#86

That’s part of the appeal for me. I still add “fake imperfection” anyway though :slight_smile:

I’ve been thinking a bit lately about the authenticity angle… actual flaws and limitations (can’t afford better gear), vs. intentionally introduced flaws and limitations (recording to an already worn tape or an old sampler), vs. simulated flaws and limitations (plugins, bitcrushing etc.). I haven’t come to any conclusions other than my old one that “authenticity” is itself kind of an artificial idea.

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#87

For me, authenticity only matters to the extent that the recording medium is interrelated with the concept behind a piece of music. For example, Basinski’s Disintegration Loops is based on a specific process, and would be completely different if it were done with plugins. Similarly, Caretaker’s music wouldn’t really work if he sampled youtube and used a “vinyl simulator” plugin instead of the real thing.

Otherwise, I agree that if you just want a specific kind of lofi sound, it shouldn’t really matter how you achieve it. For me, striving to be “authentic” can be a barrier to getting things done. Sometimes I just want a tape warble sound, but if I wait until I pull out the 4 track and set everything up, it’s probably never going to happen. In that case I’ll just use a plugin.

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#88

Agreed, sometimes using the real thing is important to the process, which is in turn important to the art :slight_smile:

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#89

The ITB-aspect is interesting too and it makes me think of something else. Sounds aren’t just something in themselves but in relation to other sounds. I noticed that it was hard to play guitar in tune against a backdrop of perfectly pitched soft-instruments. I draw the conclusion (or if someone presented an idea) that just as in timing there’s a “pocket” for pitch. And you can make that pocket vary in size, bigger might make it easier for other instruments to be in tune.

I attended a masterclass with Hannes Bieger once and he talked about the importance of drum and percussion sounds “to fly at different altitudes” (frequency wise). Maybe the lofi “depth-of-field” idea can be an analogy to that? Focus/out of focus - close/distant etc.

Regarding authenticity, isn’t that the discussion that always leads to musicians taking up goat farming to make their own drums… :wink:

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#90

If you tend to be conservative (like me), or just slow, in your writing or recording introducing these things early can help push yourself, too. Maybe some unwanted noise took over a little more than you would want if you dialed it in afterward, but it’s done so there it is. You live with it, and maybe grow to love it!

I think of this gbv song where when things are just about to kick in it sounds like one of the guitars gets unplugged or something and then it AGAIN drops out a little later and it adds such odd interest. Why do I love that it does that to the point of getting a little thrill out of anticipating it? Probably a lot of the reasons mentioned above but there’s also a little humor in unprofessionally done things. Like a poorly built porch staircase… you would never want someone to build you something uneven but it can be undeniably charming, anyway. Some ther parallels to architecture, too. Sometimes you want your recordings to be Frank Lloyd Wright, sometimes a crumbling stone wall.

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#91

I’m glad you posted that, because for a particular time/place/genre, when something was “lovingly fucked with by Mike ‘Rep’ Hummel” then it was the finest in lo-fi. (I don’t know if he was credited on Bee Thousand like on some of their adjacent singles, but it definitely sounds like his touch)

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#92

Am totally unfamiliar, will do a little research, thanks!

I was about to type something like “there’s no way they would intentionally record something like that” but quickly realized with that band I could be very wrong haha

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#93

Production value is not at the top of the list of someone who can write 5 songs whilst going to the bathroom (and 3 of them will be good) :slight_smile:

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#94

some of his other highlights (extreme favoring of treble is a technique, to add to the discussion):

(the giant cymbal crash)

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#95

Aha… another factor along with wabi-sabi and so on… the idea of working fast and loose and spontaneously, “painting with broad strokes” I think Tony Rolando called it once, or “write drunk, edit sober.”

Although sometimes sober editing is carefully intended to sound like it’s also drunk. :slight_smile:

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#96

ST Modular DIZ is another module using the PT2399 in a weird way. Kind of like a slapback… distortion? very fun noisy thing tho fairly limited

Oh, and I should mention that adding power starve does wonders with PT2399 circuits. I have a little box I made from a circuitbent cheap chinese ‘reverb’ pcb, power starving it is basically instant Wolf Eyes

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#97

The DIY Noise Ensemble pedal, and Midfi’s adapation the Clari(not) uses the PT2399 chip in a similar way to create a distorted fuzz effect. I’ve built the Noise Ensemble and it’s pretty hard to compare to anything else I’ve tried in pedals

edit after listening to the demos of the ST Modular Diz I’m pretty certain it’s the same circuit. There are stripboard layouts for the noise ensemble kicking around.

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#98

I’m a little surprised no-one has talked about nostalgia as part of what’s going on with our desire for lo-fi. For me, this is definitely part of it, although I’m also a bit wary of this motivation too (being misty-eyed about past seems a little lazy). But it’s not just about making modern equipment sound like the gear of our youth. For me, lo-fi is a good way of directly capturing what it feels like to experience a memory as opposed to the here and now.

This parallel seems particularly appropriate when it comes to delays and disintegrating loops. We’re actually hearing the architecture of the machine imprint itself onto the original sound, gradually overwhelming it. This is precisely what happens when an event that we experienced is gradually replaced by our mind’s own biased representation of that event. The machine (whether that’s our brain, or our audio devices) imprints itself on, and eventually replaces, reality.

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#99

Our ear tends towards just intonation, even when playing ostensibly 12et fretted instruments. Most of us tune and finger our strings towards JI without even thinking about it. But you can also do it consciously. Simply tune your soft synths to a JI flavor of your choosing.

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#100

One other technique I remembered today, which I’d planned to explore more:

Train a noise reduction algorithm on the content of a part, then use the algorithm on a mix that includes that part.

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#101

Tie one arm behind your back!

Wear a blindfold!

Don’t sleep!

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#102

I grew up on clean, digitally produced music. Maybe lo-fi is just a fad but I love the character of lo-fi music.

I’m also completely in-the-box. Here’s some of what I do:

Convolution reverb. It’s a magical one-stop tool for changing the surrounding source and space of a sound. Get a decent recording of a loud noise in your favorite stairwell, your favorite speaker, your bedroom, etc. Trim it a bit if you’d like. Then use that as your impulse, and every sound you put through it will have the echoes and frequency response of that impulse.
You can also use this to smear sounds into ambient bliss

recommended impulse collections for the experimenters out there:
Unnatural spaces - echoes in small objects
The Threshold - funky impulses that destroy everything in a beautiful way
Shiru’s lofi impulse pack - IRs of cheap speakers
Any samples of cymbals, gongs, drums, or other percussive sounds (maybe something from disquiet0433 if the license allows) - try it out!

Databending. Usually more FSU and less lo-fi but you can find a balance if you look for it.
It would take a long time to fully explain the ideas and processes but I learned starting from these two sites: Intelligent Machinery and stAllio!'s way

also gotta mention Tesselode’s Flutterbird - wow/flutter effect. It’s simple but it works

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#103

how are you liking the Deco?

#104

I gave this a shot today and had so much fun! I used this technique with my Instruo Arbhar to create some granular fm lo-fi stuff:

And then, on the final track, I also played back a conversation that I had with my daughter a few years ago about a planet she invented called “Planet Couch Level”. It almost has the effect of feeling like you’re reaching back through the fog and static of time. Anyway, this is a brilliant technique; thanks for sharing!

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#105

I produce ITB in Ableton, but most of the time that’s because I work with sound/music professionally and I need to work very fast. My productions are a lot cleaner for commercial work, but I normally go through an analog mastering process at least to print stems through analog hardware. If I’ve got the luxury of time, or for my personal work, I quite often take my reordings/melodies/beats etc. and then chuck them into eurorack samplers or 4 tracks etc. and treat them like samples to remix. This is my favourite stuff and approach. I tend to ‘remix’ my own music several times transforming it into many things before it becomes a final thing. That process of bouncing stuf out and making new things with it several times, is much more successful than any particular gear I use. I guess in a tape/hardware workd, that process just tends to be engrained in it.

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