[ Micro Macro ] Buffer error processor

Time (Internal)

Sets the section of the buffer you hear, from 12.5 ms to 16 seconds.

At long Time settings the buffer trails the input like a delay; short Time settings pull it in close behind. On its own it never repeats. Turn Repeats up, or hit Freeze, and it starts looping.

Time also sets the clock rate, in both modes: how often the device grabs a fresh buffer section, and in Macro how often an error event can happen. Shorter Time values speed up the clock.

Time (External)

Sets the buffer section length and device clock against Ableton’s project tempo.

From an eighth of a beat to sixteen beats. The dial divides and multiplies the clock rather than setting a length: x8 runs the clock eight times faster, so it gives the shortest section, and /16 the longest.

Repeats

Cuts the buffer section into equal subsections and loops one of them, from 1 to 16.

At 1 the whole section plays through. Higher values shorten what actually repeats, which turns playback into stutter and, at short Time settings, into a pitched tone.

Freeze

Freezes the current section into an audio loop and stops writing new audio into the buffer.

The dry path is unaffected, so Mix still works and you can layer a frozen loop underneath the live signal.

Warp (Macro)

How likely the playback rate changes at each clock pulse, and in what way.

Low settings give rare, mild events; high settings frequent, severe ones.

Warp Button (Macro)

Switches the Warp engine in and out without losing the dial setting.

Warp (Micro)

Playback speed as a pitch, in semitones, across ±3 octaves.

Reverse (Micro)

Plays the buffer backwards. Stacks with whatever Warp is set to.

Fault (Macro)

How likely playheads stutter or are displaced.

At each clock pulse set by Time the device may jump the playhead to a different subsection or change how many times it repeats. Past 80% it can also drop into momentary silence.

Fault Button (Macro)

Switches the Fault engine in and out without losing the dial setting.

Fault (Micro)

Picks which subsection is played back, so sweeping it scrubs through the buffer’s subsections.

With Silence on, the dial sets how much of each subsection is muted, up to about 90% at full travel.

Silence (Micro)

Switches the Micro Fault dial between picking subsections and Silence.

Corrupt

How much Corrupt effect is applied, at the end of the chain.

Corrupt Button

Switches the Corrupt stage in and out without losing the dial setting.

Output

Trims the processed signal, −12 to +12 dB, unity at 0.

Add some gain to subtle error effects or pull the level down on heavily destroyed signals. Especially Destroy doesn’t compensate for added volume: on quiet material a full turn can lift the signal by more than 30 dB. Bring it back down, or turn it up even further to destroy the audio and your speakers.

Mix

Blends the dry input against the processed buffer.

The dry signal bypasses the buffer completely and is never touched.

Lock (Macro)

Stops the device from creating new error events and replays up to 16 of the most recent ones in a loop. Time still speeds the loop up or slows it down; Repeats, Warp and Fault stop shaping the sound until you release the lock.

With the buffer still live you hear the same glitch pattern over fresh audio. Together with Freeze you get a fixed loop of both audio and errors.

Steps (Macro)

Sets how many of the 16 captured error events are played back, from 1 to 16.

At 1 it holds the single most recent error event. Increase the steps to add up to 16 of the recent error events to the loop.

The engine always captures and locks the most recent 16 events but plays back only the amount set by Steps. So you can also adjust the steps after locking to dial in the loop.

Corrupt Effect

Selects the effect Corrupt applies.

Decimate

Steps between twenty fixed combinations of sample rate and bit depth, one every 5% of the dial. The two are set independently and the order is deliberately not a smooth ramp, so turning the dial jumps between states instead of sweeping through them.

Dropout

Introduces random dropouts to the audio signal. Low settings give fewer, longer dropouts and high settings give shorter, more frequent ones. At high settings they are fast enough to become a buzz.

Destroy

Overdrives and saturates: the dial adds up to 36 dB of drive. Early on that clipping is soft and just thickens the sound; past the middle it turns hard, the peaks are chopped square, and the top of the travel is fuzz rather than warmth.

Collapse

A wireless audio link falling apart, the dial its distance from the transmitter: at low amounts the sound only flutters; further up the top end falls away, gaps open and get patched over, and the signal turns grainy. Past about 80% the link can drop out for up to a second and a half, then reconnects, dull at first, opening up as it settles.

Stereo Mode

Unique gives each channel its own independent playhead with its own error behaviour in Macro, so left and right break up differently. This is where the device’s stereo width comes from.

Shared locks the right channel to the left for a solid, centred, mono-compatible result.

Width

Stereo width of the processed signal, 0% to 200%, neutral at 100%.

It has the most effect in Macro mode with Stereo Mode set to Unique, where the two channels are being damaged independently and there is genuine difference between them to widen.

Clock

Chooses what drives playback and the error events.

Internal

Derives the device clock (and buffer length) from values set by the Time dial.

External

Syncs the device clock (and buffer length) to Ableton’s project tempo and replaces Time with a dial that multiplies and divides the clock, x8 to /16.

Window

Fades each repeated subsection in and out, as a percentage of that subsection.

Random

Randomises the sound-shaping dials for the mode you are currently in.

Default

Resets the sound-shaping dials for the mode you are currently in.

Waveform

The audio in the current buffer section. With Freeze engaged it stops moving, as nothing new arrives, and dims while Silence or Dropout cut the sound.

Orange Line

The playhead: it moves right at normal speed, faster with Warp up, and left when reversed.

Blue Line

The right channel’s playhead. It only appears when Stereo Mode is Unique and the two channels have pulled apart.

Vertical Lines

The audio buffer’s subsections set by Repeats, and by Fault in Macro.

Step Dots

The Error Lock visualiser: one dot per clock pulse. It appears once Steps is above 1, or when you lock.