Abs

Splits a signal into non-negative magnitude and a +1/-1 sign signal.

What it does #

The magnitude output removes the input polarity, while the Sign output reports whether the input is negative. Bitwig documents Sign as +1 for positive values and zero, and -1 for negative values.

Controls and ports #

Control	Label	Official description
sign	Sign	Polarity of the incoming signal (outputs '+1' for positive or zero, '-1' for negative)

Practical uses #

• Full-wave rectify a bipolar waveform by taking the magnitude output.
• Use Sign to switch or modulate a later process according to input polarity.
• Reconstruct the original value by multiplying Magnitude by Sign.

Things to know #

• The magnitude output is always zero or positive.
• At exactly zero, the documented Sign output is +1, not zero.
• The current exact-name Nitro match confirms fabs for magnitude but does not expose the visible Sign output, so the mapping is only partial.

Technical details #

Nitro evidence is partial (medium confidence), so only the confirmed portion is described as implementation detail.

Magnitude is confirmed as magnitude = abs(x) by math/abs.nitrobin. The installed control metadata defines sign = +1 when x >= 0 and sign = -1 when x < 0. The second output is not present in that Nitro module, indicating an additional wrapper or primitive outside the matched source.

Nitro port	Type
in	InputAudioPortType
out	OutputAudioPortType

Simple process assignments:

• out = fabs(in)

Open questions #

• Locate the implementation of the visible Sign output and test NaN and negative-zero classification.

Version and sources #

Checked against Bitwig Studio 6.0.6. This page combines Bitwig's module metadata, the existing Grid course and guides, and Nitro analysis where the mapping is strong enough to support a technical statement.

Related material #

• Grid Modules course reference

Return to Bitwig Grid Modules or the Grid Modules course lesson.