Bitcrust / Manual

Interface

The Bitcrust interface is organised into six tabbed panels, a persistent header strip, a side rail of live monitors, a playable MIDI keyboard, and a footer status bar. Every element is themed — switch themes from the SETUP tab.

Header strip

The top bar is always visible regardless of which tab is active.

  • Preset selector — shows the current preset name. Arrow buttons step through presets; the star toggles favourite status.
  • A+ / A / B / B+ — A/B compare. A+ and B+ capture the current state into slot A or B; A and B recall them. Session-scoped (not saved to disk).
  • Theme selector — the palette icon opens the theme picker (12 bundled themes). Keyboard shortcuts: < (previous) and > (next).
  • SAVE — opens the preset save modal with name, group, author, description, and tag fields.
  • BPM readout — shows host BPM when synced, or the internal clock when running standalone.

Six tabs along the top: PRESETS, SYNTH, MODULATION, EFFECTS, SEQ/ARP, SETUP. Keyboard shortcuts 1–6 jump directly to each tab.

SYNTH tab

The main synthesis panel with three VCO columns (VCO 1, VCO 2, VCO 3), a global VCF section, and a Master section.

Each VCO panel exposes:

  • Waveform selector (Triangle, Saw, Pulse, Noise)
  • FREQ / FINE / PAN / VOL knobs
  • ATT / DEC / SUS / REL envelope knobs with an inline ADSR visualiser
  • SYNC / RING / VCF / SOLO / MUTE toggle buttons

The VCF section has Cutoff, Resonance, and LP / BP / HP mode buttons. The Master section has Volume, Curve (filter character), Velocity amount, and a 6581 / 8580 chip-model slider.

PRESETS tab

A full-pane browser with:

  • Category sidebar — Favourites, All Presets, and auto-generated groups (Low End, Keys, Lead, etc.)
  • Tag filter chips — union of all tags across factory and user presets, with a Clear button
  • Search box — searches name, author, and description
  • Preset list — name, tags, category, author columns. Click to preview metadata; double-click or press LOAD to apply.
  • Metadata detail pane — name, group, author, description, and tags for the selected preset
  • IMPORT / EXPORT buttons for individual preset XML files

MODULATION tab

  • LFO 1 / 2 / 3 panels, each with waveform selector (7 shapes), Rate knob, Depth knob, Retrig and Tempo-sync toggles, and a live shape scope
  • Mod Envelope panel with A / D / S / R knobs and an ADSR visualiser
  • 8-slot modulation matrix — each row has Source, Destination, Depth knob, Bypass, and Clear controls

EFFECTS tab

A 6-slot effects rack. Each slot has a type selector dropdown, a Bypass toggle, a Mix (dry/wet) knob, and a drag handle for reordering. Selecting a type expands the slot to show its parameter controls. Available effects: Drive, Bitcrusher, Delay, Chorus, Reverb, Compressor, Limiter.

SEQ/ARP tab

Left side: Arpeggiator controls (Off / Arp / Seq mode toggle, Pattern, Rate, Gate, Octaves).

Right side: Step Sequencer — 16-step grid with per-step Pitch, Velocity, Gate, and Slide lanes. Rate and Steps controls at the top. A scale/chromatic selector constrains pitch input.

Arpeggiator and sequencer are mutually exclusive.

SETUP tab

Global settings that are session-scoped (not saved per-preset):

  • MIDI Channel (Omni or 1–16)
  • A4 Reference Tuning (415–465 Hz)
  • Master Transpose (±24 semitones)
  • Pitch Bend Range (0–24 semitones)
  • Velocity Curve (Linear, Soft, Hard, S-Curve, Fixed)
  • Voice Mode (Poly, Mono, Legato)
  • Unison (1–8 voices, detune, spread)
  • Glide Mode and Time

Side rail — live monitors

The left side rail hosts a stack of real-time visualisations, toggled from the monitor button in the footer:

  • Oscilloscope — stereo waveform with phosphor persistence
  • Vectorscope — Lissajous L×R correlation plot
  • Spectrum Analyser — 20 Hz–20 kHz frequency display
  • 3D Spectrogram — waterfall display
  • Correlation / History — stereo width and balance meters
  • Loudness (LUFS) — momentary and short-term loudness
  • Stereo Field — correlation, balance, and width readout

All displays are gated on panel visibility — hidden monitors do not consume CPU.

  • PAL CLOCK // 12-VOICE POLY // SID ARCHITECTURE status line
  • MIDI activity LED
  • CPU load meter
  • Voices — 12-voice activity LED strip with age/steal colouring
  • PANIC button (all-notes-off)
  • About dialog (version, credits, third-party notices, EULA)
  • Help (?) — keyboard shortcut overlay
  • Monitor toggle — show/hide the side rail
  • Keyboard toggle — show/hide the playable MIDI keyboard