LFO

A geometric modulation oscillator with free, tempo-synchronized, transport-locked, and externally phase-offset operation.

What it does #

LFO advances through a repeating phase cycle and converts that phase into a selectable Triangle, Pulse, Sine, or Teeth shape. Skew changes the geometry of the selected shape, while the timing, reset, phase, stereo, and polarity controls determine when and where the cycle is read.

Controls and ports #

Control	Label	Official description
gate_in	Gate In	Trigger restarts the LFO's phase
phase_in	Phase In	Offsets the LFO's phase
rate_in	Rate In	Control input added to the rate buss
out	Out	Signal out
logic_out	Logic Out	High logic for the first half of the period, and low logic for the second half
modulator	Modulator Out	For wireless control of parameters
waveshape	Waveshape [triangle, pulse, sine, teeth]	Base waveforms to choose from, varied by the Skew parameter
skew	Skew	Waveshape variation amount
rate	Rate	Frequency, in the current Timebase
timebase	Timebase [frequency or note length]	Unit used for Rate
phase_all	Phase All	Shifts the module's phase
phase_offset	Phase Offset	Relatively shifts the right channel's phase
bipolar	Bipolar	Scales the module's output from roughly '-1' to '+1'
transport_sync	Transport Sync	Positions the module's clock relative to current global transport

Practical uses #

• Choose a beat timebase and enable Transport Sync for modulation that returns to the same value at the same arrangement position.
• Patch Gate In for note- or event-retriggered movement, then use Phase to choose the value at which each cycle begins.
• Use Phase Offset to create stereo movement, or drive Rate and Phase In at audio rate for FM-like and phase-distortion textures.

Things to know #

• The main signal follows the selected waveform, while Logic Out is high during the first half of the cycle and low during the second half.
• Transport Sync derives phase from the project position while playback is running, making the result reproducible after timeline jumps.
• Phase In is additive: it offsets the internally generated phase rather than replacing it unless the internal rate is held at zero.
• Phase Offset is relative to the right channel, so a nonzero setting can turn a mono modulation shape into a stereo pair.
• Bipolar mode maps the geometric shape to approximately -1 through +1; unipolar operation stays in the positive control range.

Technical details #

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

The confirmed grid/lfo/phasor component maintains a wrapped phase accumulator. In free operation, a Hertz rate advances conceptually as phase += rate / sample_rate; the recovered body also supports kHz, duration, bar, straight, dotted, triplet, and Hold timebases. A Gate In value at or above 0.5 resets its state to zero. Static Phase is converted from degrees by dividing by 360, the right lane receives phase_offset/360, and patched Phase In is added as phase_in * phase_amount before wrapping. With Transport Sync active and playback running, the component calculates phase from transport seconds or beats instead of the free state. The separate geometric waveform/Skew stage has not been identified as a dedicated Nitro body, so exact shape equations are still open.

Open questions #

• Record every Waveshape at several Skew settings to recover the exact Triangle, Pulse, Sine, and Teeth equations and their phase orientation.
• Measure whether a held-high Gate In continually pins phase to zero or is edge-detected by the visible wrapper.
• Confirm the visible Rate In scaling, Hold behavior, Transport Sync behavior while stopped, Logic Out boundary sample, and right-channel Phase Offset convention.

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
• Bitwig LFO Modulator - Sequential and Periodic Modulation

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