Bitcrusher

A Bitcrusher is a digital audio effect, which produces a distortion by the reduction of the resolution or bandwidth of digital audio data. The resulting quantization noise may produce a “warmer” sound impression, or a harsh one, depending on the amount of reduction.

A number stored digitally has a resolution given as n bits, where there are 2n possible values of the number. For example, a standard CD has a resolution of 16 bits, thus there are 216 possible values for any given part of the musical waveform. If one reduces the number of bits used to store the number, the number of possible values of the number is decreased, and thus the resolution decreases, leading to distortion. If this is reduced to approx. 8 bits, distortions can be noticed, reducing the quality. These distortions add to the original overtone in such a way that the wave shape becomes angular. This can produce a “warmer” sound impression than the original waveform, especially if the wave is rounded off in certain ways.

Ableton Live's Redux
Ableton's Redux