Effects documentation

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Quantizer

Time (sample and hold) and amplitude (bit reduction) axis quantization.

Description

In addition dither can be applied to both axes. The time axis dither is called "jitter" although this isn't technically accurate.

"Jitter" modulates the frequency of the clock signal for an analog sample & hold by noise. This modulates the position of each individual sample and maintains its fractional position when output. This is unlike a typical jitter where the input and output modulation would be distinct. The effect is to reduce the quantization error over time and reduce harmonic peaks; true time-axis spread-spectrum dither.

Demos

Due to the limited streaming quality it may be desirable to download each demo to listen to the raw recording (as flac where possible.) Downloads should be enabled for every demo track, if not please send a request and the track download can be enabled.

Screenshot

Quantizer screenshot

Download

The Quantizer is included in the Xhip Effects bundle.

Parameters

Sample & Hold
Rate
The rate at which to sample & hold the input; 400 Hz to 40 kHz.
Jitter
How much to modulate the fractional sample position; up to one sample period.
Bit Reduction
Bits
The number of bits which represent the amplitude axis from -inf to 0 dB; 2 to 16; including the sign.
Dither
How much white-noise to mix before amplitude quantization.
Zero
Whether the integer amplitude representation is two's complement. The result is either to square a low-level signal (2sc) or to zero it.

Comments

Quantization n. A procedure in which a value is limited from a continuous range of values (real numbers) to a set of discrete values (integers).

In the case of the quantizer plug-in we are actually taking one set of discrete values and reducing them to another set of discrete values.