L o o k i n k 5 4

Tl;dr: the things that make lofi what it is is its “low fidelity,” - or in other words, technical flaws like vinyl crackles, cassette wobbles, human error like slight offbeatness and velocity randomization, etc. - plus its repetitiveness, and sometimes, nostalgia. DO: - Add things like vinyl crackles. This can provoke a sense of nostalgia, calming the listener. (Izotope Vinyl is great for this, or, if you use FL Studio, this thing, or, if you use Ableton, this thing, or, if you don’t want to use a plugin and just want a sample, various cymatics packs.) - Additionally, ambient field recordings like water noises or birds chirping can have a similar effect. Cymatics makes decent field recordings, but if you want more, bandlab sounds has some cool stuff too. - Humanize things. In other words, randomize velocities and note positions to give things a more “human” feel. - Try to make your instruments sound as realistic as possible. Actual live play is best. - Keep things somewhat slow. Try to make it interesting enough to where it’s relaxing and not completely boring to listen to but not so interesting that it distracts the listener. - Study songs from Lofi Girl and other big lofi producers. Think about what the seasoned professionals do, why they do it, and how you can apply their tactics to your music. (This is probably my number 1 tip on how to get good at anything, not just lofi music!) DON’T: - Add lyrics. The occasional adlib is probably fine, but lyrics are one of the most engaging - and therefore distracting - things a song can have. - Distort it so much that you lose almost all of your clarity. Believe it or not, you do still have to actually mix lofi songs. - Focus on making your songs “go hard.” Remember, the goal is to relax, not to excite. - Take all this to heart. This is NOT a definitive guide on how you “have” to make lofi - this is just one person’s thoughts and opinions! Moreover, this is really more of a guide on how to make beats to relax/study to - there are other types of lofi, like sleep lofi. BONUS TIPS: - Try putting swing/shuffle on your drums. - If you don’t already have mix-ready drums from a sample pack or something (or just if you want to!), try layering drum samples. - If you’re using a decent piano VST that isn’t a soundfont, lowering the velocity will make it sound softer. Alternatively, you could just use Spitfire Labs Soft Piano. - Sometimes, and I do mean SOMETIMES, it may be a good idea to put a low pass filter on things, as harsh upper frequencies can be quite distracting. That does NOT mean to go put a low pass filter on the master! BAD EXAMPLE: my dr andonuts lab remix from 11 months ago (april 2023) Notes: - Too fast - Not calm enough - bass and drums are too hyper - Not really any elements of vintage gear other than a scream 4 distortion preset on the drums and guitar - Humanization came out weirdly on the drums - Percussion at 0:59 is too distorted LESS BAD EXAMPLE: murder time.wav from 5.5 months ago (october 2023) Notes: - Slower - Calmer - Good use of nature ambience - Shuffle on the drums makes it more groovy - Still far from perfect - no humanization aside from the shuffle on the drums, and maybe a little too unengaging (The following is a separate writeup i made about guitars in lofi on the same day:) if you dont already have a good guitar vst then i would recommend Standard Guitar by Unreal Instruments. it's a free electric guitar library for sforzando that isnt super downtuned like metal-gtx or shreddage 3 hydra, making it more suitable for less distorted music. also worth looking into is shreddage 3 stratus free - it's a stratocaster library for kontakt with a way different tone than Standard Guitar that you may or may not like depending on what you're using it for. as for processing, i whipped this up with Standard Guitar put through a clean amp, plate reverb, and a plugin called Lifeline Console Lite (it was available for free for a limited time but not anymore sadly - it is only $39 though). you could probably replicate all the features of lifeline with free/stock plugins though. it has a pre-amp, "analogue" compression, vinyl wobblyness (replicable with Izotope's "vinyl" plugin), and vinyl wear (also replicable with vinyl), processed in that order. so tl;dr: if you want your guitars to feel "ambient," grab standard guitar and put it through a clean amp (see my vst spreadsheet for some free amps), reverb, and something adjacent to rc-20 retro color.