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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 :mrgreen:







Sorry.... couldn't resist the temptation :D

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...
Rabalder wrote:Record, export, compress, import, export, compress, import.......
:lol: :lol: :lol:

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...