I find the bit reduction to be pretty much unuseable…
The first half of it far too little and the upper half is far too much. And a very unmusical quality to it.
I wish i could have a real gnarly distortion instead. Like a ProcoRat that I could use to affect kicks and hats…
I agree. I had hoped it would have a different character than the AR bit reduction but it sounds the same to me. As soon as it audibly does anything it’s grating to my ears. I would have loved sample rate reduction instead.
EDIT: with so many ways to gain stage on the DT (vol vs. sample level vs. amp level etc) maybe there is a better way to use it?
I like it for LFO flavoring on certain loops and drums.
It’s a very strange effect for sure. At first it seems to lower the volume of the sample and I can’t really hear much of what it’s doing. Then there’s a point, around 110-115, where it boosts the effect and the volume is way hot. Definitely room for improvement here.
it’s a bug, reported, confirmed, should be fixed soon.
Wow, presumed as it has bit reduction that DT had sample rate reduction also? Generally bit reduction is always accompanied by SRR as an effect.
I generally find SRR much more useful than BR in the various bits of gear / plugins that I use, and particularly on drums.
A common problem with bit reduction in a lot of effect units is the volume increasing as you lower the bit depth making it difficult to use a lot of the time.
My OTO biscuit does this and its really hard to gain stage when activating heavy bit reduction. Thankfully SRR on biscuit is incredible, best I’ve heard.
Don’t have a DT so not sure on its implementation, but sounds like a similar issue.
The OTO is King of Sample Rate Reduction
perhaps the Elektron Bit Rate Reduction could be viewed as something like the “Saturation Knob” plugin … the makers of that suggest dialling it in on the master buss until it is audible, then back off until just before the effect was audible, to achieve more of a sense than a sound of warm tape saturation.
maybe that applies to the use of BRR on an individual sound … a sculpting tool, working in conjunction (although not always) with other parameters.
using the filter often helps find a sweet spot or two with BRR, also adding some Dist on the Vol page.
different sounds occasionally love some BRR like a hihat, or a detuned house chord.
or on a vocal.
when sculpting sound, remember the Vol is there to add punch to a sample or to mellow it’s sound pressure perception… whilst the overall Level transparently brings up or down the level of that designed character of sound.
It works wonders on really clean samples but it tends to multiply noise so if there is any noise in your sample it usually just ends up sounding too fuzzy, you can filter that down and it will still sound good though just not as much as on a clean sample. Try it out on a perfect sine wave looping or something of that sort and you will see how cool it can sound.
Use a Bitrazer for my SRR needs. Not as good as the biscuit, but still cruuunchy 
Ita decent on long, padlike samples.
Other than that i havent found use for it as well. Havent routed it to lfo’s though. Maybe it ia nice that way.
all it seems to to is add a fizzy sheen to the sound (for 3/4 turn of the encoder)
Yeah turning it up sounds a whole lot like it’s adding harshly EQ’ed white noise over the top to my ears. About addressing it in the future, yes!
I’m willing to bet it has to do with the gain staging of the effects like on the RYTM before they added the option for “Legacy” FX mode. They probably will fix it eventually, but you’re going to have people complaining about having to re-edit their patches, and you might see a “Legacy” mode implemented in the DT as well lol.
Legacy mode changed the level of SEND to the Send FX.
Where as bit reduction is an insert effect.
The problem with the bit reduction on the Rytm is it’s solely dependant on the dynamics of the sample slot. By nature the effect of bit reduction lowers your headroom so it works best with dynamic sources, or as suggested previously, with an LFO. laments lack of more LFO slots on Rytm
+1 for a sample rate reduction vs. BR
i quite liked the Lo-Fi FX on the OT for that !
Both is best 
I know what you mean 
we have just one knob for it on the SSR though
…Just now put an LFO on it like some people already said and yeah its more musical to my ear that way, pleasantly surprised 
This! I find bit reduction works very nicely on the single cycle waveforms.