Audio Damage Automaton - Manual (Page 16)

The third and forth knobs control the second oscillator which modulates the frequency of the main oscillator.
The RATE knob controls the rate of the second oscillator. You'll notice that this knob has a wide range, from
one cycle every ten seconds (0.1Hz) up to 200Hz. At low frequencies you'll hear the modulation pitch rising
and falling. At frequencies above 20Hz or so the frequency modulation will blur into a steady tone, and the
overall effect of the Modulate processor will become more intense. The DEPTH knob controls how much the
second oscillator modulates the main oscillator. You won't hear the effect of the second oscillator at all unless
this knob is set to something higher than zero.
Bitcrush
The Bitcrush processor applies several different forms of digital signal destruction. This processor creates the
popular “lo-fi” sample-rate reduction and bit-crusher digital effects we’ve all come to know and love despite
having 24-bit audio converters and 64-bit signal-processing math readily available to us.
This processor has three knobs. The first knob, RATE, controls a sample-rate reducer. As you turn this knob
up, the signal is resampled at a lower rate than your host’s current sampling rate. If this knob is turned all the
way anti-clockwise, the resampling process has no effect on the signal. As you turn the knob up, the signal is
sampled at a lower rate. If you turn this knob all the way clockwise, the signal is sampled at 1/100th of your
host’s sampling frequency (e.g., 441Hz if you use the usual sampling frequency of 44100Hz).
The second knob, BITS, controls a bit-depth reduction or “bit-crushing” process. If you leave the knob turned
fully anti-clockwise, the signal is passed with full resolution. (Automaton uses 32 bits to represent signals
internally, but your host software may use 16, 24, or 32 bits.) As you rotate the knob, the number of bits
used to represent the signal first drops to 16, and then decreases all the way to one as you turn the knob fully
clockwise.
The third knob, ERROR, is an Audio Damage original. It introduces errors in the bits used to represent the
signal. The knob controls how long the errors persist, and hence how much they damage the audio. If the
knob is rotated fully anti-clockwise, no errors are added to the signal. As you rotate the knob, progressively