BitQuest! Pre-order today! Get your questin' gear on!

[Tristan]

Ah, I'm curious about the patches!

Please, do tell, do tell!

[Jwar]

In a way it's a good thing they're delayed though Ryan. That way I get to test one on a fiber laser!

[Ryan]

What about a pink noise generator?

Or something with a crossover in it where the crossover controls two varuations of a certain parameter - eg a trem where you use the crossover to control where the signal splits between two wave shapes.

While trying to make a random coefficient work with anything I accidentally made a noise generator with a steep filter that makes R2D2 noises at one end of the pot, really fun sounding.. couldn't really do much else with it but I love those bleeps and bloops.

The crossover idea is cool, one thing you could do is take a state variable filter with its high pass, low pass, bandpass, and notch output and use those outputs in different effects etc, could be weird.

A quick question about the expression - will the expression pedal take over the sweep of the know, or will it control the amount of sweep above the current position of the knob? i.e. when the knob is set at noon, will the expression pedal sweep the full two octaves or will it sweep up from noon?

I have it set up so the expression pedal completely takes over for the pot, total disconnect. I think that way is more powerful for more patches and more users... but with a jumper wire a person could set the wiper of the pot as the end of the expression, letting your expression work from above it or below it depending. I wouldn't hard wire it like that for the public though, I think that would really depend on the user and situation.

Guess what's on the way to me!!!!!!!!!
:)

HLYMLY! Does that mean these will still probably be available this month?

The boxes were supposed to ship to Adam a couple or few weeks ago.. I don't know what the heck is going on but I just know they're gonna ship this week and he'll work his magic and get 'em to me and I don't mind working through Christmas/New Year's so as soon as it comes together we'll go for it.. if it isn't December it'll be early January for sure!

What are people meaning when talking about random? do you mean like a sample and hold effect like on Zappa's Ship Ahoy? now that would be cool!

What I'd like to do, and I haven't accomplished it yet but I'm on the track, is to make digital noise with a random number thinger, then take that constantly changing number and sample it every so often with an lfo, so you could set how fast the random changes happen, and then use that random coefficient to drive basically any effect that's modified by a coefficient. I've been trying to get a steep 4 pole filter to open and close based on the random coeff, with not great success, but that's the kinda thing I think would be cool to do with random. I did accomplish a tremolo with a random rate but I think it's kind of a one-trick-pony as is.

patch 8 ideas:

1
how about you just make the last present a random one!?
it'll randomly chose one of the other 7 presets
and it'll randomly chose what the parameters for it are.
every time you select patch 8 you'll get a new experience!. (your quest will be to find the sound again! :) )
parameter knobs do nothing. HA.

2
random bit crush!
There's no reason why bit crushing needs to only be first (or last) bits in the digital sequence?
it can be a combination of any bit in the sequence. why not chop out the 3rd, the 8th and 11th bit if you're going to crush (cut) out 3 bits of data?
the random crushing can be a constant alternation of which bits get cut from the signal.
1st parameter choose how many bits your crushing,
2nd parameter the speed of the random changes (like a random step sequencer)

Haha I love #1! That would be so weird! (Before people ask for it, it's an impossible idea meant for humour!)

Random bit crush I've been pondering... it's a toughie since you have to hard-code the crush amount, it's not done on the fly, it's pre-set. I use one of the digital controls to point to sections of code that each contain a different crush setting.. maybe an lfo could modulate the pot... or randomize the pot... that's beyond me at the moment but I love the idea of a bit crusher that changes with an lfo...

The thing about lots of these ideas is I'm still learning the programming... even after a year of working on it as much as I can I'm still am amateur.. novice.. like one step above noob.. the BitQuest is gonna launch with probably simpler patches than I'll be doing next year at this time, but that'll be part of the fun I think... and the first 8 patches it'll launch with are awesome. I went through them really well this weekend to get them perfect and I think they all sound awesome and are a lot of fun.

[Ryan]

In a way it's a good thing they're delayed though Ryan. That way I get to test one on a fiber laser! :)

I'm super curious about your new machine! Can't wait to see it in action! I'd love to see it do some picks too.. and what it looks like with a powder coated box...

Ah, I'm curious about the patches!

Please, do tell, do tell! :lol:

Here's the starting line-up! As of today! *wink*

First off, every patch has the same gain knob, that's what CTRL0 is for every patch, 1 of the 3 digital controls. It's a gain control that also turns up a noise gate control, so at max gain you have a nice, fast, but still quite unobtrusive, silencer. With the knob all the way down it loads the direct input to the ADC, no gate at all. CTRL1 is connected to the expression pedal input so you can run CTRL1 with your foot... maybe a CV if it was exactly the right range, I haven't experimented with that yet.

Patch 1 - HP + LP Filters - 2 steep filters that work from the bottom up and the top down and can each go basically to silence. CTRL1 is the Low Pass Filter, steep slicing off all the highs all the way down to the lowest bass. CTRL2 is the High Pass Filter, slicing off all your lows all the way up to the highest trebs. When used together you can slice yourself a bandpass, a filtered section of audio, like all mids, and move it around up and down for weird midrangey tones like Money for Nothin.

Patch 2 - Flanger - Awesome sounding metallic and resonant flanger that's super whooshy and dramatic, perfect for palm muting. CTRL1 is for the rate and you can freeze the sweep by moving the knob to zero. With the rate frozen you have a comb filter. CTRL2 is a wet level control so you can bring up how much flanger is in your fuzz, from none to tons.

Patch 3 - Bit Crusher/Sample Rate Reducer - My take on a bitcrusher, this is a kind of a subjective effect and I think this is the cool way for a bit crusher to sound. You get 6 bit depths, full bit rate (24), 20, 18, 17, 16, 15. (For people who like to edit the patches, this is a fun one to mess with as changing any bits can provide weird and cool results. I do all mine from the top down but the top up works too as well as just randomly zeroing bits wherever.. lots of weird sounds to make) CTRL2 is a sample rate reducer which takes away the treble from the top down. It's more than just a tone knob though, as it reduces the sample rate it reduces the maximum high end the system can reproduce but it's not graceful like a filter, it's crude and ringy, sounds great. This bitcrusher patch is the only one that doesn't have the gate control on the gain knob.. I ran out of instructions with the program, used up all 128. It's not a big deal though as when you bit crush, you naturally gate the signal.. the bits that are chopped off are basically hard gated so you have a lot less noise with the remaining bits.

Patch 4 - Post-Gain Delay - 1 second clean digital delay with a very light treble roll off so the repeats melt away nicely. The repeats sit just a little below the main signal so they don't dominate it and sound cool with high gain. The repeats are post gain so that they all have the exact same gain characteristics... pre-gain repeats go clean as they fade over time, back to the clean un-gained signal, and I think it sounds cooler if they stay fully gained. Totally subjective though and I do have a pre-gain patch. CTRL1 is the rate, goes from super fast basically instant repeats to 1 second. CTRL2 is the repeats amount from 1 repeat to infinite clean repeats to oscillation. Perfect for high gain Matrix repeats, I love that sound.

Patch 5 - Notch Filter - Very steep filter that slices a section out of your midrange, from quite low to high. CTRL1 is the notch location, it sets where in your signal the notch slices. Kinda sounds like a phaser as you rotate this knob and it slices through the signal. CTRL2 is the q control for the notch, it sets how wide the slice is, which basically sets how dramatic the notch effect is. It's cool for modifying clean sounds and especially high gain sounds.

Patch 6 - Rind Modulator - Very fast and cool sounding ring modulator that's totally silent. CTRL1 sets the rate of the modulating signal, a sine wave, from a fast tremolo pace at zero to a crazy fast modulating signal at full. CTRL2 is a dry/wet mix so you can have the ring mod signal all by itself, which is really cool sounding, or mix it in with your fuzz signal for even cooler and unexpected results. The mixing of the modulated signal can make for some very weird sounds, really awesome, and it works really well with a clean or distorted signal.

Patch 7 - 1 Octave Pitch-Shifter/Harmonizer - This lets you shift your signal up or down by one octave or anywhere in between. CTRL1 is the pitch knob, the middle is no shift. Fully up is one octave up, fully down is one octave down, and in the middle you can make weird tunings that sound awesome when mixed with your fuzz signal. CTRL2 is a dry/wet mix so you can dial in dry signal with the pitch shift, ie harmonize with it, or go fully wet and just shift the signal up or down or wherever. This is best used with plucky fast kinda music as when it's held you hear the modulation of the delay pointer moving back and forth to do its shifting work. It's a fun effect though and sounds quite cool if not super perfect.

Patch 8 - Pre-Gain Reverb - This is another one of those subjective choices and I chose to put the reverb before the gain as I think that just sounds cool and interesting, especially with high gain. I think it gives the reverb decay a cool sound, quite different than post-gain reverb, but I can appreciate it's subjective and have both ways set up. It's a dense hall style of reverb, filtered so it's not harsh or sizzley at all in the decay. CTRL1 is the decay time from very short to infinite, even oscillating with enough gain. CTRL2 is a dry/wet mix so you can have a great halo of reverb around your fuzz or go fully wet, no dry signal, all fuzzy reverb, really cool.

And that's how I expect to launch this badboy! Although I'll still be pondering and tweaking as much as I can so as I get smarter and better these patches will too, possibly even be replaced. I also have a really great cocked wah frequency boost patch that could be a choice for the ILF run, it's really cool sounding. The reason I left it out is because I kept finding that I was making really similar sounds with Patch 1, the HP + LP filters, and I figured that's a more powerful and interesting patch ultimately... plus I still want to figure out random and envelope controls. I have half of a really cool 4 pole LPF envelope patch.. it basically makes a cool synthy sweep across your signal from high to low as the filter opens and closes, sounds really neat, but I don't have control over the rate of decay so it's kind of a one-tricker as well, for now..

[oldangelmidnight]

Those all sound fantastic!
Is CTRL1 on patch 3 for the bit depth?

[Ryan]

Woops, thanks for catching that! Yep, CTRL1 is the bit depth.. that was a tough choice since the sample rate sounds cool as you rotate it too, makes a good dynamic parameter.. but so does bit depth.. probably cooler really...

[Forrrest]

in patch 3, does your Sample rate reduction adds aliased frequencies?

[Ryan]

Yessir, it's frequency aliasing due to under sampling, weird and broken sounding while taking away your highs from the top down.

[Forrrest]

excellent!

[intothegroove]

I can't wait! This is incredible!

[AngryGoldfish]

I've only been skimming through this thread so apologies if I've missed the answer, but why do patches 6, 7, and 8 have CTRL2 function as wet/dry mix controls when there is already a mix control on the prototype you built back in September? Is the original prototype out of date now and you've changed things?

[yallerhon]

YES to patch 8 being pre-gain reverb!

[Ryan]

It's because the BitQuest is a distortion pedal and an effects pedal at the same time, with the processor doing both jobs... so for some effects it sounds best to be able to mix it with dryness or use it fully wet. Say for the reverb patch, I don't want only distorted reverb, it's distortion and reverb, and I might want a touch of reverb floating on my distortion, or I might want fully wet distorted reverb with no dry signal.. it needs a mix control within the processor to not just be fully dry or fully wet.

The analog mix knob is to blend your dry unBitQuested signal with the BitQuest.. so you can have clean guitar with distorted wet signal like distorted reverb or repeats etc or use the BQ clean and then blend in dry guitar, like for normal delay, reverb effects.

[Ryan]

YES to patch 8 being pre-gain reverb!

:)

It's a different sound for sure than post gain reverb.. I like it because when it's mixed it gives a distorted signal a really nice halo of reverb that isn't sizzly, just seems to fit on the distorted signal better in this application. The other way sounds cool too though, just has a different character to the reverb sound.. if this was an all reverb pedal I'd do each, sounds different enough I think for both to be cool.

[AngryGoldfish]

Damn, that's awesome. Now I understand why folks are so happy with the reverb pre-dirt, because the pedal is both a distortion and a reverb. I didn't get that at first. This is even more exciting! Thanks for clarifying, Ryan!

So is the dirt digitally produced like the Geiger Counter?