Product information "Electro Harmonix Mainframe Bit Crusher"
The mainframe offers sampling rate reduction in the range from 48kHz to 110Hz. A little background... the sample rate is the number of times per second that a sample or snapshot of an analogue signal is taken. For example, CDs (remember them?) had a sample rate of 44.1kHz, which means that the original analogue signal is sampled 44,100 times per second.
The sampling rate defines the frequency range that can be reproduced while maintaining good fidelity. If the sampling rate is reduced, the quality of the audio deteriorates and aliasing occurs. Aliasing means audible artefacts that occur when higher frequencies are sampled at an inadequate rate, resulting in distortion. The sampling rate range of the mainframe is wide enough to range from fairly undistorted sounds to sounds that are unrecognisable compared to the input signal.
It also offers bit-shredding ranging from 24 bits down to 1 bit. What does this mean? Bit crushing is the reduction of the bit depth. Back to our CD example... CDs use a bit depth of 16 bits, which means that each of their samples is represented by 16 bits of information. Higher bit depths can accurately represent a wider dynamic range, while bit crushing increases the number of sampling errors and creatively degrades the sound to bring us back to those nasty "old school" sounds we love so much.
The mainframe's selectable high/low/bandpass filter allows the user to shape the artefacts of bit crushing and sample rate. Another very cool feature is the sample rate tuning mode, where the pedal analyses your input signal in real time and adjusts the sample rate to match the pitch of your signal or a set interval over your signal. So you can set the sample rate to match the key of a song, or it continuously adjusts the sample rate to match what you're playing!"
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