bitcrust

iPhone / Musique

bitcrust is a polyphonic synthesizer built around a SID-style voice architecture: three oscillators per voice, up to twelve voices, with ring mod, hard sync, and the pulse-width behaviour that defined a generation of 8-bit sound. The DSP is an in-house, clean-room implementation written from the public MOS 6581 register map and general DSP literature — not an emulator port — so bitcrust sounds SID-adjacent without inheriting the license constraints that keep most SID-inspired tools off the major app stores.

Sonically the plugin sits between a chip synth and a modern subtractive. The voice core can still do gritty arp basses, zap leads, and 8-bit percussion, but the surrounding architecture — three LFOs, a per-voice modulation envelope, an 8-slot modulation matrix, and a 6-slot post-SID FX rack with drive, bitcrusher, tempo-synced delay, chorus, reverb, compressor, and limiter — extends it into pad, keys, and texture territory.

Universal Purchase: one price buys the Mac Standalone plus the iPad AUv3. The iPad build is a co-equal target, not a downscale — the full 113-preset factory library, all 14 themes, and the complete mod matrix / FX rack ship on both platforms.

Voice core: 12-voice polyphony, 3 oscillators per voice, SID-style triangle / saw / pulse / noise with hard sync and ring mod, per-VCO ADSR
Filter: global VCF (LP / BP / HP) with live curve, selectable 6581 / 8580 chip model, Vintage vs. Modern oscillator mode
Modulation: 3 global LFOs (7 shapes, host-sync or Hz), per-voice mod envelope, 8-slot matrix, MIDI sources (velocity, poly AT, channel AT, mod wheel, pitch bend)
FX rack: 6 slots, drag-to-reorder, per-slot bypass / mix; effect types Drive (5 modes), Bitcrusher, Delay (tempo-sync), Chorus, Reverb, Compressor, Limiter — every FX parameter is a modulation destination
MIDI: 16-step sequencer, arpeggiator (Up / Down / UpDown / Random, 6 rate divisions, octave range), MIDI Learn on every knob, note Hold
Presets: 113 factory patches across 10 groups, full-metadata save (author, description, tags), Preset Preview audition without committing, A/B snapshot compare, XML import / export
UI: 6-tab navigation, 14 themes with optional phosphor / CRT overlays, monitor strip (oscilloscope, vectorscope, FFT spectrum, 3D spectrogram, stereo field), QWERTY note typing from any tab

Mac: Standalone app with universal binary (Apple Silicon + Intel). iPad: AUv3 extension plus a Standalone for headphone jamming. A supported AUv3 host is required for in-DAW use on iPad (GarageBand, Logic Pro for iPad, AUM, Cubasis, etc.).

Support: https://anode-labs.com/bitcrust · support@anode-labs.com
Privacy policy: https://anode-labs.com/privacy

What's new in 1.0.0: First release.

Quoi de neuf dans la dernière version ?

1.0.3 is the post-launch bug-bash plus two new sound-design features.
Most of this release is for iPad and AUv3.

iPad / AUv3
- Preset browser redesigned for iPadOS: App Group shared container so
user presets and favorites sync between Standalone and AUv3, native
iOS share-sheet export (replaces the blocked save dialog), drag-drop
import, visible Delete button + iOS-Mail swipe-to-delete.
- AUv3 dropdowns (FX type, LFO shape, mod matrix, theme selector) no
longer appear dead or drift off-screen.
- Save-preset and Randomize-warning modals render inside the editor
instead of disappearing.
- On-screen keyboard: held notes survive sibling focus changes.
- Stuck notes after host transport stop / panic. SIDEngine now handles
CC 120 / CC 123. This was the "absolutely unusable out of the box"
Loopy Pro symptom.
- Voice reap waits for envelope idle, not block count. Same root cause
was producing the "envelope release decays in under a second at max"
bug AND the polyphony tail-drop bug. Both fixed.

DSP / engine (all platforms)
- New: Per-VCO Hard Sync with Source / Ratio / Detune. Long-press the
SYNC button. Sync to another VCO for the canonical prog-lead sweep.
- New: Ring Mod across all waveforms. Long-press RING for Depth /
Ratio / Detune, all routable as modulation destinations.
- ADSR knobs are continuous now. The 300 ms to 750 ms gap on Release
is gone.
- Held-note VCO parameter edits propagate immediately, symmetrically.
- Duplicate note-on releases the previously-held voice.

Thanks to Gavinski and the Loopy Pro forum for the very detailed
1.0.0 feedback. Most of what landed in 1.0.3 came from your reports.