How to Make Songs Sound Lofi and Nostalgic (5 QUICK TIPS 2022)
In recent years, lofi music has become insanely popular, and has even found it’s way into mainstream music through artists such as Joji and XXXTENTACION. Lofi music usually incorporates low-fidelity, downtempo samples and stripped-back, heavily filtered drum patterns. Tracks in this genre have an immersive, dreamy texture, and often create a nostalgic atmosphere that is unparalleled in the hip hop universe.
It is particularly appealing to fans of hip hop as it tends to rely on sampled material, mainly from jazz, blues and soul music, which feels incredibly reminiscent of the “golden era” of hip hop production. This is probably one of the reasons why lofi hip hop is so irresistible to music producers, as it gives us a chance to sample extensively in the modern world where music is infinitely accessible.
Since the emergence of lofi music, various sub-genres have emerged such as lofi house. Lofi house is associated with the same murky, low-fidelity production style, with similar nostalgic overtones.
Lofi is perfect for beginner producers, as it is relatively easy to understand and learn the essential production techniques behind the signature sound. The genre also allows for alot of individual creativity, making it an incredibly fun genre to produce.
If you are learning how to produce lofi music, below are my top 5 tips for creating that dusty, emotional lofi sound.
Filters / EQ
To put it simply, a filter gets rid of some frequencies within a soundwave, altering the harmonic content of a signal, which results in a change of timbre.
Filters are an essential part of lofi production. Lofi is heavily associated with bass-heavy, “muffled” samples, a sound that can easy be achieved using various filter curves.
Click here for a list of the best FREE filter VST plugins in 2022.
Two of the most commonly used filter types in lofi production are low-pass and band-pass filters.
• Low-Pass – This response curve eliminates all frequencies above a specified frequency, allowing low frequencies to “pass”. After applying a low-pass filter, your sound will lose it’s crispness and sound duller and less expressive. Funnily enough, in lofi music this is exactly what we’re after.
For example, removing all the very high frequencies of a hip hop hi hat sample will make the hi hat sound muffled and dampened. For almost any genre this would be the exact opposite result you’d be looking for, but for lofi it really helps to create that understated, nostalgic feeling.
• Band-Pass – This response curve eliminates all frequencies that are NOT within a specified frequency band. Using band-pass filters in lofi is a similar technique to using low-pass filters. Using a band-pass, you can eliminate the high frequencies, giving you that same muffled, lofi sound, while also removing the sub-bass / low-end frequencies. By removing these low frequencies, you can make room in the mix for your bass lines. This technique works perfectly for piano, guitar and other instrumental samples.
However, these are just a few basic concepts for adding lofi filters. Many filter plugins have various modulation, envelope followers, saturation / distortion options etc, that open up a huge range of creative possibilities for creating lofi filter curves.
Foley
Foley sounds are very common in lofi hip hop, lofi house and other similar genres. They are perfect for adding texture and enhancing the sonic landscape of a track. Foley soundbeds are common in lofi music, which is an underlying sound that continues throughout the entire track.
Some interesting foley soundbeds for lofi tracks could be:
• Vinyl crackles/noises
• Tape hiss / other retro audio artefacts
• Rainfall / rain hitting a window
• City sounds
• Forest / bird sounds
• Campfire crackling
• Ocean sounds / waves crashing
• Streams / waferfalls
• Distant conversation in a cafe or bar
Another example of foley that is often found in lofi music is foley one-shots. These are recorded sound effects are are often played behind or in place of percussion hits and can really add character and tonal quality to a lofi beat.
Some interesting foley one-shots for lofi tracks could be:
• Softly shaking a bag of coins
• Footsteps in snow
• Paper crunching / tearing
• Water splash
• Pen writing noises
Utilizing foley sounds allows you to get really, really creative. Most of the foley sounds you can think of can be found on youtube (just be careful around non-royalty free sounds) or lofi sample packs. Alternatively, if you have a decent mic setup you can record these sounds yourself.
Off-beat drum hits
Lofi drum loops (particularly in lofi hip hop) often incorporate off-beat drum loops. This helps to add humanisation and rhythmic imperfections to the drums and percussion of a track.
Off-beat lofi drums often act as a retro throwback to boom-bap drums sequenced on an old-school MPC that have a classic off-kilter swing.
The best way to create these off-beat drums is to physically program the drums yourself using a MIDI drum pad or keyboard controller. This will help you add your own character and rhythm to your beats. Another simple way is to sequence your drums loops via the piano roll in your DAW, then drag the hi-hats and snare slightly to the left, so they are played very slightly off-beat.
Sidechain
This tip might be obvious for some, but if you aren’t utilizing sidechain in your lofi music, you are seriously missing out.
For those who are unfamiliar, sidechaining means using the output of one track, such as a kick drum, to alter the compression or volume of another track, such as a bass-line or synth. Put simply, it can be used so that when one sound comes in, another one quiets down. In lofi, it’s not uncommon to sidechain the entire instrumental track to respond to the kick and snare drum. If you want something a little more subtle, try sidechaining the bass and instrumental samples to just the kick drum.
There are plenty of plugins and techniques to achieve sidechain, for example here is a cool video showing a great method for sidechaining in FL Studio 20.
Sidechaining can also be done manually by automating individual compression controls or volume parameters within your DAW. This is a much more complicated way of sidechaining, but can often give a lot more creative control.
Pitcher
Finally, a very simple trick for creating wavey, lofi piano samples.
There’s a certain effect that is fairly common in lofi music that’s actually quite hard to describe. It’s almost always found on piano samples, and creates a modulated, wavey final effect.
Try it yourself. Find a piano sample, or sequence a MIDI piano sequence yourself, and add a automatic pitcher plugin to the piano. As these plugins are designed for vocal samples, this will slightly distort and modulate the piano sample and create a very unique, lofi-esque effect.
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