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Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 4:58 pm
by briolate
Just wondering if you guys had any tips on achieving lo fi quality for recording acoustic guitar and vocals in ableton. I use an mbox 2 interface with a m-audio condenser mic ($100 range). Here's an example of the sound I'm trying to achieve.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4PEUQ4O ... re=related I'd really appreciate it.
Re: Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 5:06 pm
by DaffyDub
You cannot produce lo-fi in Ableton.... the audio engine is too good, and no matter what you do it will end up sounding high end
Sorry.... couldn't resist the temptation

Re: Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 5:17 pm
by senator adam
There are a lot of lofi plugs in Ableton. Try out a combination of them, roll off the top end a bit with EQ8. I'm listening to that track with my crappy laptop speakers, but to me it sounds like there is a lot of mids in that track. Maybe boost the mids a slight bit as well in EQ8. Do various combinations of the plugs, you can change the order of the plugins in Ableton easily
Also, try some of the free plugs from this guy:
http://www.jeroenbreebaart.com/
The ferox plug is excellent. I use it on lots of tracks.
Re: Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 9:33 pm
by briolate
Thanks a lot senator adam, and you as well for your humor, dub.

Re: Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 4:01 am
by cacti
recording the drums yourself in a basement with bad sound and a lot of bleeding seems to be what works.
Re: Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 8:42 am
by Rabalder
Record, export, compress, import, export, compress, import.......
Re: Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 9:01 am
by ilia
There are quite a few plugins and tricks you could try to lo-fi-ify your recordings, but honestly, the fastest path towards that Woods sound is to get a cassette four-track, some cheap dynamic mikes and record away.
Re: Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 1:26 pm
by pepezabala
you can try to reporduce your recording on crappy equipment and re-record that.
Also fast and good is eq3 - just turn off lows and highs, leaving only the mid-band. Then put the vinyl-distortion behind it and play with it's settings. For example.
Re: Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 2:10 pm
by MPGK
Why didn't anyone mention Redux? I use it all the time.
Re: Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 4:51 pm
by cacti
MPGK wrote:Why didn't anyone mention Redux? I use it all the time.
because on that tack there wasnt any bit reduction, and he said he wanted to sound like that track.
Re: Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 5:10 pm
by wehkah
i often use saturator or dynamic tube for slight distorsions. fiddle with freq & bias. to have a room like in the record sample, i recommend a impulse reverb like freeverb and a room impulse, for example a "living room" impulse.
freeverb:
http://freeverb3.sourceforge.net/
impulse can be found here:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~fokkie/IR.htm
http://www.audioease.com/IR/index.html
how to guitar amp modeling with ir:
http://www.guitarampmodeling.com/viewto ... =2452&f=32
have fun...
peace
T
Re: Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 5:42 pm
by MPGK
cacti wrote:MPGK wrote:Why didn't anyone mention Redux? I use it all the time.
because on that tack there wasnt any bit reduction, and he said he wanted to sound like that track.
Okay, guess you're right about that...
It's pretty obvious it's also about the way you sing and play your instruments.
I noticed the vocals are doubled, one track's panned to the left and one to the right - or do my ears deceive me? Distortion does the compression work, mid-bandpass has been mentioned before.
Re: Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 11:26 pm
by evernaut
Try running stuff through Stillwell's Bad Buss Mojo
http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=19
It's a free trial plugin.
It will fuck your shit right up.
Re: Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 11:32 pm
by 3dot...
Re: Creating Lo-fi in ableton
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 11:34 pm
by 3dot...
cacti wrote:recording the drums yourself in a basement with bad sound and a lot of bleeding seems to be what works.
bleed is a key.. emulate some crosstalk...