Bitbox 2.5 User’s Manual
7/17/19 11:13:00 AM
Copyright 1010music LLC 2019
Page 21 of 42
Digital Heart – Analog Soul
Parameter
Description
Range of Values
Mod
Target?
Sync
Sync is only enabled when quantizing is enabled
(the
Quant Size
parameter is not
None
.) The Sync
feature prevents timing drift that can occur when
the length and BPM of a clip does not align
exactly with the tempo of playback. When Sync is
used, bitbox will detect the location of the ‘beats’
within the WAV file along with the BPM of the
WAV file.
Even slight differences between WAV file BPM and
clock tempo can cause significant drift over time.
Select a value for Sync that will control the size of
the musical unit to which the clip will be
synchronized. Choose small settings for rhythmic
or percussion clips. Choose large settings for
sustained tones or drones.
None – playback will occur at the
original rate. Looping will happen as
soon as the sample ends.
1/16 - quantize to the next sixteenth
note time
1/8 - eighth note
1/4 - quarter note
1/2 - half note
1 bar - a whole note assuming 4/4
time
Slice (See
Use Slices to Synchronize
Playback of Clip Cells
below for more
information)
No
Let’s talk some more about Quant Size and Sync. When a Quant Size other than None is selected, the playback of the wave
file will be delayed until the next selected unit of music as specified in Quant Size. This will ensure that your playback “snaps
to the grid” of the beats established by your clock. Sometimes, the WAV file you are playing is longer than one beat. For
example, the WAV file might contain a 2 bar drum riff. For a Clip cell, Bitbox will make some assumptions about where the
beats in your file occur. In Clip mode, bitbox will play the whole 2 bar riff when the note is triggered. But the beats in the WAV
file might not be playing at the same tempo as the clock speed. If you leave Sync set to None, the WAV file will play in its
entirety and will get out of sync with your clock. If your WAV file tempo is faster than your clock tempo, it will sound like the
beats are running ahead of the rest of the music. If your WAV file tempo is slower than your clock tempo, it will sound like your
drums are lagging. If you want to fix that, then choose the value for Sync that identifies how tightly you want to snap to the
clock while the WAV file is playing in response to a single sustained note trigger. While the note is playing, the sync will cause
the playback of the WAV file to jump to the next selected sync increment in the file when the corresponding clock time has
passed. So if the WAV was a little faster than your clock, the playback position will jump backwards to move the playback of
the WAV to the selected clock increment. If the WAV is slower than your clock, the playback position will jump ahead to the
selected clock increment. This will work well if the difference between the BPM of your WAV file and the BPM of your clock is
small. It will sound like a stutter if the difference is large.
Work with Slicer Cells
Slicer mode is useful when a single WAV file has multiple sections that you want to trigger
independently. This is similar to Atomic Mode in early versions of bitbox. For example, if
you have a drum riff you may want to trigger different sections of the drum riff
independently. Or if you have a recording of a vocal track, you may get an interesting
effect if you skip around to playback different words or phrases over time.
In order to use Slicer mode effectively, you will need to identify slices within the WAV file.
Bitbox can automatically detect the slice points within the wave file, and you can manually
add or remove slice points. An example of a file that works well with Slicer mode is
\SFX\Metal\METL_shake and squeal.wav.
Slicer Cell Parameters Screen 2
