Luckily there are plenty of cool lofi plugins available so you don’t have to actually own an old tape machine. The parameters of each stage can be adjusted separately and unused stages can be disabled to reduce CPU consumption in the audio sequencer.Once you have a selection of cool sounds & samples you can further refine your music to sound like it was recorded a few decades ago. The Ukm Chorus 2 VST plugin by uk-music is a 4-stage chorus effect. It would however be easier to just get your hands on a decent LoFi House or Hip Hop sample pack.9.It comes with 8 macros allowing you to decrease the band width, add vinyl crackles, detune and distort the source sound. BVKER LoFi RackThe “LoFi Rack” is a free Ableton Rack based on Live’s stock plugins. The freeware in this list can easily compete with some of the paid stuff I’ll mention later on. That said, you don’t always have to spend money to get some quality software.
![]() ![]() The sound either fits your production or not. The cool part about Labs is that it comes with only a handful of parameters so you won’t spend 10 years trying to get everything perfect. Most of these instruments are rather unique and therefore a nice addition to the basic instruments libraries you probably already own. There are several extensions available, including pianos, brass, choirs and synths. Spitfire Audio LabsLabs is a free software instrument made by the London based sound design company Spitfire Audio. A must have for every lofi producer if you ask me. ![]() It comes with one oscillator, 7 waveforms and controls for ADSR, vibrato and decimation, which makes it perfect for Chiptune or 8-bit music. Sound-Base Audio Retro BoyThe Retro Boy is a Windows only VST synth. Legowelt Ableton RacksLegowelt is a dutch producer known for releasing samples from analog hardware units, but you’ll also find some Ableton Racks on his website, including the Smackos Tape Station, the Smackos Lemuria Vintage Sampler Simulator, the Smackos 808 Simulator and the Smackos Amiga 909. More precisely it has one drive knob and a quantizer, which can run in different modes and qualities. Just like Krush it combines different distortion modes with high and low-pass filters. It’s meant to process “audio to give it a low fidelity sound”. XLN Audio RC-20 Retro ColorProbably the most hyped plugin of this list is the R-c20 Retro Color by XLN Audio. Luckily most of these plugins aren’t that expensive compared to some of the stuff by other brands. A lot of them do more or less the same thing so in the end it’s up to personal preference (and budget), which ones you should get. Best LoFi PluginsAlthough you can definitely do some cool stuff with the freeware I mentioned so far there are some paid options no lofi producer should miss out on. D16 Group Decimort 2Decimort 2 is a bitcrusher on steroids. All knobs sound surprisingly good and I really dig the design. Super VHS again combines multiple effects, including a distortion unit, a retro sounding VST reverb and detune knob labeled “drift”. Baby Audio Super VHSConsidering that Baby Audio is a rather new plugin company, their products already gained quite much attention. If I could only pick one plugin of this list I’d probably go for this one, since it comes with the most features. Combining these options basically allows you to recreate any lofi characteristic you could possibly think of. AudioThing Vinyl StripThe Vinyl Strip is just like RC-20 a multi-effect plugin consisting of 6 different modules: Distortion, Compressor, Bit Crusher, Tilt EQ, Vintage Reverb, and something they call Vinylizer. With less than 50 bucks it’s also pretty affordable. If you’re looking for a cool bitcrusher, this is definitely the one you should get your hands on. Youtube Add Vst On For Fl Studios License Without AnThe problem is that it can’t be used in other DAWs (at least on Mac). Cableguys ShaperBoxWhen it comes to beat making, there’s one plugin every FL Studio user slaps on their melodies: Gross Beat (you’ll find plenty of memes about this). The cool part is that unlike similar effects you can even load your own noise samples and can adjust the exact frequency range, amount, ADSR and stuff like that. It allows you to add noise to any kind of source sound. On their website is stated that you can activate your license without an internet connection, which is pretty cool if you still live in a cave □ Devious Machines TextureTexture is a plugin I just recently found out about watching Virtual Riot’s production workshop he did for Cymatics. Download web client for q see dvr at macIt comes with a variety of adjustable controls, including Noise Level, Noise Type, Impulse Type, Impulse Mix, Emphasis, Stereo, Lowcut, Highcut, Wow, Flutter and Amount. Initial Audio Analog ProAnalog Pro is once again a plugin meant to bring your digital audio tracks to live by simulating analog hardware. The Time one is especially interesting for lofi producers, because it allows you to play back your melodies in halftime, add cool pitching effects and mix everything in with the dry signal. Their ShaperBox combines different effects that can all be modulated. I haven’t tried it out to be honest, but there are some videos about it on YouTube so feel free to check them out if you’d like to learn more about it. According to their website Goodhertz has carefully studied the essence of three different tape machines to make sure their plugin is the most comprehensive tape model they ever heard. Goodhertz Wow ControlWow Control focuses on the weird and random modulations of analog playback devices. Since it’s however available for only $20 it’s particularly interesting for producers on a tight budget. It comes with most features the other plugins in this list have. Aberrant DSP SketchCassetteSketchCassette is a VST inspired by 4-track cassette recorders. You can also get your hands on their free Cassette Transport plugin, which “simulates the sound of tape speeding up and slowing down”. Wavesfactory CassetteAccording to Wavesfactory’s website “ Cassette is an audio plugin that imparts the unique character and sonic imprint of an often maligned recording medium”. Since it also comes with a mix knob you can drive the compression / saturation quite hard and mix it in just a bit to make your drums or vocals or whatever a bit fatter. In contrast to most usual compressors it comes with a big drive knob. It comes with classic compression controls, such as knee or release time, and since it can run in multiband mode you can further control the individual bands a bit. The free offers, especially Vinyl and Labs are no brainers, since. ConclusionAs you can see, there are plenty of lofi plugins available that make your productions sound like they were recorded with a toaster (or something like that). It allows you to increase high frequencies without raising the level too much. Aphex Vintage ExciterThe Aphex Vintage Aural Exciter by Waves is modeled on a tube-powered hardware unit. It doesn’t look that stunning, but it comes with an echo and chorus unit, which sets it apart from the other options in this list. Psychic Modulation EchoMeltEchomelt is “designed for adding character, texture and warmth to your sounds”.
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