Global Overview & Signal Routing

Bends is a 6-stage stereo multi-effects processor, live stutter looper, and signal degradation engine designed for the Workshop Computer.

The module makes digital imperfection its core concept. Inspired by 90s circuit-bent rack units, Bends exposes the artifacts, memory corruption, and data bus shorting of early digital processors. It functions both as a traditional stereo multi-effects unit and as a self-contained generative sound source.

Bends spans a wide range of sound processing:

• Clean stereo utility: BBD chorus, pitch-glide delays, state-variable filters, and spring or hall reverbs.
• Glitch textures: Granular freeze pendulums, clock-synced breakbeat slicing, and shimmer pitch-shifting.
• Digital corruption: Wavefolder fuzz, bitwise BBD XOR data bus shorting, lossy MP3 compression, network packet dropouts, and CD sputter.

Switch Controls & Navigation

• **Tap DOWN (<350ms)**: Step forward through parameter pages (1. Chorus -> 2. Loss -> 3. Delay -> 4. Glitcher -> 5. Filter -> 6. Reverb).
• Hold DOWN (>=350ms): Enter Global Mode to adjust global bend, stereo width, and routing presets.
• Hold DOWN (3s): Save current parameters and routing setup to persistent flash memory (600ms strobe confirmation).
• Flick UP: Toggle live buffer Freeze Mode.

Global Controls (Global Mode)

• Main (Bend): Sweeps background noise, vinyl crackle, bitcrush fuzz, and packet dropouts across all 6 effect stages simultaneously.
• X (Width & Mode): Extended Mono Mode (CCW limit <2%), Stereo Width (0% to 100%), or Dual Mono Mode (CW limit >95%).
• Y (Routing & Reset): Selects 1 of 4 signal routing chains (0: Series FX, 1: Space Wash, 2: Granular Cloud, 3: Filtered Dub). Turn fully CW (>96%) to Clean Reset.

Mode LED Indicators

• LEDs 0 to 3: Active signal routing chain (0 to 3).
• LED 4: Dual Mono Mode active.
• LED 5: Extended Mono Mode active.

Inputs

• Audio 1 & 2: Stereo audio inputs. When no cable is inserted in Audio 2, Audio 1 is normalled to both channels to maintain stereo processing.
• CV 1: Bipolar CV input modulating primary page parameters or tuned 1V/Oct pitch in Karplus-Strong string and filter oscillator modes.
• CV 2: Bipolar CV input modulating secondary page parameters, digital corruption, and stutter loop capture.
• Clock Sync (Pulse 1): Multi-standard pulse clock sync (1, 2, 4, and 24 PPQN DIN Sync) for delay subdivisions, loop stepping, and pitch CV sequence advances.
• Freeze Gate (Pulse 2): High gate input (>+1.2V) locking delay and stutter buffers into live freeze.

Outputs

• Out 1 & 2: Processed stereo audio outputs with DC-blocking filters.
• Pitch CV (CV Out 1): Turing Machine 1V/Oct quantized semitone CV sequence output driven by internal shift register.
• Random CV (CV Out 2): Stepped random Sample & Hold CV output updated per clock step or loop reset, designed for self-modulation.
• Loop Trig (Pulse Out 1): +5V 2ms trigger pulse output emitted on granular loop resets or clock steps.
• Texture (Pulse Out 2): Lo-fi PWM audio stream output of microsound bleeps, vinyl crackle, and sub-harmonic loop ticks.

Reset Procedures

• Preset Clean Reset: Turn Knob Y fully CW (>96%) in Global Mode to restore all 6 parameter pages to clean factory defaults.
• Factory Hardware Reset: Power on system while holding Z Switch DOWN (1s LED flash) to restore original factory settings from flash memory.

1. Chorus / Tape Loss

Stereo BBD chorus, tape drift, BBD XOR data bus corruption, and Karplus-Strong string synthesis.

Controls

• Main (Chorus Mix): Wet/dry chorus blend.
• X (LFO Speed): Pitch modulation speed for tape drift, wow, and flutter.
• Y (Depth / Feedback): Modulation depth (0% to 50%), resonant feedback (50% to 68%), Karplus-Strong string mode (68% to 96%), or bitwise BBD XOR distortion (96% to 100%).

2. Loss Engine

Morphs continuously between analog tape saturation, bitcrush fuzz, sample-rate decimation, tape wow/flutter, network dropouts, and CD sputter.

Controls

• Main (Loss Mix): Wet/dry signal degradation and drive blend.
• X (Crush): Morphs continuously across Tape Drive, MP3 Ringing, Bitcrush Fuzz, and Decimation.
• Y (Jitter): Sweeps across Tape Wow & Flutter, Bad Connection dropouts, and CD Sputter skipping.

3. Multi-Tap Delay

Stereo multi-tap delay with 16 rhythmic clock subdivisions and feedback XOR overdrive.

Controls

• Main (Delay Mix): Wet/dry delay blend.
• X (Delay Time): Delay time. Selects 16 rhythmic subdivisions (1/16th note to 4 bars) when Clock Sync is patched. At longer delay times around 1 second, delay clock reduces quality for lo-fi character.
• Y (Feedback): Repeat feedback level. Overdrives into self-oscillating digital XOR glitches past 70%.

4. Glitcher

Granular stutter looper playback, loop segment sizing, playback speed, and pitch sequence mutation.

Controls

• Main (Glitch Mix): Wet/dry stutter looper blend.
• X (Loop Size): Loop segment size (16 clock subdivisions when Clock Sync is patched).
• Y (Speed & Pitch): Playback behavior and pitch mutation. Sweeps from simple repeat stutter (CCW), random reverse (Center), pitch shifting up/down with variable slice lengths (CW), to full buffer freeze (CW limit).

Freeze Mode (Switch UP)

Locks audio recording memory into RAM and enters live granular playhead scrubbing.

Controls

• Main (Scrub Mode): Auto Sine LFO (<10%), Manual Scrub (10% to 90%), or Random Skip (>90%).
• X (Slice Size): Granular slice length from micro-grains to full buffer loops.
• Y (Pitch Shift): Continuous grain pitch shift with magnetic detents (-1st Octave, -5th, Unison, +5th, +1st Octave).

5. Resonant Filter

State-variable resonant filter (Lowpass to Highpass) with wavefolder drive fuzz.

Controls

• Main (Cutoff): Cutoff frequency (Lowpass CCW to Highpass CW).
• X (Resonance): Filter Q factor. Self-oscillates past 75%.
• Y (Fuzz): Wavefolder drive fuzz level and saturation depth.

6. Reverb Engine

Dual spring and hall reverb engine with plate damping, shimmer pitch-shifting, and circuit-bent jitter.

Controls

• Main (Reverb Mix): Reverb wet/dry blend.
• X (Reverb Size): Blends continuously from Spring Reverb (CCW) to Ambient Hall Reverb (CW).
• Y (Damping): Damping, lo-fi degradation (>60%), shimmer pitch-shifting (>73%), and circuit jitter (>82%).