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Lofi Production Advice Needed to Expand My Limited Knowledge

2

Comments

  • Stuntman_mikeStuntman_mike
    edited November 2022

    A few articles about Dilla and lofi that helps clarify the roots and sound:

    https://www.okayplayer.com/music/j-dilla-lofi-hip-hop-influence.html

    https://www.afterglowatx.com/blog/2019/3/27/j-dilla-and-lo-fi-hip-hop

    https://www.lofiweekly.com/2022/02/03/j-dilla-the-godfather-of-lofi-hip-hop/

  • jwmmakerofmusicjwmmakerofmusic

    @rs2000 said:
    "Lo-Fi" doesn't need fancy plugins although that may help getting results even quicker.
    (I'd go as far and claim that it can all be done inside Gadget, although it would have to be done on each track individually.)
    I wouldn't rely too much on pitch modulation because even old tape machines were usually very good in this regard and I find the effect over-used recently - tiny, sensibly chosen amounts can be good though.

    >

    My number one processor choices would be a low pass filter with a bit of resonance, noise, some vinyl crackle if you like and a bit of random volume modulation.

    Sounds like a good workflow to me and keeps things simpler. :)

    @taeo said:
    Sound selection is very crucial, especially for drums. Have you peeped Splat? The drums in their are perfect for Lo-Fi, boom bap, and modern beat music.

    Looks like it's on sale for $8! Purchased!

    There are some nice alternative hip hop drums in Groovebox as well.

    This one I have purchased a while ago, but now I redownloaded it. Looking forward to having a play with it today. It has probability drums, which I like.

    The subreddit r/drumkits was my best friend when collecting kits.

    Thanks mate. :) Will check it out.

    To my ears, what you have presented sounds a bit more like downtempo, or trip-hop, or like lounge music, rather than Lo-Fi, which is not bad, just not Lo-Fi.

    I used to listen to a lot of Thievery Corporation back in my college days...almost 20 years ago...twenty years ago. 😞 Goddamn I'm old, lol.

    Vinyl crackle, hiss, and sp404 vinyl comp and foley are crucial. Reference tracks, reference tracks, reference tracks. Who are your influences for creating these kinds of tracks?

    Well, I just first started listening to Lofi beats last week on Youtube, so I don't have any specific artists in mind yet (nor really know the various names). :) Now if you have a "who's who" list of producers who I can check out and listen to, let me know.

    Also mate, what was the name of the 5-hour deep dive into Lofi beats on Skillshare? See I was thinking that perhaps Udemy has the same class, and I can simply buy it outright while it's on Black Friday sale.

  • jwmmakerofmusicjwmmakerofmusic

    @Stuntman_mike said:
    A few articles about Dilla and lofi that helps clarify the roots and sound:

    https://www.okayplayer.com/music/j-dilla-lofi-hip-hop-influence.html

    https://www.afterglowatx.com/blog/2019/3/27/j-dilla-and-lo-fi-hip-hop

    https://www.lofiweekly.com/2022/02/03/j-dilla-the-godfather-of-lofi-hip-hop/

    Ah, thanks mate. :) Going to read these.

  • Stuntman_mikeStuntman_mike
    edited November 2022

    @jwmmakerofmusic said:

    @Stuntman_mike said:
    A few articles about Dilla and lofi that helps clarify the roots and sound:

    https://www.okayplayer.com/music/j-dilla-lofi-hip-hop-influence.html

    https://www.afterglowatx.com/blog/2019/3/27/j-dilla-and-lo-fi-hip-hop

    https://www.lofiweekly.com/2022/02/03/j-dilla-the-godfather-of-lofi-hip-hop/

    Ah, thanks mate. :) Going to read these.

    You’re welcome!
    Dilla was using samples different than others, he would use stuff for the “artifacts”. He found the funk in trash, repurposing and filtering out what he liked. He started by literally making beats from sampling small bits from the tape to tape and maneuvering them together somehow 🤯 Most hip hop producers sample, chop and replay but Dilla played the noises from samples. Noise became the instrument. That is the SECRET. Like taking rubbish from a garbage can and creating a masterpiece of art out of it. Listen for how he uses and plays noise. A couple of tracks below you’ll hear how he intros the original music then you hear how he flips it, headphones suggested to hear the low end love 🤩

    Some tracks to wet your beak:







  • Stuntman_mikeStuntman_mike
    edited November 2022

    3 Tricks of the Trade:
    1. Sample your own chords and then play the samples chromatically to get that aliasing artifact
    2. Use different kicks, snares and hats in sequence to get some bounce and shuffle e.g. different kick on 1 and 3 than 2 and 4 or even different kicks on each quarter note
    3. Alter the timing of the notes in your chords to give it strum effect/magical effect

  • senhorlampadasenhorlampada

    Reading this thread just now (I usually keep myself offline on the weekends :lol:), I see already a load of good tips and discussions.

    Initially I would recommend sampling stuff around, slicing and sending back to gadget. But then I listened to your Koala track. Yep... that hit the right vibes :wink:

  • jwmmakerofmusicjwmmakerofmusic

    @Stuntman_mike Going to check those videos soon. :) Also, excellent 3 tricks there. I didn't think to vary the drum samples. :) Will definitely try that.

    @senhorlampada I'm glad the Koala track hit the right vibes. I'm onto something here. :)

    I just purchased Lo-fi-af and Needlepoint. These seem great for adding more of that lofi aesthetic I'm after.

    I'm also hoping to hear back from @taeo regarding that class on Skillshare, what it's called, so I can see if Udemy has it. (Not going to pay $170/year just for one class on Skillshare when I found a 3+ hour course on Udemy, normally $100+, but on Black Friday sale for $15).

  • Stuntman_mikeStuntman_mike

    @jwmmakerofmusic said:
    @SLPGroundSoundMusic Thanks mate. :) I'm glad I'm on the right track (no pun intended, or was it...🤣).

    OKAY, so here's my next foray into Lofi.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/yjg5j5d61arlcm2/JWM - Lofi Experiment 112022a-converted.m4a?dl=0

    This time produced 100% in Koala mostly using the free stock samples that came with Koala...

    ...and mastered in AUM.

    I'm much more satisfied with this one than my previous two attempts, not gonna lie. I laid out all the notes in the editor and piano roll, then turned snap off and offset most of them to give it a nice sloppy groove.

    The only thing I'm really self-critical of is being a little bit too trigger-happy with Koala's live FX section while live performing the sequences, which either added a little to the vibe or completely disrupted it. Then again, this is my first attempt at live performing this genre, and I wanted to get a feel for Koala's effects and just play and have fun. 🤣

    Great job!

  • jwmmakerofmusicjwmmakerofmusic

    @Stuntman_mike Thanks mate. :)

    Okay, I purchased two courses on Lofi beat production on Udemy. Costed me $25 (where it would've been $140 had it not been for the Black Friday sale!)

  • Stuntman_mikeStuntman_mike

    @jwmmakerofmusic said:
    @Stuntman_mike Thanks mate. :)

    Okay, I purchased two courses on Lofi beat production on Udemy. Costed me $25 (where it would've been $140 had it not been for the Black Friday sale!)

    You’re a smart cookie and fast learner!

  • jwmmakerofmusicjwmmakerofmusic

    @Stuntman_mike said:

    @jwmmakerofmusic said:
    @Stuntman_mike Thanks mate. :)

    Okay, I purchased two courses on Lofi beat production on Udemy. Costed me $25 (where it would've been $140 had it not been for the Black Friday sale!)

    You’re a smart cookie and fast learner!

    Thanks mate. :)

    Well, silly me, I forgot to say which two courses. The first is "LOFI music production: The Ultimate Guide" by Slapback Academy. This is more of a 1-hour crash course. Even though I'm a seasoned producer in other genres and the course is geared for beginner to intermediate, I'm absorbing everything in this easy-to-digest course. Exciting! I'm over 50% complete according to Udemy.

    The other source is "Music Production Fundamentals: Make DOPE Chill Lofi Beats" by Kia Orion. This is a 3+ hour long mega course that I haven't begun yet. I'll share my thoughts on it once I begin that course.

    See, I want to start with the quicker crash course to get up and running and working. Then the deep dive in order to expand upon my knowledge.

    Meanwhile, I need to learn Scaler 2 to concoct some decent chord progressions. Know of any videos that can help me get started in Scaler 2 mate? :)

  • Stuntman_mikeStuntman_mike

    @jwmmakerofmusic said:

    @Stuntman_mike said:

    @jwmmakerofmusic said:
    @Stuntman_mike Thanks mate. :)

    Okay, I purchased two courses on Lofi beat production on Udemy. Costed me $25 (where it would've been $140 had it not been for the Black Friday sale!)

    You’re a smart cookie and fast learner!

    Thanks mate. :)

    Well, silly me, I forgot to say which two courses. The first is "LOFI music production: The Ultimate Guide" by Slapback Academy. This is more of a 1-hour crash course. Even though I'm a seasoned producer in other genres and the course is geared for beginner to intermediate, I'm absorbing everything in this easy-to-digest course. Exciting! I'm over 50% complete according to Udemy.

    The other source is "Music Production Fundamentals: Make DOPE Chill Lofi Beats" by Kia Orion. This is a 3+ hour long mega course that I haven't begun yet. I'll share my thoughts on it once I begin that course.

    See, I want to start with the quicker crash course to get up and running and working. Then the deep dive in order to expand upon my knowledge.

    Meanwhile, I need to learn Scaler 2 to concoct some decent chord progressions. Know of any videos that can help me get started in Scaler 2 mate? :)

    Try this:

  • bleepbleep

    There are tons of good videos by Davide, one of the Scaler developers. You could start here and let the YouTube algo feed you the rest.

  • jwmmakerofmusicjwmmakerofmusic

    @bleep Amazing! :) That'll help me get started with Scaler 2. Thanks mate.

    @Stuntman_mike "Lofi MIDI with Scaler 2"?! You've won the thread, good sir.

  • jwmmakerofmusicjwmmakerofmusic
    edited November 2022

    EDIT: Okay, let's edit out the rant and I'll calmly explain why Flip Sampler isn't for me. Stuck notes as heard in the chords here...

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/w8bxbr1hj3dsgr8/21-11_19-19-03__70-0-bpm_Master.wav?dl=0

    (Note: No added lofi effects were added to the overall mix, because by the time I rendered the audio, I simply gave up lol.)

    Copy/paste is dodgy, and it truncates the reverb tail upon export.

    Koala Sampler is the much better choice.

    @elf_audio If you're reading this and are currently implementing a song mode for Koala Sampler, I want in on the beta please. 😇

  • GavinskiGavinski

    Don't forget 4Pockets Progressions as an alternative to Scaler2 for chord progressions @jwmmakerofmusic

  • jwmmakerofmusicjwmmakerofmusic

    @Gavinski said:
    Don't forget 4Pockets Progressions as an alternative to Scaler2 for chord progressions @jwmmakerofmusic

    NICE! I forgot I have that. 😅 Thanks mate. Perfect iPhone solution.

  • Stuntman_mikeStuntman_mike

    This looks interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=TLGGUJttAtMhtqcyMzExMjAyMg&v=fwsOg_PVGtM

  • ecouecou

    I don’t know if you bought UA Needlepoint and Lo-fi-af but you totally need too for your lofi project. It’s just what you need.

  • jwmmakerofmusicjwmmakerofmusic

    @Stuntman_mike said:
    This looks interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=TLGGUJttAtMhtqcyMzExMjAyMg&v=fwsOg_PVGtM

    That's really cool! ❤️ Although I think I'll stick with Koala for now, but don't think I don't have GAS for that, lol.

    @ecou said:
    I don’t know if you bought UA Needlepoint and Lo-fi-af but you totally need too for your lofi project. It’s just what you need.

    Oh yes I did. ;) I bought all five of UA's new apps. Not sure if I'll use for Bass Mint (but you never know), but Needlepoint and Lo-fi-af are perfect for Lofi, and Silo and Tails are perfect for Ambient once I return to Ambient. ;)

  • jwmmakerofmusicjwmmakerofmusic

    Oh yes I did, lol. I said I'd use "Jam with Jordan" to produce stems for a Lofi styled track, and here it is! 🤣 So I recorded the bass, clarinet, and piano separately at 100bpm and pitched them down by three semitones to match my intended BPM of 84. Then I applied some of Koala's effects to each stem and resampled.

    Then I had this sample pack from Imageline (aka the makers of FL Studio) called "The Lofi Box" and loaded a kick, snare, closed hat, open hat, and clap from it into Koala. Then I sequenced everything. I live performed the sequence selections and Koala effects.

    Next I loaded the audio into AUM's fileplayer and recorded a "live broadcast" of sorts. Here are the results.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/1x5fbt57dnh872l/JWM - Lofi Wizardry (Demo)-converted.m4a?dl=0

    And the obligatory screenshots...


  • shinyisshinyshinyisshiny

    @jwmmakerofmusic Bass Mint is very powerful,, perfectly suited for lofi as well. Slap it on a buss sample for some low end goodness.

  • GavinskiGavinski

    You got me intrigued @jwmmakerofmusic with this Udemy sale. I'm kind of tempted to go for the ambient one. Have you (or anybody else) tried it?

    @jwmmakerofmusic said:
    @Stuntman_mike Thanks mate. :)

    Okay, I purchased two courses on Lofi beat production on Udemy. Costed me $25 (where it would've been $140 had it not been for the Black Friday sale!)

  • taeotaeo

    The course on Skillshare was taught by Kia Orion. I could list hundreds of names but I’m not sure how helpful that might be. I will say that Max Bell, writer for Bandcamp, has some fantastic monthly round ups for best beat tapes. Beat-tape-co.op is also Great for checking out new tapes. @Stuntman_mike good looking with the Dilla write ups. His 33 1/3 is a great read as well.

  • taeotaeo

    Beat deconstruction, reference tracks, remaking reference tracks, extracting the groove from the beat, slicing audio to midi and replacing samples with my own one shots has proven a great way to learn in a distinct genre. This is what I mean by beat deconstruction:

  • taeotaeo
    edited November 2022

    Dibi is a humble dude, met him a few times, he hosts several beatmaking events, and has been pivotal in the scene since the days of Dilla. He gives a pretty good recap of the LA beat scene, naming a handful of the most pivotal …albeit the LA beat scene isn’t Lo-Fi, but rather a precursor of what came before. In the 2000s and 2010s, there were beats, beat music, wonky, left field, boom bap, grime, dubstep, juke, footwork, downtempo, skwee, lounge, future bass, vapor wave, chill wave, etc but it wasn’t until the prominence of SoundCloud, perhaps somewhere along the 3rd and 4th wave, the genre gained its own prominence….out of labels like Italdred, BLVNT Records, Hot Societe, POW Recordings, Akasha, Smart Bomb, Resonate, Dome Of Doom, Alpha Pup, Brainfeeder, Magical Properties, Leaving Records, My Hallow Drum, Hit & Run, Paxico, Condina Records, Fuzzoscope, Grand Garden, Rap Vacation, Street Corner Music, Error Broadcast, Warp, Planet Mu, Unspeakable Recs, Ruby Yacht, Beat Cinema, Grn + Gld, so many others but that’s off tops

  • jwmmakerofmusicjwmmakerofmusic

    Thanks to all of your help I did manage to finish my first Lofi EP.

    https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/53112/lofi-dreams-a-lofi-album-by-me#latest

    "Wizardry" was created in Koala Sampler, "LoStep" on my iPhone in Nanostudio 2, and the rest in NS2 on my iPad. All mastered in AUM on my iPad as one continuous track.

    My next Lofi EP will be created in FLSM on my iPhone and either mastered in AUM on my iPhone or AUM on my iPad.

  • DMfanDMfan
    edited December 2022

    @jwmmakerofmusic said:
    Looking for some advice on how to produce Lofi. But first, a bit of my limited knowledge

    For Christ’s sake. ”Limited knowledge”?? You are one of the most talented musicians on this forum, and you have proven this over and over again. You have helped countless of people here. And, look at your sentence above. Despite your vast knowledge and skill you are still humble enough to ask for a helping hand regarding a genre you know less about. And, BOOM!, suddenly you made an EP in that genre…..

    I forbid you to even think the words ”limited knowledge”, let alone put them in writing online. Now, get some help, that’s fine, with your Lofi adventures but don’t you dare write something like that again.👊

    😊

    /DMfan🇸🇪

  • jwmmakerofmusicjwmmakerofmusic

    @DMfan said:

    @jwmmakerofmusic said:
    Looking for some advice on how to produce Lofi. But first, a bit of my limited knowledge

    For Christ’s sake. ”Limited knowledge”?? You are one of the most talented musicians on this forum, and you have proven this over and over again. You have helped countless of people here. And, look at your sentence above. Despite your vast knowledge and skill you are still humble enough to ask for a helping hand regarding a genre you know less about. And, BOOM!, suddenly you made an EP in that genre…..

    I forbid you to even think the words ”limited knowledge”, let alone put them in writing online. Now, get some help, that’s fine, with your Lofi adventures but don’t you dare write something like that again.👊

    😊

    /DMfan🇸🇪

    LOL! Cheers mate. :) That made my morning. And yeah, I had limited knowledge, but now it's much more expanded. That's what I love about this forum is that so many great folks kindly help my knowledge expand and grow, and I learn quickly. It's a great place to be.

    My next Lofi EP will be created in FLSM on my iPhone and either mastered in AUM on my iPhone or AUM on my iPad.

    So far, my play with FLSM 3 has been slow going, but I'm learning. It's a very great, powerful tool I've regrettably overlooked all these years.

    I have noticed that pretty much all of the instruments have an LFO that can be used to modulate pitch, so "tape warble" can be mimicked per track and, unlike DAW Cassette, the rate of "warble" can be adjusted, so lots of interesting experimentation to be had. The Distortion effect even has a nice soft clipper to add some subtle saturation as well. And I can turn on "note repeat" per note! Like what is this even?!

    My only gripe is that while the Distortion effect has a nice bitcrusher, it has no sample rate reduction (as far as I know). So most likely I'll build my tracks for the next EP in FLSM on my iPhone, and then I'll master them in AUM on my iPad with a little sample rate reduction applied via lo-fi-af (besides the standard analogue effects). My target is at least 4 tracks if not another 6.

  • jwmmakerofmusicjwmmakerofmusic

    Three weeks ago today, I made this thread. All of you wonderful people in this thread not only helped me learn Lofi music production, but by helping me learn it, you made my life better overall! Let me explain.

    I used to love EDM music and listened to it all of my life ever since the 90s. I loved producing EDM as well, even if I did lousy at it for many years before becoming a pro at it. However, what I wasn't aware of was how it was affecting my mental health until a couple days ago!

    My goal with learning Lofi production was to take a short hiatus from EDM production and EDM in general and explore another genre. During my "Summer of Ambient 2022", I still continued to listen to EDM. But this time, I haven't listened to EDM since those three weeks ago but rather Lofi (of course), Jazz, Classical, and Ambient (of course).

    It's been like a complete mental detox. I'm a lot calmer and at peace, and I'm thinking a lot more clearly, logically, and positively. I'm actually enjoying life to the fullest.

    So in essence, I think I'm retiring from EDM production indefinitely. I will still release "Mysterious Girl" in January, especially since it'll include ReneAsologuitar's beautiful version of it, but I just can't seem to bring myself around to actually enjoying EDM anymore. Each time I try to listen to one of the latest releases, I have to press "stop" after about 30 seconds before I become hyper.

    That's not to say EDM is bad. It's a great genre for the youngsters, but to be honest, these three weeks have proven to me beyond a shadow of doubt that I just don't have the stamina for EDM anymore. Now GET OFF MY LAWN! 🤣

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