Red Panda Bitmap 2, A Pedal For Musical Bit Crushing, Distortion & Wavefolding

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Bitmap 2 is an updated version of Red Panda ‘s beloved bit-crusher effect with new mangling features that lets the pedal appear in a new, beautiful-distorted light

Red Panda is also showing a beautiful, new effect pedal at the virtual NAMM 2021. They have announced a successor of its beloved Bitmap bit-crusher pedal with fractional bit reduction and sample rate modulation.

Bitmap 2 contains many new features that further expand the sound spectrum of this musical, noisy pedal.

Red Panda Bitmap 2

The new version already had a huge arsenal of raw sound benders and manglers. Bitmap 2 goes further and adds waveshaping, wave folding, and a window comparator for extreme digital distortion. Like the original, it’s capable of bit rate and crushes signals in a very crazy but musical way. On the interface, you now get a drive control that works with single-coil guitars to synthesizers with an 8 dBu maximum signal level and enough gain to sound like an overdriven mixer channel. Thanks to the stereo ins/outs via TRS cables, you can handle most signals with ease.

Bitmap 2 also adds modulation and envelope control to the engine that let modulate parameters (sample rate, mix..). This creates dynamic, responsive distortion and digital artifacts. Plus it now has a 4-pole lowpass filter perfect to cut unwanted frequencies. The filter can also be assigned to an external footswitch that allows you to use the filter in a more creative way.

Red Panda Bitmap 2

The Bitmap 2 is tuned to provide maximum sustain without sputtering on staccato notes. Less extreme settings add layers of nonlinearities that interact in subtle ways, giving you the warmth and grit of 8- and 12-bit samplers. Sample rate reduction turns your guitar into 8-bit video game sounds or twists scales into inharmonic melodies. Sample rate modulation adds subtle motion or morphs your guitar into entirely new textures.

Storable & Expandable

In Bitmap 2 hardware, you can save four presets but if you need more space, you can save up to 127 recallable via MIDI. That’s pretty handy, especially for live performances. It also ships with a web-editor that gives you access to additional features. Mmm, more features always sound tempting.

I am a fan of the Red Panda Pedals. Even if I rarely use these types of effects, I am happy that the Bitmap has been catapulted into modern times. It is a pedal that can generate absolutely beautiful crazy, weird sounds. I’m looking forward to the first demos with synthesizers.

Red Panda Bitmap 2 will be available for pre-order for $299 USD. The expected shipping date is 5th February 2021.

More information here: Red Panda

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