Datamosh

Drags the image along its own movement instead of showing each new frame. Datamosh finds how each block of the picture moved since the last frame, the way a video codec does, and moves the picture it is holding by that much. The new frame itself only comes through at a Keyframe, or where Refresh lets it.

Parameter	Control	Range	Notes
Keyframe	Button and Lamp		Shows the clean image again and moshes on from there. The Lamp flashes on every keyframe. See Keyframe with modulation.
Motion from	Selector	This picture, AUX 1 to AUX 8	Where the movement comes from. This picture uses the module’s own image; an AUX bus moves this image with the movement of the picture sent there. A thumbnail shows the bus. When no module to the left sends to it, the panel warns and the image passes through. Default This picture. Not a modulation target: it is routing, like Morph’s Into.
Style	Selector	Smear, Bloom	How the movement is used. Can be modulated: it switches half way. Default Smear.
Blocks	Selector	8 px, 16 px, 32 px	Size of the blocks that move together. Bigger blocks look coarser. Can be modulated. Default 16 px.
Range	Trough	4 to 64 px	The longest move per frame it looks for. Raise it for fast movement. Default 16 px.
Refresh	Trough	0 to 1	Lets blocks that changed a lot show the new image. 0 never does; 1 always shows the new image. Default 0.
Pour	Trough	0 to 4	Bloom only. How fast the picture keeps pouring: 1 at the speed things moved, 0 holds still. Default 1.
Freeze	Selector	Off, On	Bloom only. On keeps pouring the way it does now and ignores new movement. Can be modulated. Default Off.

At Mix 0 the effect is skipped. When Mix comes back up, or the slot is switched back on, Datamosh starts again from the clean image, so it never returns an old smear.

Styles

• Smear moves the held picture by this frame’s movement. Things that move drag the old picture with them, and new things appear only as color smeared from what was there before.
• Bloom remembers the last clear movement of each block and keeps moving the picture by it, so the image keeps pouring in those directions after the movement stops. Pour sets how fast; Freeze stops new movement from changing the directions.

Keyframe with modulation

Keyframe fires like a simulation’s Reset: let the assigned value fall below 0.25, then rise to 0.5 or higher. It must fall below 0.25 again before another keyframe can fire. A synced square LFO keyframes once per cycle; an Envelope triggered by a MIDI note or audio threshold keyframes on each hit. See Reset with modulation.

A keyframe only replaces the held picture. The movement Datamosh has learned stays, so Bloom pours the clean image straight away.

When it starts clean

Datamosh holds a picture between frames, like a simulation. It starts again from the clean image when the effect is added or switched on, when Mix comes back from 0, after a patch load and when the output resolution changes. Changing Blocks clears the learned movement but keeps the picture. Moving or removing an Insert FX slot restarts it.

Datamosh shares the simulations’ GPU memory limit. If it cannot start, its panel says so and the image passes through.

Perfect loops

With Perfect loop on, Datamosh carries on through the loop start, so it never snaps back to the clean image there. The loop check lists it as warming up for one loop: the export plays one loop first, so the file opens on a picture that is already moshing. Each loop still differs a little from the last, and Video crossfade blends that at the loop point.

To bring the clean image back at the same moment of every loop, drive Keyframe with a synced LFO. See Keyframe with modulation.

Datamosh or Fluid

Fluid also smears the image with its movement, but like liquid: soft edges and curling flow. Datamosh is digital: the picture moves in rigid blocks by whole pixels, keeps old content until a keyframe or Refresh, and Bloom pours in straight, block-shaped streaks.

Recipes

• Mosh on the beat. Add Datamosh to a module showing a video with movement. Route a square LFO synced to one bar to Keyframe. Every bar starts clean and smears until the next.
• Mosh into another clip. Add two SOURCE modules. In the first, load the clip whose movement you want and send it to AUX 1. In the second, load the clip whose picture you want, and add Datamosh with Motion from on AUX 1. Keep the first module to the left of the second.
• Pouring drift. Choose Bloom, let something move for a moment, then turn Freeze on. The picture keeps flowing in those directions until the next keyframe.
• Half-broken video. Set Refresh around 0.7: still areas stay clean, while blocks that change a lot come through and the rest smear.

Related: Insert FX Chains, AUX Sends and Buses, Block Crunch.