Best most interesting bitcrusher vst in 2025?

[killmaster]

Is it Goodhertz Lossy? I'm playing with a demo and it sure sounds incredibly good to me. I wasn't aware that a bitcrusher could be so varied and musical. Is there anything that compares or you think is better?

Thanks,

Greg

[MattLeschuck]

Not sure how it compares to goodhertz but Toneboosters bitjuggler is definitely worth checking out.

[TIMT]

Lossy isn't a bitcrusher. it's modelling lossy encoding artefacts of early MP3 encoding. if you are after something more along those lines, you should checkout Codec by Lese which is Opus based i think, or MAIM (don't know the developer off the top of my head) which is another take on MP3 codec artefacts of LAME, and some other lesser known MP3 codec called BLADE. Fraunhofer was the one everyone will remember from the very early 2000's which nothing is likely to do as it's proprietary, but would be cool if a plugin could model that sound

https://wildergardenaudio.com/maim/

https://lese.io/plugin/codec/

[ralfrobert]

D16 Decimort 2 gives me all I need. If I need a broader approach, Plogue chipcrusher has a lot more to offer besides crushing, eg. fan noises, a vocoder, etc.

[killmaster]

Lossy isn't a bitcrusher. it's modelling lossy encoding artefacts of early MP3 encoding. if you are after something more along those lines, you should checkout Codec by Lese which is Opus based i think, or MAIM (don't know the developer off the top of my head) which is another take on MP3 codec artefacts of LAME, and some other lesser known MP3 codec called BLADE. Fraunhofer was the one everyone will remember from the very early 2000's which nothing is likely to do as it's proprietary, but would be cool if a plugin could model that sound

https://wildergardenaudio.com/maim/

https://lese.io/plugin/codec/

Thank you for the information! Yeh both Codec and Main are so excellent!!

[kraster]

D16 decimort, Plogue crusher and Aberrant DSP Digitalis are the ones I use most.

It's hard to think of anything those three don't cover.

[pough]

BitLoser by Bunker Noise is pretty good.

[jamcat]

Bitcrushers aren't interesting.

[martiu]

Tal Dac most interestin bit crusher, buy now

[telecharge]

Melda's MBitFun and kiloHearts' Bitcrush are 2 great freebies.

[morphex]

I wouldn’t say that this is the best, but it was just released recently and it’s capable of some pretty wild tones. It’s very inexpensive as well.

blepfx - crunchrr https://fx.amee.ee/plugin/crunchrr/

[cryophonik]

I don’t always use bitcrushers, but when I do, I prefer Decimort. Stay crunchy, my friends…

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[funky lime]

Aberrant DSP Digitalis has a bitcrusher, but is more of a lo-fi multi-fx with lots of ways to corrupt your audio. Definitely fits the "interesting" bill for me

[panspOrmia]

These are my favorite bitcrushers of all time (let alone 2025).

OTO Biscuit (Softube)
Decimort 2 (D16)
Paranoia Mangler + ReaCrunch (Reaper)
Bitpunk (JMG)
PCM2612 (Inphonik)
HomeCorrupter (Igorski)
Hosebeast (ArcDev)
LitBit (Faded Instruments)
GrimeBox (Sonalksis)
CRUSHER + PHAT (CamelAudio)
BitGlitter (AirWindows)
Krush PRO (Tritik)
Crusher (dBlue)
BitLoser (BunkerNoise)
Vybz (Thenatan)
BitJuggler + TimeMachine (Toneboosters)
Delta Modulator (Xfer)
Bitfight '83 (PureMagnetik)

[concealed identity]

I use:

- Degrader from Klevgrand for a crunchy Amiga-esque sound
- Bite from NI for more saturated bitcrushing
- Audiothing Crusher for the fantastic-sounding filter and useful Harshness control
- LO-FI-AF by Unfiltered Audio for all of the crazy degradation it offers (although I never need to use all of that stuff together)

But there are a bunch of great free ones that all do some unique and interesting things:

- Codec by Lese (uses internet compression algorithms)
- PCM2612 by Inphonik (emulates Mega Drive bit reduction)
- My Crush by Denise Audio (pre- and post- filters and preset EQ curves to choose from)
- Origin by Cymatics (also adds saturation, chorus, and noise)
- Timemachine by ToneBoosters (just a good workhorse with a fair amount of things to tweak)