OR-0012
Tekura
Oregon, USA · 1979 – c. 2001
Ser. Type 4400 · Ser. No. 00417-A
1988 · effect
Issued as VST3 · AU
Restored 2024 from 1988 hardware.
Tekura 4400 — Quantization Analyzer
Tekura Type 4400 · Quantization Analyzer · restored from Ser. No. 00417-A · Tekura, Oregon, USA, 1988
The restorer's note
Tekura built this to reveal bit-depth error, not to make it musical — but revealed error, it turns out, is a superb effect. Unit 00417 is the oldest instrument in the archive, hardware revision A, and its scope still draws the quantization staircase in real time. Nothing here is romanticised. That is precisely why it works.
Acquisition
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The plate
Listening
Listening
Demonstration recordings, prepared at the bench.
Eight bits, truncated
The phrase runs dry for five seconds, then the bench default: Bits at 8, Quantize set to Truncate, Dither off. The grain sits in the decays, where the level falls and the staircase shows.
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Sixteen down to two
Bits steps from 16 down to 2 against calibrated tones, Quantize on Truncate, Dither off. The steps are audible by eight; by two the staircase is most of what remains.
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What dither is for
Held at Bits 4 with Quantize set to Round. Dither steps from Off to TPDF, then Shaped-Hi; Dither Level rises to 2 LSB, and Bias tips the staircase off centre at the end. The grain trades for hiss, then the hiss moves up out of the way.
0:00 / 0:30
The exhibit
The exhibit.
