How to Make LoFi Music
Introduction
As digital technology keeps advancing and gives us endless possibilities in music, there’s one thing that never changes: the reaction. Musicians and producers often push back against the high-tech world—give us high-quality WAV files, and we crave vinyl; offer us laptop processing, and we long for 60s compressors; present us with the ultimate DAW, and we wish for the gritty bit rates of early samplers.
While Silicon Valley puts smartphones in our pockets, there’s always a nostalgia in the air for simpler times—ones filled with imperfections, unique character, and most importantly, vibe.
In this guide, we’ll show you the best ways to bring that vibe back into your music. Whether you’re after a touch of tape warmth, inspired by early hip-hop techniques, or looking to recreate your idol’s hardware settings in software, we’ll help you get there with a handful of bite-sized tips and techniques for making LoFi beats and tracks.
What Is Lo-fi?
Lo-fi, or lofi, refers to music recorded with lower-than-professional or intentionally imperfect sound quality. “Lo-fi” stands for “low fidelity,” and originally described recordings with noticeable flaws, such as background noise or performance mistakes, often made with inexpensive equipment—the opposite of high fidelity, or hi-fi, production.
During the 1980s and 1990s, lo-fi was seen as a more authentic form of music production compared to polished, professional methods. Many punk, indie rock, and hip-hop artists embraced a lo-fi style for both economic and creative reasons.
Lo-fi has become a subgenre of electronic music that shares similarities with downtempo, chillwave, and lo-fi hip-hop scenes.
Lo-fi music blends elements of house, jazz, and hip-hop beats and samples with a DIY approach that highlights the imperfect, homemade feel of analog recordings.
The result is dreamy, relaxed, and retro-sounding audio that many people find perfect for background music, especially while studying.
Elements of Lo-Fi Music
Drums
Drums are an essential part of most songs in modern music. However, in this style, it’s not just about the drum samples themselves. Dusty and scratchy-sounding drums are key elements of the genre. So, searching through old samples is a great place to start when looking for drums for your track.
When listening to samples, try to find a kick, hi-hats, and a snare with similar tonal qualities. These usually have background noise, plenty of compression or saturation, and less emphasis on high-end frequencies. Splice Sounds offers many drum samples that you can edit to give them a more nostalgic vibe.
In most Lo-Fi songs, the kick and snare are positioned close together, and often, the second kick lands on the offbeat. Many songs use this pattern, but don’t be afraid to experiment and create something truly unique.
Adding an open hi-hat on the last beat can create a sense of continuity. So, feel free to switch up the instruments and find what works best for this genre and your style of music.
Bass
While the bass in most Lo-Fi songs is usually laid-back, it can still be very interesting in both pattern and tone. For Lo-Fi music, bass sounds that focus on the lower frequencies work best. You can also make the sound more engaging by adding some saturation or distortion.
To create the actual bassline, go back to your chord progression and build a rhythm based on it. Your chords should only serve as a starting point for your bassline. Feel free to go beyond this rhythm by moving between notes or adding extra rhythmic changes.
Melody
One great thing about Lo-Fi music is that it’s almost as easy to make as it is to listen to. Most of these tracks don’t have lyrics, unless they use a sample, so you don’t have to worry about finding the perfect words to go with your music.
A lot of Lo-Fi tracks start off by sampling chords and melodies from old funk, soul, jazz songs, or even 80s and 90s Hip-Hop. You can write your own music, but keep in mind that many instruments and production software will create sounds with higher quality than what you want for Lo-Fi music.
Once you’ve found a chord to sample or created the right chords for your track, make a new clip in your workstation and draw in some 4-bar chords. After you’re done freezing and flattening the audio, you can use this chord progression as audio. This is your chance to get creative with effects and editing to shape the sound of your track.
Next, chop and slice the audio to add a drum rack or other percussion sounds. You can also change the pitch and tone of your track to see what sounds best
Sound Effects
A key element you’ll often hear in most Lo-Fi songs is a vinyl crackle, which adds to that dusty, vintage vibe. For this part of your track, you can either use a sample or create the scratchy effect yourself using foley.
Besides vinyl crackles or cassette tape sounds, there aren’t many strict rules about which effects to use in Lo-Fi music. Just stick to the vintage, basic aesthetic—modern effects usually don’t fit the style.
You can add chimes, foley sounds, sweeps, background percussion, or pretty much anything else that has a mellow feel. Including vocal samples, like snippets from old movies or speeches, can also help create that distinct Lo-Fi mood. Processing vocals with EQ, distortion, and other effects can give you some unique results. Just make sure any samples you use blend smoothly with the rest of the track.
Tips about Making Lo-Fi Music
Create lo-fi radio filters & underwater effects.
Another great way to add lo-fi texture to your tracks is by using the classic radio EQ effect. In other words, you’re recreating the sound of an old, cheap clock radio speaker—the kind we all used to wake up to before smartphones took over!
Some people call this the underwater filter effect, while others know it as the ‘phone’ effect. Whatever you call it, this simple trick can give your mix a nice, low-fidelity vibe. The usual way to get this sound is to grab an EQ, roll off the lows around the 200-300 Hz range, and cut the highs somewhere between 2-3 kHz.
You can also try re-amping, or running your signal through an old tape player, sampler, or guitar amp, and then mixing that back into your DAW.
Use Guitar Modulation Pedals.
There’s a guitar pedal for absolutely everything, and lofi is no exception. With a dedicated lofi pedal, you get that unmistakable warped vinyl sound. These pedals usually pack in a little bit of everything—vibrato, compression, delay, and some tasty crunch, just to name a few. It’s the perfect option for players who want an easy, all-in-one lofi solution.
Boutique innovators ZVEX make the Instant Lo-Fi Junky, which many consider the gold standard. It nails those seasick vibrato trails and can seriously compress your tone. Other great options are the Caroline Megabyte, with its range of filtering effects, and the Cooper FX Arcades with the lofi card inserted, giving you eight flavorful sounds to choose from.
Pitch it Down!
A key characteristic of lo-fi sound is its warmth and unpolished finish. One simple way to achieve this is by pitching your samples down. Here’s how you can do it.
When picking your sounds, try choosing a sample that’s a few semitones higher than the key of your track. This way, you’ll need to repitch it to make it fit.
Stretching the sample will probably reduce its quality, but that’s okay—those imperfections add a retro, analog vibe to your music. Most DAWs make it easy to do this with a transposer tool.
The Human Touch.
Back in the day, every sound you heard on a track was played by someone. There was no such thing as clicking in a note with a mouse and keyboard. You’ll often hear older folks talk about the feel and emotion in the music from their era—sometimes it’s the lyrics, sometimes the sounds—but we think a big part of it comes from how the music was made, all by hand.
Being able to click in MIDI notes in your DAW’s piano roll is great—it’s quick, easy, and everything can be perfectly on beat in no time. But this also makes the music sound almost too perfect. Instead of clicking in your drum sounds, try playing them on your MIDI keyboard or other hardware.
If you don’t have that option, you can still click in your notes, but try moving them slightly off the grid. There are a lot of tools like randomizers or shifters that can help you nudge notes around. Adding swing to your sounds or patterns is another great way to give your music extra rhythm and flow, helping it sound more human.
Layer Ambience, Crackle, and Crowds.
You don’t need a whole plugin to capture that retro sonic vibe—there are loads of atmospheric samples out there that weren’t even made for music, at least not at first.
From bird calls and ambient sounds to vinyl crackle and more, you can give your tracks the raw energy of a live performance or just add a subtle, human touch. Many Lo-Fi sample packs include high-quality recordings of jungle and woodland birds, rain, and vinyl noise. Just drag and drop these samples for an instant shot of LO-FI character.
Discovering Your Style
No matter what style you’re working in, it’s important to develop your own unique sound. Find ways to make your tracks stand out. For example, you could use certain samples across multiple songs, or draw sounds from a specific genre.
Drums are one of the most recognizable elements of a producer’s style. With practice, you might be able to tell who made a track just by listening to the drums. You may even be able to tell what era the track is from if their style has changed over time.
Recording methods
Don’t try to make your tone sound too “good.” Lofi should feel effortless, with sharp peaks and wet, modulated effects. Try placing your mic directly in front of the speaker cone, out on the rim, or even farther from the amp than you normally would.
Condenser and ribbon mics pick up the tonal cracks and imperfections you’ve worked to create better than dynamic mics.
If you’re still not happy with the result, dive into post-EQ plugins in your DAW. Try using band-pass filters to cut out some of the low and high-end frequencies. Just remember to keep your tone listenable—make small changes at a time. Heavy filtering can cause serious ear fatigue!
Conclusion
The Lo-Fi genre is getting a lot of attention these days, and if you’re passionate about making this kind of music, we think you’ll find some useful tips in this article. No matter your skill level, these points will help you get started.
If you have any questions about creating Lo-Fi music, feel free to drop them in the comment section. Once it’s available, you’ll get all the answers you need. Until then, go ahead and make some music!
