Clock

A free-running normalized phase ramp whose cycle rate is specified directly in hertz.

What it does #

Clock repeatedly advances from phase 0 toward 1 and wraps back to 0 at the selected frequency. It supplies a simple time reference for sequencers, phase lookup modules, dividers, triggers, and other Grid structures that should run independently of musical note lengths.

Controls and ports #

Control	Label	Official description
rate	Rate	Rate in Hertz

Practical uses #

• Drive Steps, Gates, waveform lookup, or other phase-addressed modules at a fixed cycles-per-second speed.
• Multiply or divide the phase-derived event stream to build clocks that are independent of project tempo.
• Use a very low rate for long free-running modulation or a higher rate as a control/audio experiment.

Things to know #

• Hertz means cycles per second, so changing project tempo does not change Clock's nominal speed.
• The phase output is continuous between wraps; convert the wrap or regions of the phase ramp into triggers or gates when discrete events are required.
• A Rate of 2 Hz completes two 0-to-1 cycles per second, while 0.5 Hz takes two seconds per cycle.
• Clock is simpler than LFO: it exposes the timing ramp itself rather than first turning phase into a selectable modulation waveform.

Technical details #

No Nitro implementation has been confirmed for this visible module. The behavior is described conservatively from module metadata and editorial research.

The expected accumulator is phase[n+1] = fract(phase[n] + rate/sample_rate), with the current wrapped phase sent to the output. This is consistent with the Hertz branch of the recovered shared Grid LFO phasor, but no dedicated Clock Nitro wrapper has been identified. Therefore initialization, parameter smoothing, negative-rate handling, sleep/resume behavior, and any secondary logic output are not yet claimed as bit-exact.

Open questions #

• Measure initial phase, Rate 0, negative or modulated rates, parameter smoothing, and behavior after device sleep or project reload.
• Confirm all visible outputs and the exact sample on which phase wraps from values near 1 back to 0.
• Determine whether Clock reuses grid/lfo/phasor with hidden fixed settings or is implemented by the host wrapper.

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.