2.1.0 makes my Bitbox go craaazy

[nemoyy]

Hi there,

I just updated to 2.1.0 and every interaction with the module triggers weird glitches.
(browsing/changing menu items, firing samples via touchscreen, receiving midi notes or cc)
The 4 top buttons start flickering and my bitbox loses its shit completely

Here's a quick video:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/o7oDCSGcZ0c
(sorry, potato cellphone camera audio, but you'll get the idea)

Weirdly, the glitches tend to happen more easily towards the end of each 2 bar cycle.

I played around with polyphony settings a lot, because i thought it might be some sort of
processor overload caused by too many voices being played at the same time.
But it also happens, when every pad is set to monophonic. (even the multisampled ones)

going back to older Firmwares fixes everything.
1.1.12 -> Back to normal, running rock solid …ly.

What could this be?
Is anyone else experiencing similar behaviours with 2.1.0?

I would love to use the new features too!

[Steve]

Can you say more about your microSD card, the samples you are using, etc? Maybe (pack +) send that preset to us?

[nemoyy]

I know, it's hard do diagnose this thing by just looking a the little video! : ) sorry for that
Let me try to explain a few things:
The card is the one that came with bitbox.

Preset-wise there isn't really much going on.
– Pads 1-4 are just monophonic kick, snare, open and closed hat samples triggered via trigger inputs.
the hats have a CV mapped to volume, for Accents.
– Pads 5 & 6 are monophonic one-shot samples with no further modulation applied.
– Pad 7 is a drumloop, (synced via Midi)
– Pad 8 is the wirlie multisample instrument that cam with the bitbox. (8 voices to monophonic, no difference)

Bitbox receives midi clock from hermod.
My case has a built-in midihub, that cleans up midi traffic.
The Hermod -> Bitbox connection is filtered, so that it just passes the clock, the mapped CC's, Note on/off events for the 4 channels used
and nothing else

There are a few other parameters mapped to a bunch of midi CC's, but none of them are changed in my example clip.
It seems to happen mostly when playing the wirlie multisample pad.

Let me see if I can export and send you the project later today

[Steve]

Update to 2.1.1 before sending anything. We gave blackbox a bunch of wonderful new features - then decided to spread that love to the modules. In doing so, we had a few internal speedbumps to manage. I would update to 2.1.1 and double-check.

[nemoyy]

Update to 2.1.1 before sending anything. We gave blackbox a bunch of wonderful new features - then decided to spread that love to the modules. In doing so, we had a few internal speedbumps to manage. I would update to 2.1.1 and double-check.

Thank you for the heads up; …But 2.1.1 still does the weird glitching. It happens with every preset I have.
Here's one that does it particularly consitently: https://we.tl/t-E0QRvFBpc5 (wetransfer)

Maybe there's something completely wrong with the way I build presets too
But for now, i'll have to go back to the latest pre 2.0 release and miss out on those LFOs and sweet sweet Resonance : (

[g.r.u.m]

I've also been experiencing similar glitching (distorted audio, buttons flash, sluggish interface) and wasn't sure if I was my module or settings - so that's a very useful sanity check to be able to download another user's preset - and I can confirm that it causes my bitbox to glitch out too!

Going back to firmware 1.1.7 fixes the glitching with nemoyy's preset and I've been able to increase the polyphony on a few of my presets that wouldn't play properly on the more recent firmware.

Steve - could we please have the "wonderful new features" AND reliable audio playback?

[nemoyy]

g.r.u.m thanks for the nice feeling that i am not the only person on the planet experiencing this stuff with the new firmware

It starts to feel like there is something that's spamming the processor with unnecessary operations.
so that it lags in calculating the audio or even the display/buttons

With 1.7 me too, I can crank all the pads to max polyphony and use the higher quality mode on everything
and it still works flawlessly.
But with 2.1.1 even with everything reduced to monophony and the "normal" quality mode AND removing all Reverbs, -> things go bananas…

[Steve]

g.r.u.m thanks for the nice feeling that i am not the only person on the planet experiencing this stuff with the new firmware

It starts to feel like there is something that's spamming the processor with unnecessary operations.
so that it lags in calculating the audio or even the display/buttons

With 1.7 me too, I can crank all the pads to max polyphony and use the higher quality mode on everything
and it still works flawlessly.
But with 2.1.1 even with everything reduced to monophony and the "normal" quality mode AND removing all Reverbs, -> things go bananas…

I have your preset. Thanks. Before I look deeper, I would call your attention to the DAC. It is 24/48. Looking at your wav files I can see they are made up of three different sample rates & bit-depths. Yes, the blackbox will load and playback almost any wav you give it, it is also true that the CPU will need to do some extra work to convert those to 24/48. So your assessment of "spamming the processor..." seems pretty likely. If you use several audio resolutions, looping, syncing, lots of pads, Hi-Q, etc I would expect some glitching.

Please convert your files to 24/48 and try again. To be clear, there is generally no issue with other resolutions. That changes when you are pushing the box hard. I would strongly recommend adjusting your wav files so as to not ask the CPU to do the extra work. You may still see some glitching - and we can tweak it further. However, this is the first step to finding the underlying cause. The other consideration is a better microSD card. I generally use the SanDisk Extreme Pro A2 64GB with blackbox and do not experience performance issues from the microSD.

[nemoyy]

Oh wow, I haven't thought about sampling rates and bit depths at all...
Thank you very much @steve for the hint!
(although a bit weird that older firmware versions don't seem to be affected by it at all
or at least as much as v2.1 upwards)

Do bitbox micro and blackbox both work best with 24bit/48kHz?

I'll have a look into faster sd cards as well, that's a good idea

[Steve]

All of our samplers operate at 24/48. be careful of the "doesn't happen in previous firmware" myth. Yes, you may step back one or two versions and find it resolved. But step back another and it was broken. Very often, adding new things breaks old things (or at least affects them). Sometimes, things we fixed long ago show up because of this.

generally speaking, use the best card possible and 24/48 audio. This leaves the CPU for more interesting (artistic) purposes.

[nemoyy]

After spending another nice evening with my Bitbox micro it doesn't seem to be a Sampling rate, bit depth or SD card issue.

I ran the SD card through blackmagic's disk speed test and it had a reading speed of 50 mps
So I copied everything onto another card I had that had a higher reading speed (85 mps)
That didn't solve any of the glitching problems

I then went on to change every Wav file on that card to 24/48 and that too didn't cure the glitchery.
So I ordered another SD Card that with a reading speed of 170mps. Maybe that helps. It should be here tomorrow

[Steve]

I'm curious to know the brand and specs for both cards. Make sure to format with SD Card Formatter. If you continue seeing this, please send us a short video. We are happy to help you troubleshoot but it is sometimes easier to see it.

[nemoyy]

The fastest micro SD I could find online arrived today
and again it doesn't seem to have any impact on the glitching.
Here's the 3 cards I tried:
– SanDisk Extreme 32GB MSD HC1
– SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB MSDXC I (V30)
– Kingston CANVAS React plus 64GB MSD XCII (V90)
I tried each of them with FAT32, MSDOS Fat, and ExFat.
no Difference at all.
It has to be something else than the card.

[Steve]

I think we can eliminate the card. An important first step. Next, can you reproduce any of these issues using stock content?

[g.r.u.m]

nemoyy I've also converted the samples in your preset to 24/48 and the glitching is just as bad when all pads are playing. I doubt if it's the SD card at fault as I'm using a SanDisk Extreme Pro A2 64GB - as recommended by Steve.

I suspect this comment is closest to the truth, but sadly not a solution…

Very often, adding new things breaks old things (or at least affects them).

[nemoyy]

Steve I did try to recreate the glitches with stock material only.
And yep. it does it now even on version 1.0.12.

I started from scratch, then added a Kick, Snare, Open / Closed Hats triggered via gate inputs.
then added a percussion Loop triggered via Midi note (toggle)
all good so far.

Then the House Piano Multisample triggered via Midi (gate mode).
As soon as I turned polyphony on and played a few chord on the midi keyboard -> instant glitchery.
And at this point there are just 6 pads in use.

As soon as a bunch of notes are held at the same time, it glitches out.
(I often play 6-7 Note Chords. and I use a sustain pedal too)

What I also found out contributes to the glitches is CV modulation.
I fed a CV envelope into one of the CV Inputs and made it control
the volume on the multisample pad with the house piano in it.
(Classic quarter note ducking) That made it worse.

Also the higher I turn up the release time on the multisample instrument,
the more it crackles and glitches.

Adding Midi CC modulation also seems to add to the glitchiness too.


Sooo… is there a Bitbox Micro 2 planned maybe? : ))))
with a little more processing power?
I'm starting to feel, that I may just expect too much cpu power from the micro...

[nemoyy]

Little Update:

Still glitching. I also noticed that presets now take a lot longer to load!
Previously it was almost instantly, so that during a live performance I could just load another Preset for song transitions almost without any noticable dropouts,
but now it takes 5-10 seconds to load even the most basic preset. I'm a bit lost here. It feels like it just keeps getting worse and worse.
Should I go buy a new one? just to see if that fixes it?