Lo-Fi sound

The Lounge General Discussion
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Hello everybody

I saw that there is no thread about this so I’m starting one to get some informations and advices :smirk_cat:

I would like to know if some of you have some advices to create some Lo-Fi sounds, beats, if there are some special technics, synthesisers especially for this.

After reading some threads it looks like the best way is to get a tape deck and a good compressor to get that warm low quality effect is that easy to do ?

I was planning to use AR for beats, OT for loops / samples, Monologue / Xoxbox for bass and acid sounds and maybe get a cheap DX7 or ESQ1 for chords.
I also have a 1210 MKII to sample some records, but I need more records to use it properly !

I’m not interested by using softwares and really want a hardware approach, and just use Ableton to record it.

So to resume:

  • what is the best way to record this typical sound ?
  • what kind of synth would you use ?
  • any tape decks and compressors recommendations ?
  • how to use my actual stuff in the best way ?

Some examples of what I want to approach :slight_smile: and thank you by advance for all those who will read this thread.

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Get an old reel to reel … i use the akai 4000DS … can get these sounds in spades :slight_smile:

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Yeah tape is best bet for non-realtime. Carboot sales are good for cheap cassette deck gambles.

In pedals the lo-fi junky or chase bliss Warped Vinyl give some nice lo-fi characteristics. Deco too when warble is maxed out etc, but not quite as blatant as what you’re probably looking for.

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Run sounds through small speakers and mic them. Cheap speakers, less cheap mic :slight_smile:

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Yeah, mic them in mono. If you are going reel to reel use old tapes, record-erase-record. Time consuming but fun at the end

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Thank you for your advice I will definitely get a reel to reel tape deck there is lots of offers available for cheap.

So I could use my Octatrack as a little mixer for all my samples then record them into the tape deck then record into my DAW ?

The quality of the tape has any influence on the recording ? Or it’s better to buy decent tapes ?

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I’m using old cassettes (30 to 40 years old I think, I always ask my friends for old tapes) on an old cassette deck which is fed by the octa and routes into my mixer. If I want noise or lo-fi I just re-record the sound on that deck (plugging in my PC instead of the octa). I have a really cheap kenwood deck with in- and outputs for recording, its not up to normal speed and very… inconstant. But that makes it even more fun.
I almost always compress that with the MJUC by Klanghelm, sometimes you need to add some heights, old tapes sound really… muffy?

Here is a little (long) example, impatient people skip to the 9 minute mark ;), some noise I recorded with the octa directly into the kenwood. After that I re-recorded it into Logic X, added compression (MJUC) , hall (Vallhalla Plate), EQ (mostly high frequencies) and some Delay (standard Logic Delay).

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You can do that, yes.

The older the tape, the more lo fi you get. This is more a question of personal taste. Try experimenting, thats how I got it. And listening to Basinski :slight_smile:

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What do you use to record from your Kenwood ?

I was thinking to use this adaptor

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1128798-REG/griffin_technology_gc16035_2_imic_usb_audio_interface.html

Nice sounding demo btw

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Thank you!

Stereo-pair into a cheap Behringer Mixer (I like the EQ though) which goes into my focusrite (scarlett 2i2) :slight_smile:

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Do you think it’s better to use mic or rca inputs ?

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We’re talking about lo fi sound here, so try to use the one that sounds best in your ears. Experimenting is the key :relaxed:
There really is no “right way”.

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Yeah sure I’m finally deciding to go for a Tascam 414MKII

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This thread is paradoxally funny to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love Lofi and support the thread, but It’s like my gear sounds so good, how do I make it sound worse. And what’s the best sounding way to make it sound worse?:wink:

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Hmm this is kind of the way I’m looking for but it depends of your point of view

I’m mainly play techno and for this I’m looking for the best sound quality to make it sound great as much as I can

But I also have a house project, and lo fi sound looks like to be the best to approach what I want to create so if I have to make my gears sound a little bit worse why not haha
And as some people said it’s a funny way to produce music :blush:

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I’m into it and would do the same thing, it’s just funny for me…
Edit: for me it doesn’t actually sound worse, I think it sounds better, I just said that to explain the paradoxical humor

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I like using my SP-404, various analog effects pedals, and pushing levels on cheap mixers.

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I like recording synth lines onto cassete, then when recording back into a DAW I’ll furiously shake my Walkman for that garbled wobbly sound. You even get a bit of the mechanical gear sounds which is cool.

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i totally understand and support your aversion to using software for anything but recording the output of hardware.

that said, a couple of free softwares have proved valuable to me.

“Saturation Knob”

and another one, a Reel-To-Reel.

also there is an emulation of a Russian compressor with lots of character, very cool.

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it’s like subtractive EQ-ing, some information is kept, and some is thrown away.

and then, some elements are created as artefacts, tape hiss, mechanical intrusion, wobble, vinyl crackle.

at one stage i was going to buy a vinyl press simply for achieving organic and authentic vinyl sound effects on my beats :smiley: