It also offsets the tremolo on the right channel from the left.
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Vibrate
- VIBRATE
- Sets the depth of a fast tremolo on the summed crushers. It runs 11 times faster than RATE, from about 0.1 to 44 Hz, and fully up the level swings from silence to double.
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Master
- BLEND
- Sets the mix between your dry input and the crushed sound.
- GAIN
- Sets the output level, from silent up to double. Noon is unity.
Try thisLeave BITS high and work FOLD with a little CASCADE for light aliasing on a synth line. Then raise SPREAD slowly and listen to the two chains phase against each other.
In Studies
Bitfight 83 is in Studies Effects, under Glitch.
Standalone
The standalone plugin, shown further down the page, works the same way and calls its output knob LEVEL. In Studies we renamed it GAIN.
Bundle
The standalone plugin is also part of Decimation Tools Vol. 1.
- Formats
- Studies: Audio Units, VST2 and VST3 on Mac, VST3 on Windows · Apple silicon native
- Systems
- Current macOS and Windows 10/11 x64
Standalone version
The original plugin with its own interface, as a one-time purchase.
AU · VST2 · VST3 · macOS · Windows