Lag

A constant-slope slew limiter that restricts how quickly a signal can move toward its current input value.

What it does #

Lag turns abrupt steps into ramps. Instead of filtering by a weighted average, it moves its stored output toward the input by no more than a fixed amount per processing step, so larger jumps take proportionally longer to complete.

Controls and ports #

Control	Label	Official description
amount	Amount	Amount of time before the current input level is reached

Practical uses #

• Create pitch glide or portamento from stepped pitch values.
• Round the edges of gates, sequencers, random steps, or manually switched controls.
• Prevent sudden control changes from clicking or destabilizing a sensitive feedback path.

Things to know #

• Lag is a slew limiter: a larger input jump takes longer because the output moves at a bounded slope.
• This differs from Average's one-pole response, which approaches the target proportionally and therefore has an exponential tail.
• The recovered core applies the same magnitude limit to rising and falling motion.
• On start it initializes from the current input rather than gliding from zero.

Technical details #

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

The high-confidence lag/lag_Grid body stores one state per stereo lane. For every 4x sub-sample it defines step = rate/sampleRate and clamps the target input to [state-step, state+step], then stores that result. This is an exact constant-slope limiter. The visible Amount-to-Rate conversion and the partially decompiled first-frame horizontal averaging remain wrapper-level details.

Nitro port	Type
x	InputAudioPortType
rate	InputAudioPortType
out	OutputAudioPortType
restart_trigger	InputEventPortType

Open questions #

• Map Amount to rate and measure completion time for several jump sizes, including positive and negative transitions.
• Verify minimum/maximum time, stereo independence, startup, reset, parameter smoothing, and audio-rate modulation.
• Test whether the visible module offers separate rise/fall behavior through inspector options or modulation.

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.