Pitch Quantize

A chromatic pitch-class quantizer whose allowed notes can be programmed manually or supplied by held notes.

What it does #

Pitch Quantize turns a continuous or chromatic pitch signal into notes from an allowed set of pitch classes. The twelve buttons define that set directly, while its note pre-cord can derive the set from incoming or held notes. Distribution changes whether the source's chromatic spacing or the chosen notes' real positions control the mapping.

Controls and ports #

Control	Label	Official description
in	In	Signal in to be quantized to set (or played) pitch steps
pitch_steps	Pitch Steps [12 toggles]	Sets whether each pitch class (C, C#, D, etc.) will be used
pitch_leds	Pitch Steps [12 LEDs]	Visualizes the pitch classes (C, C#, D, etc.) that are held and will be used
distribution	Note Distribution [uniform or nearest]	Either spaces note steps equally for even rhythms (uniform) or keeps their relative positions for irregular rhythms (nearest)
use_notes	Use Notes	Pre-cord uses device's pitch signals to toggle note steps
note_source	Note Source [menu]	Source of notes for setting note steps

Practical uses #

• Constrain noise, sequencers, or modulation to a hand-picked chord or scale.
• Use held notes as a live note mask so one Grid patch follows changing harmony.
• Choose Uniform when every enabled note should receive a similar share of the input range, or Nearest when chromatic proximity should be preserved.

Things to know #

• The recovered body first rounds the input to the nearest semitone by adding 0.5 and taking the floor.
• Nearest searches upward before downward at equal distance, so exact ties resolve upward in the recovered functions.
• If no pitch classes are enabled, the recovered maps fall back to the incoming chromatic semitone rather than producing silence.
• The Nitro body contains both octave-confined and global nearest searches; the exact visible routing of its internal third distribution value still needs a wrapper-level check.

Technical details #

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

The exact grid/pitch/grid_pitch_quantize core computes s = floor(toSemitones(in)+0.5). Uniform collects enabled pitch classes in ascending order and maps the twelve chromatic positions through index = floor(enabled_count * pitch_class / 12), then restores the rounded input octave. Its octave-nearest map checks increasing distance with Up before Down; a second global-nearest function can cross octave boundaries and applies the same upward tie priority within MIDI keys 0 to 127. Manual buttons or the 12-bit held-note mask feed the same checkMask function. The active-key LEDs use a recursive smoothing state with coefficient 0.999.

Nitro port	Type
in	InputAudioPortType
keyEnabled	InputValuePortType
useNoteInput	InputValuePortType
noteInputMask	InputValuePortType
distribution	InputValuePortType
out	OutputAudioPortType
keyOut	OutputAudioPortType

Open questions #

• Map every visible Distribution option to the Nitro values 0, 1, and 2, especially octave-confined versus global nearest behavior at B/C boundaries.
• Measure update timing for manual toggles, held-note masks, Note Source changes, note releases, and empty masks.
• Verify negative half-semitone ties, MIDI-boundary behavior, stereo lanes, LED smoothing time, reset, and voice scope.

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
• Building a Chord Generator in Bitwig

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