R_WARE PORT OF AIRWINDOWS BitGlitter
AW_BitGlitter is a port of the Airwindows BitGlitter. The algorithms have been refined for the VM environment.
TL;DW: Hardware-style bit and resolution crusher, like really old sampler.
BitGlitter is kind of sampler emulator. At every stage it’s designed not for bitcrush alone, but to get the particular tonalities you can get out of primitive old samplers. An earlier attempt intentionally went after the old Akai sound, but currently BitGlitter has no specific model. It’s just there to dial in a kind of punchy grit that will make beats sit well against other elements: the video demonstates this. First, BitGlitter’s got gain trim going into a stage of Spiral analog-style saturation. You can overdrive the input effectively. Then, it does a hint of bitcrushing and splits into two separate frequency crushers, each set slightly different. This isn’t ‘accurate’ to any real retro sampler, but it helps broaden the sound. The output of these are blended and given an output gain and a dry/wet in case you need to sneak a little clarity back in there, and a slight averaging blur is added to the blend to further emulate analog circuitry. The result is a coarser, more opaque sound which still lacks modern digital ‘edge’: you can plainly see on a metering plugin like Voxengo SPAN how the highs are softened. It’s not a digital bright-maker, it’s a texture-changer and impact-maker. Especially if you go for darker regions of the Bit Glitter control, you can use this to add ridiculous amounts of midrange punch in that ‘retro hip-hop’ kind of way. There’s a visceralness and aliveness to the grunge because it’s made by an algorithm to act like analog gear might: you won’t get the same result out of just a pile of typical DAW bitcrush and EQ. BitGlitter will do the extreme damage you might be looking for, but it’ll do it with a personality that contributes instead of detracts.