Free VST Plugins are one of the most exciting things about mixing. In the past it was impossible to imagine that so many quality tools could be available at no cost. Today there are more great free plugins than ever before, but the freeware scene is always changing. Let's look at some interesting bitcrusher VST today. Tritik offers a compact bit crusher VST named Krush that'll cover most of your bit crushing needs.
Let’s look at some interesting bitcrusher VST today. A bitcrusher is basically a lo-fi distortion effect and reduces the audio quality and adds a grainy & gritty sound to the mix. Why would you do that? Well the goal is most of the times to emulate older digital audio gear. This can be certain sampler like the MPC60 and SP1200 or Toy Keyboards. Here are our nominees for best bitcrusher VST:
OTO Biscuit. $249.
I have the hardware unit sitting on my desk and absolutely love it! Unfortunaltely there’s only like 1500 of these boxes produced. So it’s great to have a company like Softube model it as a VST plugin. I took my original OTO Biscuit to a friends place and we tried to compare them. I have to say that while I prefer the playability of the hardware unit (touching buttons, ya know!?), I couldn’t really hear a big difference in the plugin version. The Biscuit creates a really unique sounds and can be driven into oblivion. Fully recommend this bitcrusher to anyone! Watch how The Glitch Mob use the plugin in their productions below:
Decimort 2. €49.
When I don’t have my trusted Biscuit with me, then I usually rely on Decimort 2 by Polish plugin developers D16. What’s great about this one beside the sound is the excellent presets that let me quickly pick a starting point and tweak from there. There’s some experimental presets in there, but what I like most is that they have modelled the coloration and warmth characteristic of circuits from classic samplers recreated with painstaking accuracy. And they named them accordingly, so you don’t have to guess which preset resembles the MPC60, ASR10, etc.
Free Bitcrusher VST…
MeldaProduction MbitFun. Free.
MeldaProduction MbitFun is a serious tool for extreme distortion lovers. It converts the audio into limited fixed-point precision form, from a 1 single bit up to 16 bits per sample, and lets you access each bit, applying several operations.
Tritik Krush. Free.
Tritik offers a compact bit crusher VST named Krush that’ll cover most of your bit crushing needs. Aside from the downsampling & sample rate reduction you get analog modeled resonant filters and a modulation section which lets you modulate any parameter.
HY-Lofi2. Free.
HY-Lofi2 is really simple but effective Lo-Fi VST at the one thing it is supposed to do. Send any signal into the plugin and out comes a processed signal with something most people call “Dirt”.
Krush is a lively bit crusher as a compact free VST unit that’ll cover your bit crushing needs. With its downsampling algorithms, Krush combines the crispy taste of the digital realm with the warmth of its drive stage, solid bit depth & sample rate reduction as well as analog modeled resonant filters (low-pass and high-pass). A modulation section allows you to quickly add extra life to the sound by modulating any parameter. You can choose between free and tempo-synced modulation speed as well as 4 modulation waveforms.
The interface is fully resizable interface while keeping things clean and intuitive, with tooltips and preferences in multiple languages. You can access the file based preset system through the menu or browser. Teh freeze function lets you safely recall previous presets and the Krush even lets you copy and paste the current state using the system clipboard.
Bitcrushing is a type of distortion that’s now more popular than ever with the rise in bass-influenced music and lo-fi hip hop. It’s powerful, it’s fun to use, and it sounds awesome!
Unlike saturation, a bit crusher is a more obvious type of distortion. It’s often a lot more identifiable but can still be applied in a subtle manner, especially in mixing and sound design.
It’s the process of reducing the bit-depth and/or sample rate of any given sound. If we’ve got a bass sound that’s playing 16-bit resolution and 44.1kHz sample rate, we can reduce it to 8-bit and 22.05kHz sample rate and the sound will change significantly. It becomes a lot less accurate. You’ve got less information. Reducing the sample rate and bit-depth effectively introduces artifacts and changes the frequency response which can lead to a desired distortion sound.