Average

A stateful one-pole running average that smooths rapid changes over time.

What it does #

Average continuously blends the latest input into an internal state. Short settings follow the source closely, while longer settings suppress fast variations and leave a slower trend. Despite its name, the recovered core is an exponential-style running average rather than a finite rectangular sample window.

Controls and ports #

Control	Label	Official description
amount	Amount	Amount of time being averaged

Practical uses #

• Smooth noise before Sample / Hold so neighboring captured pitches or modulation values vary less wildly.
• Extract a slow trend from a fast or irregular control signal.
• Reduce jitter before thresholding, scaling, quantizing, or displaying a value.

Things to know #

• Average is stateful and therefore changes timing as well as numerical variation.
• The recovered algorithm is a one-pole recursive average, not a median filter and not an exact average over N equally weighted past samples.
• At processor start its state is initialized from the current input instead of ramping from zero; explicit reset behavior remains to be measured.
• The visible Amount-to-internal-rate conversion is outside the recovered body.

Technical details #

A high-confidence Nitro implementation candidate supports the technical summary, but the visible-module mapping remains inferred.

The exact grid/level/grid_average body stores one state per stereo lane. In the 4x Grid domain it computes C = 2*rate/(sampleRate*4) and, for each sub-sample, updates state = (1-C)*state + C*x; Out is the new state. Start initializes state to zero but marks it for a first-process jump to the current input, preventing an artificial fade-in. The UI's Amount time is converted to rate by an unrecovered wrapper.

Nitro port	Type
x	InputAudioPortType
rate	InputAudioPortType
out	OutputAudioPortType

Open questions #

• Fit the visible Amount scale to the internal Rate and measure settling time, -3 dB frequency, and step response.
• Test minimum/maximum time, modulation smoothing, stereo independence, reset, and abrupt Amount changes.
• Verify stability and clamping at out-of-range or audio-rate-modulated Amount values.

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
• Build a Pitch and Harmony Engine

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