Best most interesting bitcrusher vst in 2025?

[jamcat]

Are you guys really using that many bitcrushers in your music?

[ralfrobert]

Are you guys really using that many bitcrushers in your music?

Not really, but the two I mentioned get used from time to time.

[jamcat]

panspOrmia and concealed identity listed a combined 30 bitcrushers just between the two of them. I’m wondering if they have any bits left after all that.

[_leras]

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.

This D16 is the one that is closest to the Daft Punk bitcrushed sound as well.

Otherwise I'm fairly happy with bitcrushing type sounds I have in various distortion plug ins.

[jdrums]

The stock protools LoFi plugin is the smoothest bitcrusher I've heard, shame you can't use it in any other DAW.

[concealed identity]

panspOrmia and concealed identity listed a combined 30 bitcrushers just between the two of them. I’m wondering if they have any bits left after all that.

I use them quite a bit in various ways, I think many of the plugins offer something at least a little unique or useful either in sound or workflow.

Just an example of the ones I mentioned:

- Degrader gets used on breakbeats and bass fairly often, as I found it gives them a little crunch (what many people praise 90's samplers, Amigas, etc. for).

- Bite I generally use for heavy distortion, as I find that the features often lead me to a very useable distorted+bitcrushed sound. I think some distortion plugins probably offer something similar, but this one gives me good-sounded results with very little fuss.

- Crusher gets used mostly as a filter, but I'll often use light bitcrushing when doing filter sweeps. The Harshness control also helps make it fit into the mix better. This is a plugin I find myself automating quite a bit and getting some unique sweeps, fills, etc.

- LO-FI-AF I don't use as much as I should, but I think that's because it just does so much. Usually if I have an idea of what I want to do to a sound, I have something simpler that will do it. The times I'll usually pull this out is when I want to make something sound old and crappy but not exactly in what way.

- PCM2612 has a very unique sound- I love the Mega Drive FM sound, and throwing this on a synth can give you a bit of that charm. I don't use it on much else, but I think one certainly could.

- Codec I've only used for non-music sound design and experimental glitchy stuff. It's not easily "musical" but it can really twist stuff up in a way that doesn't immediately sound like someone's using an obvious bitcrusher.

- Origin, however, IS very musical in that most of the things you can do reduce harshness rather than add it like a lot of bitcrushers do. The main knob is a combination low-pass filter and bitcrusher that easily gives you the "underwater" effect you hear in old Weeknd and Drake songs, and the tape and chorus can sound good in the right uses.

I'll admit I've barely used My Crush and Timemachine, but I think that's because I haven't had to. I usually get what I'm going for with something else, and it's rare that I want an obvious bitcrusher sound on something.

Just my two bits!

[emef]

Plogue Chipcrusher 1/2, D16 Decimort 2, Sonic Charge Permut8, Faded Litbit and Abberant DSP Digitalis.

[nanostream]

Usually I’m using NI Bite, I love the built in saturator. My second go-to is the aptly named Bite Harder by Denise Audio. It has some nice and unique (afaik) tricks up its sleeve, but I wouldn’t the pay full price for it.

[cryophonik]

panspOrmia and concealed identity listed a combined 30 bitcrushers just between the two of them. I’m wondering if they have any bits left after all that.

You’re assuming that people on this forum actually make music/have bits to crush.

[concealed identity]

Hey I finished three projects over New Year's! The crushed to uncrushed ratio of bits was pretty good, too.

[daily patcher]

Since interesting is the keyword here, I'll throw a shout out to the Decimate filter in Filterverse. Easy and straight forward to dial in, but enough flexibility in the algorithms and modulation to get very interesting results.

[imrae]

Didn't we do this recently?

Anyway, I second ChipCrush and also raise airwindows Dark2, which has a continuous crush control and unique dither.

If you are looking to fine-tune the sound of a bitcrusher, consider changing the frequency focus with emphasis/de-emphasis processing.

[HOTF]

Are you guys really using that many bitcrushers in your music?

Yes, please no hate

[martiu]

Are you guys really using that many bitcrushers in your music?

different bit crusher for every track and one for the master, the bits are so crushed that the sound becomes granular, try now

[Nug Wrangler]