Production Tips Needed For Lo-Fi Hip Hop (Song Posted)

[wagtunes]

Been listening to a lot of this stuff of late (don't ask me why) and I've decided I want to do a parody on lofi hip hop. Musically, I have a pretty good understanding of the genre. My main concern is getting an authentic sounding production. So any tips you can give me such as best plugins to use and on what instruments would be very helpful. Also, anything else that you can think of that I might need to know.

Having watched some tutorials, my gut tells me that getting a really authentic sound is harder than one might think.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Distorted Horizon]

Rompler with piano and bass sounds, izotope vinyl..

[Kongru]

If you got Wavesfactory Cassette, that seems to work well for the degrading.

The "industry standard" plugin for Lofi Hip Hop seems to be XLN RC-20.

Process would go like: write hip hop beat with hip hop drums (808 or 909), write or sample a piano riff, add some sub bass, degrade each buss. Of course you can do whatever you want and in any order but I think this makes for a good starting point if you're stuck.

[wagtunes]

Thanks guys. I do have the RC-20 and it's amazing. Do these guys basically lo-fi each track? I'm assuming yes as you want it all to appear to come from the same worn out cassette? Also, do they remove a lot of the low end? I would assume also yes.

[vurt]

make loops!
ie do your drums add your vinyl crackle, then mix to wav, use the loop, so it sounds like a sample.

if you just put the crackle on a whole drum track for example, it wont loop ar the same point as the drums, so wont sound like a sampled loop.

[wagtunes]

make loops!
ie do your drums add your vinyl crackle, then mix to wav, use the loop, so it sounds like a sample.

if you just put the crackle on a whole drum track for example, it wont loop ar the same point as the drums, so wont sound like a sampled loop.

Ah, and how long should the loop be? A bar, two bars? And I suppose you want to have a slight break between every so many bars so that it really emphasizes that you're triggering a loop. Correct?

[vurt]

yeah usually one or two bars, the break is entirely "artistic choice". but could be used to as you say emphasize your loops

[vurt]

you can even mix them down slower or faster than you need them, then use audio elastic to stretch them to size, as was often done with sampled loops

[wagtunes]

you can even mix them down slower or faster than you need them, then use audio elastic to stretch them to size, as was often done with sampled loops

Audio Elastic???

[vurt]

well that's what it's called in samplitude, you can stretch audio to fit.
it will slightly alter the pitch of the drums and the crackle fx, making it sound like you've slowed/speeded up the loop.

[wagtunes]

well that's what it's called in samplitude, you can stretch audio to fit.
it will slightly alter the pitch of the drums and the crackle fx, making it sound like you've slowed/speeded up the loop.

Won't that also change the BPM?

[vurt]

well that's what it's called in samplitude, you can stretch audio to fit.
it will slightly alter the pitch of the drums and the crackle fx, making it sound like you've slowed/speeded up the loop.

Won't that also change the BPM?

yes, but i said mix them down at a slightly slower or faster bpm than your track, then make the audio fit.

depends what you are aiming for, but a lot of hip hop is sampled grooves, and they would either cut up or stretch audio to fit bpm

not huge differences, say your track is at 110, try maybe 105 or 115.
if you go too far, it may sound odd.

[experimental.crow]

can't claim any particular expertise in lo-fi , but years ago ,
many people sang the praises of the otiumFX / Sonitex STX- 1260 ...

company changed their name at some point , but the vst is still available here ...
the demo works in Win10 ... not sure ; it may be 32bit only , but it works bridged ...

[cron]

Inverting the usual order of things when it comes to drums can be helpful. Program your hi-hats and snares with the mouse + swing, but manually punch in the kicks live during playback. You can get super messy with this before things start sounding wrong.

Consider exporting the entire finished track and mangling it with a sampler too. Random/noise LFO to pitch, volume, cutoff etc, with the occasional manually programmed spike/snag. Adding noise/crackle etc is nice but it's absolutely essential to bed it in by 'processing into' the track. E.g. make sure your noise channel is included in the group when doing things like compression and distortion. Else it just sounds slapped on top.

[wagtunes]

Inverting the usual order of things when it comes to drums can be helpful. Program your hi-hats and snares with the mouse + swing, but manually punch in the kicks live during playback. You can get super messy with this before things start sounding wrong.

Consider exporting the entire finished track and mangling it with a sampler too. Random/noise LFO to pitch, volume, cutoff etc, with the occasional manually programmed spike/snag. Adding noise/crackle etc is nice but it's absolutely essential to bed it in by 'processing into' the track. E.g. make sure your noise channel is included in the group when doing things like compression and distortion. Else it just sounds slapped on top.

Thanks. I will make note of all this, provided I actually understand it. lol.