Anyone know how to get that "Lo Fi" Sound?

Hello everyone.

Does anybody know how to get the lo fi type sound found in music from Baths and Toro Y Moi?

I can't seem to figure it out.

If you could post a clip of what your talking about that would help narrow it down. There are infinite ways to simply dirty up tracks.

toro y moi sounds like he is running a super squashed compressor on the master track.

downsampling, bitcrushing, eqing and filtering are some of the magic words you're probably looking for here.

thevalley wrote:Hello everyone.

Does anybody know how to get the lo fi type sound found in music from Baths and Toro Y Moi?

I can't seem to figure it out.

I don't mean to jack the thread, but I find it interesting that many people are now looking for "lo fi" type sound.

I seem to have other end of problem:

JVC wrote:Hello everyone.

Does anybody know how to get the hi fi type sound found in music from steely dan and quincy jones?

I can't seem to figure it out.

All the suggestions so far are great. If you use VST's in any part of your process this is something you'll want if lo-fi and throwback sampler character are your thing.

http://www.d16.pl/index.php?menu=203



It's probably of my top 5 favorite plugins ever, certainly in my most used list.

JVC, I know what you mean how it goes in both directions. Roger Nichols who engineered those Steely Dan records was a master. He actually had a series of plugins although they were very premium priced. I would think they have presets that simulate exact settings he favored in those Steely Dan sessions.

Unfortunately Nichols died two years ago and whatever arrangement he and Elemental the plugin manufacturers had fell apart. It seems the plugins are not available anymore. Although they are spotted in the wild, I'll leave it that...

RIP Roger Nichols

Metatron72 wrote:...
JVC, I know what you mean how it goes in both directions. Roger Nichols who engineered those Steely Dan records was a master. He actually had a series of plugins although they were very premium priced. I would think they have presets that simulate exact settings he favored in those Steely Dan sessions.

Unfortunately Nichols died two years ago and whatever arrangement he and Elemental the plugin manufacturers had fell apart. It seems the plugins are not available anymore. Although they are spotted in the wild, I'll leave it that...

RIP Roger Nichols

I kind of jokingly asked the question, but I guess it was good, I didn't know the engineer's name.
I don't think plug-in alone can help achieving the sound quality that Mr. Roger Nichols and members of Steely Dan were able to persue, they definitely had determination, they were known for being perfectionists. It's becoming lost art form.

thevalley wrote:Does anybody know how to get the lo fi type sound found in music from Baths and Toro Y Moi?

I can't seem to figure it out.

I can't seem to see a link to whatever you're talking about.

JVC wrote:

Metatron72 wrote:...
JVC, I know what you mean how it goes in both directions. Roger Nichols who engineered those Steely Dan records was a master. He actually had a series of plugins although they were very premium priced. I would think they have presets that simulate exact settings he favored in those Steely Dan sessions.

Unfortunately Nichols died two years ago and whatever arrangement he and Elemental the plugin manufacturers had fell apart. It seems the plugins are not available anymore. Although they are spotted in the wild, I'll leave it that...

RIP Roger Nichols

I kind of jokingly asked the question, but I guess it was good, I didn't know the engineer's name.
I don't think plug-in alone can help achieving the sound quality that Mr. Roger Nichols and members of Steely Dan were able to persue, they definitely had determination, they were known for being perfectionists. It's becoming lost art form.

Funny cause the mentioned engineer Roger Nichols fit to your question. He used the Wendel Sampling System in in the late 70s and this used a samplingrate of 125kHz !!!! at 12bit. The later Wendeljr. used 50kHz at 16bit (in 1981). IMO this IS HiFi sampling.

Here are the manuals of the Wendel systems
http://home.comcast.net/~ajawam5/Wendel.pdf


Some more info about Roger. always 2-steps ahead
http://www.rogernichols.com/wp-content/ ... ements.pdf
peace

Buy cheap gear, **** a professional studio. That's what lo-fi is all about. So you can finally take a shower because being dirty doesn't make you grimey.

peterpeiper wrote:Funny cause the mentioned engineer Roger Nichols fit to your question. He used the Wendel Sampling System in in the late 70s and this used a samplingrate of 125kHz !!!! at 12bit. The later Wendeljr. used 50kHz at 16bit (in 1981). IMO this IS HiFi sampling.

Was there even a medium at the time that could retain 125khz per seconds for the final mix?

Here is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C08ucWQ6tCo

@Metatron72 I will definitely look into the decimort

@ everyone else, this sound I'm curious about is not exactly lo-fi in the sense that the equipment is cheap/old... it's more like, they have good equipment and are doing something specific to degrade it & give it a somewhat bouncing sound. I think tapedeck understands what I'm looking for.

thevalley wrote:Here is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C08ucWQ6tCo

Nice tune.

It sounds like they are bit crushing their drums. It's not a classic SP sound at all. They are also using lots of short automated filter sweeps and leaving all the little pops and clicks in the audio. There's also a bit of pitch modulation in there to make it sound wonky in parts.

Big fan of Bundick's music!

Uh, I think he said in an interview that he used FL studio to make that first album. I'm almost sure that some lofi sampler was involved, or some imitation bitcrusher may have been added? Also, live vinyl drum samples play a big role in the sound, I think. Just make sure they're good hits. Synth drum hits just won't have the same effect. Incorporate tape into your mix somewhere. Tape can really do some work to a track. Don't dump the entire song down to a tape, though... Try stemming your mixes. It's a pain when you have to go back and chop the audio file to match the non-tape file, but it's worth it (provided you like the sound of it). Also, I know Ernest Greene use(s/d) Reason 4, and he said something about weird techniques he used with compression, and I know him and Chaz had the same sort of sound going at the time. I guess the whole "chillwave" thing, if you want to call it that.