What Is Lofi Music And History Of Lofi Music?

What is lofi music and Brief history of lo-fi sound

El concept of sound lo-fi refers to the process of making a poor quality recording

deliberately capturing noise, distortion, and frequency response inaccurate equipment

reduced quality.

Although there are those who think that lo-fi processing is technically imperfect, the

character and rhythm of lo-fi recordings make them a useful creative technique within

any genre.

Next, we will examine the history of lo-fi music , review the characteristics of those

sounds, and then see how to recreate them with classic equipment, modern hardware ,

and software plug-ins .

The roots of the method 

what is lofi music? And it recording

The idea of   making lo-fi recordings is a relatively recent phenomenon. From the delta

blues style of the 20s to garage rock music of the 60s and the punk of the 70s,
low-quality recordings have stormed record stores. But the question is whether
many of these issues had a deliberate low quality. 

Low quality recordings have existed since Thomas Edison began using aluminum foil

and wax cylinders, but the term lo-fi is an active choice for recording in low quality,

and not a low quality recording due to technical constraints or lack of knowledge.

The highlight was the release of the album Nebraska (1982) by Bruce Springsteen .

Having recorded demos at home with a Teac Portastudio cassette unit and a pair of

Shure SM57 microphones, Springsteen went to a studio to record those songs with his

group E Street Band.

After the recording sessions it was seen that the studio versions lacked the energy and

vitality of the demos. They were very clean and perfect, but the original recordings

captured the spirit of the songs better than the studio versions, and Columbia agreed to

master and release the demos and not the studio versions.

Nebraska was not the first lo-fi album, but the first time an artist deliberately decided to

make a lo-fi recording due to his character and energy. Behind him, many artists have

followed The Boss' footsteps and entire genres have been built on the basis of sacrificing

pristine production values   in order to achieve a more authentic sound.

The Springsteen example illustrates well the attractiveness of the lo-fi character, and those

aesthetic features reflect the sound traits of low-quality sounds: alterations in frequency

response, lower dynamic range, distortion and saturation, and lo-fi traits. associated with

low quality digital sampling and recording.

what is lofi music techniques ?

Lo -fi techniques Let's examine thelo-fitechniques. There are two main ways to create

recordings andlo -fieffects: "really" or simulating. We will see the last option later, but

first we will analyze how to use real classic equipment to create thatlo-fisound.

The best way to achieve an exact recreation of the sound of classic lo-fi equipment is

to return to the origins. Although today we work in a modern production environment

and tend to look for clean and pristine sounds, that does not mean that we cannot use low

quality equipment to give our music a lo-fi touch .

It is possible to easily create genuine lo-fi effects with sound sources, recording devices,

and low-quality processing units. The list of equipment to be used for this purpose is

almost unlimited: classic digital reverbs , plates, previews, samplers , distortion units,

etc. They will give you authentic lo-fi sounds just by passing the signal through them

on the way to your sequencer.

In addition, it is feasible to abuse the equipment and not only use them: overloading the

inputs / outputs or using very dark settings will exaggerate the distortion and effects to

color the tone.

One of the most effective modes is to re-record the sounds through old amps and speakers.

That will capture the sound features not only of the playback equipment, but also of the

micro and pre-used in the recording. 

 If you want good lo-fi results , use an old and cheap mic and pre and color the signal as

it returns. As in all these techniques, the defective equipment is not a problem, because as

long as the sound passes through it and is modified, it will be worth it.

Lo -fi options are not restricted to the effects on signal processing. Synths and drum

machines are not considered lo-fi units per se - although there are exceptions in the case

of very cheap products aimed at home users - but the resulting sound may also have that

low quality.

The hardware for sampling the 80s and 90s is one of the best ways to get versatile sound

lo-fi . If you use digital equipment, many of the lo-fi effects come from low bit depths,

reduced sampling rates, aliasing , and sound artifacts introduced by inaccurate AD / DA

conversions. You can process any source firing samples from old drum machines,

keyboards, and samplers in rack , and that will add a layer of digital noise before you

dedicate processing.

Unfortunately, classic sampling has a price. The most demanded classic samplers -

such as E-mu Emulator and the SP-1200 range, the first Akai rack units , and even the

MPC60 range - reach higher and higher prices in the second-hand market. If you are

looking for something cheaper, decide for the 8bit Ensoniq Mirage unit (limited, but

excellent), or for the 16bit Akai units (with more stocks) like the S1000 model.