Qu-Bit Electronix Data Bender User manual

Data Bender
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Contents
Description 4
Specifications 5
Installation 6
Marked Diagram 7
Core Control Overview 8
1.Time.................................... 8
Internal Clock Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
External Clock Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2. Repeats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.Mix..................................... 9
6. Corrupt - Decimate / Dropout / Destroy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Decimate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Dropout ................................. 9
Destroy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
7. Freeze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
8.Clock.................................... 10
9.Mode.................................... 11
10. Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Audio Inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Audio Outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Macro Mode 12
4.Bend.................................... 12
5.Break.................................... 12
Micro Mode 13
4. Bend - Playback Speed/Reverse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5. Break - Traverse / Silence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Traverse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Silence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Edit Functions 14
Glitch Windowing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Restore Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
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Gate Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Stereo Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Corrupt As Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Freeze Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Storing Settings Between Power Cycles 16
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Description
Data Bender is a circuit bent digital audio buffer. It is inspired by the ways in which audio
equipment can fail. The sounds of skipping CDs, software bugs, and defective tape machine
playback are all accessible. The 96kHz, 24-bit audio buffer can hold over a minute of stereo
audio, providing a sonic canvas capable of infinite surprises and discovery.
• Circuit bent digital audio buffer
• Skipping CDs, software bugs, old tape machine, scratched records
• 96kHz sampling rate, 24-bit depth for high fidelity audio with over a minute of stereo
sampling time
• Stereo IO
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Specifications
Depth: 28mm
Width: 14HP
Current Consumption:
• +12V: 58mA
• -12V: 60mA
• +5V: 0mA
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Installation
To install, locate 14HP of space in your Eurorack case and confirm the positive 12 volts and
negative 12 volts sides of the power distribution lines. Plug the connector into the power
distribution board of your case, keeping in mind that the red band corresponds to negative
12 volts. In most systems, the negative 12 volt supply line is at the bottom. The power cable
should be connected to the module with the red band facing the bottom of the module
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Marked Diagram
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Core Control Overview
1. Time
Time sets the sample period for incoming audio to be processed.
This is the rate at which a new audio buffer is acquired for processing and manipulation.
Switch between Internal and External Clock modes by pressing the clock button.
The buffer space located outside of the current section set by time is written to in the back-
ground so that some fairly recent audio is always in the buffer when time is changed. This
can bring back sounds from up to a minute ago in unexpected and interesting ways.
CV responds to -5V to +5V and adds to the knob position.
Internal Clock Mode
In this mode the clock LED will blink blue at the clock rate.
The Time knob will be a smooth changing value from 16 seconds at the bottom of the knob
to 80Hz at the top of the knob.
External Clock Mode
In this mode the clock LED will blink white at the clock rate.
The Time Knob acts as a divide/multiply control with the following changes to the clock:
• Divide by 16 (4 bars)
• Divide by 8 (2 bars)
• Divide by 4 (1 bar)
• Divide by 2
• Clock Matches Input
• Multiply by 2 (Eighth Notes)
• Multiply by 3 (Eight Note Triplets)
• Multiply by 4 (Sixteenth Notes)
• Multiply by 8 (32nd Notes)
When the knob/CV move into a new division or multiplication, the Clock LED will briefly
illuminate gold.
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2. Repeats
Repeats divides the primary buffer into smaller subsections of audio.
These will be heard as repeated pieces of the recorded audio buffer.
Several parameters within the module will control which section of the buffer is repeating
as well as modify this control itself.
The higher the knob is increased the more divisions of the buffer are created, and the “faster”
the apparent audio will come out.
With the control all the way down the primary buffer will not be subdivided.
CV responds to -5V to +5V and adds to the knob position.
3. Mix
This controls the balance between the live input, and the audio buffer being processed.
CV responds to -5V to +5V and adds to the knob position.
6. Corrupt - Decimate / Dropout / Destroy
Pressing the Corrupt button will step through the various corruption modes.
The knob controls a variable range for each control.
CV responds to -5V to +5V and adds to the knob position.
Decimate
Controls variable amounts of bit-crushing and downsampling.
Dropout
Controls the occurance of random audio dropouts.
There are less, but longer dropouts on the left side of the knob, and more, but shorter
dropouts on the right side of the knob.
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Destroy
Controls an amount of Soft saturation and hard clipping applied to the signal.
The first half of the knob softly saturates, and the second half introduces absolute devasta-
tion.
Caution: this gets loud if using with signals that aren’t modular level to begin with
7. Freeze
When enabled, no new audio will be recorded into the audio buffer, and whatever is there
will stay there until Freeze is deactivated.
When Freeze is in its default latching mode (blue in the shift-edit menu) the freeze effect
will activate on the next clock beat to ensure everything stays in sync.
When Freeze is in the momentary mode (green in the shift-edit menu) the freeze effect
engages and disengages instantly.
When the Mix control is fully dry, engaging freeze will instantly set the mix to be fully wet.
This allows for exciting performative gestures, and the queueing up of specific data bending
actions, while letting the rest of your audio pass through unaffected until freeze is enabled.
All changes to Time, Repeats, Bend, and Break are not destructive. So feel free to mangle
away without fear of losing your precious buffer.
Extending the time control down below where it was when the signal was frozen will intro-
duce artifacts of old data from the last time the buffer was that size. Expect discontinuities,
and fragments of your sonic history when twisting the time knob while frozen.
8. Clock
When activated, the clock input will be used as the source for the Time control, and the
Time Knob/CV will control the divisions/multiplications of the clock that new audio will be
recorded at.
While the module is in Internal clock mode the LED will blink blue at the rate of the internal
clock.
While the module is in External clock mode the LED will blink white at the rate set by the
external clock, and the multiply divide setting (based on the Time control).
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