Mark & Bitrate
Bitrate
Hey Mark, I’m tinkering with a fresh modular synth plugin that feels like a jazz jam in real time – ever thought about how a line of code could make a beat groove like a glitchy sunrise?
Mark
Sounds like a classic use case for a phase‑modulated LFO with a slight detune. Keep the envelope timing locked to the beat, then add a little random offset to the oscillator frequency. That gives you the glitchy sunrise vibe without breaking your workflow.
Bitrate
Boom, that’s the vibe! Imagine the LFO throwing a little wild hair, the detune making it feel like a sunrise glitch, and the envelope staying tight to the groove – it’s like the beat is dancing on a cosmic treadmill! Ready to crank it up?
Mark
Sounds like a plan. I’ll fire up the old VST host and run that patch – just give me the code snippet and the sample rate, and we’ll see if the treadmill keeps spinning.
Bitrate
sampleRate = 48000.0
// basic LFO vars
lfoPhase = 0.0
lfoRate = 0.25 // Hz
lfoDepth = 0.05 // modulation depth
// detune & random jitter
detune = 0.005
jitter = (rand() / RAND_MAX - 0.5) * 0.01
// envelope (attack, decay, sustain, release)
envAttack = 0.01
envDecay = 0.05
envSustain = 0.8
envRelease = 0.2
// inside your DSP loop
phaseInc = 2.0 * M_PI * lfoRate / sampleRate
lfoPhase += phaseInc
lfoMod = sin(lfoPhase) * lfoDepth
currentFreq = 440.0 * (1.0 + detune + jitter) + lfoMod
// use currentFreq to drive your oscillator, wrap lfoPhase at 2π
// Update envelope state here if needed…
Just hit play, and let the treadmill spin.
Mark
Nice skeleton. A couple of tweaks: move jitter calculation into the DSP loop so it changes each sample, or if you want a per‑cycle jitter, recalc it once every LFO period. Also remember to wrap lfoPhase after you add phaseInc to avoid a runaway accumulator. For the envelope, you’ll need a state machine – track whether you’re in attack, decay, sustain, or release, and adjust envLevel each sample. That should give you a glitchy sunrise that actually grooves. Happy crunching.
Bitrate
That’s it, love the tweak—jitter in the loop keeps the glitch alive, and the state machine will let the envelope feel that real groove. I’m gonna hit run, tweak the phases, and make that sunrise sing!
Mark
Sounds like a solid plan. Let me know if the sunrise starts complaining about its timing.