Bitbox Micro Firmware: CC Reference

Which Pad Types Work

Multi-Sample: this is a Sample pad with a folder of WAVs loaded into it, not a separate mode, so it behaves exactly like a Sample pad. Switch it to another mode and it plays only the first file.

The gaps are the module's, not the patch's:

• Reverse: Clip and Slicer pads have no reverse setting.
• Play Through: Slicer pads only, since only they have slices.
• Loop Mode and Loop Crossfade: Clip and Slicer pads loop their own way, with no equivalent setting.
• Recorded-sample pads: these have no FX sends in stock firmware. The delay and reverb knobs on the FX screen do nothing on them either.

Sustain and the LFO controls work on Clip and Slicer pads too.

The three devices are not in the table. They act on every pad routed to Out 1/2, whatever its type.

MIDI CC Map

There is nothing to set up on the module. Each control has a fixed CC that works on every preset, with no MIDI Learn and no modulation slot. Set your controller to send these CCs on the channel shown and you are playing. Every one but the pad stop opens a pop-up.

Which Channel to Send On

• CC 79 to 93, and 120/123: per pad. Send them on the channel the pad listens on, the one you trigger it with. Eight pads on eight channels answer independently.
• CC 78, 102, 104, 105, 107 and 112 to 119: the Clip modes, per Clip pad, on its channel in the same way.
• CC 108 to 111: the delay, which the whole preset shares. Send them on any channel.
• CC 14 to 29: the Character chain, channel 1 only.
• CC 40 to 48: the compressor, channel 1 only. All four types share CC 41–45. Each uses them differently.
• CC 50 to 57, and 59: the EQ and filter, channel 1 only.

If a device ignores everything, put your controller on MIDI channel 1.

Do this once. Every preset behaves the same after that.

Recommended Controller

The per-pad CCs go out on each pad's own channel, so your controller must set the MIDI channel per control, not just per device. Many cannot.

The Neuzeit Instruments Drop can. Each control sends on its device's default channel or on any channel you pick. One Drop device slot covers all eight pads plus the global controls, leaving the other seven slots free. Any controller that sets the channel per control works as well.

Encoder Types

The Encoder column in the MIDI CC map suggests how to set up each control. It changes the feel, not what the module does. Almost everything wants a plain linear encoder. These are the exceptions:

Attack and Release: use a curve that starts gradually and then ramps up, so the useful fast settings are not crammed into the first few percent. Vendors name it differently, so go by shape. On the Drop it is Exponential minus. The plus variant makes the crowding worse. At halfway, Attack should send about 8 and Release about 12. If either sends about 64, the curve is still linear.

Ratio: linear is fine. The musical settings sit low, though, with 2:1 at about 5% and 4:1 at about 16%, so move slowly down there.

Loop Mode, LFO Wave and Character pick effect: these are lists, not sweeps. Use a stepped encoder with exactly this many steps. Any other count skips entries or hits one twice.

Without stepped encoders, a slow linear sweep still works. Find the bands by ear.

Switches: set up anything marked ≥64 on as a button sending 0 and 127.

Getting the Full Range

This is about CCs you map yourself in a preset. The patch's own CCs always cover their full range.

A CC mapped through a preset moves its parameter upward from the saved value. Save a parameter halfway and the CC only reaches the top half. It looks exactly like a broken mapping.

Before you save, set each parameter you will drive to its minimum:

Delay cutoff's minimum, 0, means fully low-passed, though the screen shows it as negative. The delay sounds very dark until the CC brings it up.

Your preset will sound different before any MIDI arrives. Feedback at zero is a single slap, not a delay. Do this only for parameters you really will drive.

Use 14-Bit CC

Use it for CCs you map yourself in a preset, such as filter cutoff and resonance. The module still lands on only 128 positions, because it discards the second half of the pair. But a 14-bit sweep sends far fewer messages, so the parameter moves smoothly instead of lurching.

Keep the patch's CCs 7-bit. A 14-bit pair sends its second half 32 numbers higher. Something else lives there. For the Character chain, that is auto makeup or the EQ. For CC 50, it is a pad's granular window. Granular Density's second half lands on the delay's filter width, and Loop Crossfade's on Reset All Controllers.

Two tests settle most cases. Look for the pop-up, then try the encoder. Things the module cannot do are in limitations.

Is There a Pop-Up?

A pad pop-up appears only when a pad on that channel took the CC. If none appears, check the channel. Then check the pad type. For the three devices, no pop-up means nothing arrived on channel 1.

A pop-up with no sound means the CC arrived and the cause is elsewhere, such as an LFO pointed at nothing, or Scatter with Density up.

No pop-up opens for the value already showing, or with the OSD row on OFF or CPU.

Does the Encoder Do It?

Turn the parameter by hand. If the encoder changes it, your MIDI is fine. The fault is elsewhere. If it does not, the module cannot do it, and no MIDI will change that. The stop pair, CC 120 and 123, is the one control with no encoder.