Best "Lo-Fi" Plugins
I've been slow to write about this, however, its time to cover some of the best 'Retro' or 'Lo-Fi' plugins out on the market today..
What’s up Forum,
Over the past 15 years or so, analog emulation has been a hot topic.
I can remember when UAD came out with their SSL emulation, and shortly afterward Native Instruments, Waves, and all sorts of companies were attempting to emulate the analog sound.
Then came the second wave of analog nostalgia, the Lo-Fi craze..
RC20 really changed the game, however, what it really takes advantage of is signal flow, distortion, and modulation.
understanding these concepts will allow you to create essentially any Lo-Fi or degraded effect you want.
BUT
We’re lazy,
So here are some of my absolutely essential/day-to-day retro/analog/Lo-Fi plugins that I use to make tracks sound like this
Air Flavor Pro
This is a plugin that I know I prayed to the Akai Professional Gods of Development for. After poking around in the Mellotron effects plugin section (Akai Force/MPC series) I realized we were missing something really big as an effect.
I probably tweeted my excitement a few more times than I’m proud of.. however.
Shortly afterward they released the flavor plugin and finally the paid version
Flavor Pro.
This is a unique one and I’ve found the vinyl emulation to be a little less than adequate at times, however,
everything else is a go.
Arturia - Tape Mello Fi
Tape Mello Fi is one of my favorite tape plugins on the market.
The tape drive is perfect for emulating the limiting effect of tape mastering.
When I’m using this, I’m typically re-creating the types of effects you would expect in vintage Japanese anime.
I’ll combine anything from Airwindows before this in the signal flow and drive it a bit for some beautiful-sounding distorted FX and samples.
Ploque Arts - Chip Crusher
Years ago I found this plugin while trying desperately to emulate the MPC sound.
Yeah, back in 2008-2014 I was obsessed with sounding like my beats were made on the MPC.
From resampling and degrading, I can personally say I was kind of on the Lofi tip before it was really a ‘thing’
So this is one of my secret sauce plugins.
Especially for sound design or just adding something different to sample or mix elements.
The cabinets are perfect for unique-sounding reverb effects and the different DAC encodings add some subtle harmonics that sound a bit beautiful when driven.
JMG Sound - Retronaut
Retronaut is another secret sauce plugin,
you might notice that the plugin setting is on its ‘init’ setting. that’s because this thing is good right out of the box.
I haven’t really dove into the features and ‘how’ of this plugin really.
It just sounds good, and has some pretty good presets..
Definitely worth a deep dive in the future.
XLN Audio - RC-20 Retro Color
RC-20 is one of the more popular plugins out there. I personally like maybe 5 or so presets and that’s about it.
To really get the most out of this plugin you need to spend some time with it and think outside of the box.
Plugin Alliance - Black Box Analog Design HG-2
Depending on the source material I may put this at the beginning or end of the signal flow.
This is an all-around ‘analogifier’ and brings an element of dimension and power to the sound.
This sounds great on an overall mix AND individual samples.
Personally, I just turn a few things on and use very subtle adjustments to the sound until it’s popping how I want.
Now for my super secret Gem .. only for premium hehe lol
Baby Audio - Super VHS
This is one of my favorite plugins honestly..
This things is pure magic.
I really think it sounds like the VHS era of things and love running synths through a chain with this at the end.
It sounds great right out of the box but when you turn on the ‘Magic’ button and add a bit of static you’ll see how this plugin shines.
So I DO use these plugins in ‘standalone’ mode, however, I’m typically running some VST through the FX chain and sampling into the Force.
This way the effects are ‘printed’, they sound great, and I can mix and match arrangements of fx (through the different samples) without any CPU interference.
This is actually a workflow I picked up working in a DAW trying to emulate the MPC2000XL workflow.
These FX are great by themselves but wonderful when you combine them.
Remember, sound design is about signal flow, so re-arrange your plugins and experiment with different/random preset combinations in your sampling.
Be creative!
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