give me lofi or give me ?

[e unum pluribus]

i want to make my setup lofi (like the track good times on modest mouse's good news for people who love bad news, or any devendra banhart, violent femmes...)
as possible with a laptop and a usb condenser mic ,,,
any interesting techniques for mic placement, plugins, recording with tin foil behind the mic,... any cool tricks....

 

[pikingrin]

check this mic out. i found the link somewhere around this bbs, but i can't remember the thread, but here's the link. it's a little pricey, but it sounds kinda cool.

http://www.placidaudio.com/

Hope this helps a little...

 

[grn]

... lo fi should not be expensive, buy a radio shack mic

 

[bigtoe]

i agree you can get a trashy sound with something less than 300...but those do look nifty.

try sticking your mic in weird places...whatever it is.

last week i had a guy who wanted to do something funky so we duct taped an old AT cheap-o omni to the end of a packing tube and had him sing into it. it sounded neat but it wasn't drastic enough...so we cut a bunch of frequencies out until it was appropriately destroyed and the ring from the tube emphasized.

carbon mics are quite rad.

the violent femmes aren't really lo-fi. their first record was done at a pretty large place in lake geneva, WI. quickly, but competently.

see ya.

Mike

 

[e unum pluribus]

yeah but the femmes, i heard somewhere that their snare drum had a wash tub over it...

those are the tricks im talkin about ...

something to get a signature sound...

 

[scrubs]

yeah but the femmes, i heard somewhere that their snare drum had a wash tub over it...

those are the tricks im talkin about ...

something to get a signature sound...

You won't get a "signature sound" by copying other people's ideas. The whole point of the lo-fi ethic is to create your own sound by using whatever you have. Buy some cheap shit and record with it. Experiment...that's the fun part.

 

[Good Friend]

lo fi

Lo fi only sounds cool if the songs are great. Lo fi recordings of shitty songs dont really have the glory of lo fi great tunes.

 

[BRIEFCASEMANX]

Lo fi only sounds cool if the songs are great. Lo fi recordings of shitty songs dont really have the glory of lo fi great tunes.

I agree with this statement. Lord knows I have recorded some horrible sounds that could be considered "lo-fi".

 

[e unum pluribus]

yeah im hearin you guys... you all make valid points....
but i think its a combination of things that make a signature sound....

 

[Cult_Status02]

Lo fi only sounds cool if the songs are great. Lo fi recordings of shitty songs dont really have the glory of lo fi great tunes.

Exactly, like some CocoRosie.

 

[elko]

Very good point, but one that ultimately applies to all tunes, whatever the production values.

To be honest I don't see why you would go lo-fi if you have a hi-fi style setup? My recordings are lo-fi because that's all I can do...

 

[reshp1]

Try a guitar amp simulator plug

 

[hrwmusic]

here we go......


https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=184251

check this out man.

 

[BigRay]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi2CfuqcUGE

lo fi...and rules your face.

 

[Cloneboy Studio]

Best bet for LOFI recordings (that still sound good) is to use SM57's for almost everything, maybe some middle of the road condensers, but use the best preamps you can find.

Mix the songs using minimal eq and compression.

 

[Kasey]

Best bet for LOFI recordings (that still sound good) is to use SM57's for almost everything, maybe some middle of the road condensers, but use the best preamps you can find.

Mix the songs using minimal eq and compression.

i second this... only on top of that, i would record to a 4 track cassette recorder, and then dump that on to your computer.

 

[Cloneboy Studio]

i second this... only on top of that, i would record to a 4 track cassette recorder, and then dump that on to your computer.

Ewwww.... that would make it almost unusable.

Or you could record everything as pristine as possible and hit stuff up with Izotope Trash.

 

[rayc]

I agree with kasey,
4 track then upload. You'll get that "tape" sound, you can upload & synch heaps of times if really needed. In addition you'll be forced to think arrangements through which will make for better songs that will shine in lofi.
Scrabble about in junk stores etc & grab all the old mikes you can & find a sound there. Oh, & try for a BAND feel. Sebodah had a great lofi feel & sound - they played AS A BAND.
If you end up looking for an easy way out try the "cheap radio" EQ settings on Nero etc. But that's a really poor option.
Cheers
rayC

 

[EleKtriKaz]

Do you want a lo-fi sound or just to have the whole lo-fi asthetic?

If it's lo-fi sound you want then just use what you've got and don't pay attention to placement and overall engineering.

If it's lo-fi asthetic that you want but with good sound, then pay very close attention to engineering and be very creative. Listen to Spoon. Use a trash can as a reverb chamber. Sing your vocals in a bathroom. Hard pan everything. When you think you want a snare drum, instead use steel-toed boots on a piece of plywood. When you think you want a shaker, use your keys or a pair of big scissors. Etc...

 

[LeeRosario]

Well if you want Lo Fi, then think Lo Fi.

For example, I just hit the pawn shop today to pawn off some wicked old stuff I had laying in the attic. At the pawn shop, I did manage to see some old school broadcast style microphones that I wish I would of had the money for. I'm talking 1930s style carbon mics.

On top of that...they had this massive 50 dollar furman parametric EQ that just looked like it was designed to distroy audio. Knobs missing, rust everywhere.

Same with this 90 dollar Alesis True Verb unit right next to it.

I think a few trips to the pawn shop would make your LoFi adventure complete. LoFi is actually a lot more fun than regular "super production" audio.

It seems to be more experimentation than "politically correct" sounds.


For example, I've met producers that love to run snare drums through shitty tape decks to get this funky drummer sound. Very cool stuff.

And not fake Lo Fi like recording in high quality and then putting some poser plug-in effect on it. If I wanted to take a golden shit and cover it in mud, it's still golden shit covered in mudd.

The storage medium is ultimately going to end up digital (I assume), so anything I could do to exagerate that trip to harddisk would be very exciting to try.
(Sorry, now I'm really talking like Im used to talking in person).


On a side note, I had to ask the guy at the desk, "say, I don't suppose you've ever seen a vintage Neve laying around here, huh?"


I had to ask, cause I always hope to be the only guy in the world that can find a vintage Neve for 150 bucks in the back shelf, when nobody in that store knows what the hell a Neve is, much less a preamp. Yikes!